Your advisory skills need to improve to bring clients along. Your advice is right, and the client chooses something else.
A client follows advice when choosing is easier than putting it off. You learn to see what holds your client back, and how to present your advice so they act on it. That is how you influence what people choose and do.
2 days · Amsterdam · € 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendarOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
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Answer three questions. Then you see what is going on for you.
You said: the client agrees, and nothing is done with it.
You said: the client chooses the cheaper or easier route.
You said: the client asks for another analysis, and another.
You said: you have tried all sorts, and nothing has changed.
And your client pays for your advice. Then above all they want to be sure they can take it back to their own organisation.
And you advise internally. Then your advice weighs against the habits of colleagues you meet every day.
And you advise a board. There the risk of a wrong decision weighs heavily.
Your client thinks your advice is good. Carrying it out then asks for something else: freeing up time, bringing colleagues along, stopping something that is running. As long as doing nothing is the easiest route, your report stays on the shelf.
Tomorrow, ask your client what first step they can take this week, and what stands in the way. Make that step so small that they take it at once.
Your advice asks more of the client than the alternative: more money, more effort or more risk. They feel that difference now, and the return only later.
Tomorrow, look at what your advice costs the client in the first month. Remove one barrier, or cut the advice into a first step that asks little.
Whoever keeps asking for evidence rarely doubts your figures. They dread the decision and what comes after it. More analysis buys them time and leaves that doubt in place.
Tomorrow, ask what would have to happen for them to decide now. The answer is rarely about the analysis.
Explanation, arguments and pressure all work on the same side: they push. The doubts and comforts that keep people with the old way stay where they are. As long as they do, pushing harder mostly produces more counter-pressure.
Tomorrow, plan no new action. First map what is holding people back. Then you know what to remove.
The Art of Influence© · 2 days · AmsterdamThe Art of Influence© · online · 33 lessons
After the training you see what keeps your client from acting on your advice. And you know how to present it so they do.
Start online now →€ 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendar · max 16 participantsOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
The Art of Influence© is the SUE training for anyone who wants to improve their advisory skills. You learn why a client sets aside advice that is right, and how to present your advice so they act on it. It is for advisers, consultants, accountants, lawyers and staff specialists, with no prior knowledge required. You follow it online at your own pace (€ 1,190 excl. VAT) or in two days live in Amsterdam (€ 1,490 excl. VAT, at most 16 participants).
“At the Academy you learn a lot about behavioral change and how to apply it in a short period of time. The training flew by and was very well put together. Amazing how complicated material comes to life in a fun and interactive course! I am definitely going to apply it in my work and explore it further.”
10,000+ professionals trained, including people from
You see what your client wants to achieve, and why your advice does not yet fit that.
You hear in a client conversation which doubt sits behind a request for more evidence.
You present your advice so that acting on it becomes the easiest choice.
You test your approach with one client, before you change your whole way of advising.
You learn this with the Behavioural Design Method© and the SUE | Influence Framework©. It builds on the force field analysis of psychologist Kurt Lewin, who saw that weakening the restraining forces works better than pushing harder.
The live edition has a maximum of 16 participants: you practise on real cases from practice. Online you follow the same programme in 33 lessons, at your own pace and with feedback from a trainer on every assignment.
| Advisory skills training with conversation techniques | One-day masterclass | The Art of Influence© | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration | Usually one or two days | One day | Online at your own pace, or two days live |
| What you learn | Asking questions, summarising and probing | Inspiration and examples | Seeing why a client does or does not act on advice |
| What you work on | Your client conversation | A first introduction | The choice your client makes after the conversation |
If you mainly want to sharpen your conversation technique, conversation training is the quicker route. If you want clients to do what you advise, you are in the right place.
Trainer & consultant
Helps organisations understand why people do what they do, and steers it in culture and wellbeing programmes.
Trainer & consultant
Designs lasting change in healthcare and sustainability, in people and in organisations.
Product designer & UX strategist
Turns behavioural science into practical solutions that help teams innovate faster.
Trainer & consultant
Founded the Behavioural Design Circle at ABN AMRO and has spent 25 years on customer behaviour and change.
The knowledge I have gained in this training is immediately applicable in my daily practice. We now have a practical tool to link technical changes to behaviour, so that the improvements are actually changed in people's minds. This minimizes relapses into old habits.
Valuable training where existing knowledge is clearly incorporated into practical frameworks, making behavioral design accessible to everyone.
An educational training that provides easy tools for behavioral change.
Maps, in one overview, the forces that hold people back and those that move them.
Translates what you found into interventions that make going along easier than holding back.
Shows what people are really trying to get done, and why the old behaviour fits that.
The questions that let you hear what people do not say in the meeting.
Pins down exactly which behaviour you want to see and how you test it small before rolling out.
After purchase you receive the AI Mentor, after the training your certificate and lifelong membership of the Behavioural Design Club.
Most participants take the training on their employer’s budget or their own training budget. The VAT invoice goes to your organisation: €1,490 excl. VAT. Open the email below, fill in three things and send it to your manager.
2 days · Amsterdam · € 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendar · max 16 participants · EQAC certificateOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
Yes. In The Art of Influence© you improve your advisory skills from behaviour: you learn why a client does not act on good advice and how to change that. The training complements conversation technique, for anyone who wants more influence as an adviser, consultant or trusted advisor on what the client decides.
For advisers, consultants, accountants, lawyers and staff specialists who need to bring people along. No background in behavioural science required.
Yes. Whether your client is an external customer, a board or a colleague from another department: it is someone who has to make a choice you are not in charge of. That is what the method is made for.
Yes. Online you follow the same programme in 33 lessons, at your own pace, with personal feedback from a trainer on every assignment. You have six months of access and pay € 1,190 excluding VAT.
The live edition has a maximum of 16 participants and takes place at SUE on the 's-Gravenhekje in Amsterdam. English-language editions run several times a year; you choose from all dates when you enrol.
The online edition costs € 1,190 excluding VAT, with the Behavioural Design Toolkit and a digital certificate. The live edition costs € 1,490 excluding VAT, including the toolkit, lunch, the EQAC certificate, access to the AI Mentor after purchase and lifelong membership of the BD Club.
An EQAC-certified certificate for The Art of Influence©. Participants rate the training 9.3 out of 10.
Yes. The Art of Influence© is also available in-company, with a question from your own organisation as the case.
With your whole team? See the team trainings.
Why sound advice stays on the shelf, and what you do differently in your next client conversation.
Read the guide →Support grows in the situation where people have to choose. What you do differently when you design that situation.
Read the guide →How to get directors and colleagues from other departments to choose your plan, even when you are not in charge of them.
Read the guide →Whoever advises better is proved right. Whoever knows what holds the client back is followed.
