Sold on Hillsdale: Trip Banks Is Ready to Help Spread the Word About the College
Written by Doug Goodnough
His given name is Philip L. Banks III. But those who know him don’t call him that.
Just call him “Trip,” which references that he is third in line with the family name.
He has been involved in sales for most of his professional life. For the past 44 years, he has been in the family business, Banks, Inc., which sells and distributes outdoor equipment. As a new member of the Hillsdale College Alumni Association Board, Banks said he is now about selling Hillsdale College, starting with his fellow alumni.
“Actually, it is so easy,” said Banks, who came to Hillsdale from the Chicago area, eventually earning an economics degree in 1976. “Hillsdale is so solid. I love the small classes and the education you are going to get.”
However, he wasn’t always sold on Hillsdale. In fact, his original plan was to attend Hillsdale for a couple of years and then transfer out to a larger school, thinking it would help in his career path.
“At some point when I was at Hillsdale, it occurred to me that what might help you with your first job is your own performance anyway,” he said. “(A bigger school) may not be all that important. I did end up really enjoying school, obviously.”
And encountering faculty like Febes Facey and Charles Brown were other factors that kept Banks happy at Hillsdale.
“We had their home phone numbers, obviously before cell phones,” Banks said. “We could call them anytime we wanted.”
The final selling point was when he rushed the Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity. The quick friendships he made there exist to this day, and it allowed him to expand his leadership abilities and relationship-building skills. He served as chapter president, and he was also elected president of the Men’s Council during his time on campus.
After graduation, Banks went to work for Inland Steel as a customer service representative. Although he was a quick study, he wasn’t where he wanted to be—in sales.
“I wanted to get out in the field,” Banks said.
He was told that he had to get the attention of the executives to get promoted, so Banks went to work selling himself.
“I rolled my sleeves up, I loosened my tie, and went up there with papers in my hand,” he said of his visit to the executive office. “They said, ‘Boy, you’re really working, Trip, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘I’m trying to get this done.’ They said, ‘Good man.’ And wouldn’t you know, the next round of promotions, I got promoted to outside sales.”
After three years at Inland, Banks decided to work for his father’s business, and eventually, he and his brother took over the operation. Now, Banks travels the country to various trade shows and other outdoor events growing the family business. He said the relationships he has built with his customers and clients are very rewarding.
“Every sales call is different. You have to know your customer and that’s kind of a challenge,” Banks said. “Sales is anticipation. It’s almost like studying for a test in college. What is the professor going to ask me? You have to anticipate what the customer is going to ask. You have to be ready when he says no. It can humble you but it also can be very rewarding. You can walk out of a sales call with your tail between your legs but the next call, the guy doesn’t care; it might go better. You have to leave it behind you.”
And what is another secret to his sales success?
“A lot of people don’t do follow-up,” Banks said. “I like the preparation. The devil is in the details. When you have success at it, it does make it kind of fun.”
He said one of his main goals as an Alumni Board member is to mobilize the College’s alumni into “selling” Hillsdale to others.
“Those are 15,000 salesmen we need to develop,” he said. “Everyone needs their elevator speech, and we need to load two or three basic points out there that they can grasp.”
Not surprisingly, the 69-year-old Banks is also active in outdoor activities. The Lake Forest, Illinois, resident is on the board of the Illinois Conservation Foundation and the American Sportfishing Association and was past president of the Tackle and Shooting Sports Agents Association. He also serves as a volunteer instructor for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources summer clinics, which teaches firearm basics and safe practices.
Currently the vice president of the Phi Sig Alumni Association, he said the upcoming groundbreaking of the Phi Sig Pavilion during Homecoming will be a culmination of years of Phi Sig efforts to bring a unique project to the Hillsdale College community.
“I can’t tell you how exciting it is,” Banks said of the Pavilion project, which will eventually reside on the old house property across from Broadlawn. “What a great example of how the school and Greek life can partner and come up with something very positive. And the whole school is going to benefit from this. It’s going to be a great space that can be used for recreation, for classes, for professors, for orientation. it’s a very, very unique type of space and it would be lost on many campuses. But it will not be lost at Hillsdale.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in August 2023