Executive Development Proposal #2 - July 15

‘The Art of Professionalism’

Staying Ahead in Tough Markets A Masterclass Program:

How to Win Business by Communicating Your

Value, Quality and Differential

‘ ’… at last, a professional development program that actually makes a difference’’

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Value Summary – Why This Will Make a Difference This program provides an opportunity for you to achieve extraordinary results by transforming the way your client-facing teams lead, communicate and interact with your clients. It will focus entirely on the sharp end of your business where critical deals, contracts and transactions are either won or lost. In today’s market, the most successful companies understand that attack is the best form of defence. That means taking the focus away from continuinly cost-cutting and instead, putting time, energy and investment into creating stand-out differential and demonstrating your competitive edge – and that does not mean lowering your price or cutting profits. It means training your people to articulate and demonstrate exactly what it is that makes your business different, what makes you stand out and what represents real value to your clients. This is a masterclass program that will change the way you currently do business. It will make your people more effective, it will make them stand out and it will make both them and your organisation memorable.

The ultimate objective is to ensure that your teams win more business, increase revenue and grow profits.

Stop Doing More Of The Same and Start Getting The Outcomes You Want Without doubt, your business needs to present your product or service, provide advice and deliver important proposals and solutions effectively. By improving your team’s ability to engage, communicate and really get your message across, they will out-perform your competition every time - and win the business.

This coaching program is specifically designed to provide the skills and techniques that will up-skill your teams in their ability to generate client rapport and trust. They will learn how to positively influence a client’s decision-making process. They will learn how to start pitching for new business from the client’s perspective – not just from yours. The coaching they receive will enrich their personal performance and have a direct impact on both their own success and that of your whole organization.

How this training will help you get results and win more business? Whilst your people will naturally strive for technical proficiency, there is also a very clear need for them to display and demonstrate exceptional ‘tactical’ skills too. These are the skills that we often take for granted but which are crucial to effective client and peer-to-peer relationships. These are the rainmaker skills that win business, attract new clients and establish reputations.

Our approach to achieving all this is quite different. We only ever encourage natural performance skills that are genuine and sustainable. We never condone typically formulaic and predictable sales approaches. Your people will learn to engage their clients and internal peers with genuine personality, impact and charisma. They will learn how to deliver compelling arguments that clients will buy into and be very happy to engage with.

By working with us you will see results from day one. This is proven training. It is challenging, demanding and totally effective. Business leaders across the UK, Europe and Australia have expressed their confidence and faith in this training as illustrated by a selection of ‘Trip Advisor’ feedback captured in the sidebars of this document. The following pages provide comprehensive detail on how we will achieve this with your teams too.

John Poulsen – Managing Partner at Squire Patton Boggs

‘’During my 25 years experience as a lawyer I have attended numerous skills seminars and coaching programs but I have found Nick Sutton's to be the best by far. Nick has substantially increased my own personal confidence and I can strongly recommend Nick and The Firefox Group to anyone’’ Vin Brown – CEO at BDO

‘’… Nick has also worked with Partner teams on the preparation of critical client pitches. On these occasions his input has proved to be invaluable and has quite probably been the catalyst for our success in winning or retaining client work in the face of stiff competition. His approach, the quality of his coaching and the outstanding results he achieves are certainly unmatched by other training organisations or executive coaches that I have experienced’’.

Our Clients Give Their ‘Trip Advisor’ Feedback

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How We Work • Firstly, we don’t do theory – only immediately applicable skills that will make a difference right now

• Our coaching is challenging and commercially realistic with video review and tough performance analysis

• We only use relevant, role specific material or events. Teams will learn skills today and use them tomorrow

• Personality and individual characteristics are encouraged, not suppressed. We never create clones!

The Coaching Format It is important to understand that this is not ‘tick the box’ training. It is highly immersive and interactive. The aim is to provide your teams with life-changing skills that absolutely make a difference in both current and future roles. Like herpes – these skills will never leave you!

Because the program is modular it is usually structured around a series of sequential four-hour workshops. These are often conducted over several weeks to fit around availability and diary commitments. Where appropriate, these are then followed by one-on-one sessions with individuals who may require some additional time. This ensures that the skills are properly embedded and mastered by everyone. Far too many companies waste their money on superficial training that is here today but forgotten tomorrow.

The content and format of our coaching is tried and tested. Developed over the past 15 years it has absolute commercial relevance and has withstood close examination by some of the world’s most demanding organizations. They have all found it totally robust and enormously effective. In short, our coaching programs ‘do exactly what it says on the tin’.

Recommended Program (the actual content will be bespoke to your specific needs)

Module 1: ‘Show and Tell’ We always start with an opportunity for participants to outline their experience so far. How are their inter-personal skills? How do they come across? How confident do they feel? What would they like to be better at?

In this ‘show and tell’ session we seek full disclosure on career highs and lows, the fears and frustrations and personal strengths and weaknesses. It’s a great ice breaker and puts everyone on a level playing field.

Module 2: Developing Gravitas and Personal Impact Anyone with a client-facing role would like to be better at presenting their proposals, opinions and ideas. They’d also like to be more effective during business meetings when they’re trying to get others to buy into those ideas, proposals or business solutions. Most often, we’d all just like to get our point across effectively.

But what are the skills that allow us to do this? What makes some people have that ability to somehow grab the attention and genuine interest of their audience whilst others struggle to achieve either!

Lorenzo Pacitti – Partner at Ashurst "…I would thoroughly recommend Nick Sutton to anyone who is looking to maximise their impact during important client meetings or client interactions more generally. Nick's experience is first rate and I found his coaching on client facing skills, delivery and structuring most insightful, and above all,quite unique when compared to other service providers operating in this market. Overall, despite my extremely busy schedule as a law firm partner I found working with Nick was certainly time well spent’’.

David Povey - General Manager Managed Services at Datacom

‘’I have used Nick as a coach/consultant to deliver a range of sales and business development courses. His work is of the highest standard and the sales team always felt that they got great value from the sessions. His coaching sessions are certainly the best I have ever attended!’’

Sue Redmond HR Manager at Allion Legal

‘‘Nick has a wealth of experience in this area and is very passionate about helping people to perform at their best and win work. His approach is simple, effective and very client focused. Our lawyers really enjoyed working with him’’

In this module we’ll examine how those performance traits work so effectively and then train and coach your teams in the same skills that will allow them to significantly increase their own confidence, authority and business credibility.

They will learn key techniques that will allow them to gain far greater levels of engagement, trust and presence. No matter what their previous experience, we will make them different, we will make them stand out and we will make them far more effective.

Module 3: ‘The Shark Tank’ -Take #1 ‘It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the jar’. Too many business leaders go for years without anyone giving them constructive feedback on their performance. Many wouldn’t dare! So this module intentionally puts participants on the spot and asks them to deliver a short sales or business presentation where they have to present an idea or a proposal to clients or an internal audience. This can be based upon something they have prepared for the day, or a past pitch or presentation they may have delivered before. All we ask is that they now try and incorporate some of the delivery skills and principles they learned in Module 2. For many, this experience is a big wake up call.

With this exercise we are looking for clear, concise and well-structured ideas and arguments that achieve buy-in, trust and acceptance from an audience. Key to this will be the ability to achieve this when under pressure. We won’t make it easy and we’ll ask some tough questions – but everyone learns valuable lessons to use when facing clients or peer groups in the future. Each performance is videoed and then played back for group discussion. Lots of pressure - but look, a little pain can sometimes be a good thing…

Module 4: ‘The Clinton Factor’ - Leadership Communication How many times have your cringed listening to someone stumble through a presentation that is instantly forgettable? This is totally avoidable so this module will teach the technical skills used by the world’s best speakers and presenters - what we call the ‘Clinton Factor’. They will learn the importance of pace, conversational language, pausing and eye contact, engagement, timing, humour, originality, personality and perhaps most important – likeability…. because if the potential client doesn’t ‘like’ you, then you’re just not going to win the business. We will look at the techniques used by professional speakers across the world and then through demonstration and practical exercises ensure each participant understands the techniques and skills required to standout and really engage their audience. Mastering these skills will always put your people at an advantage. Module 5: Effective Structure – Getting Your Message Across This sales approach wins business time and time again. We will coach your teams to put themselves in the mind of the customer and plan the delivery of their message or presentation entirely from their perspective. Listener focus is the key throughout. They will learn a robust, entirely practical and world-class model that will allow them to deliver their key points or arguments in a structured, powerfully persuasive and logical manner. This will give your clients what they actually want – a sense of assurance, direction and leadership.

Liam Twigger Managing Director PCF Capital Group

‘…As CEO, I have personally attended Nick’s training and I can thoroughly recommend his work. I have found the techniques extremely useful in dealing with both our client base and also internally across our own business’.

Tim Foster – Managing Partner at Reed Smith London

‘…Their clear advice was quite excellent and has proved to be invaluable. They are an excellent team’’.

Bruno de Girolami -Partner at Minter Ellison

‘I have attended a numerous training programs throughout my career with Minter Ellison but I have found the Performance Skills training presented by Nick Sutton to be some of the very best I have experienced’.

Tracey Barnes, State Manager St George Corporate Banking

‘…Whilst we felt we were pretty good already, we found Nick Sutton’s coaching took us to a much higher level and gave us greater confidence and poise to deliver our messages with maximum impact!’

Matthew Frederickson General Manager at Datacom

‘With a large number of very experienced and high achieving sales people across our business, we anticipated that the sales teams would be skeptical about their need for further training. Oh, how wrong they were!! Nick’s thought processes around us establishing a different mindset when presenting and selling to clients was invaluable and has caused the whole sales force to change their direction for the future. The program took the team well out of their comfort zones and challenged them to radically change and develop their approach. Some of the team had been relying on the same techniques for years during which time the competition had caught up’.

Module 6: Discovery – I’m Not Selling – You’re Buying It’s a well worn phrase, but still absolutely true: people hate being sold to, but they love to buy. We will introduce two world-class approaches that will allow your clients to ‘buy’ and not to feel they are just being sold to. In particular, our models provide simple and effective structures that will define the stages each person should go through in order to understand another’s issues and needs. One model is designed for that quick coffee catch up opportunity, and the other for the more formal appointment around a whiteboard. Through effective questioning techniques, our models will allow you will quickly discover a client’s needs and implied needs and then explain how you could solve their issues or problems whilst at the same time securing, maintaining and improving the strength and profitability of that relationship going forward. At no time do you need to make a direct sell. The client will simply want to buy what you’re offering because it makes absolute commercial sense. These models provide a simple but effective template for so many different opportunities and avoids your teams walking away feeling that they could have achieved so much more if only…. Module 7: ‘The Shark Tank’ – Take #2. Getting the chance to finally sit down in front of a potential client is often hard won, therefore your ability to make the very most out of that opportunity is critical. This module will put your teams in the spotlight and ask them to sell themselves and their ideas or proposals for about 10 minutes without hesitation, repetition or deviation.

What we’re not looking for is that typical brochure presentation that we’ve all heard a thousand times before.

We want are clear and powerful messages, an effective and client-focused structure, some clear commercial thinking and really good personal engagement with the client… plus all the skills learnt in the previous modules. Teams may use either a previous presentation - or a totally new one, but in any event it now needs to follow the suggested structure and delivery style demonstrated in the modules above. In short, this is their opportunity to put the new techniques to the test and personally road-test how they work. Once again we video each performance and play it back for discussion and de-brief. Are their words saying one thing whilst their body language says another? In fact, more than half their message will probably be conveyed through non-verbal communication – the single most powerful form of any communication. So, during this module we will look at body language, body positioning, facial expressions and eye contact etc. We look at the potential for negative subliminal messages to be sent out through body language and how simple techniques can serve to reinforce and not contradict the key message to the listener. Once again, all these skills have but one objective – to help you win business, increase revenues and grow your profits.

Module 8: Presenting with Power Point Come on now, and be honest, when did you last look forward to sitting through a Power Point presentation? Hmmmm! One thing we do know is that Power Point is really good at making presenters look very average. The trouble with Power Point is that it makes everyone present in exactly the same way. You don’t want that. Your colleagues and clients have to listen to presentations all the time and often the frequent over-use or, far too often, a total reliance upon Power Point, quickly destroys the impact of a message and makes the presenter dull and instantly forgettable! Indeed, on most presentations, Power Point becomes the presenter and you’re just the voice-over guy. That has to be wrong! This module will demonstrate the right way to present with Power Point and also how to use visual aids, pitch books and handouts more effectively. Power Point visuals can be very powerful and persuasive, but too often they just act as a huge distraction and presenters simply end up providing the background commentary for a presentation given by ‘Mr Panasonic’. Clients will remember neither the presenter - nor those sixty-five Power Point slides you inflicted upon them. Mastering the right techniques for using Power Point will pay huge dividends. It will certainly allow your teams to stand out and differentiate themselves from competitors but perhaps above all, it will make both them and their message memorable. Isn’t that what you want?

Module 9: Personality profiling: what makes the customer tick? Sometimes when we meet a client or colleague for the first time we may not have too much of an idea of the sort of people they’re going to be. What will be their drivers? How are they likely to react to you? What buttons will we need to press in order to get the result we want? Our ‘ACTS’ Model is designed to help your teams make a quick personality assessment of the client. What sort of a person are they dealing with? What are their motivators; what are their likely values and how should they adapt their approach to match the clients? There’s no ‘psycho-babble’ here, just plain common sense that allows them to get to the point, find the right approach and really strike a chord.

The Coaching Opportunity

Module 10: ‘The Shark Tank’ - Take #3 In Shark Tank #3, teams deliver their revised and reworked presentation, pitch or briefing now reformatted with a powerful new structure and using Power Point more effectively. Here we’re looking for them to incorporate all the delivery skills they’ve now learnt and deliver a tight, client-focused presentation that has real clarity, brevity and impact! Then we’ll test how they deal with a tough Q&A session… the pressure is full on. We review the video playback and seek comment and feedback from across the group. Here peer review and compelling video feedback are enormously powerful and serve to create lasting change in an individual’s performance. Module 11: Question handling – meetings and presentations Q&A is often the most important part of any client meeting. However, when a potential customer asks you a question the answer is often not what’s important to them. Lurking behind the question - and in your answer, is what the customer actually wants to know. That is; can they have a working relationship with you if they decide to buy (in other words, do I like you?) So how you answer a question is often more important than what you actually say. In a Q&A session what the client is frequently assessing (even if sub-consciously) is ‘Can I trust you’? ‘Will I be happy doing business with you’? During the program your teams will learn techniques that allow them to consider responses to questions more carefully, so that their replies are clear, confident and concise. We’ll also help them to maintain their composure whilst handling difficult questions and tough negotiations. Module 12: Client Research – How to do your homework Too often people use an initial client meeting as a fact-finding opportunity. However, clients really don’t want to spend their time answering 20 questions about their business. They don’t really know you and they don’t yet trust you, so it’s most unlikely they will share their secrets or their ‘dirty laundry’. What will give you differential is if you go to the meeting with a very good idea of what their problems might be – and how you could solve them. However, just taking a look at the potential client’s website won’t give you the answers and is unlikely to be a winning strategy. Client research is very important – but it need not be time consuming. It’s simply about asking the right questions. This module will give your teams the template from which they can conduct useful and revealing client research. The answers they get will dictate their subsequent approach and will certainly separate them from those who go into a meeting and then just talk about themselves and how wonderful their own business is. Again, all these skills have but one objective – to help you win business, increase revenues and grow your profits.

Sam Lane – Franmarine Underwater Services at Innovator of the Year Awards

‘Nick’s clarity around defining our key message, providing focus on our material and packaging our ‘pitch’ to ensure we got our message across was quite outstanding. As a result we were able to deliver a powerful and compelling presentation that had absolute clarity, brevity and the necessary impact to impress the judging panel.

At the Awards Ceremony we were the outright winners within the Growth Category and we received an award of $75,000 towards the further development of our unique innovation’.

Follow-Up Coaching An important feature of this coaching approach is the attention we give to ensuring that skills are not only understood, but also implemented in the long term. To that end we offer one-on-one coaching with all executives and manages after completing the initial program. This follow-up coaching occurs at a pace and timetable that suits individual participants. Usually this occurs over several months with individual sessions being conducted perhaps just once per month. It is entirely dependent upon the needs and desires of the individual. In this way, executives and managers can further develop the new skills and techniques and apply them directly to their specific roles. The follow-up coaching becomes highly bespoke and can focus on key areas of concern or areas where there is still scope for improvement. This work is often highly effective in developing individuals who are perhaps technically brilliant but who need additional skill sets in areas such as people skills, leadership or effective client engagement. During these sessions we will identify limiting beliefs and eradicate personal issues that may be blocking overall performance. How We Operate – Projects and Fees At Firefox we base our ‘modus operandi’ around the actual needs of the client. We prefer to operate on a project basis (whereby we run a series of bespoke workshops to achieve a declared objective and agreed result for the client). We negotiate a project price based upon the requirements of that client once these needs have been fully established. If you were interested in running this sort of program within your organization then we would negotiate a fee based upon number of participants, expected duration, key focus areas etc. In any event our fee structures are entirely transparent and represent outstanding value. We stand by our promise, integrity and reputation that your fees will be refunded if you fail to see a real difference in your win rates and overall performance. Payments are normally staged with an initial payment followed by further phased payments in line with progress and results achieved. We believe such an open and transparent system enables you to have greater control over your investment and it allows you to see a visible return as the coaching program develops. That way we both have some ‘skin in the game’ and a vested interest in delivering the desired high-quality outcome.

Warren Churchill, Director Genesis Oil & Gas

‘Although we felt we were already doing well, we suspected that a bit more polish would make us do even better. Early on it became very obvious that we were actually desperately in need of up-skilling in this area!’

Patrick Canion CEO at ipac in Western Australia

‘I have no doubts that this training will deepen the relationships we enjoy with our existing clients, but the bottom line is that it will help us win more business’.

Paula Rogers at Squire Sanders ‘Nicholas delivered some great programs on pitching and presenting to Squire Sanders and excellent results were achieved’.

Shawn Murphy Managing Director at SeaStone

‘I engaged Nick to facilitate a sales and professional development coaching for my business development team. We flew all team members to Perth to attend from around the country and the investment was well worth it. Nick, and his team provided some great insights into innovative and structured approaches to sales and client management, and both my team, and our results were positively influenced as a result’.

Value Check This program is specifically designed to ensure that it provides real value for companies and their individual management teams. In our experience, so much non-technical training is too soft on developing meaningful skills that last longer than a couple of days. At Firefox we ensure that our training is properly and permanently embedded in each participant. The frequent use of video review and peer-group feedback ensures that each participant is able to get reassurance that by employing these skills and techniques they are performing better and becoming far more effective. To see is to believe and to do is to understand. When we re-visit previous clients, sometime years later, they invariably say that they are still using the skills they learnt on this program and have benefitted greatly over the intervening time. These skills and techniques work. They will make your people stand out, articulate themselves more effectively and differentiate themselves from competitors. Your lead coach – Nick Sutton Nick is a highly professional, talented and engaging coach who will deliver infectious energy and enthusiasm throughout the program. Nick has unique and highly specialized skill sets and it is the blend of these that provides our key differential and makes the training so effective. By taking our clients out of their comfort zones we’re able to deliver lasting and meaningful change. Where required we will introduce other consultants into the program to deliver any specialist skills and expertise appropriate to your specific needs. This is a comprehensive document but only serves to provide the basic concept and structure of the program. We firmly believe that to gain maximum advantage the program must be bespoke to the actual and specific needs of the client. Once we have had the opportunity to identify those with you we will produce a revised program that addresses each and every one of your concerns and target areas for development. In short, you will take ownership of the program and we will delivery it on your behalf. We look forward to an opportunity to discuss the program with you in due course.

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Craig Morley – CEO of Snowden Group ‘’Snowden Group initially engaged Nick Sutton to sharpen the skills of some of our consultants. Very early on it was clear that the coaching Nick delivered was first class and the application of his methodologies would have a profound impact on our business. Snowden commenced using Nick right across our global organisation to coach our staff in his unique blend of marketing, presentation and client interaction skills. The coaching is extremely popular and highly regarded.’’

Carmen Maughan L&D Advisor at Minter Ellison

‘’I worked with Nick over several years in my capacity as Learning & Development Advisor at Minter Ellison. We engaged Nick as a top-level coach for our partners as part of our senior staff talent management program. Nick embodies everything you would want in your senior executives and he was a pleasure to work with and was one of the very few external consultants our firm engaged on an ongoing basis. This was mainly due to the consistent and very high calibre of his coaching and the feedback from our participants mirrored this. I have no hesitation in recommending Nick for the coaching of your senior executives or partners.’’ Christian Goldsmith Senior Executive at

Fortis Investments in London Nick Sutton has worked with our people right across the Asset Management departments in London, Amsterdam and Brussels. The feedback and results achieved were all entirely positive and the benefits have been long lasting. Having experienced executive coaching from other leading companies in Europe I can safely say that working with Nick Sutton has been by far the most productive. Nick delivers great results, he is highly personable and displays absolute integrity in everything he does. I would strongly recommend him.’’

Nick Sutton – Some Background

‘I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for boring bog-standard training then I don’t have any, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you want to just do more of the same in your business and ignore the opportunity for dramatic improvement, then let that be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, and you want success, then I will look for you, I will find you and I will up-skill you.’ (With thanks to Liam Neeson) Prior to moving to Australia in late 2005 Nick was an executive coach with Black Isle Group in London. There his core client base were leading professional service firms including many ‘magic circle’ law firms, international banks, insurance companies, finance and accountancy firms.

Nick is a graduate of The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom from where he went on to serve as a front-line Infantry officer for some 20 years in The Parachute Regiment, The Gordon Highlanders and 6th Gurkha Rifles operating in some highly challenging, miserable and frequently rat-infested locations across the world. After retirement from the Army in 1994 Nick moved into television as a journalist and presenter on ITV News and Current Affairs before being appointed General Manager of ITV Television in the West of England. He subsequently held a number of senior management roles at Director and CEO level in the UK and Europe.

Nick is the President of The Western Australian Club, a hot air balloon pilot and loves engaging with all sorts of boats, red wine and skiing. He has 5 children of which he is personally responsible for only 3. The youngest two boys formed part of a management buy-out and merger with his wife, Karen in 2008. Nick’s other great love is for his mini schnauzer. Contact Nick on 0432 669 517 / 08 9296 3859 or email [email protected]

Contact Us: To arrange an opportunity to discuss your needs and requirements please contact us by any on the methods below: Telephone: 08 9296 3859 / 3995 Mobile: 0432 669 517 Email: [email protected] Web: firefoxgroup.com.au The Firefox Group Somerset House 284 Boulonnais Drive Brigadoon 6069 Western Australia