Michel Neray

Chief Differentiation Officer The Essential Message

  • Toronto ON

Learn to differentiate yourself and your business in a competitive marketplace.

Contact

Social

Biography

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NB: I generally fly out of Boston, Buffalo or Toronto and offer flat rate travel within North America. With an E1 US visa and dual citizenships, I am fully eligible to work in the United States, European Union and many other countries around the world. 
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Michel Neray is an expert in helping organizations and individuals find their key differentiating message, enabling them to stand out in today's hyper-competitive and crowded marketplace.

Through his company, The Essential Message, Michel has helped many clients achieve breakthrough results. Just as significantly, his work has enabled them to gain a sales focus, employee engagement and momentum that can only be achieved with the strongest, most compelling positioning.

His expertise stems from applying a science degree from the University of Waterloo, an MBA from McGill University, and a career as a creative marketing copywriter, advertising agency director and marketing executive to his unique process. The key insight he has learned through his work with companies and individuals in a wide variety of industries and escorts, is that your greatest competitive advantage is often invisible to yourself.

"If you want to discover your true difference," says Michel, "you have to dig deeper than traditional marketing approaches, and use non-linear, counter-intuitive techniques to see what is quite likely right in front of you."

Drawing from examples of well-known brands and his experience with his own clients, Michel gives his audiences the genuinely fresh insights they need to strengthen market presence and improve sales for their businesses, and to strengthen their personal brands.

In 1995 Michel founded Portfolios Online, the world’s first Internet search engine for advertising and creative professionals. Michel co-authored The Great Crossover, which made it to Jack Canfield’s Achiever’s Recommended Reading List. In 2005, his chapter, “Everything Starts With A Conversation” was selected as the lead for the book, Sales Gurus Speak Out.
 
Since 2008, Michel has held a various leadership positions in the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and has spoken professionally in more than seven countries around the world.

Industry Expertise

Direct Marketing
Training and Development
Financial Services
Business Services
IT Services/Consulting
Advertising/Marketing
Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise

Sales & Conversational Selling
Branding/Marketing
Peak Performance & Personal Development
Leadership
Differentiation
Competitive Advantage
Positioning

Education

McGill University

MBA

1981

University of Waterloo

BSc

Chemistry

1979

NLP Canada

Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

2012

NLP is an approach used in influencing behaviour and thought patterns. It is used in wide variety of situations including sales, coaching, leadership, personal growth and communications.

Affiliations

  • Canadian Association of Professional Speakers,

Testimonials

Vice President, Field Operations

SAP America, Inc.

I enjoyed how you made us think differently. Your session was thought-provoking and it opened my eyes to how to be true to myself while being more valuable and useful to my company at the same time.

Process Improvement Specialist

Enbridge Gas Distribution

Hearing Michel emphasize the importance of looking inwardly, to figure out our core differentiating attribute that makes us stand out in the crowd... was a breath of fresh air!

President

Unique Training & Development

What I found different about this workshop is that this one really helped me dig deep into the meaning of what I do and the value that I bring. This was an exceptional opportunity. I think it's going to make a big difference in making my service offering different than the competitors that I work against.

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Event Appearances

Better-Than-Branding Workshop

The Remarkable Leader  Chicago, Illinois

2011-10-18

The Five Layers of Differentiation

National Speaker's Association  Richmond, Virginia

2011-10-28

Differentiation as a Platform for Brand (and Personal) Leadership

Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce Luncheon Keynote  Westmoreland, PA

2012-07-10

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Sample Talks

Differentiation as a Platform for Brand (and Personal) Leadership

This keynote is fun, engaging, motivating and useful! It begins by showing audience members why an ability to stand out is the single most important challenge in this – or any economy. Then it teaches audience members a simple model for finding the strongest and most differentiating market message for their business, product or service.

Conversational Networking, Marketing & Selling

This keynote or workshop helps participants develop customer-centric listening skills, and then teaches them how to develop intelligent questions that speak directly to customer interests and needs. This enables participants to ‘ask’ their way through a proposal or sale rather than ‘push’ their way to a decision. The interactive exercises also help participants learn about each other, making this ideal for networking events.

Sales Telepathy

This skill-based keynote or workshop is for everyone in an organization who ‘sells’, including salespeople, proposal writers, managers and leaders. Using principles of change management, neuro-linguistic programming and tried-and-true direct response copywriting techniques, participants learn how to engage listeners/readers in a conversational approach that often feels (to the reader/listener) that you are reading their minds. A template is provided that allows participants to wr

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Style

Availability

  • Keynote
  • Moderator
  • Panelist
  • Workshop Leader
  • Host/MC
  • Author Appearance
  • Corporate Training

Fees

$5000 to $10000