The Evolution of Axiom Sales Kinetics

Axiom Sales Kinetics, formerly Burton Training Group and Axiom Salesforce Development, was founded and incorporated in April of 1990 by Bob Nicols.

Bob Nicols, Founder, Axiom Sales Kinetics, formerly Burton Training Group and Axiom Sales Force Development

The original company name, Burton, comes from Lake Burton, in the northeast Georgia mountains. From 1990 to 1993, the company operated out of the basement of Bob's home, 100 miles north of Atlanta. After moving from Bob's basement, the company's first office was located in Gainesville, GA. What is known today as Axiom Selling Sciences methodology was penned at Lake Burton.

In 1990, Burton customers could purchase 3 days of instructor-lead training for 12 people for only $125 per person. In early 1991, the price doubled to $250 per person. 

Before the massive proliferation of technology, before online CRM, LMS, iPhones, iPads, podcasts and ebooks, Burton delivered continuous learning content and support to class participants with a combination of in person training, and audio cassette workbook programs.

Burton's original visual presentation media consisted of 250 framed transparencies and an overhead projector. The company was pre-laptop and PowerPoint, so Bob lugged two metal cases of transparencies and changed them as quickly and often as we now change slides in a Keynote deck!

AXIOM was founded because of a growing frustration Bob observed among sales executives seeking programs to develop high performance teams.

First, there were no programs designed specifically for the technology sector. All of the programs available required translation from a generic model to the unique challenges the sector was facing and continues to face.

Second, most instructors for these organizations were not successful sales people, but educators. Having no practical experience selling anything, let alone technology products and services, these instructors had little credibility with students. As a result, the impact of these classes was minimized.

Third, most programs taught a series of disjointed selling techniques that did not represent true business process. Without a clearly defined process, these programs were not only difficult to manage, but results impossible to track. And last, there were no guarantees.

Regardless of the level of participant buy-in or anticipated impact,

TRAINING ORGANIZATIONS CONTINUED

TO CHARGE AND COLLECT THEIR FEE 

And so the journey to sales transformation begins……

It didn’t take long for Bobby to realize that most sales training was missing something fundamental. Back in the ‘70s, just months into his sales career, he had this gut feeling: selling wasn’t a logical, repeatable process. It was messy. Most customers didn’t even know how to decide what to buy. So, instead of giving them a pitch, he started asking better questions.

He would walk into a room and say, “Have you done this before? How are you going to figure out which solution makes the most sense?” Nine times out of ten, they’d admit they had no idea. That’s when Bobby leaned in — not just as a salesperson, but as a real problem solver. He started running informal workshops on business impact: asking people what mattered most to them, how they defined productivity and efficiency, and how their decisions affected the bigger picture of their business.

There was one meeting, in particular, that lit a fire under him. Around 1979 or 1980, his brother-in-law John Slider connected him to a potential client. Bobby walked into that office thinking he had the deal in the bag… until he saw a towering stack of proposals on the guy’s desk. He joked, “I thought this was a slam dunk.” The client laughed and said, “I have no earthly idea how I’m going to pick.” That moment stuck with Bobby. If the client didn’t know how to make a decision, how the hell was a salesperson supposed to help?

That’s when everything changed. Bobby realized he wasn’t selling benefits. He was selling problems. Or more specifically, helping customers recognize the problems they already had — and understand how those problems were quietly costing them time, money, and opportunity.

By the early '80s, this wasn’t just a new approach. It was a process. He started every conversation by digging into the business — not the product. He learned how to link solutions directly to a company’s pain points and goals. And eventually, he started teaching his team to do the same. But, like many new managers, he learned the hard way that doing it for them wasn’t the same as teaching them to do it on their own. He could close deals like crazy, but he wasn’t truly developing people yet.

Fast forward to Louisville. Bobby helped turn a little company into the top Mitel distributor in the Southeast — and one of the top five in the nation. In a tiny market, they moved 250–300 Mitel switches, which was unheard of. That success got Mitel’s attention, and they brought him to Atlanta.

In 1985, he started traveling for Mitel, working with their dealers across the country — D.C., Chicago, Dallas — training reps, observing sales teams, and running workshops. Over and over, people would ask him, “Do you have this written down somewhere?” At that point, he didn’t. But the idea started to take shape.

When Bobby moved to Lake Burton, he didn’t really know what was next. He tried a few things, including helping a friend develop a toner cartridge business (spoiler alert: not his thing). One cold winter, stuck in the cabin, it finally hit him — What if I formalized this process I’d been teaching all these years? Would people actually buy it?

He picked up the phone and called some old friends at Mitel. He asked if he could pilot a new training program with one of their groups. They said yes.

It was a hit.

Mitel immediately saw the value and wanted to roll it out to all their dealers. From there, word spread. Bobby didn’t even know what to charge at first — he started with $500 for a full day with 20 people. When demand skyrocketed, he slowly raised his rates. $600. $800. $1,000. And still, he was booking months out. Small dealers started telling their peers and their manufacturers, and Bobby got connected to bigger players like , NEC — and eventually BellSouth.

The BellSouth connection came when their corporate training team reached out and said, “We’ve hired people who’ve been through your course — and your dealers are outperforming us. We want to know what you’re doing.”

So Bobby ran a pilot for BellSouth, and once again, it took off. By then, it was 2000-ish, and Axiom was booming — all from word of mouth. He never had a big marketing engine. He sent out some standout mailers here and there, but mostly, the work spoke for itself.

The growth was organic, steady, and rooted in one thing: solving real business problems with real-world credibility. Bobby wasn’t an educator who had never sold a thing. He was a builder. A fixer. A listener. And he created Axiom because he knew the sales world needed something better — something based on truth, not theory.

The company that started in our basement in the Georgia mountains became a national force — not because Bobby set out to build an empire, but because he set out to help people make better decisions. That’s what makes me so damn proud of him. He didn’t just teach people how to sell. He taught them how to think differently, lead with integrity, ask the right questions, create real impact, and build trust with the clients they serve.

And that’s how Axiom was born.

There are just no words to describe the pride I feel for my husband and how lucky I am I get to do life with him.

Watching him build his business with grit, integrity, and that brilliant brain of his has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. Witnessing the impact he STILL has on so many people, and the time and dedication he still gives so freely, even in retirement that he's worked so hard for.

I've learned so much just by being in the room with him. Honestly, I've been lucky as hell to ride his coattails a bit, soak up his wisdom, and witness firsthand what it looks like to lead with both heart and strategy.

I didn't just get a front-row seat— got to stand beside him, and that's something I'll never take for granted.

sherry nicols