About Jack

Jack Malcolm is President of Falcon Performance Group, an organization dedicated to improving the professionalism, preparation and productivity of sales professionals in the complex-sale environment through training and consulting in sales planning, financial and business literacy, and communication skills. Jack’s personal areas of expertise include sales, finance and psychology of personal communication and persuasion.

That’s what the resume says, but let’s look behind the curtain to see the unlikely story how I got here:

More than 30 years ago, I got a degree in finance and went to work for a bank, because I thought it would get me out of selling, dealing with customers or speaking. But the bank had other plans, and they made me pound the pavement trying to sell an undifferentiated commodity in a saturated market. Although I probably made every mistake in the book, I gradually learned that asking questions and listening was not only effective, but it was actually fun. I also learned a ton about how businesses run and what makes them profitable. At about the same time, I was dragged against my will to a Toastmasters meeting, where I quickly learned not only to tolerate but actually to love the podium.

In 1991, a chance sales call on The Hoffman Group led to a job with them, where I gained significant experience in training high-tech sales forces with a Fortune 500 client list that included AT&T, NCR, Sun Microsystems and Tektronix.

In 1996, I founded Falcon Performance Group to combine my complex-sale expertise and financial background to design and implement sales improvement initiatives at top national and international corporations. Since that time, I’ve led the implementation of a wide array of training and consulting engagements for clients such as Qualcomm, Gannett Fleming, Fonterra, Verizon Wireless and Lanier/Ricoh. Every single step of the way, I’ve had to practice what I preach to earn the right to stand in front of my audiences.

Fast-forward another ten years, and the next phase began when a client asked me to deliver a class to his direct reports—almost all engineers—on communication skills. I told him I didn’t teach that, but for some reason he had a high opinion of my communication skills, so he asked me just to teach them what I did. Success with that first course grew organically into the complete series of courses and offerings you see on this website—which is now about half the work I do. (For sales training offerings, visit Falcon Performance Group).

When I’m not training, I’m constantly learning, and one of the best ways I’ve found to learn a topic is to write about it, which you can see in my Practical Eloquence blog and in the two books I’ve published so far: Strategic Sales Presentations and Bottom-Line Selling: The Sales Professional’s Guide to Improving Customer Profits.