Bob Circosta
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (August 2007) |
Bob Circosta is an American businessman and television host. He is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network (HSN)'s corporate building. Circosta is considered one of the pioneers of the home shopping industry.[citation needed]
Back in 1977 Circosta hosted a Florida-based radio talk-show, and an advertiser had plenty of products to sell –- avocado-green-colored can openers –- but lacked the funds to purchase any airtime. As a favor to station owner Bud Paxson, Circosta started selling these products for $9.95 over the airwaves... and both men were stunned by the audience response. Within the hour, Circosta's listeners purchased every last can opener left in the studio.
Recognizing the vast sales potential, Paxson then founded a local home shopping cable station, and later launched nationwide with the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Bob Circosta was their first ever home shopping host, also becoming one of the world's most prolific, most identifiable salesmen in the process. HSN was the first home shopping network in America and the beginning of the electronic retailing industry, one that now includes such influential companies as QVC, Amazon.com, and eBay.
Personally extolling the virtues of over 75,000 different products and netting over 20,000 hours of live, on-air TV selling, Circosta achieved individual product sales in excess of one billion dollars, earning him the title of "The Billion Dollar Man."
Circosta still makes regular appearances on HSN and also hosts the syndicated TV program What a Great Idea! nationwide, where he scours the landscape for eye-catching new products and inventions to debut. He also serves as the "Sales Coach to the Stars," personally training such well-known celebrities as Ed McMahon, Vanna White, Jessica Simpson, Lauren Hutton, Patti LaBelle, Frankie Avalon, Dixie Carter, Priscilla Presley, Jennifer Flavin, Florence Henderson, and more how to sell products on television. Over just the past four years, the top 100 clients trained by Circosta have generated over half-a-billion dollars in sales.
Given his historic sales accomplishments and familiarity with television viewers, Circosta is one of the free market's most sought-after lecturers and business consultants. He regularly appears at some of the most exclusive corporate conferences and sales conventions in the entrepreneurial world, including the Enlightened Wealth Institute, CEO Space and T. Harv Eker's World's Greatest Marketing Seminar. Circosta has shared the stage with other leading voices in the business, self-help, and wealth-building industry, including Donald Trump, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Allen, Les Brown, T. Harv Eker, John Childers, and Marshall Sylver.
Circosta also co-starred in a syndicated TV game show called the Home Shopping Game in the summer of 1987, serving as co-host/announcer with future Entertainment Tonight host Bob Goen.
His company, Bob Circosta Communications, Inc. is the only company endorsed by HSN to train its on-air talent.
References
[1] Official Bob Circosta Facebook
- What A Great Idea It Turned Out To Be Selling Can Openers On The Radio Tampa Tribune
- A Man. A Plan. A Can Opener. ClickZ Network
- "Can You Believe This Price?" Time Magazine
- Bob Circosta Interview Media Talk
- It started with 112 can openers St. Petersburg Times
- "Home Shopping Game" Internet Movie Database
- What a Great Idea! Circosta TV homepage
- Media Zone: Lord of the Pitch Response Magazine
- Bob Circosta Communications, Inc. Circosta Communications homepage