Fast Track to the Top: Marketing for Technical Types

About PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC): Provides accounting, tax, and advisory services for public and private clients.

US sales: $7.6 billion.

International sales: $28.2 billion.

Kaufman’s job description: Business development in the New York metro region; also plays a lead role in PwC’s national business-development skills training.

Tenure: Hired out of law school 28 years ago to do international corporate tax planning. “I did that for six or seven years before moving into expat tax planning and compliance. I’ve had at least ten different roles over the years and have worked in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.”

Training challenge: “PwC is made up of technical professionals – accountants, tax experts, IT specialists – who feel comfortable solving client issues, but they’ve never been trained in marketing or sales. If we can teach them how to uncover the client’s issues and find a customized solution, that’s a darn good ‘sale.’”

Recent accomplishment: With sales training and consulting firm Richardson, developed sales- training courses that were rolled out to 5,000 PwC partners. “We teach them to share their ideas in a consultative manner to increase their chances of winning the work. We teach them how to tell a story.”

Favorite part of the job: “I’ve supported teams that have sold almost all PwC services and know what clients are looking for, so each of my teams gets the benefit of my experience. And on my clients, I love practicing what I preach and teach.”

Early influence: “My father started a business in July of 1938 during the height of the Depression. Where he got the guts to do that when 25 percent of America was unemployed, I’ll never know. He stayed in business for fifty years. Every night at dinner he’d tell us a story about how he dealt with a client issue, made a sale, and kept his business going.”