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American
Society
of IRS Problem Solvers -
Paul Hendrickson, President
Prior
to engaging you and the Ethical
Selling Institute, we did a
comprehensive nation-wide evaluation
of potential "sales training"
programs. Our members pride
themselves in their professionalism;
they
are all about integrity and want
nothing to do with anything that
would
compromise that perception in the
minds of their potential
clients. To
say they were skeptical about
anything to do with "selling," would
be
an understatement. I say,
unequivocally, that we found in you
and
the Ethical Selling Institute the
partner we were looking for.
Your
integrity-based approach resonated
with our attorneys and CPAs.
They
embraced the Ethical Selling System
as a way to convert more prospects
into clients by delivering on your
EthicalFactor (trust, credibility,
partnership).
Association
of
Information Technology Professionals
- Martha Ludewig, Vice
President (IT)
Your
concept of ethical selling and
differentiation from the competition
by
building relationships through
trust, credibility and partnership
hit
the mark with the AITP
audience. I found the
enthusiastic
presentation
and delivery of your talk to be
entertaining and captivating while
in
itself demonstrating how to build
relationships with those
present. I
know that you have previously
presented to AITP at the National
Conference with positive results,
and I would recommend you as a
speaker and your method of ethical
selling to other individuals and
organizations.
Blackwell
Sanders Peper Martin - Peter Sloan,
Partner (Legal)
Your
workshop on the ethical selling
system was superb, and it changed
the way I approach development in my
law practice. Before
your seminar, my focus in networking
and business development was on
all of the things that I can do for
the client. Your workshop
helped me
make a subtle but all-important
shift in focus. I now converse
with
potential clients with a focus on
what they want, what they fear, what
they need, rather than what I
do. This change has made my
business
development efforts more satisfying
and enjoyable. I recommend
you and
your system to any professional who
wants to move to the next level.
Blue
Ocean Portfolios - Jim Winkelman,
Principal (Financial)
Before
your course I more or less
operated under the notion that
prospective customers would like
the
features and benefits of our
service offerings and, through
our
persistence, would eventually
break down and do business with
us.
The themes of your course
exposed the fallacy in our
approach and
showed us the optimum way to
approach and deal with
customers.
Most recently I attended the
Program on Negotiation at The
Harvard Law
School. Your program on
ethical selling was every bit as
valuable
as this expensive program I
attended in Boston.
Center
for Business, Industry and Labor -
Bob Serben, Ph.D., Director
I
would like to thank you for your
introductory workshop on the
practical, relationship building
value of ethical selling.
We
whole
heartedly endorse the workshop's
central concepts - the
importance of
relating to clients with great
respect, and being seen as
trusted
advisors - of which, you are a
passionate, energetic and
articulate
advocate. As important as
the workshop was, we greatly
appreciated your
follow-up conversations with our
associates. In my opinion,
these
sessions were a distinctive
feature of your obvious concern
for our
associates as they developed
their understanding and
application of
your concepts. In these
efforts, you embodied the
workshop's
themes of
service and partnership.
Central
Institute
for the Deaf -
Robin
Feder, Executive Director
(Non-Profit)
I
attended the Introductory
Workshop sponsored by the
Ethical Selling
Institute. Your
techniques helped the
CID-Central Institute for
the
Deaf refine the approach
we use with prospective
families and we are
very grateful. We no
longer focus our meetings
on sending their
deaf
or hard of hearing child
to CID. Rather, we
use questions to
engage
our prospective families
and ask the families to
share their
experiences with us.
They now tell us their
story and we
carefully
listen so that we can
truly understand their
concerns. We are
then
able to share with them
how we might be able to
address topics that are
on their mind. This
approach, along with other
changes in
strategies,
has helped increase our
enrollment by 57% since
2004.
Contech
Construction Products - Matt
Houser, PE, Sales Engineer
(Engineering)
As
a Professional Engineer in the
Highway Construction and Land
Development Industry, I struggled
with obtaining a certain level of
comfort in my sales efforts.
The gimmicks and tricks I had
learned in
other sales training programs didn't
produce sustainable results and
didn't satisfy my desire for
maintaining a positive self-image
within
the engineering profession.
After attending the NoHardSell
Ethical
Selling Workshop I began to reshape
my approach to my sales process and
as a result I felt more
comfortable. As a result,
business has
sharply
increased and my professional
reputation as a "trusted consultant"
has
deepened many on my business
relationships. In many aspects
I
have differentiated myself
from competitors because of the
skills I learned
in the workshop.
Lighting
Service, Inc. - Kevin Horth
During my sales
career (22 years) I have been
through many varied sales training
courses, but none of them have done
more to help me refine my sales
skills than the program I attended
at the Ethical Selling Institute
with Mr. Fred Firestone. Every
other training course I have ever
taken instructed me to do things I
found uncomfortable in some way or
another, and all of them asked me to
do things that I would perceive as
"SALESPEAK" if I were the
customer. ... (The Ethical
Selling
program) has helped me keep control
of the buyer-seller conversations
in such a way that it seems very
natural and not the least bit pushy
or
"salesmanese". ... The
training has taught me how to better
convey to prospects that I have a
desire to become a trusted
consultant
interested in developing a long-term
relationship with them that is
win-win. Simply put, Fred
Firestone and his Ethical Selling
program are head and shoulders above
any other sales training I have
ever taken, and I highly recommend
and endorse this program.
Royal Banks -
Lisa M. Frick, Vice President
I find this program to be
one of the most down to earth concepts
that uses the tools I have had
all along. This program is more of
a change of focus.
Instead of force feeding clients
information in a short, fast, detail
driven conversation, I now find myself
in conversations with potential
clients that parallel conversations that
I have had with my long
standing clients looking for guidance
from their "trusted
advisor". Instead of my primary
focus being selling products, I
now focus on developing
relationships. After that,
everything
else just seems to fall into
place. I would be happy to
recommend
your training to anyone interested in
Ethically Selling their products
and services.
Society for
Marketing Professional Services
-
Carie A. Dunn, Chapter
President (Architecture,
Engineering,
Construction)
Please
accept
this letter as a follow up to the
presentation you made for the St.
Louis Chapter. Your topic,
Differentiate or Diminish: Practical
Value
Added Strategies in the Challenging
Economy, was particularly well
received. The following points you
made really hit home with our
members (marketers in the AEC
[architecture, engineering &
construction] industry):
- How delivering your
"EthicalFactorSM"
(components of which are Trust,
Credibility and Partnership) at crucial
interactions is a vehicle to drive all
three key business development
objectives: (1) Retain existing clients
and create promoters; (2)
Provide more products/services to
existing clients; as well as (3)
obtain new clients.
- The difference between
"Satisfied"
and "Completely
Satisfied" clients and the financial
impact of having the
latter.
Your
presentation was
fast-paced and engaging. Your overall
rating as a speaker ranked 4.62 on
five-point scale. The
following
are
some comments received from members:
- "The presenter information was
VERY
informative"
- "Speaker was very dynamic"
Stone
Carlie & Company - Mark
Carlie, Member
(Accounting)
I
want to take this opportunity to
comment on the consulting services
you've provided to Stone Carlie and
their resulting impact. Give
the
results, this letter is a pleasure to
write. We engaged your
services
beginning in 2006 as a Marketing
Strategist, with the designated goal
of transitioning our tag line, "Going
Beyond the Numbers," into our
differentiator. We believed, as
you do, that our competitive
advantage
opportunities had much more to do with
our ability to deliver your
"EthicalFactor" components (trust,
credibility and partnership) at
crucial client interactions, than
merely with our ability to deliver
excellent compliance work. The
following are some highlights of
your
involvement:
- Developed
a Client Commitment delivery plan
with our different departments.
- Conceptualized
and facilitated opportunities for us
to deliver "in-person impression
power," which resulted in clients
and prospects perceiving the value
of
our Client Commitment. While
the specific dollars resulting from
these
"in-person impression power"
opportunities is proprietary,
suffice it
to say it significantly impacted all
three of our marketing objectives
to: keep what we have; secure more
services from existing clients and
secure new client relationships.
- Worked
with
me
personally in transitioning a
marketing niche into a business unit.
In
sum, I see you as a trusted
resource. Our objective is to
be
perceived
as the best value provider.
Your guidance has helped us to make
significant inroads in this
direction. If I can be a
reference
for you
and your EthicalFactor
differentiation system, it would be
my pleasure
to do so.
Stone
Carlie
& Company -
Richard Kraner,
Member
(Accounting)
As
a CPA, I was cautious of anything
that had an aire of
salesmanship.
However, I found that the concept
focuses more on listening than
selling, more on asking probing
questions than selling, and more
about
assessing a prospect's need for your
product or services than
selling.
What a novel approach! The use
of a disciplined and methodical
approach
to meeting and speaking with
potential clients has broad
application
for the sale of all products and
services. Your insights have
dramatically changed my approach to
meeting with potential clients and
there is no question that I feel
better prepared, more in tune with a
prospect's needs and better able to
quickly determine whether the
services I provide would be
considered to be of value to the
prospect.
Thank you for providing your
approach, guidance and counseling
and
assisting me in personalizing this
approach to the services I provide.
Touche
Ross -
Michael F. LaPorta, Managing Partner
(Accounting)
I
am writing to comment on the recent
marketing programs you did for
Touche Ross. Your work
included two focus groups, one with
both
our
Audit and Tax management, and a
seminar, "Client-Centered Marketing
-
Your Competitive Edge," for our
entire office. I was very
satisfied
with what transpired. You
conveyed useful information in a
creative and
entertaining format, that succeeded
in provoking thought regarding our
relationship to our clients and our
products. In addition, the
fact
that you thoroughly focused on our
specific agenda and developed your
programs consistently, lent to their
credibility.
Vistage
International - Allen Hauge, Group
Chair
(CEO Group)
My
members found the information on sales
and customer service tactics
that help not only land new customers,
but enhance and retain the
revenues form current ones very
useful. They especially
appreciated the
introduction of the concepts of The
Ethical Factor (trust, credibility,
partnership) and the Core/Outer Core
differentiation model to determine
where The Ethical Factor's use may be
most effective. I received
a
number of very positive comments from
members after the meeting.
- "Very
high energy speaker - I like the
Socratic Method and find it to be
easier to learn that way vs.
lecture."
- "Really
liked
the
content. I am a big supporter
of ethical based business
practices. You did a great job of
connecting ethics to the selling
process."
- "High
energy -
great
sense of humor, made me feel
comfortable. Content excellent
...
culture
of engagement important to and
intrinsic motivation of employees."
- "Presentation
is actionable. High
energy and passion come
through. Back
half of presentation is excellent
because it gives a 'how to'
blueprint."
- "Presentation
style was refreshing and
engaging. WOWed Factor was
great."
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