The Death of a Salesman

Up your Content game.

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/ 

 

Are you in the moment?

In this episode, we have a returning guest, the brilliant Neil Mullarkey.

Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian. He was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England1. He is known for his work in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and Spice World (1997)2. He is also a founding member of The Comedy Store Players and still appears with them regularly at London’s Comedy Store.  

Neil also works with individuals and organisations, coaching on all things Teambuilding, Corporate Leadership and Communication Skills, all of which is underpinned by the art that is "Improv". 

Neil has also authored his 4th book, "In the moment" where you will "Discover the insights and strategies that will help you improve your confidence, communication and creativity in every moment of your professional career."

In this episode, we dive into, what does it mean to be in the moment.

Neil shares a framework you can start using today.

Neil talks about the difference between having a structured approach and being able to react in the moment.

We work through a pitch example.

We talk about how moments matter.

How innovation can be achieved in the corridors - be it physical or digital.

We end on serendipity and the example Neil talks to is from the former Chairman of a Global Consulting business :

"He wants his share of the lucky market."

Learn more about Neil and get his book here >>> In the Moment book by Neil Mullarkey — Neil Mullarkey

Follow Neil on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmullarkey/

Go see him in action in London - https://comedystoreplayers.com/

 

Right, said Fred.

Would you create a "digital twin" of yourself?

Fred has set out to do this, and he shares what he has learned so far with FredAI.

Using Interactive Tutor, Fred uploaded his books and blogs into their platform so that he could train it on all of his own content.

FredAI was created, as a chatbot where you can ask questions, and the answers will be based on all of Fred's content, thinking and wisdom that he has curated over 20 years. 

We chat through :

Why has he decided to do this?

What has the learning been so far?

How does he see this complimenting what Fred does in person?

Does FredAI hallucinate?

We then broaden the discussion to where we feel this could all go?

What other use cases might there be?

Coaching to ask the right questions. 

This is early days for FredAI, however, I encourage you to go and chat with "him" and give real Fred your feedback.

Find FredAI here >>> FredAI (collaborativeselling.co.uk)

If you want to set up your own chat bot, go here >>> Interactive Tutor

Connect with Fred here >>> Fred Copestake

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

 

The Price is Right

How do you price in a tough economy? 

How do you price in any situation?

How do you articulate the value-based outcomes your product or service will create?

Pricing has always been an art. Being told you were a close 2nd in a competitive pitch. Maybe no decision at all. 

In this week's episode,, Jonathan "Jonny" Adams from SBR Consulting joins me to discuss this and more.

We cover :

What is Jonny seeing in the market today?

How are the economic head winds impacting different markets?

Why negotiating with yourself is not a good place to start.

What are your tradeables?

What framework you should follow to articulate value.

We have a "Come on Down, the Price is Right" moment.

A bonus of what is Jonny's go-to BBQ recipe on his ceramic grill.

 

Connect with Jonny on LinkedIn here >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyadams/ 

Learn more about SBR Consulting here  >>> https://sbrconsulting.com/

Your Sales Sens’AI

a teacher or instructor

 

sen·​sei ˈsen-ˌsā plural sensei or senseis. : a teacher or instructor, usually of Japanese martial arts (such as karate or judo)

 

We are seeing the proliferation and acceleration of how GPT and ChatGPT is (potentially) transforming the way we live and work.

 

In this episode, I am joined by the CEO and Co-founder of Wonderway, a sales LMS platform who have launched a ChatGPT-based, real-time sales coach, Bowen Moody.

 

Bowen shares his story of how he moved from being a product manager at one of the largest shipping companies in the world to launching 2 start-ups which didn't quite get off the ground. This was also his first insight into the world of sales, and how hard it is.

 

3rd time's a charm, and Wonderway is almost five years old. 

 

In this episode, we talk about :

 

• Why Bowen set up Wonderway, based on his sales learning experiences.
• The science vs the art of sales.
• Are we over-engineering sales?
• Where he and the team saw a gap in the market with Conversation Intelligence platforms.
• You can use ChatGPT 4 to experiment with call recordings and any sales methodology.
• Will this require a change in the Sales Leaders / Sales Enablement Teams skills, etc?
• 5 months into their Beta testing, they are already surfacing some interesting results.
• What the future holds in all of this, with tools such as CoPilot and more.

 

If you are not considering how you can work with GPT in your sales coaching and enablement functions, now is the time.

 

To connect with Bowen you can find him here on Linkedin.

To learn more about Wonderway, go here.

 

Let us know if you are using GPT in your sales teams in the comments.

 

As always, thank you for listening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s get real about generative ai

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.

Are you in the HYPCCCYCL?

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 

Are you a Sales Sherpa?

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?

 

 

 

What does Sales Enablement mean?

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/

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Evolution of Virtual Sapiens

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.