I help your people win the yes.
After 20 years navigating complex organisations at Procter & Gamble and The Coca-Cola Company, influencing decisions and securing approvals, prioritisation and investment, I developed a strong point of view on the importance of teaching the skill of executive storytelling and influence.
Today, I have trained thousands of executives on this capability at The Coca-Cola Company, and the principles hold across markets and functions.
Win the Yes is my bespoke programme designed to help leaders and teams who need to win support for important work to develop lasting capability.
Budgets are tighter. Attention is shorter. Influence counts for more.
+22 pts
The rise in employers naming leadership and social influence a core skill, 2023 to 2025. The biggest rise of any core skill.
59%
of CMOs don't have the budget to deliver their strategy.
3m 44s
is all investors give a seed deck, on average.
AI can accelerate the work. But consequential decisions still depend on human judgement, trust and influence.
Sources: World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025. Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2025. DocSend.
How it works.
2-day team programme
Win the yes.
A cohort experience built on participants' live work.
Executive sprint
Win the moment.
Focused support around one critical pitch, board meeting, customer presentation or investment decision.
Coaching
Sharpen the saw.
Ongoing 1:1 or team support as people apply the approach to live work.
The impact you will see.
✓
Stronger recommendations: Clearer choices and stronger rationale.
✓
Faster alignment: Stakeholders engaged earlier and more deliberately.
✓
✓
Less rework: Fewer unnecessary revisions and follow-up meetings.
More confident delivery: Leaders who land the recommendation in the room.
✓
Better execution: Decisions understood well enough to act on.
What people say.
Months later.
Skills and techniques still being put into practice.
Russell Mahoney
Corporate Affairs Executive Leader, APAC
A day in.
A team applied it and nailed a key customer presentation that week.
Kichi Roxas Chua
Integrated Marketing Experiences Executive Leader
Within 24 hours.
A critical presentation reshaped, shifting partners' perception of the work.
Grant Davidson
APAC Marketing Executive Leader
Thousands.
Of leaders trained in storytelling and influence worldwide.
★★★★★
"Susan has a rare ability to turn complex strategy into compelling narratives. She was instrumental in strengthening marketing capability and leadership effectiveness across a highly complex, multi-market organisation. I would strongly recommend Susan to any organisation looking to elevate leadership capability, strategic clarity, and team performance."
Elif Kaypak
VP Marketing, ASEAN and South Pacific
★★★★★
"Storytelling is such a key competency and the program you put together for the entire regional team was first-rate. Most importantly, months afterwards, I still hear people putting the skills and techniques into practice... you're a joy to work with."
Russell Mahoney
Corporate Affairs Executive Leader, APAC
★★★★★
"Everyone who attended thought it was great! Engaging content, good tips and chance to practice, great to have real life training again and superb facilitation… I can reassure you all that [it's] a good investment of time for you and your teams!"
Kate Miller
APAC Marketing & Commercial Executive
★★★★★
Adrian Manlapig
Philippines Marketing Executive Leader
"I have applied the storytelling techniques learned from the 2-day workshop… with my recent top-to-top meeting with the customer… and it was a success!! It really did [make] a difference in delivering a good story vs a mere presentation."
★★★★★
Mick Drew
Digital Commerce & Commercial Strategy Executive Leader
"[You] totally nailed the brief and put together a 'made to order' [programme] for the team that will really shape how we tell stories… I can already see how the team has grown in confidence in preparing for presentations."
★★★★★
Kichi Roxas Chua
Integrated Marketing Experiences Executive Leader
"The brief was clearly spot on… an amazing session that kept everyone thoroughly engaged for the whole two days. It was a joy seeing the team immediately put this into practice literally a day into the session… they had nailed their presentation to [a key customer] on Thursday that week."
★★★★★
Grant Davidson
APAC Marketing Executive Leader
"We had a super important presentation for the system to get aligned on [a major brand] and in the short space of 24 hours you helped pivot the presentation and slides to make it very impactful and in turn shifted around [our partners'] perception on the work we are doing."
★★★★★
Adam Ross
Creative Excellence Executive, APAC
"The content was fantastic… super easy and engaging to follow and take in… I've already been using the tips you provided on my own presentations and in how I've been giving feedback to others."
★★★★★
Lynette Davis
Human Insights Executive, ANZ
"Content was really well delivered, usable, pragmatic and full of real examples. Didn't try to fit a million frameworks into two days. This allowed people to absorb properly and also interact as a group."
Frequently asked questions.
Win the Yes is a storytelling and influence programme for leaders and teams who need to win support for important work. It covers the whole path to a decision: planning, stakeholders, strategy, story and delivery. People leave with a stronger recommendation on a real piece of their own work.
Leaders and teams who need to win the investment: money, people and time. It's especially popular with marketing and commercial teams, and it travels well into sales, HR, finance and public affairs.
Great communicators are made, not born. Influence is a skill set, and like any skill it can be learned, practised and sharpened. That matters more than ever in the AI age, when anyone can produce a deck but not everyone can get a yes.
The flagship Win the Yes is two days, live and in person, for cohorts of 5 to 30 leaders. Day one is stakeholders and strategy. Day two is story and delivery, including a live delivery with feedback. Everyone works on a real piece of work, and each person gets a one-to-one coaching session afterwards.
No, and that's deliberate. Win the Yes is super practical: people rehearse, deliver and get feedback in the room. That's where the capability is built to last.
Yes. Win the Moment is an executive sprint built around a critical pitch, board meeting or investment decision. For ongoing support on live work, Sharpen the Saw is one-to-one or team coaching.
Three ways: a pre and post self-assessment of confidence and capability, the quality of each participant's live recommendation, and a follow-up at 30 to 60 days on how the skills are being used. The goal is not a great workshop. The goal is people who can do something better because of it.