Here are what a handful of our past clients and conference attendees have had to say about the speeches and keynotes given by members of The Business of Trust.
Keith Dugdale was a keynote presenter at the APSMA conference in Sydney and he was amazing. Keith’s energy and passion for the topic resonated with everyone in the room. He managed to hold the attention of a group of 200+ people for 90 minutes and that’s no easy task. Feedback from our attendees showed that Keith’s content was right on the mark and they were particularly impressed with how he translated concepts and themes into workable strategies for the everyday. It’s fair to say that everyone walked out of that session with something that they could put to work immediately, but also just as importantly the motivation to go back and inspire their teams.
Keith was recently utilised at an offsite day where a large part of the day was to present/speak to approximately 60 mid/senior management level people across a professional services firm. Not having had any prior interaction with anyone in the organisation and trying to immediately gain rapport and engagement across a large and broad group was not an easy task. What came across though was a myriad of real experience with multiple clients in multiple industries, real examples of ways to address real life problems which are changing in the working environment and notably, the sales process and cycle. Keith was up tempo, challenging and, most importantly, suggested real solutions that had merit. It is very easy for people to either hide at these events or pay it lip service. Clearly, however, the interaction and engagement of the group from the very start indicated that what he said resonated. Clearly he has a wealth of experience, however what was most notable was his ability to pick the salient points and draw things back to very basic starting points rather than labour in confusion. From our perspective this wasn’t an academic exercise but a practical one to gain insights as to what other organisations are doing right and wrong in adapting their processes to offer most chance of success. Keith did that in droves. The value add was in offering solutions.
I was introduced to Kathryn earlier this year. At this time, I was considering ways to help lead my team in delivering on our External Growth Strategy by focusing on ways to build your personal & business brand. I found Kathryn to be extremely engaging and interested in ways she could help my team of financial advisers. I felt confident that Kathryn would deliver some strong value through facilitating a Personal & Business Brand Growth session with my team and this received outstanding feedback in July. Following this, I invited Kathryn to undertake further work with the wider BT Financial Advice business to deliver a similar session. This was equally well received and throughout the year I have been impressed with the quality of development that Kathryn has added to our business. Overall, Kathryn has been a true professional, interested in learning about our business in order to deliver appropriate content and has been a joy to work with. Of course, as you would expect, I would now happily recommend Kathryn's expertise to any business eager to build their brand in today's modern, digital society.
Keith was the keynote speaker at our 2017 global leadership conference in Berlin. He spoke to nearly 140 of our leaders on the topic of smarter selling and changing your sales culture. The feedback we had from the group in attendance was excellent, with comments that Keith is a very credible expert in what to consider when developing a new sales culture, that he is a great motivator, and that he showed new perspectives and triggered a new way of thinking and acting. Keith truly demonstrates what smarter selling should look like – and does so by sharing a broad range of excellent insights and tangible examples.
I attended two sessions that Keith spoke at as part of the APSMA conference. Both sessions Keith led had high levels of interaction which is unusual at these events. I think people felt he really understood the industry and had a good number of case studies to demonstrate what had worked/what had not worked. I could see lots of heads nodding while he was speaking! I felt it was very obvious he had a strong understanding regarding the challenges of working in professional services firms. He spoke of the challenges that may arise when working in BDM with lawyers/accountants/engineers and this resonated strongly. He gave good explanations of why (for example) lawyers approached certain situations the way they did (not good at asking questions, used to knowing all the answers) and why it made sense that certain meetings didn't have good success rates (lawyers talking to CEOs about their niche specialty area and not the broader business goals). The examples he gave were helpful and, again, I think people could relate. He said a lot of what "we wish we could say" but find difficult in our roles for a variety of reasons.
I met Keith Dugdale at the APSMA (Asia-Pacific Professional Services Marketing Association) Conference where he spoke about Beyond Procurement and Price. During the session, the audience was highly receptive to the concepts Keith presented. He provided practical tips around engaging with clients in a valuable way, including how to access and communicate with decision makers. Myself and everyone at my table found value from the session. Personally, I found his practical and matter-of-fact approach refreshing and logical. The tips he presented were directly relevant to my role as the Marketing & Business Development Manager of a mid-tier law firm, and the practical tools he demonstrated could be rolled out immediately. I would have no hesitation in recommending Keith as a presenter.