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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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