Bill Brooks (American football coach)

William "Bill" Townsend Brooks (February 27, 1945 – October 27, 2007) was an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and American football player and coach.

Bill served as the head football coach at Canisius College from 1975 to 1981.^[1] He was a standout player at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania .^[2]

Bill founded The Brooks Group^[3] in 1977 in Greensboro, North Carolina. There he developed the IMPACT Selling® training program^[4] that has become the cornerstone of the company’s services.

Based on his own experience and research, Bill put his principles into action and saw companies’ growth explode as a result.

Today, The Brooks Group mines a 45-year legacy of ROI-driven techniques, research, and proven strategies to develop powerful new sales effectiveness solutions that unlock seller potential and accelerate growth.

Bill Brooks dedicated his life to helping sales professionals get the respect they are due. He championed sales as a profession and genuinely enjoyed the day-to-day life of the seller.

Bill took pride in the fact that he had “raised himself from failure to success in sales.” He’d been fired from his very first commission-only sales job. Bill’s tireless struggle to become a sales superstar was fueled by his disdain for “overblown theory” and his constant desire to infuse the sales playbook with street smarts.

To realize his vision of helping sales professionals enjoy the success he knew they could achieve, Bill became a highly successful sales author, speaker, and consultant. Over his career, Bill wrote more than 20 sales and sales management books (including three best sellers) and recorded countless audio programs.

He distilled the essence of his sales takeaways into IMPACT Selling, which remains his enduring legacy. IMPACT Selling® is a straightforward, six-step sales process that equips sellers with the skills and confidence they need to engage prospects effectively, build rapport and trust, communicate value, present solutions confidently, and close more deals.

Bill proved to be the consummate entrepreneur as well as sales professional. But his true calling was as a coach and teacher whose first goal was always to transform people into experts. He sought to motivate and inspire sellers so they could go on to teach others from their own uniquely developed insights.

In 2011, Bill was inducted into the first-ever class of the Sales Hall of Fame^[5] for his many contributions to professional selling, including his innovative approach to the sales process.

Other inductees with Bill included Tony Alessandra, Jeffrey Gitomer, Gerhard Gschwandtner, Earl Nightingale, Neil Rackham, Linda Richardson, Keith Rosen, Brian Tracy, and Zig Ziglar.

His books, audio recordings, and speeches continue to inspire sales professionals all over the world. Following Bill’s death in 2007, The Brooks Group received countless calls and letters, sharing fond memories of how he spent one-on-one time with clients and colleagues—encouraging them, suggesting business ideas, and telling them he was only a phone call away whenever they needed advice.

Bill’s motto was “Your Sales Success Is Our Life’s Work.” His ambition was to grow his clients’ companies and his own far bigger than he could on his own. He worked tirelessly to build a self-sustaining, professional group by personally recruiting highly skilled people and establishing proven systems.

The Brooks Group carries on Bill’s legacy of innovation, building upon his street-smart yet strategic sales training and development programs, and coaching sales professionals to unlock their potential and achieve breakthrough results.

Bill’s powerful yet straightforward approach has become a catalyst for change. Today, the company he founded delivers award-winning sales training and development, powered by data and informed by more than four decades of experience fueling sales success.