The Death of a Salesman

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.

 

Employee Advocacy or Corporate Spam?

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.

 

 

 

 

2023 Anti Predictions for Sales

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 

 

 

Re-thinking AI.

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.

Selling in an Ecosystem

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Does a sales culture matter?

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!

 

Are you listening?

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!)

 

 

 

What is the intent of intent data?

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/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev Ops in Professional Services

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.