Employee Advocacy or Corporate Spam?

There is a fine balance to be had regarding Employee Advocacy.

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Andrew Seel, the CEO of Togethr. 

Andrew was been using the internet since the AOL days of CD-Roms and this started his career to where he finds himself today.

His mantra "At the heart of this is a belief that ultimately your people are your brand and that a shared purpose - which you act on and talk about - will set your brand apart in the modern world." 

Andrew and I chat talk through :

What is Employee Advocacy today?

Should Everyone in the organisation be part of the programme?

Do you need a technology platform to support it?

Data, Metrics, Tracking & Success.

How do you help people overcome "Imposter Syndrome"?

Corporate vs The Personal

The Rise of Community Voices in organisations.

And, of course, Generative AI.

 

To learn more about how Andrew and his team can help you launch your Employee Advocacy programmes, connect with him here >>> (6) Andrew Seel | LinkedIn

Or visit Togethr to access resources and more to help you get started. 

 

 

 

Welcome to the final episode of 2023, and what better way than to help us all be "our true selves at work".

I am joined by Liz Villani, founder of #BeYourselfAtWork, a global movement dedicated to creating a new narrative around the way we work.

Liz and the team do this by helping you understand who you are, through your iAM.

"When you have your iAM you understand what makes you happy. You know you belong, you feel you are valued for who you are. You know how to be your best, and to be your most productive as a leader, manager and a person. All lifting your enjoyment and success at work."

 

I have been through the process with Liz to find out my iAM. It was a thought-provoking exercise and revealing, too. 

Liz has been working on this for almost 20 years, helping individuals and teams to understand themselves better.

We discuss my iAM and what it means. This isn't about being labelled as everyone has a unique iAM, because we are all unique.

We also discuss how organisations in Financial Services, Professional Services and Private Equity are using this approach in pitching and helping them win by truly standing out from a crowd of grey suits.

As you listen to our discussion, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what makes you, well, you.

You can learn more about #BeYourselfAtWork here https://www.beyourselfatwork.com/iam

Follow Liz on LinkedIn here : Liz Villani - beyourselfatwork | LinkedIn

Read my iAM here : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexanderlow_alexander-low-i-am-activity-7137362034442018816-E0mv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 

 

Thank you for taking the time to listen.

 

Be kind to yourself.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it's another podcast about generative ai and its impact on sales & marketing.

Seth Marrs joins me as a returning guest. Seth is a research director at Forrester and is at the leading edge of "leveraging data, process and technology to transform global sales and service organizations."

Unless you live under a rock, you will have seen the explosion of conversation about generative ai and how it will change how we live and work, both at home and in the workplace. 

There is a narrative emerging that this will replace some aspects, and roles, in sales and marketing roles. 

Seth & I get into it, to try and cut through the noise :

What is generative ai?

Is it really that new?

Where are the main focus areas that Seth sees it being deployed?

What is the impact?

What will this mean for email copy and cadences?

Will we need to declare if something is purely AI generated?

Will there be a world where gen ai is talking to gen ai?

What do organisations need to consider when deploying gen ai across the enterprise?

 

My thanks to Seth, as ever, for his time and knowledge. It feels like we truly are at the dawn of a new era in sales and marketing.

 

How are you and your business using gen ai? 

 

Follow Seth here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethmarrs/

Forrester resource on Generative AI : https://www.forrester.com/blogs/category/generative-ai/ 

 

This episode was recorded on May 23rd, 2023; hence, no doubt what was discussed will have moved on.

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Julia Nimchinski, co-founder of the GTM Community, HYPCCCYCL.

 

We discuss why current GTM motions are fundamentally broken and how and why you should challenge leadership by dismantling the status quo.

 

Join the community here: https://hypcccycl.com/, where you will learn from the best of the best in the industry.

Follow Julia on Linkedin: (3) Julia Nimchinski | LinkedIn 

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant David J.P. Fisher, or D.Fish. 

"David is an internationally-recognized keynote speaker, sales trainer, and business coach.  He focuses on bringing the human-to-human back into sales, social media, networking, and entrepreneurship.

He is the best-selling author of 12 books on sales, networking, social media, and entrepreneurship.  And he is also a prolific contributor to blogs in the sales and marketing space.

His goal is simple: help people become RockStars in their professional lives so that they can have a positive impact on those around them."

He is now the Global Social Selling Lead - Senior Sales Enablement Program Manager for SAS. 

David and I have been connected on LinkedIn for a while and have always been inspired by his balanced approach to selling in the modern world. Hence I was delighted when he agreed to be a guest on my podcast.

David cut his teeth in the world of sales, selling door to door, cutlery for Cutco, an American high-end cutlery company - the rest, as they say, is history.

 

We discuss :

Have the fundamentals of sales changed that much?

We talk about the evolution of technology in sales & marketing and the impact this is having.

With access to data we have today, the importance of being insight-led.

Does the issue of change sit with Sales Leaders?

Are we going back to a full-cycle sales approach?

Why David believes sellers should think and behave like a Sherpa on a mountain.

I also put David on the spot and asked him about his views on Generative AI.

And the fact that David was a rapper...

Thank you, David, for your time and insight on this episode.

To follow David and this thinking, do so here on LinkedIn David J.P. (D. Fish) Fisher | LinkedIn

To buy his books and more, you can go to his website here Hyper-Connected Selling - David J.P. Fisher (davidjpfisher.com) 

Do you have Sales Sherpas in your team?

 

 

 

Ask ten salespeople what Sales Enablement means to them, and you will likely get ten different answers. 

Therefore, I thought who better to have as my guest today than the brilliant Imogen McCourt, Head of B2B Sales Transformation and Enablement at The Economist Group and one of the founding members and President of the UK Sales Enablement Society Chapter.

Imogen has not followed the "traditional" SaaS path of Sales Enablement if such a thing exists. 

Imogen started her path to Enablement in 2010 as a Senior Director at Forrester, where they wrote research papers. She then moved into the execution of their research.

The rest, as you will hear, is history.

We start by trying to define what we both believe Sales Enablement means today and go from there.

We end up, unsurprisingly, talking about technology, generative AI, and what role we believe this will play.

Imogen gives us brilliant advice on how and where to get started.

Whether you are just starting or are a seasoned Sales Enablement pro, Imogen brings some refreshing perspectives.

You can follow Imogen here https://www.linkedin.com/in/imogen-mccourt-svpleader/

and join The Sales Enablement Society here https://www.linkedin.com/company/sesociety/mycompany/

 

 

 

 

 

 

We now live in a quasi-virtual, hybrid, video-meeting-led world.

Albert Mehrabian, a researcher of body language, who first broke down the components of a face-to-face conversation. He found that communication is 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7% words only.

Therefore, what does this mean for us in nonverbal communication, in a video-led world, where we can only see one's head and shoulders in a small box on a screen?

In this episode, I am joined by Rachel Cossar, Co-Founder and CEO of Virtual Sapiens.

"Rachel Cossar is a leader in the field of nonverbal communication and leadership presence facilitation. As a former nationally ranked athlete and professional ballet dancer, Rachel has a knack of translating unique skills into relatable business skills and competencies. Virtual Sapiens, Rachel's most recent venture, comes as an evolution of her combined work as founder of Choreography for Business, a nonverbal communication consulting firm as well as a faculty member with Mobius Executive Leadership and as a leadership presence facilitator with Ariel Group. Rachel has worked with leaders from GE, BCG, Pfizer, Accenture, McKinsey, HBS and more. Rachel believes in the power of leveraging unique channels of communication in their own unique ways. Whether it is in person, on stage or on video, human connection is the key to organizational impact. At Virtual Sapiens and in all endeavors, Rachel is known to lean in to the future, to uncertainty, and to strengthening human experiences in business and beyond. Rachel's thought leadership has been featured on the TEDx Northeastern stage, Harvard Business Review, The Boston Globe, Psychology Today and more.

In this episode, Rachel breaks this down for us into what we need to consider when meeting people for the first time in a video-first environment, be it an initial meeting, demo, pitch and more. 

Rachel shares the types of nonverbal cues one would see and react to in an in-person meeting and how this becomes more complex in a video environment. 

This includes speaking to listen to ratio, lighting, background framing, camera angle, standing vs sitting, hand, head and shoulder movement, and eye contact. 

And what impact this has on the person you are talking to.

This all leads us to why Rachel founded Virtual Sapiens, "is a machine-learning SaaS platform to help client-facing professionals master communication skills over video. Like a virtual coach, Virtual Sapiens leverages expert knowledge in body language and presence, providing users with individualized and consistent coaching prompts as well as in-call feedback over time. Virtual Sapiens amplifies human connection, builds human skills and leverages cutting edge technology to do so at scale."

This episode will give you food for thought and where AI technology is heading in this space - do we even need to be present?

To learn more about Virtual Sapiens and take their free assessment, follow this link : https://www.virtualsapiens.co/

You can follow Rachel on LinkedIn here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-cossar/

 

Thank you to Rachel for her time and insight and to you, my listeners.

 

Welcome to the first episode of 2023, where Ketna Mistry joins me.

We all see it on our news feeds on LinkedIn, the same bland corporate post being shared or re-posted multiple times. We also all know that our employee networks are potent when activated correctly - this can help with brand positioning, recruitment and pipeline generation. 

How do you get an Employee Advocacy programme off the ground with meaning and purpose - both for the business and the employee?

Ketna joins me today to share just this. Her career spans 17 years of helping businesses with their social media strategy and execution.

Her most recent role was with Savills, helping them drive an Employee Advocacy programme, which has both a b2b and a b2c angle - some say the 2 are now the same thing.  She has now set up her own practice to provide consulting advice on social media, strategy and more.

Let's get to it :

What is Employee Advocacy?

Are the reason some fail because of leadership, lack of resources or both?

Is Employee Advocacy and Social Selling the same?

Should all employees be part of a programme?

How do you begin the conversation with leaders about engaging in an Employee Advocacy programme?

How can you make your content work harder for you?

We will we finally see B2B Influencers in the mainstream? 

If you are starting one, what are the considerations you must give?

We cover a lot in this one; my thanks to Ketna for her time and insight. I

If you need help with your social media strategy and execution, connect with Ketna on LinkedIn.

 

As ever, my thanks to all my guests and you my listeners.

 

 

 

 

I reflect on where we are in the sales world in this episode.

I consider the 3 main channels to start a sales conversation:

The telephone

Email

Social Selling

- all of which are dead and don't work. Or do. Depending on whom you follow.

I then take a look at Gartner's 7 new technologies that will completely change sales between 2024 and 2030 :

Multimodality

Generative AI

AR & VR

Emotion AI

Digital Twin of the Customer

Digital Humans

Machine Customers.

I consider each of these and how they may or may not fit in sales as we believe them to be.

I then reflect on a post I saw from Tom Goodwin, challenging business on "disruption" and how this is the same for Sales. 

This leads me to talk to the podcasts I recorded with Jenna Pipchuk of Smart Technologies, born out of the article by Brent Adamson in Feb 2022 - Sales & Marketing is Obsolete.

I end with my thoughts on the most essential aspect of these predictions.

Your customers, past, present and future.

What do you think the future holds for Sales?

Links :

Podcast with Brent Adamson - Death of a Sales man https://alexanderlow.podbean.com/e/the-death-of-a-sales-man/

Podcast with Jenna Pipchuk - Are you becoming obsolete https://alexanderlow.podbean.com/e/are-you-becoming-obsolete/ 

Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/7-technology-disruptions-that-will-completely-change-sales?utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=SM_GB_YOY_GTR_SOC_SF1_SM-SWG&utm_content=&sf262825364=1

Tom Goodwin LinkedIn Post https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7010598777816240130?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7010598777816240130%29 

 

 

Humans can only do so much with data and decision-making. No matter how good the data is, or the human. 

Therefore are we getting swept along by too much hype and hyperbole in the world of AI? Do we, therefore, need to re-think it?

Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia, believes we do. Daniels's pedigree in this space speaks for itself: Having received a Master's and Doctorate in AI at UCL, Daniel is also UCL's Computer Science Entrepreneur in Residence and a lecturer at LSE's Marshall Institute, focused on using AI to solve business and social problems. Daniel Hulme (PhD) is a leading expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies and is the CEO of Satalia. Satalia is an award-winning company acquired by WPP in 2021 that provides AI products and solutions. Daniel is also the Chief AI Officer for WPP and helps define, identify, curate and promote AI capability and new opportunities for the benefit of the wider group and society.

In this episode, Daniel shares his insight into why both business and society need to re-think AI and what it can, and should do for us, whilst not losing sight of the ethical questions it can create.  

Daniel wants AI to be understood as Cool and not Creepy.

Daniel shares his take on what he believes the 6 categories of AI can be broken down as thus :

Passive Automation

Generative AI

Humanisation of AI

Machine Learning

Complex Decision Making

The Extension of yourself

Daniel breaks down each one before we deep dive into complex decision-making, as this has the most day-to-day application. Daniel shares re-world examples too.  Followed by a blend of generative AI and the Humanisation of AI.

We then end with a discussion on the metaverse, which leads us to Daniel's vision for society and how he is trying to build it. It's mind-blowing.

You can connect with Daniel here https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhulme/ to learn more about how he and his team can help you.

If we look up what the word ecosystem means, we find this from The National Geographic Society: "An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life."

Work together is the key point here. 

How can B2B sales work together, not only internally, but across the ecosystem that supports the "bubble of life" that is the mutual client. 

Enter Cassandra Gholston who wanted to do exactly this, as a field seller, but could not find way to do it at scale and with the right people across her territory. Therefore, Cassandra founded PartnerTap back in 2017. 

Research is saying that "by 2025, nearly ⅓ of total global sales will come from partner ecosystems" and that "60% of business executives say a partner ecosystem is the most effective way to address, and even lead, disruption." This is where technology platforms such as PartnerTap allow your sellers, to connect and collaborate with their alliances or sales partners - this creates a much more compelling offer to market. It also starts to look at how, by partnering through the ecosystem, we can solve for the client total business, not just a particular aspect.

In this episode Cassandra breaks down what this means for B2B sales and the decade of the ecosystem :

We chat about :

Channel vs Alliance vs Co-Sell vs Ecosystem?

Every company is trying to solve one challenge, yet, when speaking clients, we learn about mulitple challenges to to solved.,

Technically, how does this work around the data sharing aspect?

The need for 3rd party validation - we are going to come to the table together to solve the total business challenge for you.

Culturally, behaviourally, what needs to change?

How social selling can support this.

How this creates a much richer solution set, but the modern seller needs to be partner friendly.

How do you sell this internally as well as bring the alliance partner into the fold?

How do you then go to market, together?

And more.

My thanks to Cassandra for her time and insight.

Follow Cassandra on LinkedIn: (1) Cassandra Gholston | LinkedIn

Learn more about PartnerTap : The leading enterprise ecosystem platform | PartnerTap

How are you leveraging your ecosystem?

 

As always, thank you for listening.

 

 

 

 

 

Organisations are grappling with building a culture in a hybrid world, which enables them to achieve their vision, mission statement, purpose etc. For the most part it is focussed on doing right by clients, people & the environment. 

But how?

How is that then embodied across the different business units, where we all have different stakeholders, short term goals and KPIS - and by short term, typically these are 12 month cycles. 

Yet, in sales teams, these can be even shorter cycles, to quarters and even months, driven by revenue. 

Given that the average tenure of a seller is 18months, how does this marry up with the "insert year" vision. 

This got me thinking, does a sales culture matter? 

Thanks to Graham Smith, he introduced me to the brilliant Daniel Strode.

Dan, has recently published "The Culture Advantage - Empowering your people to drive innovation". He also talks about Web3.0, blockchain, Defi and NFT Strategies; he is the Group Director of Culture & Strategy, Global Human Resources at Banco Santander, where he is responsible for embedding The Santander Way, the common corporate culture of Banco Santander across 32 countries and with more than 202,000 colleagues globally.

Therefore, who better, to help answer this question. 

We chat about :

Culture is what you do when no one is looking.

The impact that the right culture can have on sales. And your clients.

The importance of having fun.

Why Lego's story is a lesson for all to learn from.

How you can create innovation by reframing what your clients/customers do.

How to manage the tension created between short term goals and kpi's and the long term needed to build the right culture. 

Why the right leadership behaviour is critical.

Why your people are your most powerful aspect in all of this. 

We end on the future of NFTs, and their role in building client/customer relationships - it's fascinating.

You can follow Dan on LinkedIn Dan Strode | LinkedIn

Learn more at www.danielstrode.com 

Buy his book Daniel Strode – The Culture Advantage 

My thanks to Graham Smith Graham Smith CIPD F.ISP | LinkedIn for the introduction.

Thank you Dan for an enlightening and thought provoking discussion. I hope the tree planting went well!

And, as always, my thanks to you, the listeners, let us know what you think in the comments!

 

If you are a fee earner in professional services, balancing the fee-paying work and your business development activities can be challenging. Some may even say a little daunting. You trained to be an expert in law, accounting or consulting, not necessarily a salesperson. 

Yet, why do some seem able to go out and win businesses and have long-standing client relationships? What is it they do that you are not?

Is what they do even right for today's market?

This is the same question the team at DCM Insights wanted to answer. In partnership with Intapp, they surveyed 1800 partners across Law, Accounting and Consulting to understand what they do regarding business development and client relationship management. 

They also conducted 100 C Suite interviews to understand how and why they buy professional services.

This is also underpinned by the principles unearthed through decades of psychology experiments and anthropology findings applied by sales and marketing experts. 

This gives us "The Rainmaker Genome". 

There are five profiles of Partner and how they go to market :

Expert

Confidant

Activator

Debater

Realist

These are not personality-based but behaviour-based. Of the five profiles, one is predominantly more successful in business development and revenue growth. 

Not only this, these behaviours in how they go to market are teachable.

Listen to one of the founding Partners of DCM Insights and internationally acclaimed Sales Author, Matt Dixon share more on how the research was conducted, what the 5 profiles are and what this means for the future of the modern Rainmaker, as featured in Havard Business Review.

Learn more about DCM Insights and their Activator Development Programme : https://activatordevelopmentsystem.com/

Read the Harvard Business Review article : https://hbr.org/2023/11/what-todays-rainmakers-do-differently 

Follow Matt on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewxdixon/ 

 

Ironic the title of this episode, as you will hear, the audio on my side is not ideal, I did try to clean it up. The key thing is that today's guest Dr Jillian Ney, is crystal clear, and that is what it counts!

Are you listening? I mean really listening?

Social listening is nothing new, the question is should we be looking at it more closely through a sales & marketing lense?

Jillian is a digital anthropologist and the founder of The Social Intelligence Lab (The SI Lab) - a global community for professionals working with social and internet data. She is also the UK’s first “Dr. of Social Media.”  is an advocate of what is more widely known as ‘social listening’ she is on a mission to advance the value of social and internet data more broadly as a source of insight, not just social media. In addition, she promotes the improvement of practices and standards in the analysis of digital conversations, and supports professionals working in this space. She does this through The SI Lab by sharing content, hosting events and providing training. She also supports the growth of the sector via The SI Lab Jobs, and helps people find the right tools and technology through the SI Lab Directory."

In this episode, we cover off :

Jillian sharing her new framework approach :

- Real Time Analysis

- Decision Intelligence

- Insights

Taking an always on approach.

The question is what matters the most.

These are as much data governance discussions.

Breaking the perception of what social media is at a board level.

What can B2B learn from what B2C are doing in this space.

How do you know what behavioural trends to follow.

So much data is, you just need to know, where and how to look.

Attribution.

We cover a lot more too, this is a great listen for anyone who is considering how you might use social listening as part of your go to market.

Connect with Jillian here :(1) Dr Jillian Ney | LinkedIn

The Social Intelligence Lab : Home - The Social Intelligence Lab (thesilab.com)

As always, thank you for listening - (and apologies for my audio sounding like I am under water!)

 

 

 

In an online world, what is intent, and, more importantly, what is the data?  Intent is always a hot topic of debate - just because someone visits your website, downloads something or attends an event, does this mean that person is a "hot lead" and ready to buy?

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Kerry Cunningham from 6sense.  Kerry has lived in this world before intent data was even a thing. His passion lies on helping sales & marketing functions align better, and his approach is :

 

"I rarely accept things in the business world as they are. I tend to see things as they should be and then get to work figuring stuff out. Over the last 5+ years, my focus for has been on driving the buying groups revolution in B2B, helping organizations transform from outmoded, ineffective lead-based demand gen practices to modern, buying team and opportunity-centric processes that unlock next-level performance. I also bring a unique combination of academic and real-world expertise in a variety of disciplines, including demand marketing, ABM, marketing operations, sales prospecting, messaging, organizational design and management, cross-cultural organizational design and change management, employee selection and retention, and performance management. "

 

As you will hear in this episode, Kerry does not hold back, so buckle up sales & marketing :

Hear how Kerry describes how, in the past, the best you can be at lead gen, was truly awful.

Why he realised that we were looking at things the wrong way.

What is intent data?

Is it relevant to B2B?

1st Party Data to 3rd Party Data to Anonymous data - why it all matters.

Leads are also a form of intent, but you are looking at them the wrong way.

A prospect vs someone with personal interest.

Why the way sales & marketing are incentivised goes against the best interest of the business.

What buying signals you should be listening for.

It's the combination of signals that hold the key to unlocking all of this.

And much, much more.

Kerry tackles this head-on, with some hard truths, which, if we are honest with ourselves, we could all be doing better.

He also ends with some practical advice you can start doing today with the marketing data you already have access to, just look at it through a different lense.

Follow Kerry on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrycunningham/

Learn more about what 6sense can do for you and your business https://6sense.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you google "what is RevOps" this is what you find, in the round :

"Revenue operations (RevOps) is the strategic integration of sales, marketing and service departments to provide a better end-to-end view to administration and management, while leaving day-to-day processes within the departments. The holistic approach of revenue ops is designed to break down silos between departments."

It is an idea, business unit or function that has been around in SaaS sales for a number of years. Some might argue that is an evolution of sales enablement, sales operations to what we now have today, revenue operations.

There is a narrative playing out on LinkedIn that Professional Service firms, Lawyers and Accountants, should adopt a rev ops mindset and approach to sales, bd & marketing. 

"But we can't even get people to use CRM, let alone think about how we might integrate all of this, under one budget and business unit that doesn't exits" I hear you think.

Well. just because it would seem we can't, does that mean we shouldn't try?

Today's guest, Ron Latz, and I, got into this debate, more broadly, on LinkedIn about sales and selling more broadly, which was started based on a post about rev ops in law firms, hence here we are, debating this further.

Ron is VP for Sales & Customer Success at Mockingbird Marketing. He describes what he and the team do as :

"My goal is to help growth-minded attorneys and law firms drive more qualified consultations and increase retained clients. Most agencies in the legal marketing arena are wrong or misguided, at best, and have brainwashed the industry to believe that vanity metrics like clicks, calls, and 'leads' are the guiding indictators that will put them on the path to success. At Mockingbird, we show you a very different and much better way. If you want to start accurately measuring your marketing effectiveness, learn how to put systems and processes in place to improve productivity and efficiency, and better serve your clients, come talk with us. Even if we're not aligned to help you reach your goals, I can promise you that you'll look at marketing your practice with a fresh and new perspective. "

 

In this episode we chat through :

Where is the US law firm market around the world of sales and technology?

What is the challenge with adoption?

Does it matter where they are on the growth curve to consider this?

Client expectations are changing.

Are lawyers / accountants even sales people?

What is Rev Ops and is it even relevant to professional services?

What does this mean for BD? Should this be their role?

Professional Services, don't know what they don't about all of this technology, so why should they care?

For those that do have the technology, is it being deployed and used in the way that it was intended?

Do professional services firms need to start thinking like Amazon? or is this just a cliché.

Is the change in mindset just too hard?

What small things can you do today with the technology you already have?

 

If you would like to connect with Ron to learn more about how he and the team can help you with your rev ops strategy, you can find him here on LinkedIn - (5) Ron Latz | LinkedIn 

 

Let us know what you think?

 

Thank you to Ron for his time and insight, and, as ever, thank you for listening. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most people aren't "taught" sales at school, university or college. If you are like me, I fell into and lived and died by the sword. My late Father, David, was in software sales back in the day, and that provided the family with a comfortable lifestyle - hence it was the first job I took after university in London, telesales for a property company. We were never taught in the sense of a curriculum, you learned on the job. Some fell by the way side, others succeeded.

I then moved into recruitment, that (in)famous Alec Baldwin scene from Glenngarry Glen Ross was more or less our training manual. 

Put that coffee down.

Yes of course as the world of sales has matured, there are many disciples of different sales processes that are taught to sales teams - SPIN, TAS, BANT and The Challenger Sale. But these are all taught in flight as it were. 

None of this is taught when we are students. And still isn't, not in the main anyway.

Here is what my guest on this episode wants to change, however with a twist that will resonate with the 21st-century student.

Greg Smith is passionate about "self enablement" and supporting those that are at university/college and entering the workforce. His vision is to enable them to begin their sales coaching journey whilst still learning - and then, more importantly, support their sales learning journey throughout their entire career. 

Greg describes himself as "Sales and Marketing professional with over 10 years experience in Business Development and Sales Enablement within the SaaS industry. Successfully created, designed, marketed and sold the worlds first “sales practice field”. Acknowledged as a thought- leader and frequently invited to speak at industry events such as AA-ISP, Sales 3.0 and Sales Enablement Society. Possess the experience and awareness to identify problems and the prowess and tenacity to work through to a solution."

He is currently Product Manager, Digital Platforms at Imparta, which  "is a global leader in performance improvement for customer-facing teams, including sales and account management, customer success, and customer experience. Imparta's 3D Advantage® methodology is based on more than 20 years of research and experience with leading global organisations. It powers a complete, modular, award-winning curriculum that covers the entire customer Buying Cycle from initial need to renewal, and every role from early tenure to Chief Revenue Officer across a wide range of industries."

From here Greg founded Mixdeck - it's like Spotify for sales training! Home | MixDeck 

In this episode, we chat about all that he is doing and his vision of Mixdeck.

Why Greg created Mixdeck?

How it works.

The reaction that he is getting from the education sector.

What are the challenges faced with sales enablement generally.

What opportunity does this present for employers?

I throw him a curveball around the metaverse, because, why not.

and more.

We need to be talking more about this and how we can, dare I say it, make sales a profession, or even, make sales great again - it is a wonderful profession, it serves me well, and continues to do so. I believe many others in sales would agree.

Greg is on a mission to do just this.

To learn about how Mixdeck can support your sales career, sign up here : Home | MixDeck

If you would like to contribute your content to Mixdeck, pro-bono, get in touch with Greg here : (2) Greg Smith | LinkedIn

As ever, thank you for taking the time to listen.

 

 

 

 

 

"Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in 1940s New York told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is disappointed with his life, and appears to be slipping into senility. The play contains a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It explores the psychological chaos of the protagonist, and the capitalist society's impact on his life. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. It is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century" - wikipedia.

I always thought it apt as a title for the podcast, based on the underlying narrative and perception sales has had through the ages. Fast forward to today, in the modern era of sales and varying iterations, roles, and supporting functions in sales, we find ourselves at a tipping point.

What is the role of sales? If we are to believe the research, the stats range from 44% to 72% of buyers would prefer a salesperson free buying process. 

Note the word, would - none of this research is saying this is happening today, it is, if they could not have a salesperson in the buying process, they would prefer it.

Today's guest is none other than the brilliant Brent Adamson. Brent describes himself as "Researcher, author, presenter, and thinker with a passion for “productive disruption.”

He is the Global Head of Research at Ecosystems. Ecosystems is the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for collaborative customer value management.

Prior to this, Brent forged his career at CEB, now Gartner. He is the co-author of the Challenger Sale & Challenger Customer. 

Brent authored a brilliant piece in HBR titled "Traditional Sales & Marketing are Becoming Obsolete". You can listen to that episode where I chat with Jenna from Smart Technologies about what they have done to ensure it isn't. 

This leads us to this episode.

We could have chatted for hours on this, but we keep it to c. 45mins.

We cover :

What is selling in an ecosystem today and why sales leaders have to start thinking about it.

We take a look back in time to try and understand why we have got to where we are today.

Are we blurring what a sales process is vs what a sales cadence is?

We take a closer look at some of the stats that buyers are saying in that they would prefer a seller-free process.

And what might this mean for both the seller and the buyer?

We consider the statement "Buyer Centric", and ask the question, are we?

We wrap it up where Brent offers some brilliant questions you can ask your clients & prospects as well as start doing something called "Post Sales Discovery".

Brent is a brilliant raconteur and a razor-sharp mind when it comes to all things sales.

Follow Brent on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentadamson/

Learn more about Ecosystems https://ecosystems.us/ and even join their Slack group https://ecosystems.us/customer-value-community/ 

The aforementioned HBR article https://hbr.org/2022/02/traditional-b2b-sales-and-marketing-are-becoming-obsolete 

As ever, thank you for tuning in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the 100th Episode of this podcast. And what a guest we have for this one.

I met Neil Mullarkey on a coaching course called "Enrich your Pitch" where Neil took us through how one can use the art of improvisation in a business context.

Let's be honest, things don't always go as we plan and prospects and clients can throw you a curve ball from time to time - the key is how you handle that in real-time. 

Neil's pedigree speaks for itself, just look at his Wikipedia page :

"In the mid-1980s, he teamed up with Mike Myers as 'Mullarkey and Myers'. They would perform sketches based on their shared love of cartoons, B-movies and bad TV. They played around the burgeoning London pub circuit, particularly at the George IV in Chiswick, where they often shared the bill with the young Hugh Grant, then plying his trade in the Jockeys of Norfolk revue. As their fame increased, Mullarkey and Myers toured the UK, ending in a sold-out season at the Edinburgh Festival.

The two appeared as 'The Sound Asleep Club' on TV-am's 'Wide Awake Club', a children's TV show hosted at the time by Tommy Boyd. Mike eventually returned to Toronto, but Mullarkey would briefly join him to revive 'Mullarkey and Myers' in Canada. Later still, he appeared in Myers' début in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, as the Customs Officer who freaks Austin out with his Swedish-made penis pump. (He also appeared again in Goldmember and helped Mike Myers with uncredited rewrites of So I Married An Axe Murderer."

That's just the intro.

He has performed with Eddie Izzard, and Dawn French to name but a few comedic greats.

As a founding member of The Comedy Store Players, he is regularly performing on the UK comedy circuit.

In this episode, Neil takes us through his 5 step framework on how to use improvisation skills in a business context. 

That's all you're getting.

Tune in to and put this into practice.

Learn more about how Neil here :

https://neilmullarkey.com/

Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmullarkey/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/NeilMullarkey

For UK folk and anyone visiting who wants to see improv in action: https://comedystoreplayers.com/

As always, my heartfelt thanks to all of my guests for agreeing to be on this show, and you, my listeners - without which this would be for nothing!

 

 

 

I spent 7 years in out and out sales roles, before making the move into Professional Services Business Development, joining PwC in Jan 2009. This launched my career to where I am today - along this journey, I have met some incredibly talented BD professionals.

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Dominic de Mariveles. I met Dominic when I joined Berwin Leighton Paisner as was, now BCLP, in Oct 2011. 

The approach Dominic takes to driving a BD culture in both his teams and the fee earners is a pragmatic yet robust one.

He not only believes but has proved, with a straightforward, no-frills approach to BD, that you can achieve double-digit revenue growth in 5 years.

We discuss :

What is Business Development in a Professional Services capacity?

Where has it got to today?

Why do we believe it is so varied in how it is executed?

Why is Professional Services "sales" so different to Corporate "sales". Or is it?

If we were to start a new BD function today, what would that look like?

The challenges for both small and large firms.

Do we have the right skills for where we need to be in 5 years?

How technology focussed should we be?

Why this has to be led from the top - if not, you will fail.

Be bold and brave.

I always learn something new when I speak to Dominic, and no doubt so will you.

If you believe Dominic can help you and you want to learn more - connect with him on LinkedIn, be sure to mention this podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicdemariveles/

 

As ever, my continued thanks to all of my guests, and you, our listeners. 

 

 

 

How would you feel about being coached by an AI-powered avatar?

That's precisely the world we now find ourselves in, and this is the topic of this episode.

I chat with Russell Zack, Head of Revenue at www.secondnature.ai, which describes itself as "Scale up your sales coaching with bite-sized, realistic, AI-driven role plays, immediate feedback, scoring and an amazing experience."

Oh, and there is Jenny, or whomever you want.

I was intrigued by how this all worked, and Russell kindly gave up his time to share how it all worked.

We chat all things such as :

The rise of AI in Sales and how the next generation of employees is much more comfortable, if not expecting this enablement. 

Is this different from all the fitness apps where you have a "coach" to train you?

Why it is important to have a robust sales strategy to overlay your sales coaching - whether it is in person, virtual or through an AI coach.

Data, Data and more data.

Real-time learning and feedback - how this helps scale your sales and enablement at pace.

Russell's own experience of being onboarded by Jenny.

This technology gives sales enablement the ability to create different sales scenarios - which is always on. 

How this can remove conscious and unconscious bias, HOWEVER, keep an eye on the base data, you are using.

I put Russell on the spot, and we look into the crystal ball - is there a possibility that you can turn this software into client-facing a role?

I believe this is the start of creating a new market in the world of sales enablement and supporting roles. It is not about replacing people but augmenting them. 

Thank you to Russell for sharing his time and insight; it's a brave new world. 

Follow Russell here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellzack/ 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Party Like it's 1999.

This is when my guest Rick Hawkins started out his career in data science, or as it was called back in the day - BI, Business Intelligence.

Rick very kindly allowed me to interrupt his career break and be a guest on this episode, where we chat all things data. His career speaks for itself, having been on both the sell-side and buy-side of data science, business intelligence, graphing or wrangling. His profile reads :

"Data Leader and Chief Data Officer with vision, drive and extensive experience building transformational data capabilities. Most recently established a global data management capability and bespoke tooling from zero base at a leading bank. Passionate about data-led innovation, actively involved in setting cloud and data strategies at the CxO level and improving data literacy. Previously developed data practices and built cross-industry Data Management tools for several professional services organisations. Active participant in industry-wide consortiums shaping data regulation with the FCA and Bank of England and regular presenter at data conferences, including FIMA and CDAO"

His most most recent position was Chief Data Officer, Global Risk & Finance at global banking institution.

Whom better to get on and share his views on all things data and Formula 1.

The questions I pose are :

What is data in a business context?

Why is it taking so long to get right? 

We chat about a blog from 2017 about Marketing teams needing a data scientist(s); therefore, I ask, what is a Data Scientist?

How can sales & marketing teams learn from other business units wrangling data?

The ethics and debate of data privacy vs I want you to "know" me - this is a podcast in its own right.

The role of automation and ai vs Humans.

The Future.

Rick is a brilliant raconteur and uses clever analogies to simplify a complex topic - the Sat Nav one is brilliant, and I want salespeople especially to listen to this. And Birthdays.

We end with this question - Will Ferrari and Leclerc win the 2022 championship - and what an answer!

Thank you so much to Rick for giving up his time when he should be taking time off. 

Follow him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickarus/

 

Or, to be precise, Brent Adamson believes that "Traditional Sales & Marketing are becoming Obsolete"

Brent was the co-author of the Challenger Sales & Challenger Customer process. He authored an article on HBR with the aforementioned title. This leads us to my wonderful guest, Jenna Pipchuk, Chief Sales Officer & EVP Global Sales at SMART Technologies.

I read Jenna's story about how she and her colleague, Jeff Lowe, Chief Marketing Officer, ripped up the rule and redesigned from the ground up, how their sales & marketing functions worked together.

All of this with the global pandemic looming ahead of them.

Out of this was born the "Unified Commercial Engine" or UCE.

Could this be the new model for B2B sales?

We discuss :

The prevailing narrative of the rise of the millennial buyer and their buying preferences in the digital age.

How do you respond to this changing landscape?

When Jenna and Jeff both sat down at the start of this programme of change, they had no idea where they would end up.

How did they get buy-in from leadership? Clue, they didn't.

What was the process to dismantle their sales & marketing cycle, piece by piece?

How it was rebuilt around their customer's buying journey.

What is the complete customer infinity loop?

What do circles and squares have to do with all of this?

What does the organisational skill set of the future look like?

You don't pass the baton anymore, you are on journey together.

What is the secret sauce of the UCE?

and much, much more, including the results this is now yielding for them 2 years in.

If you are really serious about how you can, not only give your clients and prospects a better buying experience, while at the same equipping your teams for the future, this podcast is for you.

You can follow Jenna on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpipchuk/

This is the HBR article I reference - https://hbr.org/2022/02/traditional-b2b-sales-and-marketing-are-becoming-obsolete

Thank you to Jenna for giving up her time to share her story with me and more importantly, all of you. 

If you didn't believe it could be done, well, Jenna, Jeff and the team at SMART Technologies have shown us the way.

 

 

 

 

Between 40% and 60% of deals are lost due to clients or prospects making no decision.

So, how do you get them to make a decision?

One way or the other?

You need to JOLT them into one.

In this episode, I am joined by Ted McKenna, co-author of The JOLT Effect and co-founding Partner of DCMinsights.

Ted McKenna is an accomplished sales and customer experience researcher whose work has appeared in the pages of Harvard Business Review. He is a founding partner of DCM Insights, a customer understanding lab focused on using data and research-backed frameworks to help companies attract, engage, retain, and grow customer relationships. Prior to co-founding DCMi, Ted held numerous executive leadership positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds, and CEB (now, a part of Gartner).

We break down what The JOLT Effect is.

The book is based on a large-scale study of millions of sales conversations that revealed the key difference between high-performing and average-performing sales reps: the ability to address the customer’s fear of failure. The book explains why customers often hesitate to buy even when they have a clear intent and how sales reps can use a technique called JOLT - Judging the indecision, Offer your recommendation, Limiting the exploration, Take risk off the table - to create a sense of urgency and confidence in the customer’s decision.

Tune in to learn how you can unlock buyer indecision. 

You can learn more here >>> https://www.jolteffect.com/ 

Follow Ted on LinkedIn >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-mckenna/ 

 

 

 

"We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom."

I was raised on Pink Floyd, one of my late Father's favourite bands. 

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Ash Roots, who at the time of recording was between roles, but now is the Chief Digital Officer at The University of Exeter. Where I spent 4 brilliant years studying French & Spanish, with my 3rd year in the wonderful city of Valencia. 

In this episode, we talk about all things digital and transformation. We move between the corporate world and higher education.

We chat about all things including :

Cereal Boxes

Ash's journey through the internet, having completed one of the first degrees on the web. 

No-one yet can predict the future, as far as we are aware.

Don't judge until it has happened or at least been tried.

Look at the trends.

What can we learn from teaching our parents how to use the VHS.

The Boss is the person who uses your product or service, not your boss.

We all get in the way.

How do you recognise if getting in the way is having a positive or negative impact.

Why you need to put the problem in the middle.

Co-creation vs Collaboration.

How the person sweeping the floor helped land the first mission on the moon.

The principles of value and effort, in making a sandwich. 

Can you capitalise on discomfort when we don't know the answer.

and more. 

Ash has a brilliant way of breaking down complex thinking into easy-to-digest and actionable ideas. I particularly loved our bit on co-creation vs collaboration, as this reset my thinking for sure. 

I also love the fact Ash is taking his experience into higher education, especially where I studied.

You can follow Ash on LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok, yes TikTok.

LinkedIn - (5) Ash Roots | LinkedIn

Twitter - ash roots (@ashroots) / Twitter

TikTok - Ash (@ashjtroots) TikTok | Watch Ash's Newest TikTok Videos

If you choose to connect with Ash, be sure to mention this podcast. If you are a student at Exeter University, please do connect with Ash and myself also. 

Ash, thank you for your time, this is a brilliant episode.

Welcome to another episode of my podcast.

Today we take a slightly different tack, but one that is close to my heart, having spent 5 years as an independent management consultant.

We are all aware of the narrative that is playing out around the "Great Resignation" and "The Great Re-Shuffle" as we all assess our working lives and what this means in how, where and whom we work for. 

My guest today wants to re-imagine how Independent Consultants, collaborate and co-create with each other, and how how they can access the market for work opportunities.

Rollo Crichton-Stuart is the founder of https://www.mychoix.com/  - pronounced "choice" - you will hear the amusing story that led him to this name - not quite the Shoe Dog and Nike swoosh story, but similar.

Whilst this episode leans toward those who are in the professional services marketplace, the vision Rollo and his team have is that this is relevant for all independent consultants who are able to advise across a myriad of subject matter expertise.

Rollo shares his story which led him to build Choix and why.

His experience of serving in the British Army, and challenging the status quo.

This led him into the City,

working in a fund management business,

to leading a transformation project for a global search firm,

to working in PR,

then startup world, to where we are today.

Choix describes itself as :

  "Redefining Consultancy

Connecting buyers and sellers of professional services have never been so streamlined. At Choix we have built a secure platform that helps consultants and businesses meet, benefiting the entire industry."

For those of us in this market, we are all to aware of the huge demand for talent, and this is where Choix comes in - this is not a recruitment play, but being a marketplace to connect the best independent talent out in the market, with clients who need the flexibility on "the bench".

However, it goes further, in that this is how Rollo and the team are building a community - we are seeing the rise of the "Chief Community Officer" role, and Choix is tapping into the burgeoning market and way of thinking.

Not only this, Rollo is passionate about how Choix can bring those that have taken career breaks, for whatever reason, back into the market in a way that suits their lifestyles, and gives access to brilliant talent for businesses.

We also get paid a visit by a gentleman in a hi-vis jacket on a scaffolding. Which is a first for me on a podcast recording.

I for one know that if Choix had been available when I started my journey as an Independent, I would have wanted to be part of this community. 

Thank you to Rollo for sharing his story and vision, and challenging the status quo.

To learn more, go to www.mychoix.com

Connect with Rollo on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rollo-crichton-stuart-95a07b2/ 

especially if you are interested in joining the team, as you will hear toward the end, he is hiring. 

As always, thank you to my listeners, and, if you believe your networks will find this podcast insightful, please do share!

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by the CEO & Founder of www.upcontent.com - Scott Rogerson.

This is what UpContent does "UpContent is a leading intelligent content discovery technology that helps you drive new, more meaningful conversations with your audience. Quickly find, sort, read, and interact with the news and blog articles that meet your brand’s exacting standards–all while collaborating with your team to identify and leverage the right content, in the right channel, at the right time."

Therefore, I felt that Scott is probably one of the most qualified people to answer this question. I am also glad that it has taken us, probably the longest out of all of my guests, so far, to arrange to have him on the show - entirely my fault - as so much has happened in this space, including the Metaverse, yes we go there, that it gives us so much more to talk about.

So, take a seat at the table as Scott deconstructs, like a Michelin star chef, is content still king? 

-How to build effective relationships through content.

-Curation vs Creation vs Context

-How to provide information to your buyer so they can make an unbiased decision. In your favour.

-What works in how you leverage 3rd party content vs what does not.

-Metrics, what to measure, internal vs external.

-When to measure results, and how.

-What the percentage split should be in your type of content.

-The scourge of "artificial" lifestyle content or "Bragadocious" content and why this damaging your personal brand.

-We do flirt with the Metaverse.

-Scott leaves an easter egg.

-AND

-He does answer the question "Is content still king?"

Thank you to Scott for his time and energy on this episode. 

Thank you to Kate Bradley Chernis of www.lately.ai for connecting us in the first place.

Thank you to my listeners, what do you think, is content still king?

Follow Scott here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottarogerson/

Learn more about UpContent here - www.upcontent.com 

 

"Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the close of the Middle Ages and rise of the Modern world" - Wikipedia.

Could the same be said for Marketing and Business Development in the Legal sector - or even more broadly?

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Dominic Ayres, who, through lockdown, decided to put pen to paper on "what would he would advise his younger self about navigating a marketing career in a Law firm."

Not an easy question to answer. 

Dominic is the International Senior Client, Marketing and Strategy Manager at Eversheds Sutherland law firm.

If you have never worked in a Law firm, or professional services firm, it is hard to explain the nuances and subtleties that you need to be able to adapt to. You are not working for one business, you could potentially be working for 10, 50, 100 individual businesses. Each with their own "CEO" and team supporting team. 

This requires a fair amount of stakeholder management, up, down, sideways and more. 

Therefore, in Dominic's own words, I have lifted this from his introduction to his book he posted on LinkedIn :

Make 2022 the year you "Be More Purposeful and Strategic with Your Career Direction". Getting ahead requires you to think strategically, embody specific values to help you stand out among your peers, and successfully navigate and build relationships with internal stakeholders. ‘How to Advance Your Career in Professional Services Marketing’ takes a deep inside look into how to go from a junior role to a senior role within the world of professional services marketing. Previously, if one wanted to learn how to advance their career within the industry in marketing and career management, they would have to learn on the job, read multiple books and combine the information of their own volition. This book takes two topics and combines them in a way that is easily digestible and applicable to wherever you’re at within your career. In addition to my own experience and guidance, I have sought out some of the best minds from across the industry worldwide to share their guidance and case studies on how they have developed their career and their key recommendations for you to follow. These professionals hold senior, director and CMO positions at some of the largest professional services firms such as the Big4, AM100, Magic Circle and other leading firms. If you are looking to become more intentional about your career development and excel in your career trajectory, this is the book for you. This book acts as a resource and tool guide to help you progress at each stage in your career to obtain promotions, raises, and become the verified expert within your organization. "

Wow, right?

In this episode, we debate our own, very different journey - Dominic from a Marketing angle, me, from a Business Development perspective. 

I ask :

Has the status quo really changed?

Will Legal go back to type as we return to some form of "normal" (and based on what I am hearing in the back channels, it would seem so for some firms).

Are we just moving the chess pieces around the market in BD & Marketing, or is there a genuine desire to bring expertise and knowledge from outside of Legal and Pro Servs?

How will Legal attract new talent as well as nurture what they have?

Is there a desire within our own community to want to learn what the new world order of Martech and Salestech, let alone AI might mean and how will Legal firms adopt this for their Client Development?

Is it the responsibility of leadership or the broader team to take ownership of this?

It's fair to say, we get stuck in on this podcast and could have discussed a lot more.

Chapeau to Dominic for doing this, it has been a while coming and is much a much-needed topic of debate in this sector.

And of course, as Dominic says "When you’re ready to get serious about your career trajectory, pick up a copy and get started on your future today." Available from today on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback - http://ow.ly/hOxF50HBatY

Follow Dominic here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicaayres/

As ever, thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you believe your network would find it helpful hear this podcast and get the book, please do share it.

If you are not subscribed, hit that subscribe button!

As ever, my thanks to Dominic and my listeners.

Alex

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Andy Culligan.

Andy describes himself as :

"Fractional CMO, dipping the toe in CRO water. Salesperson stuck in a marketer's body." who talks about #sdrs, #tech, #sales, #martech, and #marketing.   I have known Andy for a while now, and he has been kind enough to have me a guest on a few of his webinars, hence it is a pleasure to finally pin him down to be a guest on the show.   The disconnect between Sales & Marketing functions is well documented and is now, more then ever, critical that we address it.    The question is how?   This where Andy comes in. Andy has been there and done it as a CMO across B2C and B2B, both in the high volume game as well as large enterprise, in SaaS Tech world.   We cover off Andy's career, and how this experience has shaped his thinking in the role of marketing and how it needs to work with Sales.   As you will hear, we have debate around what this relationship be, who serves who?   Andy is very honest in how he understood lead generation in the early part of his marketing career, or dare I say it - didn't understand.   Building on this, he shares what he did about this and how.    We discuss what the role of marketing should be tomorrow versus what it has been.   Andy shares his views on what data and metrics marketing teams should, and shouldn't measure - which is illuminating, to say the least.    Andy is honest about the mistakes he made in the past and what we can learn from those.   We could have talked way beyond the 50 mins on this one, but for the first time ever, I have messed up my diary management - there is always a first. We end somewhat more abruptly than I normally would - sorry Andy!   This is a brilliant listen, thank you to Andy.   You can follow him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-culligan/   As well as learn more about how he can help your business as at : www.andyculligan.com    As always, thank you for taking the time to listen.   If you are not already subscribed, please do and if you feel your network would benefit from listening to this, please do share with your network.

"To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question."

With 436 million reported people you can reach on Twitter, should you be on it or not?

Well much like any social media platform you need to consider who your audience is and then do the research as to where they hang out, and it could well be Twitter.

Samantha Kelly, aka @Tweetinggoddess believes the Twitterverse can be a brilliant platform to connect and build a community with like-minded people. Her bio reads as follows :

Twitter Expert. Sprinkler of #Twittermagic Chief Community Officer @wedo_hq Nice people collector! Director @WomensinspireIE,Ted X Speaker.

Friend of Bill W.

Samantha joined Twitter in June 2011 and hasn't looked back, she even has the coveted blue verification tick and 64k, active and engaged, followers.

In this episode, we cover off questions such as :

How is Twitter different from other social media platforms? 

B2C vs B2B?

How do you know if your audience is on there?

How do you engage on Twitter compared to LinkedIn?

Twitter has had a bad press in the past when it comes to politics, amongst other things, what impact does this have in a business context?

How might you use Twitter to engage with your audience? And in what context?

Do you build a personal brand on Twitter in the same way you might do in LinkedIn?

Can you cross purpose content between social media platforms?

Should you use scheduling tools?

New(ish) features such as Spaces, Communities and newsletters.

and more.

If you are unsure about whether Twitter is the right place for you, then this is where you need to be, let Samantha be your guide.

You can of course follow Samantha on, well, Twitter https://twitter.com/Tweetinggoddess

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tweetinggoddess/

The Women's Inspire Network: https://www.womensinspirenetwork.com/

Wedo: https://getwedo.today/ "Kickstart your online business with Wedo: create live video and audio alleys, share content, automate invoices, take payments and send and receive money completely hassle-free. Become a Wedo beta member today!"

As ever, thank you for tuning in, let us know what you think in the comments, if you follow/connect with Samantha, be sure to mention the podcast!

 

 

 

 

Just me on this podcast.

As I reflect on what has been the last year for me and beyond, I try to give some of my thoughts on where sales is, and, is possibly going.

It will be fair to say this one meanders off-piste at times, however, for me, the underlying theme is around how can we begin to look at the overall influence we have in our business networks and relationships?

What impact, if any, could this have on cold-calling, email outbound and social selling?

Who are we to say what works and doesn't work, when fundamentally it's your intended audience that dictates this, back up by deals closed/won.

What technology platforms exist, if any that can "score" a business relationship or "influence".

How might "influence" become broader than just sales within an organisation?

What might influence mean for Gen Z & Gen Alpha when their offline and online "personal brands" are so intertwined. 

How do you engage with an audience when they don't use the phone as a primary communication tool?

Fundamentally, it all comes back to the three things which are the title of this podcast, Sales, Relationships and Influence.

This for me is where we are heading, it's a question of how do we harness it?

As mentioned, this one does meander a little as my train of thought develops, but I wanted to sit down and just start talking.

Thank you for listening and your continued support on this podcast, I really do appreciate it.

Find me over here - https://linktr.ee/alexanderlow

 

 

 

The metaverse is coming. One way or the other it will be part of our daily routine. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but, in 10 years time, most definitely. 

How will we get there? Some say we are already there in the world of gaming.

In this episode, I am joined by Aragorn Meulendijks of Beemup and Your Open Metaverse. His headline on LinkedIn reads as thus :

"Let’s 𝘨𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦. A decentralized World, built in #UnrealEngine on top of a #Blockchain called #YourOpenMetaverse! "

Aragorn takes me and hopefully you on a journey through what was, is and will be the metaverse.

He explains why NFTs and the Metaverse seem to be intrinsicly linked in the media.

Could you NFT your house?

He uses a wonderful metpahor to explain how the metaverse of tomorrow will be different from what we see today. Fundamentally, how you will "own" your digital self and what this means and why.

We chat about where there are real world examples of the metaverse being used by both consumer business and b2b business.

What will be the bridge between reality and the metaverse?

If you want a straight forward explanation of what the Metaverse is and what it can mean for you, this is well worth a listen.

You can follow Aragorn on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/aragornmeulendijks/

Learn more about Beemup :

https://beemup.com/

Learn more about Your Open Metaverse:

https://www.yom.community/

Learn more about Unreal Engine: 

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/

As ever, thank you for listening and let us know what you think of the metaverse in the comments!

 

 

 

Do you know what your organisation's commitments are to getting to net-zero?

Do you understand how green your supply chain is that creates your product or service?

When selling your product or service, do you care?

Do your clients care?

If we are honest with ourselves, we are all guilty of "greenwashing" our sales.

However, that doesn't mean we have to carry on this way.

In this episode, I am joined by Andrew Gomarsall MBE.

For any England Rugby fan (of a certain age), he needs no introduction. For those that are not Rugby fans, or maybe are of a certain age, he describes himself as :

"I am a retired professional England rugby union player, having played the game I love since I was 6 years old, & going on to playing professionally for 16 years, winning the World Cup in 2003, & playing in the final of RWC 2007. Awarded an MBE for services to rugby in 2004."

Andrew is now the Executive Chairman of NS2, where sustainability is at the heart of what they do. He also recently spoke at COP26.

I heard Andrew speak at a dinner, hosted by Durham Lane, where we were debating how important is ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) as part of the sales process.

This leads us to this podcast, where I wanted to explore this further.

Andrew doesn't hold back in his views on where this is fundamentally broken in sales, and business more broadly.

However, we also discuss what YOU can start doing today. 

Andrew believes this starts with how you market your product service, even if you are not confident in making this part of your sales pitch.

Create awareness around what your business and the supply chain of your business are doing to get to Net-Zero. 

What does Scope 1, 2 & most importantly 3 mean to you? And your clients. 

Don't know what these are (I didn't) - go and learn.

As you will hear, this is not about what has gone by. It is about what we can all start doing today. No single business is perfect, even though some may suggest they are more so than others...

If you truly care about this, what the business you are working for is doing about it, and, most importantly how this can differentiate yourself in the world of sales, spend 40mins listening.

There may be an England rugby shirt on offer too.

You can follow Andrew on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgomarsall/

Twitter (yes that is a picture of him with Muhammed Ali)

https://twitter.com/AndyGomarsall

and his business

https://www.linkedin.com/company/network-2-supplies-ltd/

As ever, thank you for listening, don't forget to subscribe and share with your network.

In this episode, I am joined by the one and only Wes "The Meep" Pennock.

 

Wes made the move into sales in 2019 having started out his career as a programmer. He now helps CEOs of startups build and scale their top of the funnel, lead generation. This is outbound, primarily focusing on email copy and sequences.

 

One might say that Wes could be the future model of what one part of your outbound team would look like, from a skillset perspective.

 

I have been fortunate enough to get to know Wes during the last 18 months or so, primarily through WhatsApp and Discord. He has a unique perspective on sales, especially coming from a technical programming background. 

 

Listen in as our conversation twists & turns where we debate :

Has sales technology become too technical for sellers?

Does this mean we need to focus more on sellers coming from a technical background?

or

Is this the fault of Sales Enablement/Rev Ops even the solution providers themselves?

Will we see the return of the full cycle rep? We have differing views on this.

Have we become too reliant on automation, and what does this mean for the next generation of seller?

Sit back and listen, to what at times may seem a little left field, however I believe we really need to start challenging the status quo in sales, and Wes is a good place to start.

 

To learn about how Wes can help you and your business increase top of funnel metrics, connect with him on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8D%97-wesley-pennock-a52845220/

 

As always, thank you for listening.

 

 

 

We have all been there - you receive an email from your manager or a firmwide message. It doesn't quite land well with you, and you feel all sorts of things. 

The message from a colleague which is sent late at night for an ask.

The constant pings and notifications.

Whilst all the intentions behind the communications may well be meant well, sometimes, for the recipient, they are misinterpreted. Which can lead to all sorts. 

In this episode, Jacqui Hanbury, founder of The Pathway Communication Company, joins me.

Jacqui trained as an engineer before moving into sales, then product marketing, becoming a qualified communications coach before setting up her own business. 

Jacqui helps us understand how to communicate effectively in your organisation.

We discuss :

How to position what you are communicating.

Top-down messaging.

Managing up.

Communicating as a team.

The different channels.

The importance of letting people "vent".

How to manage difficult conversations.

How to make sure everyone is heard.

 

A lot of what we discuss will seem like common sense, fundamentally treating each other as humans and with respect.  Yet, we are sometimes guilty of forgetting this - even if it is not intentional.

Thank you, Jacqui, for your time on this episode.

Connect with Jacqui on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-hanbury/

Learn more about how Jacqui can help you and your business :

https://pathwaycc.co.uk/

 

 

 

The eternal question on LinkedIn, about LinkedIn and the algorithm. 

Can you beat it?

Well, the person with the answer is the brilliant Richard van der Blom.

He and his team have released the 3rd iteration of their research on the algorithm. 

To give you the dos and the do nots. 

In this episode, Richard gives an overview of the notable changes.

We get into the " what makes a good LinkedIn post "

Should you put the link in the first comment?

Hasthtags.

Dwell Time.

Carousel content.

Polls.

And more.

If you want to understand how you can get LinkedIn to work with you rather than against you, then listen to this podcast.

Follow Richard here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardvanderblom/

His full report and research can be found here : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6848141573990051840/

As ever, thank you for taking the time to listen, please do share this podcast with your network.

 

 

 

CRM. The mere mention of the word usually brings horror and groans of, do we have to.

Associated with being a management tool to run pointless reports about activity, or lack of by the seller. Contact data that is wrong and out of date, or none whatsoever.

I ran a poll on LinkedIn which led to a response from one person that CRM does not help towards revenue generation, they are after the fact and, as far as they were concerned, an utter waste of time. 

It is still running and the majority of the votes said adoption was the biggest issue in their view. 

I have always defended CRM systems. When people tell me they are a waste of time. They are if you are not thinking about what sort of MI and data you want out of them to help you move a client relationship forward, understand the current state of play and more.

I believe they do contribute towards revenue generation and are having a renaissance in how they are now being deployed and adopted.

I would like to welcome Matt Woodford from Microsoft. Matt is the Portfolio Lead, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, Western Europe. He has been on the Dynamics 365 side of things since 2014. So he knows a bit about CRM and the marketplace.

In this episode we cover off :

Why does CRM get such bad press?

How has CRM evolved?

With all this other technology we have to choose from such in the sales tech landscape, is CRM still relevant?

Matt gives us insight into the vision Microsoft has and the role Dynamics 365 plays in their entire ecosystem.

We chat about the Cloud, Automation & AI

Where is it all going?

Thank you to Matt for being so candid, whilst this is through a Microsoft lense, all that he says translates to CRMs in general, albeit some may not have as much capability as Dynamics 365, or the power of Azure, the fundamentals in my opinion remain true.

Follow Matt here https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewwoodford/

Learn more about Dynamics 365 and Digital Selling here https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-gb/sales/overview/

 

As ever, thank you for taking the time to tune in and listen, please feel free to share with your networks.

If you would like to be a guest, find me on LinkedIn and send me a message. If there is someone you would like to recommend, do the same thing.

Until next time.

 

 

Indeed, what is it - This phrase, in fact, put most words in front of Transformation have been talked about for aeons. 

Now businesses have been forced into action, or they say they are.

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Chris Hood. Chris is Business Innovation and Strategy at Google Cloud, as well as the host of the That Digital Show podcast. 

Chris' foray into sales, started out as "What once started as selling popcorn in a local movie theater and a film student, I found my love for cinema. This included receiving multiple industry awards for theatre marketing campaigns, including the National Association of Theater Owners coveted customer service award and Hollywood Reporter's grand prize showmanship award three years in a row for Jurassic Park (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and Apollo 13 (1995)."

He then came to a crossroads, produce movies or stay in sales. He chose the latter, which then led him to more of a technology play, as you will hear. And boy am I glad he did, as, over the next 45 mins, you will hear it straight. 

We tackle, well, I say we, I ask Chris some questions and he drops some brilliant insight on :

What is Transformation in the round?

What is Digital Transformation?

How does this play into Sales Transformation?

Why Sales Transformation doesn't even get off the ground. Even though everyone is talking about it.

Everyone you serve is a Customer. And why Blockbuster got it wrong (and it's not what you think).

Creating digital experiences.

Why B2B needs to start focussing on its sales & marketing data. 

How AI can play its part.

And yes, how and why B2B should strive to behave like a B2C. 

We end on, you're not selling a technology solution to the CTO (or any other job title for that matter). And why.

Huge thanks to Chris for his time and insight. You can learn more about his thinking and podcast here www.chrishood.com

Follow Chris here on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishood/

Follow Chris here on Twitter https://twitter.com/ChrisHood1

And, if you were triggered by his comments about sales processes, well, he gave you his email, so you know what to do. 

As ever, my thanks to you, my listeners.

You can find me all over social - https://linktr.ee/alexanderlow

 

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Chris Allen AKA Chief of Sales and Memes. Yes, memes. 

If you don't know what a meme is :

1 - an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.

2 - an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.   So, there you have it. How then does one become a Chief of Memes, and how, or why would it be relevant in B2B sales, especially on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not Facebook, I hear your inner voice saying.    I have followed Chris on LinkedIn for what felt like forever. We connected back in Feb 2018. Chris caught my attention by his Yellow Hat in his LinkedIn profile; more importantly how he has cleverly and subtly built his personal brand around this.    Chris is certainly pushing the boundaries on LinkedIn on how he is bringing, what one might describe as, the sub-culture of Memes onto LinkedIn. He was certainly an early adopter of this, which 18 plus months ago, was a risky strategy; the risk of the ire of the "Facebook" police on LinkedIn, as well as the employer brand.   In this episode, Chris shares his journey into sales from an IT / Technical background.   How he does not shy away from his passion of Gaming, and how he brings some of this into his B2B sales play on LinkedIn and social.    Breaks down his first post on LinkedIn that generated his first sale, and how from here, this led him to where he is today.    We chat about the balance of creating a personal brand under the corporate banner of the company you work for.  What comes first, your brand or the company? As you will hear, Chris has a robust view on this.   He admits that he has pushed the boundaries too far on the odd occasion.    I challenge Chris on how some of his audience reacts to his content, especially his buyers.   Chris flips this to how he also leverages his sales audience as a proxy to his intended audience.   We debate the evolution of content on LinkedIn and how this has transformed during the last 18months and what the future may hold - I unfairly put Chris on the spot on this one!   Whilst I recognise that Chris' approach is not for everyone, and nor should it be. Chris is an example of what can be achieved with humour, thought and intention.    Follow Chris and his story - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisallen-chief-of-memes/   Learn more about Licenseware - https://www.linkedin.com/company/licenseware/   As ever, thank you to Chris for his time and insight.   Thank you to you, my audience for your continued support, if you would like to be a guest, or if you know anyone who you think would be a great guest, feel free to reach out to me.     

In this week's episode, I am joined by Jakob. He is 18.

Jakob connected with me over the summer on LinkedIn. I was intrigued as to why an 18-year-old would want to connect, hence, before accepting, I asked him.

He said he had found my videos on YouTube useful in helping him build out his LinkedIn profile, and he wanted to connect. I also learned that he hosted his own podcast, which I have been on. 

I am not one for labelling profiles, as in my experience they do not hold true, however, Jakob is a Gen Z, therefore is growing up in a very different world to the one I did. I was interested to explore this further.

We talk about the impact the last 18 months or so has had on him and his peers.

What he and his friend did with their newly found spare time in early 2020? Which he described as, what any teenager with time on their hands would do, which is set up an Amazon FBA business. Very different to what I did, or could do as a teenager with time on their hands. 

We chat about the importance of exams, grades, the impact this has had on some of his peer's mental health - with this "perceived" pressure that it is all about the grades to succeed in life - any Gary Vee fans out there will know his view on this.

Jakob talks about how social media is almost a 24/7 thing for his generation. I talk about the potential impact this has on being able to network in person, how this might impact any roles in a business where day to day conversation is required, especially in a sales role. 

Jakob shares why he decided to defer University for a year, turn down an apprenticeship offer from a major firm and join a tech business.  He also talks about how he got the role, and didn't need a CV to do this - and why he believes CVs are a somewhat antiquated way to gauge someone's ability. 

I ask him about the expectations from an employer and their use of technology in the workplace as well as allowing employees to have a voice on social media. I challenge the social media side of things, to look at the perspective that we now seem to be in a world where everything has to be documented online, and the potential impact this could have on an employer brand, and ones career opportunity. 

I hope you enjoy this one, I felt we only scratched the surface, however, it's great to see such confidence and get up and go with Jakob. If there are more like him, both young Men & Women, we are going to be in good hands.

Connect with Jakob here https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakobheptinstall/

Subscribe to his podcast here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNkpW9V6gAWkNiuAeNGUVwA

 

As ever, thank you for listening, please do subscribe and share with your network!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shane Mahi, CEO & Co-Founder of SalesDRIIVN believes so.

In this episode, we break down what was wrong with the antiquated outsourced models and how Shane, along with this co-founder Antoine saw what they thought was a gap in the market.

Shane started his business in March 2020, and they now have won a number of clients whom they work with. 

As you learn, this goes beyond the assumed, just setting appointments.

Shane and the team at SalesDRIIVN support their clients across 4 aspects of pipeline creation, or Hyper-Growth as they call it :

Business Intelligence : Make better business decisions with real actionable intelligence.

Human Intelligence :

Leading specialists in the creation of opportunities.

Artificial Intelligence :

Empowering your sales and marketing teams to achieve more with AI.

Growth Intelligence :

Actionable insights and intelligence to grow your business.

Shane breaks down the 4 areas they focus on and what that means for their clients

We chat about the challenges faced by SDRs & AEs today, and what this means for the roles in the future.

Where outsourcing your sales makes sense versus where maybe it might not. 

I share my experiences of working with an outsourced sales business in the past, and challenge Shane on "Is he not just dressing up appointment setting"

I put Shane on the spot and ask for his take on are we relying too much on automation in sales, and by doing so, losing the art of selling?

To learn more about what Shane and the team can do to help you get better meeting with better prospects, head on over to www.salesdriivn.com or

Connect with Shane on LinkedIn, mention this podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanemahi/

Don't forget to subscribe if you are not already, and please do share with you networks.

As ever, thank you for listening.

 

 

 

In this weeks episode, I am joined by the brilliant Mary Shea PhD.

Mary is the Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach, prior to this she was a Principal Analyst at Forrester. She also has a PhD in Musicology & Ethnomusicology, which, as you will hear, is a word I am unable to pronounce. 

What is a Revenue Innovator? Well, if you visit Mary's profile on LinkedIn, you will see this :

"Revenue Innovators : noun - a new cohort of revenue leaders who put buyers at the center of their strategies, who arm their sellers with the most innovative sales technologies, and who over-index on data, rather than intuition, to inform their business decisions. "

Quite a statement, I am sure you will agree. 

In this podcast, Mary takes us through what this means. 

She shares her fascinating background from playing in orchestra's around the world to her PhD to where she is now at Outreach.

Sales Engagement technology vs Engagement & Intelligence technology

Is Revenue Intelligence just Sales Enablement with a different name, or are we creating a new category?

CRM was never designed for sellers, so where are we now and what is its role for the 21st Century?

Point solutions becoming platforms of the future, what does this mean?

Are we creating a challenge for sellers by relying too much on automation?

How does this play into the "buyer first" and "buyer safety" and the discrepancy between seller & buyer?

Crafting buyer-centric strategies.

Do we need to re-brand how we refer to buyers?

The rise of the buying group, what does the mean?

Compensation plans focussed on quantitative metrics and why this is now a problem.

The "we have always done it this way" syndrome.

Sales & Marketing are still not aligned.

Is there a skills gap in Sales & Marketing to operate in a revenue intelligence-led world?

Are we really heading into a world where AI will make all the decisions for sellers?

The science vs the art of sales.

What does "in-person" mean today?

Can more traditional markets such as Professional Services, Financial Services and Insurance have Revenue Innovators and supporting technology platforms, such as Outreach?

 

Connect with Mary on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Follow Mary on Twitter https://twitter.com/sheaoutr

Subscribe to her podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revenue-innovators/id1573980851

Learn more about Outreach https://www.outreach.io/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Failure to plan, practice, rehearse, capture lessons and debrief is an act of gross misconduct on their part of the salesperson and the part of their manager. It should result in a minimum of a written warning and repetition should result in dismissal. Harsh words? Not at all. Consider the cost of getting one opportunity into the top of the funnel."

Welcome to the world, and more importantly, thinking, of Marcus Cauchi. This is taken from one of his brilliant blogs on Medium, https://procustomer.medium.com/ 

Marcus' about section on LinkedIn reads thus :

"Marcus met the Devil at the crossroads on Route 66 and he sold him a short-term lease on very favourable terms" - testimonial from my accountant I work with CEOs, VPs of Sales & Marketing & Channel Chiefs of technology vendors who recognise that success is not a function of having hundreds of salespeople or dozens of channel partners who occasionally uncover a piece of business, but rather it’s a function of having a handful of select salespeople & partners who share a common vision, have common goals, and can be counted on to work collaboratively to effectively, efficiently, and consistently uncover new opportunities."

I wish I had a Marcus in my life in my early sales career, and thankful that I have met him now. 

He doesn't hold back, calls it as he sees it, calls out the BS we see and know to be true, but maybe won't look in the mirror. 

If you are serious about upping your sales performance as an individual, or that of your team, the next 40mins will be an education. 

Then you need to connect with Marcus and learn more about what he can do for you and your team.

Marcus is also the host of TheInquisitor Podcast, with over 300 hours of amazing guests and resources.

#TheInquisitor podcast can be found at: Podbean: https://lnkd.in/dEpJ76v Apple: https://lnkd.in/gMXwNtP Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dVBytnY

Marcus is a beacon of light in the sales world.

You can also follow Marcus on Twitter https://twitter.com/The_Inquisitor 

Meet Ding Zheng, 14 years in Rap, 4 years in SaaS sales, then he combined the 2 to create the Sales Rapper which he describes as : "Sonic branding for products and services.  Source material dry? Supercharge your content strategy with a Sales Rap!"

Ding goes on to say :

How do you stand out when everybody's speaking and nobody's listening? You need to BE AWESOME and get a CULT FOLLOWING. But how? B2B is so boring... Let me RAP ABOUT YOUR B2B/B2C product so you can truly GO VIRAL in your space. The content gets the eyeballs, and the message gets the inbounds.

__________ 🎤 raps to promote your product/service 🤝 sales professional 📈 marketing enthusiast It’s hard to succeed with content. It’s HARDER to make truly engaging content when many might find the source material dry. Let me help. After failing as a rapper then finding success in tech sales, I realized my musical talents can help b2b, b2c, and dtc stand out. __________ "You should call yourself 'THE SALES RAPPER'" -astounded Zoomer following a 10/10 freestyle from yours truly So...how did a recovering struggle rapper end up in B2B sales? Well, as an independent musician, I've always had to sell.  This is his amazing story.

Follow on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dingzheng25/

Follow on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/dingzheng25

Follow on TikTok @salesrapper

Tom is my first-ever returning guest!

I have followed Tom's journey at SalesLoft for well over a year. He is an SDR there before more recently moving into an entirely new role, created for him.

Welcome to the era of the social sales evangelist.

What is that you may ask?

Well, that's exactly what I thought when I saw him update his profile, so, I messaged him and asked if he would be happy to come back on and talk through his path to this new role.

 

We chat about :

How he uses social to build the brand that is Tom - and why this is important for everyone in a sales role to think about their brand.

How he uses video to prospect, what the structure of the video is, optimum length and why being honest and paying a compliment works best.

We chat about the importance of having a supportive leadership team, which he has in abundance at SalesLoft.

Does it really work?

Tom goes on to share how his new role came about, and what this means for him and SalesLoft moving forward.

If you missed my first podcast with Tom - and his first-ever podcast! , you can listen here : https://alexanderlow.podbean.com/e/being-memorable-the-sales-tech-stack-your-favourite-biscuit/

Follow Tom on :

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-boston/

Twitter https://twitter.com/TomBoston

You can also find him hanging out on TikTok too tom_boston 

Learn more about SalesLoft : www.salesloft.com 

As always, thank you for listening, don't forget to follow and subscribe!

And share with your network too. 

Thank you.

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by the CEO of UpContent - Scott Rogerson 

Scott is a returning guest where we build on the original episode of "Is Content Still King." listen here >>> https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-7q2ht-1195cab 

We cover off :

Why is Employee Advocacy still a nascent concept in business, with reference to the Cisco post that was doing the rounds?

Sales people, Lawyer, Consultants etc. need to see the value for them in leveraging their networks for what seems like corporate gain at a brand level - how should leadership go about the messaging on this?

Does any of this actually work for lead generation?

How do you prove it is working?

What type of content should your Sellers, Lawyers, and Consultants consider posting and engaging with?

The importance of the "hot take".

And, of course, we cannot not talk about the rise of GenAI.

It's a first in that this was a re-recording because I forgot to press record the first time around, so my huge thanks to Scott for his patience and agreeing to record again!

Connect with Scott here >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottarogerson/

Learn more about UpContent here >>> https://www.upcontent.com/ 

 

In this episode, I am joined by Joe Barron, content manager at Cognism 

Joe caught my attention after I read one of his blogs titled - "Cognism's recipe for creating content worth $88,270 in annual revenue"

This is the perrenial challenge of any content marketing role for sales, prove to me this is working.

In Joe's blog, he builds on these themes :

"Proving that content is not only worthy of being a powerful lead gen machine in its own right, but also delivers strong ROI.

Budgets are tight, teams are small, and there’s the pressure to generate results - in a B2B marketing discipline that often takes time to bear fruit.

So, how do you do it?

Start by tracking the important things.

Things like: 

• Unique blog views.
• Google rankings.
• Content SQOs.
• Content closed-won deals.

Then you’ll be able to show how content is a key player in the sales, marketing, and wider business function."

Joe takes us through his journey thus far with Cognism, from when he first joined to where the team is today.

Key points we discuss :

• Marketing carrying a revenue quota, how does that work?
• How, he and his marketing colleagues join his sales colleagues for a day of cold calling, why?
• How you can build your content strategy towards one major piece of lead-generating content.
• The importance of data, which data and how to track and use the data.

Joe's full blog can be found here

You can learn more about Cognism here

Follow Joe on LinkedIn

As always, thank you for tuning in and listening, don't forget to subscribe and follow!

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Jon Selig. 

Jon's headline on LinkedIn reads "Half sales guy. Half stand-up comic. All parental disappointment. I help sellers create punchlines that build pipeline".

He then goes on to say :

"Comedy Writing for Sales Teams" helps sales teams reverse-engineer a deeper understanding of your prospects, the problems you solve for them, your differentiators, and transforms our understanding into repeatable humor that shows empathy and understanding - so reps can keep their day jobs. Most sales reps sell products they've never used to people in industries they've never worked and whose jobs they've never had - yet their job is to connect repeatedly with their target audience. Stand-up comedians have to do the same repeatedly, which makes them salespeople with MUCH crappier comp plans. The best comedians make it about their audiences and trigger their emotions. By discussing relatable topics - and highlighting common truths about life's struggles (like marriage, dating, raising kids or smelly socks) - comedians are able to capture and hold their audience's notoriously-hard-to-capture attention. Your prospects (or “micro-audiences”) are no different. Reps need to quickly demonstrate relevance to capture their attention. A single joke (or "humor") that highlights a problem you solve for prospects grabs attention, shines a light on a challenge, triggers an emotional reaction, and makes reps credible & memorable, helping them to start new conversations across various outreach channels. Repeatedly.  

I discuss Jon's sales career, from his first sales role at Oracle, why he made the move into stand-up comedy, arguably one of the most brutal careers for live feedback - you think being hung up during a cold call is tough! How he was now bought both experiences and expertise to bear in sales coaching.

The way Jon breaks the opener of a cold call down into its component parts, and how one can then use comedic structure to make you stand out from the crowd is incredibly simple - roast their problem as he succinctly puts it.

To learn more about how Jon can help you and you teams go to www.jonselig.com OR

Connect with him on LinkedIn, don't forget to mention this podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonselig/

And, subscribe to his YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknty-KYY0Vj3i5zVctujhA 

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by Lukasz Maroszczyk.

Lukasz describes himself as,  a Global Senior Digital Marketing Manager, SEO Program Lead, Digital Selling - Account-Based Marketing program architect with Signify.

He caught my attention with his detailed article on LinkedIn about how he launched a social selling program globally, with some hard metrics to back up some of the numbers.

The executive summary, taken from his article is as follows :

- Pilot time: 9 months: Feb – Oct 2020 - Activation focus: 70 selected named accounts - Piloted markets: International key account management, France, UK&I, DACH, Nordics, CEE, US (84 people in total) - Contacts prospected: ~12.000 - Pipeline dynamics: 3x better dynamics for a new funnel for selected named accounts (+57% treatment group of 70 named accounts vs +19% in the control group) - ROI: 43:1 (calculated as the cost of licenses, advertising, and eLearning to created opportunity value)

 

Lukasz kindly breaks this down for us. We talk through :

 

The lead, up to the pilot, the seed was planted early on, where other countries had piloted in their own markets.

What had they learned from this?

The process the team went through to decide which accounts they were going to focus on and how they also A/B tested against accounts that were not part of the program.

How the team developed the blended approach to e-learning and "in-person training" in a virtual world.

The approach his team took to using Account-Based Marketing supported by paid marketing campaigns, and the results this yielded, on LinkedIn.

How he and the team tackled the attribution challenge to prove "social" really did influence the sales process to pipeline and attributable sales revenue. 

 

If you are serious about building social into your overall go-to-market strategy, especially for driving net new business from cold prospects/accounts, you must give this a listen.

Connect with Lukasz here https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukasz-maroszczyk/ - mention this podcast when you.

Thank you as ever for taking the time to listen, don't forget to follow, and share with your network!

 

 

In this episode, I am joined by Julie Marshall, founder of Join up the Dots Consultancy.

Julie's career spans both sides of the Marketing agency world. She worked at brands such as Bacardi - Martini, and Rothmans - yes we did veer into Formula 1 sponsorship and her Vauxhall Cavalier. Julie was also a Global New Business Development lead at Flock, managing teams across New York, London & Hong Kong.

She wrote this blog, which caught my attention, hence I wanted to invite her to the podcast to discuss it further. 

The areas we include in our discussion are:

• Accountability – The need for everyone to play their part.
• Capability – Building essential skills within the organisation
• Playing to people strengths - Identify key tasks within marketing and new business and build on peoples strengths.
• Ways of working – the importance of process from posting social/ creating case studies.
• Data strategy – building database use of CRM.
• KPI’s tracking them/ Reporting.
• Communication – How do you communicate new business progress.
• Meetings – need the focus on new business.

To learn more about Join up the Dots, click here

Follow Julie on LinkedIn here

Side note, Julie is also an avid Paddle Boarder and Yoga-er, at the same time - Paddle Board Yoga. Who knew.

Thank you for listening and don't forget to follow, subscribe & share with your network!