A few days ago I spoke with a long time client and learned that Bud Newton, a top producing sales executive for 20+years, died suddenly from a heart attack on board a plane in route to a customer call.

When something hits home like this, it gives us a chance to look at the life of the individual we are remembering to see if there are any lessons to be learned. In Bud Newton’s case, there are volumes to be spoken of what it means to be a Sales Titan.

John Childers, a colleague of Bud, had this to say in a letter he wrote after hearing the terrible news.

“Working with Bud certainly proves that teamwork can be more than just effective. Bud and I have worked together continuously for 23 1/2 years with a bit of success and a lot of fun along the way. Bud is the best people oriented Salesman that has ever been through our company.”

“His professional abilities included:

1. Representing all that is positive, productive, and valuable to a business with respect to Salesmanship.

2. His tenacious drive to be responsive to the customer and follow-up promptly on requests.

3. His ability to play both with and without the ball… Bud always made those extra sales calls during less than bankers hours even when it didn’t always seem necessary to others. Bud always believed that long term investment in his customers was preferred over the short term dot com route.

In short, Bud invested his heart and soul in his customers and never to my knowledge short changed them or minimized their concerns in any way.”