Keynotes & Workshops

A differentiated message and brand position is the common denominator that connects leadership in sales and branding to personal leadership. Especially in these uncertain economic times, companies need both personal and business leadership more than ever.

Drawing on his background in advertising, Michel shows the audience some of the funniest television commercials to demonstrate how even the largest companies – including Apple, Honda and Federal Express – leverage this model. Using personal examples and stories, he then shows how the same principles apply for each individual in the room.

With this presentation, audiences walk away with the tools to establish market leadership and the personal motivation to drive it home.

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• Simple model for developing a unique message and brand position.
• Why an ability to stand out and communicate uniqueness is the single most important challenge in any economy.
• The first steps to discover both personal and corporate differentiation.

Salespeople and marketers are constantly being told to focus on benefits. And the higher level the benefit is, the better.

But telling your customers and prospects that you’ll help them – insert any high level benefit, like ‘make more money’, ‘increase productivity’, or ‘be a hero in your company’ – is usually as credible and differentiating as a politician saying he or she supports world peace.

In this interactive keynote or workshop, audiences discover how easy it is to engage people in conversations around the work they do – whether on the beach in Mexico or across the boardroom table.

Instead of benefits, participants learn to listen for and communicate Impact Statements, Persuasion Drivers and Provocative Questions.

This presentation is a perfect fit for sales events, national conventions and networking events. It gives people the tools they need to make all their communications – with clients and customers, colleagues, friends and even your family – more powerful than ever!

Fun exercises include the ‘Back-to-Back Fairy Tale’, ‘Listening for Impact’, and ‘Digging for Drivers’.

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• Why elevator pitches don’t (and will never) work!
• What truly interests people about your business, service or proposal.
• How to engage the other person’s mind in conversation using Impact Statements, Persuasion Drivers and Provocative Questions.

All of us sell, regardless of the role we have in an organization. Executives, managers and directors sell ideas, recommendations and strategies. Entrepreneurs sell businesses and business concepts. Salespeople and service providers sell specific products and services.

This keynote or workshop brings together the key elements of change management, neuro-linguistic programming, core challenge analysis and tried-and-true direct response copywriting. Participants learn to elicit the needs of the prospect or recipient of the proposal/recommendation, how to clearly identify the rationale for the recommendation and how to communicate it in the clearest, most compelling way.

This not only empowers managers and directors to link their recommendations to ROI and key corporate strategies, it also makes it easier for other decision-makers to evaluate the proposal for a quicker decision.

Delivered in a fun, interactive style, audiences and groups learn how to get into the head and hearts of their clients ‐ without going out of their minds!

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• How to start a conversation to improve your chances of finishing with a nod of agreement.
• How to elicit the needs and wants of the customer or people you are speaking to so they ‘sell’ themselves!
• How to create a ‘burning platform’ to motivate your listener to take action now.
• How to create a powerful introduction letter or email in less than three minutes!

Third-party references are the best way to sell because… why would anyone believe the seller? That’s why almost all the better marketers use testimonials — but that’s just the beginning of what makes this workshop so valuable to organizations.

In this workshop, we teach participants how to think like a professional advertising copywriter to develop a library of testimonials that align with the strategic positioning of the product or service, and speak directly to the needs, interests and skepticisms that help turn other prospects into sales. Participants also use the process of developing dream testimonials to gain clarity and focus around the organization’s mission, objectives and core value.

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• How testimonials reflect the true value that’s delivered by the individual or organization.
• What makes a good testimonial, and what makes a great one (hint, it’s not always the ‘positive’ remark!)
• 3 ways to solicit testimonials and even more ways to use unsolicited testimonials.
• 5 copywriting techniques that serve as Believability Enhancers.
• How to use testimonials to answer the question, ‘What do you do/why should we buy from your company?’

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Five Temptations of a CEO. Six Thinking Hats. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. The Four Love Languages.

You’ve seen hundreds of examples of this ‘framing’ technique, but have you ever thought about how you can take advantage of it to bring clarity and power to all your presentations, proposals and strategic discussions?

Distilling your arguments to a manageable set of key points is the foundation of clearer communications, more compelling presentations and proposals, and more productive conversations and discussions. What’s more, it’s a thinking habit that everyone can learn.

In this keynote/workshop, participants learn The Essential Message ‘Bananas’ technique – a 5-step process to help them create a logical framework around any subject. Participants brainstorm and improvise with sample topics, and then practice with a real opportunity to help you improve results in your organization.

This workshop is fun, highly interactive and most importantly, it helps raise the productivity of everyone on your team!

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• The 5 categories that can be used to frame all topics.
• A methodology to help you simplify complex recommendations and proposals.
• Reverse Benefit Analysis™ as a brainstorming tool to discover fresher and more compelling key points.

As Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875–1961) said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

The truth is that what makes you different is the basis of your self-confidence, the strength of your personal brand, and ultimately, your success in life and business. That’s why discovering your authentic competitive advantage is your best career and business-building strategy.

That’s also why participants come to this workshop to discover what sets their business apart from others; or, to discover what sets them apart – personally – from others with the same title or role.

This is a highly interactive workshop with group exercises that are hugely fun and entertaining. There are moments when people are howling with laughter and there are other moments when people are deep in thought and reflection.

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• What makes you different as a person is what makes you better; in your business, in your career and in your life.
• A deeper understanding of what sets you apart, both personally and professionally.
• Clarity of the unique value you bring to the table for the benefit of your team or organization.
• Appreciation and respect for the unique contribution of others.

“My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”

How many of us are as clear about our mission as Inigo, one of the main characters of the classic movie, The Princess Bride? He knew exactly what he was doing, how he was doing it, and why he was so driven to do it. That clarity of life mission is one of the reasons why so many people say his character stood out from the entire cast of great characters in the movie. (It was also the foundation of his perseverance, motivation, resilience and ultimate success!)

As a business owner or senior manager, the way you run your business or manage your people reflects your unique and personal strengths and values. That’s why a proper exploration of competitive advantage must include an exploration of who you are as an individual.

In this session, participants explore the problems and challenges they are uniquely qualified – and personally driven – to solve. The result is a deeper awareness of their life ‘purpose’; a stronger personal brand and competitive advantage; and a higher value positioning in the market for their business or career development.

Key Take-Aways and Tools:

• A crucial understanding of the difference between category challenges and differentiating challenges, providing a simple way to evaluate compelling and effective marketing messages.
• Greater clarity of ‘life purpose’ and how it is expressed through your business or management style.
• Awareness of the 5 layers of differentiation – the deepest layer is where the participant’s competitive advantage in business or in their career aligns with the unique challenge they are ‘driven’ to solve.