Dr. Michael Franz

Michael, you are willing to be very open and vulnerable to build a long-lasting, mutually beneficial coaching relationship. Someone willing to win long term. Who goes the long haul. You Spend much time building trust with me as a client. We developed a deep bonding trust.

What makes you unique is your intercultural expertise of the American and European cultures. You understand the why from a behavioral perspective. Build on that you will find ways for us to adapt to the opposite culture. You look and find more profound reasons for lasting change.

You demand respect. It has to go both ways. You are not going to put with someone, who is not meeting their commitments, or who is not willing to be courageous. I would not recommend you to someone looking for a first coach who is not ready to go there to do what it takes to be successful.

What makes you valuable as a Coach for a CEO? You are relentless in finding ways to achieve the goal. We agree on a goal, and you find a way to do it. You are laser focussed on what needs to be done and what we need to focus on. You are accountable and responsible.

What else do I value? Your Execution is consistent. Despite the topic, you always return to firm core values: Fairness. Friendship. Family. You are not willing to compromise them for a business transaction. If you can’t do something, you say no. You care for the individual.

A Coach that delivers extreme results. Our two consecutive Projects in the last four years were very successful. Michael has contributed much to people's development and achieved the below results. First, Global Generator Sales: in a declining market, we have established external sales and grew the overall business profitably by 45% in two years. Global Steam Turbine Service Sales & Execution: In a stagnated market with tough competition, we have increased Order Entry and Revenues by 30% and EBITA by 7% Points, creating a sustainable and attractive future for the business

Michael always aligned objectives straight from the beginning with me. He makes extremely clear what we are trying to achieve. And then he went to my teams, met them, spoke to them, coached them. He has always focussed on the strengths & talents of each person and helped me to put them in a position within the team where each individual performs best and works with joy.
Having Michael in my background, I have always felt very confident in addressing the most complex challenges, like driving an organizational and cultural change in a highly political environment.

I sincerely recommend Michael as a coach to all those willing to develop themselves and wish to solve complex corporate challenges. He is an asset worth having in your life!

Thank you

1. Growing Order Entry by more than 300%. As a Sales Coach, you helped us establish a professional sales function that grew sales in highly competitive and shrinking markets from €18m to €80m within two years.

2. Increasing value by €100m pa. As a DealCoach, you facilitated international Management Team Workshops leading to faster and sounder decision-making in critical areas like footprint, cost-out, quality, and productivity, which led to highly improved profit margins and less complexity costs.

3. Noticeable change within the person coached. As an Executive Coach, you are not only increasing numbers, but you are also working on personal aspects. You supported my fellow executives and me in overcoming our fears, limitations, and shadows to utilize our unique strengths and significantly drive sustainable change.

Your approach: very individual, situational & practical
Most Coaches have a standard approach. Or they remain theoretical and propose solutions that are not sustainable. The way you work as a coach is different. You investigate what the situation is. You make assessments about the strengths of the people involved. You ask questions and listen until you understand the problem. Then you provide individual and practical solutions and approaches that change the situation and produce impressive results.

Your strengths: being a highly sensitive person that delivers
I don't want to be overwhelmed by a Coach. When we started working together. You approached us from a very humble position. You get how much someone can take action. You are very sensitive, not stepping too fast. But every time you go deeper. You are not easily satisfied with an outcome. You don't give up. You go a long way. You are making good on your promise to deliver concrete numbers.

I'm looking forward to our next project.

Do you bring content that is new and different? You do not simply repackage pre-existing concepts & frameworks differently. Instead, you introduced us to your new and unique "fair deal-making" method, including the psychology of decision-making, the buying table, and the no-deal-deal-matrix. Also, your approach is very practical. To train our 800 salespeople worldwide to apply it directly to win their most important opportunities immediately increases their winning probability and makes it much easier to use these methods later, independent of you.

Are you sensitive to context, business, and culture? Especially in global projects doing workshops with our sales managers in China, Singapore, Dubai, USA, and Europe, it is vital to facilitate change in a way that is coherent and non-disruptive, not creating fear or anger. You do this very well. Having spent some time with our OEM sales, you have an excellent background in our company. I appreciate that you do your research and know the patterns in our company. You accept that and work from there.

Did you get good feedback? Every time you had an engagement, you got very positive feedback. Teams worldwide feel you bring new value - people like what you do. For example, one of the feedbacks you received from a Sales Coaching Workshop you did in Denver: „l polled my team today, who, as you saw yesterday, is pretty blunt and open to offer an opinion. The feedback was unanimous that it was the best training they have taken they can remember. All liked your energy and the delivery methods used in training. Thanks for the successful training".

Does working with you create impact and success? The overall perspective is, working with you had a positive impact on the business. Generally, North America, Latin, Europe, and Asia grew revenue and Order Entry. With your support, we were able to close some big and important deals and create buy-in for some critical internal initiatives. The Sales teams moved in the right direction.

Thank you