Meet Ed Gogol:

Marketing Professor, BCPS Program Director and EKU BCPS Sales Team Coach

Two years ago, Ed Gogol left a successful sales career to join us here in Eastern Kentucky University’s Berman Center for Professional Sales. Ed came here to give back to the profession that offered him a fabulously successful career, as well as to give back to tomorrow’s young sales professionals. We asked Ed to share his story, starting with growing up in Cleveland, Ohio.

My dad was in the construction business with his brothers, and my mom was their bookkeeper. Mom was always inspired to go back to college, and

I still remember her studying late at night once my siblings and I were settled down for the night. She completed a community college degree, and went on to a highly successful career at The Cleveland Clinic where she worked closely with the Board of Governors for over 30 years. She inspired me to become the first in the family to graduate with a 4-year degree in accounting, probably because the bookkeeping I grew up with looked much easier than the heavy construction work that my dad introduced me to every summer during high school and my early college days.

My first accounting job was with Cleveland Trust as a Financial Control Officer where I was introduced to financial accounting software and that ultimately led to my next career, software sales. I went on to earn my Certificate in Management Accounting (CMA) as well as an Executive MBA from Georgia State University. I worked for Arthur Andersen, at the time the largest accounting firm in the country. From there I became a partner in a Consulting firm, Tactics, which grew to be #11 on the Inc 500 fastest growing companies. I went on to spend the next 20 years with Presidio, a technology consulting and sales firm and key partner to Cisco. Over the course of my career prior to retiring in 2020, I had hired or managed more than 225 individual salespeople.

My permanent residence is in Atlanta, Georgia where my wife, Mary Ellen, is an endocrinologist at Emory Healthcare. My son, Joey, is based in Atlanta as a salesman for a cloud-based software company. I’m proud that he has followed in my footsteps! Both of my daughters, Maddy and Ansley decided to follow their mom into healthcare careers. Ansley is Public Relations Strategist at University Hospitals in Cleveland, and Maddy works in Washington D.C. at Children’s National as a speech pathologist.

In 2020, rather serendipitously, a close friend connected me to the opportunity to join EKU and the Berman Center for Professional Sales as a professor and sales coach. I looked into it, and in my first meeting here with Maribeth and Louis Berman and the marketing professors, I saw the passion for preparing students for careers in the world of professional sales. I knew I wanted to be part of it. These last two years at EKU have been extremely rewarding, and I believe I learn as much from my students as they learn from me.

We focus on both business students and non-business students who may be in, or may be interested in, a professional sales career. Even if a student does not envision a career in sales, we recognize that about 50% of college students will enter a sales-related field as either their first major career placement or a future career. These stats hold regardless of major.

For example, a biology major may become a pharmaceutical rep. An English major may become a lawyer, who will need to be skilled at communicating and persuading clients, judges and jurors. Occupational therapists may decide to go into private practice. Here again selling skills will be required. The need for sales in these three “non-selling” examples of career paths are mirrored across any and every career choice.

Our sales program begins with classes in Personal Selling, Advanced Sales and Sales Management. We incorporate experiential learning throughout to provide practical and fun ways to help students sharpen their speed selling (Elevator Pitch) and role-playing skills. We also leverage innovative data-driven, artificial intelligence tools such as RNMKRS (pronounced “rainmakers”) as a fun way to help students sharpen their presentation and selling skills. See our RNMKRS article on page 13.

Most enjoyable about my time here at EKU is the support I receive from my students, fellow marketing professors, our Dean and Berman Center for Professional Sales corporate sponsors such as Assured Partners, Penske, The Wyman Company and Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance. It is truly a group effort to bring the highest level of professional sales skills learning and career opportunities to students here at EKU. It’s an exciting time, and I look forward to the continued expansion and growth of The Berman Center for Professional Sales and seeing the career accomplishments and successes of our students.

The picture that accompanies this introduction, Ed partners up with our PSE chapter champ, Joshua Williams, to give the out of frame competitors, Megan Mills and Tanner Mollett, a run for their money.