As one of North America¹s leading business trainers and speakers Neil has developed and delivered training and seminar programs for clients that include Ford, Shell, McDonald’s, The Royal Bank, Ontario Hydro, International Forest Products, Dun & Bradstreet, KPMG, Industry Canada, The Pattison Group/Save-On-Foods, Genstar, Human Resource Management Association of BC (HRMA), CMA BC ParkLane Homes, TELUS, and hundreds of other companies large and small, as well as government departments, cities and towns, colleges, universities and not-for-profit organizations across Canada and the U.S. Here are examples of clients and their projects.


1. Training and Seminar Clients

TELUS Telecommunications Corp.
Neil’s training programs with TELUS (Canada’s second largest telecommunications company) illustrate the range of his work in leadership training. For several years he regularly delivered a total of four programs that he wrote for TELUS, including:

• Turning Corporate Strategy Into Results - The leadership skills and practical steps required to align corporate planning with leadership and coaching by managers – and the actual work done by employees on the front line.
• Recognizing and Seizing Opportunities - The insights and leadership skills required to build ‘Personal Intrapreneurship,’ among managers and staff throughout the organization. Personal intrapreneurship involves staff taking personal ownership and responsibility for the business and its customers and their own careers…by identifying and acting on opportunities to go ‘beyond the job’ to ensure customer satisfaction; by taking initiative and risk in solving customer problems, and by acting as informal salespeople who are proactive in asking customers how they can help with their needs, plans and anticipated challenges. This program emphasizes the skills of informal selling for service and support staff.
• Making Sense of Selling - A crash course in informal selling for supervisors of service and support staff who routinely encounter opportunities for informal selling
• The Entrepreneurial Option - A monthly workshop help at the company’s Career Transition Center, in Burnaby, for employees leaving the company due to restructuring. This program introduces the career option of self-employment to these long-term employees, as well as the career enhancement concept of ‘personal intrapreneurship’ for those who find new jobs.

  In addition to these regular programs, Neil also presents ‘The Change Game’ seminar to groups of employees, and has conducted customized programs for a number of TELUS departments. He has also been a keynote speaker for the company’s annual sales conference.
  

  
  
  Dun & Bradstreet Canada
  Wrote and delivered Sales Negotiation and Consultative Selling Skills seminars for Dun & Bradstreet clients. Also involved in ongoing design and delivery of customized in-house training programs for D&B clients.
  
  Shell Canada
  Conference speaking, moderation, and service excellence training across Canada
  
  Royal Bank
  Wrote and produced “Relationship Banking” training program, and working with colleague Bill Gibson trained internal bank employees to implement the program in BC branches (and elsewhere). This was one of the world’s first exercises in what is now called ‘one-to-one marketing’ and ‘customer relationship management’ (CRM) and has been replicated around the world. Also performed as keynote speaker/seminar leader at three National Sales Celebration conferences — two during cruises of the Caribbean Sea (some one has to do it). Also delivered program on Personalizing Service Excellence to 600 Royal Bank managers and staff in Mississauga, Ontario. Conducted turn-around consulting/training programs with bank clients in crisis. Conducted sales training workshops for the bank’s commission sales people who sell RSP’s and mortgages. And numerous other programs.
  
  McDonalds Restaurants Canada
  Training in negotiation, communication and conflict resolution skills for Community Marketing Representatives. (These are the behind-the-scenes McDonalds marketing people who often have to say “no” to community groups who ask for McDonald’s funding assistance for their programs).
  
  Speedy Auto Glass
  Sales and service, marketing, and leadership and team building training across Canada.
  
  KPMG
  Professional development training of IT and Help Desk management and staff in interpersonal communications and conflict resolution
  
  Kwantlen College
  Professional development training for faculty and staff in interpersonal communications and conflict resolution.
  
  Mr. Lube
  Sales and Service Excellence ‘Blueprinting’ and training. Working with colleague Bill Pearson, Neil helped Mr. Lube stores in BC to transform into models of service excellence – by coaching managers and staff in leadership, teamwork and selling – and by brainstorming and implementing a step-by-step blueprint for every action that could be taken to make customers feel appreciated, and fully looked after, from greeting to departure and beyond. To experience what ‘ordinary staff’ can do to maximize service, sales and profit, visit a Mr. Lube outlet in Greater Vancouver!
  
  LOTO BC
  Keynote address, annual conference of LOTO retailers: “High Tech — High Touch,” how to maximize sales by letting your person-ality show (by smiling, greeting, remembering names and demonstrating genuine interest in your customers) and by add-on selling systematically (“649 with those fries? ”)
  
  Vancouver YWCA
  Professional development training for managers and staff in interpersonal communication and conflict resolution.
  
  ParkLane Homes
  Delivered professional development training for middle managers. Facilitated customer ‘focus group workshops’ to determine buyer preferences prior to the company building new residential developments.
  
  EB Eddy Forest Products, Ontario
  Leadership and teamwork training for supervisors and managers.
  
  International Forest Products
  Training/strategic planning on making the transition to a "service culture."
  
  HRMA
  Professional development training in helping employees resolve conflict.
  
  Westburne Electric
  Leadership and team building 'crash course' training for branch managers.
  
  Ababa Bolt, San Diego
  A supplier to the US Navy Ababa Bolt was threatened both by globalization and by shrinking markets. It was imperative that the company differentiate itself through service innovations in order to break out of the competitive herd. We delivered a crash program of training in strategic planning, team building, creative problem-solving, service excellence and customer relationship enhancement.
  
  Northwest Association of Private Career Colleges, Seattle, Washington
  Workshops on sales and marketing and service excellence.
  
  Industry Canada
  Professional development training in Personal Leadership.
  
  Confederation College, Thunder Bay, Ontario
  Numerous seminars and workshops, training potential entrepreneurs, including women returning to the work force as business-starters, youth at risk, first nations, and training of existing business owners in marketing, sales, leadership, total quality systems, et al.
  
  Robar Industries Ltd., BC and Quebec
  Training in leadership, teamwork and total quality programs. Management consulting. Seminars at company annual meetings and other work.
  
  Fletcher Challenge
  Working in Vancouver and San Francisco, assisted the company in planning a transformation that involved turning its newsprint from a simple commodity (dangerous in a cut-throat global economy with its wild swings in commodity pricing), into a relatively specialized, value-added product. (This was another exercise in one-to-one marketing).
  
  CMA BC
  Professional development training for managers and staff on leadership and team building.
  
  Alliance Sheetmetal Ltd.
  Leadership training for construction supervisors aimed at building customer sensitivity among tradespeople.
  
  ASL Laboratories
  Leadership and team building training with a special focus on professional development, management of commitments and creative and cooperative problem solving.
  
  Hunt Personnel/Temporarily Yours
  Using personalized 'exit' surveys to pinpoint customer service difficulties -- and to recover the business of clients who had gone to competitors.
  
  NETWERCC (BC's association of career counselors)
  Professional development training for members on personal leadership, team building, interpersonal communication and conflict resolution
  
  E.B. Peerless Ltd.
  Ongoing leadership and team building training for all members of management and staff, in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
  
  Eastleigh Personnel Ltd.
  'Team of Leaders' training for all members of management and staff.
  
  BCAA
  Customer service and ‘seansitivity’ training for tow truck operators across British Columbia, designed to counter the effects of competition for roadside assistance services provided by GM and by major retailers that include Canadian Tire.
  
  Colleges and universities across Canada
  (Including BCIT, Vancouver Community College, Capilano College, University College of The Fraser Valley, Dalhousie University, Confederation College at Thunder Bay, Humber College and Cambrian College) Business Owner Training Seminars - on managing, leadership and teamwork; selling, marketing and advertising; telephone handling and telemarketing; recruiting, hiring, orientation, and partnering/mentoring of new staff; time management; strategic planning, goal setting and following-through; holding 'action meetings,' and a range of other topics.