AP Courses presents… Richard Denny

A seminar is supposed to be an event where you learn something. If it is amusing at the same time, that is a bonus. Those who went along to a sales talk given by Richard Denny at Jersey’s Pomme d’Or Hotel, sponsored by AP Group, had a thoroughly good time.

A definition of mixed emotions: ’Your mother-in-law driving your brand new Rolls Royce... off a cliff.’ It could be a line from the late, great Les Dawson, but is in fact from the very much alive and entertaining business speaker, Richard Denny. He was in Jersey to deliver a seminar, Excellent Sales Presentations, sponsored by the AP Group.
Denny is a highly successful businessman who, while still very involved in a number of companies, spends much of his time nowadays writing (Selling to Win, Motivate to Win, Communicate to Win and Succeed for Yourself are among his best-selling titles) and helping to develop others so they can succeed in their own business.
The audience at the Pomme d’Or Hotel was a cross-section from banking to the commercial sector, and an air of expectancy filled the room as delegates, some of whom had seen Denny at work before, finished their food and sipped the mineral water.
AP Group’s introduction was delivered with the help of a microphone, but the man himself eschewed such assistance. His voice and personality can fill a sizeable room and he launched into his subject, Inspiring People to Greater Achievement, with robust, good-natured authority.
He spoke of the uncertainty that exists in the world at the moment – he sees it as an opportunity. And the fact that people are living longer: again, this provides opportunities.
The overall message - the power of positive thought - may not be original, but this was a compelling treatment, drawing on an adaptation of Charles Darwin’s often-misquoted dictum: ’It’s not the strongest of the species nor the most intelligent that survive, but those most responsive to change.’
He spoke of the need for sales people to be proud of what they do and recognised as the most valuable part of any business, because they are the ones who bring in the business. Product  knowledge and skills were important, he said, but attitude was the key.
As for styles of selling: ’Nobody likes being given the hard sell now,’ while at the other end of the scale, weak selling was obviously bad. In between was professionalism and the ultimate goal was to make the customer an ambassador for the company.
Outstanding customer care was the key, and he told a story of the very early days of Federal Express, when the firm was making fewer than 100 deliveries every day. One of these went astray and a frantic Friday afternoon phone call from a customer indicated that it was a wedding dress that was needed for the following day. An employee, having traced the package to a depot 1000 miles from where it should have been, considered the plight of the bride and chartered a plane to deliver it – terribly expensive and hardly cost-effective, but it got the job done and word spread about  FedEx’s incredible attitude to customer care. It proved a turning point for a company that is now a worldwide name.
Denny’s hour-and-three-quarters covered too many points to convey here, but the message of positivism was driven home time and again to an increasingly relaxed and appreciative audience.
As an accomplished speaker, Denny is keen to point out that it is unrealistic and unfair for a company to throw an employee into the business of giving a presentation without getting him or her some proper training – and courses are available to teach them how to do it effectively.
We interviewed him later and, in view of the fact that he has spoken in the Channel Islands many times, asked him how things were changing in terms of what he is asked to speak about.
’Nowadays it’s management and leadership,’ he said. ’Helping managers to become leaders.’
And the difference is?
’You will follow a leader naturally. Nobody wants to work for a manager these days. They want a leader. And people don’t leave companies, they leave people. They get fed up with the boss.’
But can anybody become a leader?
’No question,’ he emphasised. ’Anyone can do it. The only prerequisite is that they have to want to. Some people are born leaders, but they are rare. Like painters or singers or whatever, a few are born to it but others can learn. You learn the trade by being taught.’
Another subject on which Denny is frequently invited to speak is business growth (there are, he asserts, only four ways to grow a business).
A widely travelled, urbane character, he loves his home in the Cotswolds but is scathing about certain aspects of life in the UK, not least education and healthcare. ’A friend who is a member of the European Pharmaceutical Marketing Association once told me that Britain is a third-world country as regards medicine,’ he said. ’If you’re going to be ill, do it in France, Spain, Germany, anywhere but the UK.’
At 67 and still active in so many areas of business (in addition to his writing and public speaking, he’s the chairman of a telecommunications business in the Midlands and has a specialist recruitment firm), health is bound to be a consideration, and while he appears to be fit, he enjoys a three day weekend that includes Fridays and will soon be taking Mondays off too – sensible precautions for someone who has already made his mark on the world and, one assumes, done all right for himself financially. ’I keep an eye on the work/life balance,’ he explained.
Denny has certainly worked for it – not afraid to take the odd risk and bend the rules. He started his business life as a farmer, securing an order from Harrods for eggs, in spite of the fact that he had no chickens. He got hold of some eggs to fulfil the order and his career took off, moving this way and that as he identified and pursued opportunities, from retail to wholesale, from the UK to the Middle East, where he worked closely with the Bin Laden family (although he’s never met Osama). ’They’re immensely wealthy,’ he said, pointing out that they made their money initially by being the agents for construction machinery giant, Caterpillar, and being heavily involved in the oil-fuelled development of Saudi Arabia, when a largely untouched and under-resourced country suddenly needed airports, refineries and the like.
Today Denny’s multi-tasking lifestyle prompts us to wonder how he does it – but his answer is typically simple and unassuming. ’I’ve got a brilliant CEO, Judith Harker, and an MD.’
Oh, well, it’s that easy, is it? Why didn’t the rest of us think of that?