We have a team of 30 trainers and consultants. That means that we are able to select the most qualified and best suited trainer for your event by matching up what you want to achieve with their style, skills, knowledge and experience. Let's meet some of our staff to give you a flavour of what we are all about.

Sean McPheat

Leadership Development & Managing Director

Sean's passion and expertise is in designing and delivering soft skills management courses and programmes and he would be delighted to help you and your staff learn the techniques, knowledge and actionable strategies to get the results that you are looking for.

Sean has also appeared on TV on several occasions as an expert in the field of personal and professional development. Being a finalist in the 2007 British Business Awards for his Entrepreneurial achievements, Sean knows what makes businesses successful.

Sean has been featured on CNN International, BBC, ITV, The Guardian, Arena Magazine , Marketing Weekly, The Hong Kong HR Journal and radio stations such as BBC WM and LBC (London's Big Conversation).

 

Sean's high energy and motivational style will ensure that you and your staff have a memorable learning experience focussed solely on giving your staff the skills to apply back into the workplace.

As well as delivering management and leadership skills Sean also specialises in delivering Train The Trainer courses and is well known for helping TV and showbiz personalities with their communication and presentation skills including TV presenters, Big Brother evictees, professional footballers and top public speakers.

"Sean's style was excellent and really made me want to learn more. It was upbeat, energetic and fun"

Olivia McLaughlan - District Manager - Claire's Accessories

"Thanks to Sean's wonderful tips, techniques and his humour and approach I was able to understand what I needed to do back in the workplace to run effective meetings. The practical exercises were fun and I really got some meaningful learning out of each one - Sean had the uncanny knack of being able to make learning an enjoyable process for the whole 2 days. Thanks!"

Ian Dobson - Communications Manager - Lloyds TSB

"I had a really great time and it will be really useful going forward. Was exactly the insight and catalyst I needed to step up my game. A very good course"

Steven Wyer - Data Governance Manager - Capital One Bank

"The course was exceptional. What I liked about it was that it was very good information, funny, affirming (as individuals and as a group), practical and has benefits far beyond the content. The facilitation was excellent.Thanks for all this. You are an exceptional person Sean and it was great being on the course"

Susan Grant - Manager - Duni

"A really BIG THANK YOU Sean. The course was BRILLIANT. I really did appreciate all your help and training getting me over the final hurdle - I couldn't have done it without your encouragement and input, it was as you say AWESOME"

Ian Daniels - Manager - Greencell

"After the training had finished my manager could not believe the impact that Sean had on me. He thought he had employed another person!"

Phil Hayman - Head Buyer - Faccenda

Sean’s commitment to his fresh, hip and trendy approach to the way he trains is surpassed only by his passion to make a difference to your business and to provide your staff with a memorable training experience.

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

 

Mark Williams

Management Skills, Sales and Communications

 

Mark specialises in the design and delivery of management training courses and development programmes. As a management and leadership specialist, Mark is always in great demand and he has managed programmes across the UK, Europe, Japan, China and the Middle East.

Mark's dedication to providing tailored, bespoke solutions is matched by his positive attitude, experience and practical approach to every event that he delivers.

Experience a training course where Mark has been the facilitator and the delegates will go away with a toolbox set of practical skills that they can use in the workplace allied to a varied approach to the actual delivery of the course content that includes accelerated learning, multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence and weird and whacky activities that enhance the learning experience and enjoyment for each delegate.

Mark also revels in the post-course email and telephone support that we offer our attendees and is often found on the phone or writing emails to give some personal help, guidance and mentoring for a delegate.

Recent pictures from a Modern Managers Development

Programme delivered in Amman - Jordan.

Here are some comments from Mark's courses:

"I found Mark to be an excellent communicator. He clearly knows his subject having studied it for over 20 years! His style was both informative and fun and he had the whole room's attention"

Judy Clarke - Defence Academy - Joint Services Command & Staff College

Thanks for the course, it was great. Rest assured, I wouldn't have any problems
recommending the course to my fellow managers. I found it extremely useful and thought provoking and thought Mark was a great facilitator and tutor"

Garry Cochrane - Account Manager - Fine Ltd

"There were no switch off spells as the course was excellent. The presentation style was both friendly and humourous. I now have a method of structuring my management style and have a great understanding that different people need to be motivated in different ways"

Bakhtiar Hanan - Head Of Buying - Videogames - Toys R Us

"The sections on coaching and managing conflict were excellent. The module enabled me to learn how to develop my team members and also work on my weaknesses as a leader.The course met my needs completely"

Julie Parris - Team Leader - Pfizer Ltd

"I found the whole course to be very interesting indeed. I can now approach my staff with confidence in a way that will work! The course was very useful and Mark (the trainer) was informative, open and approachable"

Simon Harper - Head of Design - Maritz Ltd

"The course was really helpful. I had never done any coaching before but I can certainly see the benefits of it. Mark used effective ways to communicate with the group and was easy to talk to. Thanks!"

Sarah Jones - Sales Office Supervisor - Roland UK Ltd

Nancy Kazdan

Sales Training & Leadership

 

Working with Chairman, CEO’s, Senior Management and Line Managers, Nancy has consistently demonstrates measurable results. Enterprises both mature and start-up have received Nancy ’s market driven growth strategies, coaching and training including:

1. 32 Banking, Broking, Insurance, Retirement & Investment organisations
2. 14 Technology and Media organisations,
3. 22 Small Businesses ranging from arts to manufacturing in the United States, Australia, UK, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Singapore.

Recent projects include:

• Lifestyle Financial Services business development coaching and sales training for individual planners to increase revenue with improved interpersonal communication skills leading to improved telephone cold calling skills.

• Deutsche Asset Management Retail Sales Strategy, Interactive CD & CRM Training & Development increasing Funds Inflows with international equity and hedge funds by $20m per month for 7 months after the two day training program and on-going coaching.

• Deutsche Equity Lending turnaround for sale including book retention of $330M and created new sales in six weeks of $39.8M leading to a total book value of $369.8m. Including telephone scripts, national advertising campaign, broker and financial planning distribution strategy and implementation.

• Developed business requirements for Deutsche Asset Management Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems (Siebel Systems) Retail Sales Measurement & Management to track sales performance and deliver management reports to manage and improve the sales effectiveness.

• PricewaterhouseCoopers strategy and sales development coaching and training for new partners.

• JP Morgan Ord Minnett Institutional, Private Broking, Futures, Derivatives and Margin Lending sales coaching, training, differentiation strategy and business planning for 570 brokers with an increase in revenue of 20% in 10 months.

• Created a web based Client Retention & Marketing Strategy Planning documents and a Client Satisfaction Survey for Financial Wizdom Advisers to asses client satisfaction and develop recommendations to improve their business and win new and current customer business.

• St George Banking Corporation Customer Wealth sales and interpersonal coaching and training for 150 Financial Planners.

• St George Customer Wealth Financial Planner cross selling risk insurance products – term life, TPD, business expenses, income protection, trauma.
  

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

 

John Spencer-Ades

Leadership Development & Sales Training

John is a highly experienced trainer, coach, facilitator and speaker who demonstrates enthusiasm, energy and passion as well as subject expertise.

Bright, articulate and well travelled, John has a wealth of experience that enables him to connect with anyone and everyone, and his references are outstanding.

With a global track record of success, John will ignite any training intervention, and delegates will achieve their learning objectives in an enjoyable fashion.

Internationally experienced – John has worked in 23 countries and has lived in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and South America.

Relevant Qualifications:

• Certificate, Diploma and majority of Masters Degree in Sales and Marketing Management (MA) – Dissertation remaining.
• BA(Hons) Business Studies and Catering Management.
• Diploma in Industrial Psychology
• Diploma in Performance Coaching
• Diploma in Life Coaching
• Accredited DISC practitioner
• Accredited ThirdEye practitioner (MBTI derivative)
• Accredited Insights practitioner and trainer
• Accredited TPI practitioner and trainer

Relevant Speaking Engagements:

• VisIT – Earls Court, Olympia and NEC - Effective utilization of the flexible workforce. Audience of 2500

• Microsoft Channel Partner Conference, London – 2002 – The impact of accredited training on staff retention. Audience of 200

• BHIO – 2004 and 2005 – Annual Sales and Management Conference. Psychology of Effective Human Interaction and Managing Performance Management. Audience of 90

Previous And Current Assignments include:

Panasonic

Management development programme – developed and delivered for Panasonic for their internal 'high flyers' and 'rising stars' that was also sold on by Panasonic to their own Clients (Panasonic run their own commercial L+D centre), including Gillette, Westminster Healthcare et al.

Mitsubishi Electric

Sales, Sales Management and Soft Skills development programme
(Presentation Skills/Time Management/Delegation etc).

Cisco Systems

(Pan EMEA sales and sales management training)

Getronics

(Holland and UK - Sales Management Training)

Telindus

(Paris, Amsterdam and UK) - Sales Management Training

Association of British Ports

Commercial Negotiation Skills Progamme

Pirelli Cables

Project Management Skills, Planning, Organisation, Decision Making, Delegation, Time Management, MS Outlook, Presentation Skills, High Impact Presentation Skills.

Sanofi Pasteur MSD

High Impact Presentation Skills and Presentation Skills for Executive Management.

Goldsmiths

Management Development Programme

 

Brian Perry

Leadership Development & Performance Management

 

Brian brings a wealth of experience to organisational change and people development and is comfortable operating at effectively at all levels of private and public sector businesses, regardless of their size.

He has helped Organisations, Teams and Individuals to improve their performance by establishing not just what needs to change and why but how the changes need to be effected. One of the hallmarks of his reputation with clients is his ability to transfer skills to the team throughout the implementation process.

With his relaxed and pragmatic approach, he works with Organisations to identify their vision for the future and helps bring that vision into reality.

He understands and appreciates that satisfying a vision can only be achieved by effective leadership and people management. Brian has significant experience of helping individuals to take greater control of their personal development, and has designed and facilitated a variety of development events. He utilises a significant range of feedback tools and is qualified to use a variety of psychometric tests.

Training Expertise:

• Performance Management
• Team Building
• Translating business strategy into practical action ? Culture development within organisations
• Leadership development
• Communication consultancy
• Facilitation / behavioural and attitude change
• Behavioural Training
• Customer relations Management
• Psychometric Testing

Previous Assignments include:

• Developed and facilitated a culture change programme to improve business performance and team and personal behaviour.
• Visioning, leadership and team working initiatives.
• Trained 300+managers covering Leadership & Personal Effectiveness for major High Street Retailer. An experiential learning process utilising the outdoors.
• Aligned job responsibilities and accountabilities to fit with the vision and values of the organisation.
• Established an appropriate organisational culture for a ‘greenfield’ site and designed recruiting processes appropriately aligned with the requirements of the culture.
• Aligned teams to fulfil a common purpose.
• Designed and implemented individual performance appraisal schemes.
• Achieved excellent customer service initiatives.

Client list includes:

• Argos
• Exel
• Barclays Bank
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Atkins
• Norwich Union
• Primafruit
• Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
• Huntingdonshire Regional College
• King Edward VI Sixth Form College
• Millview Medical Centre
• Harrowby Lane Medical Centre
• College of West Anglia
• William Blythe

Qualifications and Affiliations.

Brian holds the British Psychological Society Statement of Competence in Occupational Testing (level A & B) and he is an accredited user for Psychometric Testing including:

• Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI)
• Occupational Personality Questionnaires (OPQ)
• Firo-B
• Occupational Culture Inventories (OCI)
• Life Styles Inventories (LSI)
• Strong Interest Inventory and Thomas International

He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and holds their Diploma in Training Management.

 

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

Mike Clarkson

Sales Training and Customer Service

 

A professional Business Developer, Trainer and Senior Manager having extensive experience in the Retail and Corporate Services sectors. Proven sales, management and leadership skills, passionate about the development of people. An effective communicator at all levels, internally and externally. Good problem solving, influencing and negotiation skills.

 

QUALIFICATIONS and TRAINING:

• Competent Leader Award, Toastmasters International, 2005
• Competent Toastmaster, Toastmasters International, 2003
• Accredited Insights Associate
• Insights Performance Coach
• Certificate in Managing Customer & Client Relations, Open University,
• CIPD Certificate in Training Practice, Salford University
• Advanced Presentation Skills
• Inducted into ‘Ryder Roundtable’ a ‘Hall of Fame’ society

 

ASSOCIATIONS:

• Fellow, Institute of Sales & Marketing Management
• Associate, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development
• Area Governor, Toastmasters International
• Immediate Past President, Manchester Orators
• Member, Manchester Chamber of Commerce
• Associate Member, Professional Speakers Association

 

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:  

• Authoring new material including ‘Successful Selling’ a 30-part sales training manual published by Echelon and Video Arts

• Directed top performing regional sales team responsible for new business sales of 50m and customer revenues over £300m

• Created, managed and delivered Sales Academy training for two major UK dealer networks supporting over 120% target growth

• Co-led Ryder Plc Investors in People programme

• Led Manchester Orators to achieve ‘Select Distinguished Club’ Award with Toastmasters International, and appointed Area Governor

• Top salesperson award from over 35 in UK for Ryder Plc

• UK winner of Company Sales Incentive award to The Bahamas

• International Director and UK Chairman of Ryder Roundtable

• Adapted and delivered US Advanced Sales Training programme in UK

• Implemented UK employee scholarship programme across 3600 employees

 

Here are some comments from Mike's courses:

 

“Mike Clarkson was excellent, and his practical approach enabled us to deal with key issues in a clear and analytical way. I have received positive feedback from all of the delegates and comments afterwards included the following responses: “well presented, enjoyable, well rounded, informative and fun. I would have no hesitation in recommending Mike Clarkson"

Catriona Urquhart-Lintz of Marketing Manchester

 

 

“I recently attended the Psychology of Sales course with Mike. This is the third course I have attended which Mike has taken, and like the previous ones, I left better, sharper and re-focussed.

Mike had the difficult task of working with a very mixed ability group, and managed neither to overwhelm the less skilled nor bore the more skilled members of the team. Mike delivers in a relaxed manner, yet keeps delegates on track. I look forward to my next course with Mike and have no hesitation in recommending his services to sales professionals of whatever level.”

Tony Ware of Ryder Plc

 

Sales training is always difficult to run with sales employees at different levels of experience. Mike evaluated and assessed our requirements and what we as a Company wanted to achieve. He offered several options and advised us on the best course of action we needed to take to achieve our overall goals within our time frame. A really professional, in-depth training session followed, with another 3 pencilled in for the remained of the year. I would certainly recommend Mike to other potential customers"

Maria Vizard of Burnt Tree Vehicle Hire

 

“The tutor, Mike Clarkson, was excellent, and his practical approach enabled us to deal with key issues in a clear and analytical way”

 

“All our managers now really understand the benefit effective appraisals can make to the business, and they are currently in the process of putting their new-found skills to the test. The course tutor, Mike Clarkson, was extremely popular"

Kathy Parrish, Kingsland Wines

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

Graham Yemm

Sales Trainer & Customer Service

 

 

Experience

 

After graduating Graham began his working life in teaching, before moving into sales. He sold successfully to a wide variety of businesses and levels within them. After a period on the road he moved into personnel and training for a spell before moving into Sales Management.

 

Following several years here, he moved to the RMC Plc, as Group Sales Training Manager where he was responsible for developing a range of Sales and Management programmes, primarily for use in the UK , though many of them were used throughout the overseas subsidiaries. Additionally, he became involved in advising some of the Operating Companies on their sales approach. This combination of training and “internal” consultancy proved to be the catalyst for his move from the Group. Whilst expanding the role of this department within the Group, Graham's interest in wider business personal and management skills had grown - and in order to satisfy it he moved into the consultancy arena.

 

During his years as a consultant he has worked with a variety of major companies in the U.K. , Europe, USA , the Middle East and Russia in Sales, People and Management Skills. He has worked with many different organisations conducting both training and consultancy assignments - ranging from professional groups to pharmaceutical, financial institutions to computer manufacturers and dealerships, leisure and hospitality industry to telecoms. He has worked with companies in different sectors: helping them to develop their sales strategy; identifying the most effective sales processes – and sales management control systems; training sales management to lead their teams and then designing and delivering the suitable sales training. This can range from fundamental skills, through consultative selling to key account management and negotiation skills.

 

He has also conducted "modelling" projects for companies where he identifies very specific attitudinal and behavioural aspects of the successful people in a particular field, e.g. sales or customer service. From this the company can improve their recruitment and selection process and also make their training really specific to match the skills of the top performers. This can prove highly cost effective.

 

Other projects included designing and developing a product sales training programme for roll-out to over 6,000 people in its initial phase for a major IT company; a national “Customer Excellence” programme for a retail bank and developing a sales strategy and the sales training for bank into a new segment which resulted in significant growth in revenues ahead of competition.

 

 

Qualifications

 

Graham is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management , a Master Practitioner of NLP . He is an accredited trainer for the LAB (Language and Behaviour) profile programme - “Words that Change Minds”. Apart from working with his own clients within Solutions he has also led courses for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development , MCE (Management Centre Europe) and Middle East Management Centre. He writes for various magazines about business issues and also contributed to “NLP – Business Masterclass” by David Molden . He has also featured on the BBC Radio 4 business programme.

 

Sample of clients worked with:

 

Compaq

HP

Vodafone

Sony

ANB

Saudi Fransi Bank

Lloyds TSB

ITS

DHL

Tracker Network

Ericsson NT

LRQA

Kuwait Petroleum

ADCO

Janssen Cilag

GSK

Johnson & Johnson

Turkcell

British Gas

BP

 

Recent projects - sample

 

• Consultative selling skills for Account Managers with a major business services provider. Increase in customer commitments and also on-selling of further services.

 

• Sales directors, managers and key sales personnel of a leading magazine publisher had a series of Project Sales programme to help them with developing extra revenues from various sources and accounts.

 

• Sales management programme for property company, improving their management and leadership skills to raise performance of their team members.

 

• Range of sales management and sales development programmes for service supply company with significant increase in revenues.

 

• Negotiation skills for service supply company with results showing through improved margins and terms in deals.  

 

• Consultative selling skills for company providing EAP to organisations. Better targeting of clients and increased conversion rates.

 

• Developed sales strategy and sales process for bank to sell wider range of financial services. Increased revenues and penetration into target sector and growth in all aspects.

 

• Worked with sales strategy for IT company to move to more Key Account focus, trained these skills – with increase in market share and client retention.

 

• A leadership and teambuilding programme for top teams in a newly merged telecoms provider – enhancing communication, teamworking and co-ordination of new business and creating a more robust culture.

 

• A leadership development programme for fast-track group of young managers and executives of a leading mobile telecoms provider, including creating effective corporate culture.

 

• A multi-modular management development programme for an energy provider, for two different levels of managers and supervisors. Increased productivity, personal effectiveness and communication and teamworking.

 

• Strategic planning and change management workshop for mobile phone operator. (Also carried out range of sales training programmes for same client.)

 

• Effective self-management skills for staff of a Chartered Surveyors – improvement in delegation from top partners, overall effectiveness and productivity, more deadlines met, less work in evenings and at weekends, new systems implemented to enhance efficiency.

 

• Presentation skills for Chartered Surveyors – much higher confidence all round, good feedback from clients about quality of presentations.

 

• Presentation skills for pharmaceutical company managers – feedback from senior and regional managers that performances in key presentations noticeably better.

 

• Corporate culture project with international consultancy/service provider to benchmark where they stand as start of major change programme before moving in the direction of the new strategy.

 

 

What delegates say about Graham:

 

“Gives me a whole new way of looking at what I do.”

Account manager, IT solutions company

 

“I can look forward to making visits with my sales team now. They will be more constructive for all.”

Sales Manager, Banking sector

 

“This has helped to open my eyes about how to lead my team more effectively!”

Regional Sales Manager, Security industry

 

“Just watch the results improve!”

Sales Consultant, IT company

 

“Now I feel as though I know what I’m doing!”

Senior partner, consultancy

 

“The best negotiation course I’ve been on”

National Account Manager

 

“That was really interesting – I can start using it immediately”

Major Account Manager

 

“We are very happy with all you have done with us.”

GM Retail Banking

 

“Best sales/management course I have been on”

Sales Mgr, EMEA, marine engineering

 

“I expected to be given some ideas and clear methods on how to evaluate the sales management activity. I now have fresh ideas and can look to changing structures and processes.”

Sales Manager, services industry

 

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

 

John Cooper

Management Development & Team Building

 

Following a successful career in Training Management with some of the best known IT suppliers John offers a wide range of skills in organisational development, process reengineering and change management.

This is coupled with a particularly broad commercial background with time spent in Marketing, Sales, Finance, and IT management as well as Training and HRD.

John is an experienced management and skills trainer, courseware designer and facilitator with strong IT and Project Management Skills.

In his corporate career John held a number of senior posts in Major UK Companies and is stranger to managing large organisational change projects or HRD initiatives.

Personal Skills

Qualifications

 

A Selection of Recent Projects

 

CLICK HERE

to make an enquiry

 

Bill Kellie

Sales Training, Leadership and Customer Service

 

 

 

 

Experience

 

Bills wealth of practical experience brings realism to his sales training. Delegates often feedback how they will be able to apply the skills learnt in any sessions to their own day to day activities.

 

With a strong background in Sales & Sales management he went on to become Managing director of two businesses with a turnover in excess of £20 million.

In business, Bill was often employed to turn teams and businesses around and has achieved improvements of over 100% in turnover and profit. An excellent team builder and trainer with a commercial eye on profitability.

 

He is a designer of sales and sales management systems with a strong presentational skills background which has been used to help companies prepare for that “big” pitch.

 

He has in the commercial world been responsible for an inbound telephone sales call centre and delivers regular telephone techniques courses which always boost the confidence