Top Gun;
It’s Not a Movie, It’s a Mindset
Ok, it’s also a movie, but that’s not why we chose the name.
WHY THE NAME \’TOP GUN\’?
When people hear the words “Top Gun,” they often think of the Tom Cruise movie. With all due respect to Paramount, it was a good movie, but it’s not why we chose our name.
You may already know Topgun (yes, that’s the correct spelling) is the US Navy’s Advanced Weapons and Tactics School. It’s where the Navy trains its top pilots, and it’s not a place for the faint of heart. The performance standard: perfection. The training is exhaustive, combining intensive learning with hours of flight time perfecting skills and techniques.
If you look beyond the fact it’s a military base with fighter aircraft, what you’ll find is Topgun is the premier center of excellence in adult education.
It’s the place where young men and women are brought together to advance their knowledge, develop greater skills, and hone their proficiency until they are the very best they can be at what they do. Because in their world, just like in your world of complex selling, there are no points (or revenue) for second best.
There’s much we admire about Topgun and seek to emulate here at Top Gun: the pursuit of perfection, the expectation of extensive knowledge, the repeated practice of sales techniques until the sales rep is truly proficient, excelling in presenting your strategic messaging and closing the sale.
When your reps complete a Top Gun skill-building course, our goal is for them to be Top Gun-certified, and ready to be the most elite, most effective sellers in your industry.
FUN FACT
The US Navy spends an average of $4 million on a pilot over the course of his or her career.
Good news: you’ll spend a lot less than that on your Top Gun Selling Professional!
OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
Some of the World’s Most Talented People Work for companies like ours.
Unfortunately, none of them were available…so these guys run the place. Please bear with us.
STEVE OSBORNE
FOUNDER & CEO
Steve is the founder and CEO of Top Gun. His passion for perfection is the driving force behind the company, and has evolved the business into the dynamic, rapidly growing customer-centric company that it is today. Steve\’s combination of technical ability, sales focus, and unrelenting drive make him an invaluable business partner to his clients.
Steve epitomizes the classic entrepreneurial traits: he\’s a risk-taker, and an innovator. His extremely high expectations of himself, the Top Gun team, and the products and services the company provides to its clients drive world-class performance and quality. He\’s fond of saying: \”The company is called Top Gun Sales Performance. Not Kinda-Good Gun or Mediocre Gun. Our name sets our standard for us. There is a brand promise made every time we say it. It is a standard most companies cannot live up to, but we will. We have no choice.”
Under his leadership, Top Gun has grown into a customer-centric company delivering results for some of the largest companies in the world. The business continues to grow rapidly.
Steve is a former councilman for the City of Mason. He\’s active in the community in both philanthropic and governmental areas. His wife and daughters firmly believe he is the best dad in the world; which, of course, just shows his tremendous selling ability.
DAVID KESSINGER
VP OF OPERATIONS
As President of Top Gun Sales Resources, Dave has an unmatched ability to make things happen for Top Gun and its clients. With more than three decades of expertise in sales, sales management, and sales consulting, he leads Inside Sales and Lead Generation teams to generating qualified, top quality leads that translate to millions of dollars in sales for Top Gun clients every year.
A big picture, results-oriented strategic thinker, he excels at working with clients and internal teams to realize outstanding results, often by addressing a challenge from a different point of view and developing an outside-the-box solution to seemingly insurmountable business challenges.
Dave also leads Operations for the entire Top Gun organization, and like many Operations executives, he has multiple roles. He views himself as a \”fixer,\” and his trademark phrase \”We can do that!\” precedes many successful projects, including the 2012 acquisition, renovation, and move to the company\’s current state-of-the-art 68,000 square foot training facility, which also houses the Mason Tech Center business incubator.
As the President and General Manager of New Horizons Ohio Valley, Dave led strategy, sales, and operations for the computer training company in four regional markets, achieving record growth and profit levels before successfully leading the acquisition of the company by one of the largest New Horizons franchises in the US.
Before joining Top Gun in 2011, Dave led a successful sales and management consulting practice, helping clients identify objectives, challenges, and core competencies then used to develop ambitious but achievable growth strategies.
Dave and his wife Kat live in Cincinnati with their youngest son, a dog, and more cats than are strictly necessary.
