Noah's Texas distributor, Rick Turk, is thankful for dream job
It's a Tuesday, and Rick Turk is on the road to a small high school in West Texas. He wears a golf shirt and wind pants as his Volkswagen Rabbit cuts a line through the dry landscape, with his NOAH SELECT Shooting system in the back.
Turk smiles. He can't believe his good fortune. He can't believe that this is now his life.
"How do I feel about my job?" Turk asked rhetorically. "It's the ultimate joy. I meet young people who want to get better, and I offer them that opportunity. I share ideas and concepts with them that most have never heard before, and some of their coaches have never heard before. To share our knowledge and help people get better, to have fun in a relaxed environment, I can't imagine a better opportunity."
Not to mention the freedom that comes as a NOAHdistributor.
"I love what I'm doing and the freedom it allows me to have," said Turk., whois NOAH's Texas distributor.
It was about six years ago that Turk worked as a sales rep in another industry. Then a buddy showed him a USA Today article about NOAH, and because of his love of basketball, instantly he was intrigued. Turk and three friends made contact and met Alan Marty, who created NOAH. Turk's group loved the technology and when Marty told them he was selling distributorships, they pooled their money together to invest in the Noah opportunity.
At the time in 2004, the NOAH system retailed for about $20,000. Only professional and college teams could afford the advantages of NOAH, so Turk and his buddies all worked on a part-time basis.
John Carter, the CEO of Noah Basketball, had been working to introduce a newer model designed to fit a high school budget. When Carter unveiled the all new NOAH SELECT System which would retail for less than $6,000, Turk seized the opportunity, bought out his partners, and became a full-time Noah distributor.
"When Rick came on board we turned a corner," said Carter. "His commitment and energy level are contagious. He believes in Noah and he believes you need one, and that made a huge difference in building our following."
Turk scheduled coaches and players to watch the Noah demonstration, so that he could introduce Noah to Texas.
"When I started doing my presentations, I would show as many coaches as I could during their athletic period of the day," Turk said. "So, some days I would do three or four clinics in a day.
"What we found was 100 percent of the coaches loved NOAH, but less than half purchased the system," Turk added. "We believed it was because many coaches had no funds in the budget and they didn't want to have to ask for money. We started to recognize that there might be a better way to introduce Noah."
Turk and other NOAH distributors asked themselves, ‘who' raised the money for purchases of this type? ‘Who" else had a vested interest in the success of the program?
The answer was the parents.
He rearranged his presentation and schedule. It has worked beautifully. Noah now offers a "Free Shooting Clinic" in the evening, so that players, coaches, and parents can attend a 90-minute session and see first-hand the positive impact that Noah will have on their shooting. At one clinic, Turk presented the NOAH Select System to as many as 54 parents who watched as their child showed immediate improvement after using the innovative technology.
The parents were just as hooked as the coaches. If there wasn't money in the budget at that moment to purchase a NOAH system, the parents rallied to raise the funds. Noah also established a finance program for schools that couldn't quite come up with all of the money at once.
Turk also thought the majority of his sales would be to bigger school districts. But that's not been the case. "Many of the very small and economically challenged schools have purchased a NOAH system, and sometimes faster than the bigger schools," Turk said. "It's because they can see the immediate benefit to the program and community. Often, the whole motivation of that small town revolves around the high school sports programs."
During each presentation, Turk offers a money back guarantee—when the school purchases a system, NOAH Basketball will offer a full refund to the school, if using NOAH does not improve their team shooting percentage.
"Basketball has only one way to score. You must put the ball in the basket," Turk said. "The better you shoot, the more points you are going to score and the more games you'll win."
Turk will ask most programs to look at their previous year's schedule and count how many games they lost by five points or fewer. It can be very eye opening to look back at those games and refigure the score, with their team taking the same number of shots, but hitting a higher percentage.
"Practicing on NOAH can reverse the results of many of those games," Turk said.
Turk has also done clinics with accomplished coaches like Kansas coach Bill Self, current Chicago Bulls assistant Del Harris and Texas Tech coach Pat Knight. Turk said the one prevailing message that each coach stressed was the need for more competent shooters.
That's another reason why the NOAH system sells itself.
"I absolutely love what I do," Turk said. "I live in central Texas so it's equal distance for me to travel in any direction. I have freedom in my job and what's better than spending time in a gymnasium improving basketball players?
"I have personally worked with about 3,000 players on the NOAH system, and consistently seen remarkable improvement in players at all levels."
And as for his money back guarantee?
"If you use NOAH, and it works, you will want to use it more and more. We find the teams that use NOAH the most, get the best results."
Rick has recently been promoted to National Sales Manager with Noah Basketball, and is looking to grow the company. If you know of someone who might be interested in a career opportunity to represent Noah Basketball, please contact us at 888-879-6624 or e-mail him at sales@noahbasketball.com.