Peter Anthony

Collaboration Coach

As an introverted 6-year-old my mother insisted I come out of my bedroom to talk to my uncle Harry and his family. I didn't like talking so I would ask my uncle questions and he gave me long funny answers. As an introvert I was a great student and after university I found myself at IBM. They encouraged us in sales school to sell the IBM way, and I found the more I ignored selling the more clients bought from me and I was on to one of many 100% sales clubs. Later I spent a decade in advertising agencies selling clients products and again I found traditional selling didn't work. What did work was demonstrating a unique understanding of the consumer and then you were rewarded with a purchase. When I started consulting, I taught non salespeople like engineers, lawyers, and accountants how to build the client business by not selling but collaborating with clients. After 10 years of consulting and training and a master’s degree I wrote Collabradabra- the magic of collaborative conversations. I would like to share the collaboration idea with your listeners who I think will find it useful if they have customers or stakeholders to engage.