Meet Zach Forner | Founder & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zach Forner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zach, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I learned over time that it’s riskier to work for others. Why? Because if their motives, values or corporate creed changes and you happen to not agree with those changes, then you have to go find another place to work. Having said that, I do believe there are good people to work for, I just never found any. To be fair, it took me nearly 20 years of working experience to learn that I didn’t make a good employee. Ultimately, I believe it comes down to mindset. For whatever reason, I just can’t get up in the morning and be passionate about making someone else’s dream come true. There’s nothing wrong with that, but to spend my life building someone else’s legacy is the opposite of motivating to me.

There are some things in life you can control and other things that you cannot. I like to limit my risk where possible and one primary way to do that is through owning your own business. A lot of people have bad thinking, they assume gaining a corporate level position with a matched 401k program is security, but it’s not. It’s directly the opposite, in fact I would call it a trap. It’s a trap because you get lazy and complacent with a cushy corporate job or depending on someone else to write your paycheck. When you start your own business and build it correctly, there are three primary opportunities that you gain. First, you have the ability to screw everything up and you equally have the ability to build a legendary company and bless the lives of a lot of people through it. Secondly, you’re not on the drug they give you as an employee. You might know it as a, “salary”. Lastly, if you build your business right, you can create an asset that runs by itself, which allows you time and freedom to do the things you love most and with whom you love most.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My business was formed out of two things, experience and a very bad situation. Allow me to start with some background. Previous to starting Summit Sales Development, I worked overseas as a Christian missionary in Europe for a number of years. During our transition back and because of my previous 20 years of sales experience, I acquired a position at a sales training company. As things moved along, I quickly and thankfully became the top sales rep and was promoted to VP of Sales while working overseas. It became apparent that it was the right time for me to move my family back to the United States in order to continue growing into my executive role. I’m glad to say that during my tenure with my former company, we more than doubled in size and grew throughout North America.

However, there was a growing discontentment within me that I couldn’t get past. I began to notice the company values changing and the desire to grow was destroying our clients experience. We were not delivering what was promised. As time went on, more executives were brought into the company, investors were introduced and I could see major warning signs of a company that began with great destiny beginning to lose their culture and mission.

If you remember above I mentioned that the company I started was partly formed out of a bad situation. Without going into detail, I faced the most dishonoring and disheartening situation with the leadership team that I was serving with. It seems as if they needed a scape goat for the slow-down in growth we were experiencing and I was chosen to take the fall. Although their accusations were unjustified, that’s not what bothered me. At that point in my career, I could have left and had another job in no time but it was the way in which the “fallout” happened. Never in my professional career had I ever seen such failure in leadership. No respect, no culture, no camaraderie; just accusations and dishonor. I will say that several days after this situation, they came back and apologized (kind of) for their actions, but for me it was too late. Trust had been broken.

Thankfully, this was a pivotal moment for me. You see, I had just read Kiyosaki’s book, Cashflow Quadrant and Rich Dad Poor Dad and fresh on my mind was the reality that I could spend the rest of my life working for someone else or taking life and destiny into my own hands and stepping out into the great unknown. Needless to say, I choose option B. I quickly resigned from my former company, leaving behind a top level position and a significant income because I believed too much in myself, my experience and abilities to waste my life working for someone else that does not even value me. Sadly, another key employee shortly left after my departure due to a similar workplace issue of disrespect and dishonor. So sad! The day I left, I made a decision to build a company that would value people over anything else. That’s important, because they only thing people will remember about you is whether or not you made a positive or negative impact. I chose to take a negatively impactful moment for myself and create positive impact for every life that I lead moving forward.

Fast forwarding to the present, I am happy to say that within months I formed a company called Summit Sales Development which aims to scale people through leadership and sales development in order to scale companies. It’s an incredible thing to be able to build something that has your heart in it.

Summit is very different than most other leadership and sales development companies for several reasons. First, we really care about scaling people through mentorship and 1-1 sales and leadership training, not just sending you through an online learning platform and leaving the rest to you. During our sales and leadership trainings, we get very personal because we know that what’s going on in your heart and mind will ultimately determine if you will be successful in your career, relationships and pursuit of lifelong dreams. Secondly, as the founder of the company and having worked with many top level executives, owners, sales leaders and sales professionals globally, our training is unmatched in quality and delivery. For an example, in regards to sales training, we believe in a question based consultative process that empowers your sales people to become elite sales professionals through training, practice and more practice. We believe so strongly in our process that our number one rule is, “Never Sell Anything”. Many companies after working with us only a few weeks, see tremendous changes in their sales, processes, communication, culture and leaders! Of course not all things are solved in a few weeks, but significant changes for most companies are typically closer than they think. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to coach and train some of North America’s top companies, specifically in the trades industries such as roofing, painting, construction and etc.., so this gives us a big advantage! Lastly, we exist for a greater purpose. What we have come to find out is that if you can help an owner properly scale his company, it creates prosperity and opportunity for everyone involved. Owners can hire more staff, pay them higher wages, people can provide better for their families, achieve life-long dreams and change many family trees. In addition to that, if owners build their companies the right way, they can ultimately have the kind of business they always dreamed of, which is a business that runs itself.

As far as the future goes, I’m very excited about many things we will be introducing to the trades industries. Honestly, things that no one has ever attempted before. At Summit, we have many resources available, such as my book available on Kindle, “Converting a Mediocre Contracting Business into a Phenomenal Sales Organization” and our newly released “Intelligent Questions Guide for Sales”. Unfortunately, currently you have to be a client of Summit to get the Intelligent Questions Guide, but it’s an amazing sales tool.

What we want the world to know is that we are not just another leadership and sales training company but we have the vision to exist as the most trusted and impactful global leadership and sales development company on planet earth. And with that I must say that we are already on our way as we are currently serve or have served companies in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As a resident of Woodland Park, Colorado, I am beyond blessed to sit a the foot of Pike’s Peak. We live at an elevation of 8,500′ so here goes my itinerary!

Day 1 – Acclimate to the altitude, the air is thin up here. Minimum of one gallon of water and we take a small high over at Mule Creek.

Day 2 – Start off by having breakfast at the Hungry Bear, a local staple here. Afterwards, we drive up to Divide and through the golden highway to Cripple Creek to enjoy the amazing views and try and spot some elk.

Day 3 – Let’s take a hike up Barr Trail and turn around at Barr Camp, about half way up Pike’s Peak. This should warm your legs up for the big hike.

Day 4- Early start, 3am. We begin our departure up Pike’s Peak, taking in amazing views and about 10 protein bars! You should summit by 11am.

Day 5- Rest up and head down to Colorado Springs, where we can enjoy Garden of the Gods and go to my favorite Mexican restaurant “La Luna Market”. Order the carnitas on a flour tortilla, weighs 10 pounds but you’ll eat it all after yesterday’s adventure.

Day 6 – Drive to Great Sand Dunes National Park, no words needed here. Just go.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people that influenced my life in one way or another, but speaking professionally, Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” changed my life along with his other book, “Cashflow Quadrant”.

These two books not only helped me changed an impoverished mindset but taught me about the risk of being an employee.

On a personal note, without my relationship with Jesus I would have absolutely nothing. My life is a wreck without his love, hope and forgiveness.

Website: www.summitsalesdevelopment.com

Instagram: @summitsalesdevelopment

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyforner/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zacharyforner

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8r7FfCcNOoU21HYD0lKfvw

Image Credits
JB Creative