The Death of a Salesman

Cooking up good content

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!

Sales, you've got to be joking.

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 

 

 

How to launch a Social Selling programme. Successfully.

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!

 

 

The DNA of New Business

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!

 

 

Let's get digital

We will spend a combined total of 12 trillion hours online in 2021. 

We spend an average time of 6hrs 56m online every day.

The top 3 favourite social media platforms are Whatsapp, Facebook & Instagram.

Over 70% of all age groups still use a web-based email platform.

There are over 4bn active social media users.

I could go on.

All of this research and more comes from the brilliant Simon Kemp and his amazing team, supported by Hootsuite, We are Social, and a number of other data providers.

It is evident social and digital are here to stay.

We have seen what happened in 2020 and how this has changed the way we all engage online, both b2b and b2c.

In this episode, Simon & I discuss some of the key findings, as well as some of the stats which caught us by surprise - namely email marketing would seem to be alive and well.  

We also discuss the merits of Organic vs Paid across different platforms, when was the last time you clicked on an advert?

This leads us into the discussion of the demise of the cookie - not the chocolate chip variety, but the digital stalking variety.

Simon is pretty blunt in his view on this - we don't have attention span issues in the digital world. YOU need to create content that is worthy of my attention.

To access the free research, go to www.datareportal.com 

To debate cookies with Simon, connect with him here https://www.linkedin.com/in/eskimon/

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it with your network if you found it insightful.

As always, if you would like to be a guest on here, you know what to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fact or Fiction - the scourge of Fake News and how we are fighting back

The power of disinformation is nothing new.

We have seen history repeat itself. However, what has happened and continues to happen across the internet today, can be described as, terrifying.

Are we at a tipping point?

Depending on which camp you are in - the major platforms - no we are not, we have it under control,

to - everyone else, yes, we as a society need to do something about it.

As we have seen play out in front of our very eyes, governments have been toppled, political campaigns fought, some might say manipulated, on social media, not on the doorstep.

How will this potential impact B2B? Is it already impacting B2B? What are your brand safety protocols to get ahead of the narrative to combat any negative messaging and/or opinion - and more importantly, why is it happening?

Enter my next guest, Antony Cousins, CEO of Factamata

"The Factmata API helps you understand any piece of online content. It scores content on nine signals, including Hate speech and Political bias, to give you a deep understanding of the quality, safety, and credibility of any piece of content on the web."

I met Antony in a previous life when I was advising another AI / NLP start-up, but enough about me.

Antony claims he is not a spook, his career would suggest otherwise he started out in IT (or so he says) and then was the Press Officer for the UK Ministry of Defence, Counter-Terrorism Policy Officer for the UK Home Office, International Policy Advisor in the Middle East, back in the UK Ministry of Defence where managed the MOD response to the Arab Spring (he also shares on this podcast some other things he did in Afghanistan and Iraq....) before coming back into civilian life where he followed his starting career back in technology, this time in the world of AI & Natural Language Processing.

Antony shares his fascinating story thus far and how he is bringing that experience to the fore as CEO of Factmata, helping brands get a better understanding of what is the "why" behind the narrative online and where it is coming from and going to. And what to do.

As we are surrounded 24/7 by disinformation, fake news, extreme propaganda, organisations such as Factmata, led by Antony are taking a stand.

Learn more about how Factmata can help you and your business here

Connect with Antony here

Can you support Factmata with its crowdfunding? Click here 

Don't forget to follow and subscribe!

What are good sales behaviours?

"Let people be people" - this is how Jim Bloomfield and I sign off this episode.

Jim runs Bloojam Consulting, and they help sales leaders and teams understand the psychology behind the behaviours of sales teams and perfomance.

The Why, the What and the How, if you will. 

"To quote Daniel Pink, "We're all in sales now." And yet how many people in client-facing roles imagined that selling would be critical to their success? Probably not many.
Of those how many have been given any training in how to sell? Probably quite a few. But not in what matters. Less than 1/3 of sales transformation programmes are successful due to a lack of focus on changing behaviour.
If you want to really drive revenue growth in your business you have to focus on developing and sustaining the sales capability of your client-facing teams. If you don't have the right people on the bus, no amount of investment in new processes or methodologies will compensate."

This is taken from Jim's LinkedIn profile

and goes on to say

"We are specialists in using psychometric tests and face-to-face assessments to help you to better understand the sales, customer service, management and leadership skills of your candidates and existing employees."

In this episode, we peel back the onion of sales training and behaviours. Jim gives insight into what he and his team have seen over the years and the supporting trends of - what makes a good salesperson.

We also discuss what 2020 has done for sales leaders and teams, what this means in terms of behavioural change, if any.

It requires change.

We talk about the generational shift of buyers and what this means for sales teams looking forward and beyond 2021.

Finally, is it "People buy People" or, as Jim says "Let People be People"

Connect with Jim here

or learn more about Bloojam Consulting here

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

 

Women in Tech Sales

In this episode, I am joined by Devon Banks.

Devon is a 2 x LinkedIn Sales Star and recently joined Haas Alert as their only BDR.

She shares her story of how she had to change her direction of travel last year, 2020, due to covid decimating the hospitality industry where she held the position of GM for Training & Development for Wild Wing Hospitality Inc - Canada's largest Chicken Wing company.

Her story starts out early in her career working in a restaurant, gas station, to teaching English in Taiwan, followed by 5 years at Wild Wing before covid hit.

We chat through what the transition has been like and how she feels her skills are transferable to the modern-day sales world.

How she motivates herself when selling on her own as well as manages all this as a single parent.

We also discuss the conversation of women and diversity in sales, as well as, more broadly, skills for today versus yesterday. 

Please follow her story here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/devonbanks/

And links to Janelle and Gabrielle who also get a mention as voices to follow - 

Janelle https://www.linkedin.com/in/janellebenjamin/

Gabrielle https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleblackwell/

And other links to resources you all may find helpful to broaden your horizons

Sales for the Culture : https://salesfortheculture.com/

Sales for the Culture is a communal movement of Black tech sellers, for Black tech sellers. We exist to make sure that Black people are attracted to, empowered in, enabled for, and included by the tech sales profession. From the VP at the $3B enterprise to the SDR who got hired last Friday, we are building the community that we need so that we don’t have to run alone anymore.

WOMEN IN TECH SALES (VIRTUAL) BOOTCAMP : https://www.talentminded.ca/women-in-tech-sales-1

THE WOMEN IN TECH SALES BOOTCAMP CONNECTS TOP EMPLOYERS TO DIVERSE TALENT

Less than 20% of tech sales positions are held by women - even less if you are a woman of colour. We created the Women in Tech Sales Bootcamp to change that - one cohort at a time.

Join us for a special evening of lightning talks and networking with the growing Women in Tech Sales Community!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-tech-sales-april-mixer-2021-tickets-149007763231

Thank you Devon for sharing your story.

 

Predictive Behavioural Analysis, the future of Marketing?

Peter studies combining data science with behavioural science, looking at Internal Bias, Needs, History, Stimulus & Context, External Influences & Wants.

I interviewed Peter 12 months ago at the beginning of the pandemic, where we discussed how organisations were having to react to the changing way people were buying, as we had been forced into an online remote environment. This also impacted the data on which business were basing their assumptions on.

Fast forward to March 2021, we are 12 months on, what's changed?

Peter shares

What he has seen happen over the last 12 months.

What is Predictive Behavioural Analysis.

The impact of moving to the cloud and the opportunity this brings for 2021 and beyond. 

The rise of the Artisan on the high street.

B2C is blurring into B2B.

Why leadership has had enough of data, they now want insight and actions to take.

Can B2B compete with Amazon when they don't have access to the data.

Do organisations need a "Peter" to help them.

If you are in either sales or marketing and you are interested in data, this one is for you.

Now is the time to be where your customers are going not where they have been.

Learn more about Peter here - https://xmplify.co.uk/

Connect with him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdorrington/ 

 

The Future of Sales

What do 4000 years of geometry, Pythagoras theorem, and the future of sales have in common?

I discuss this and other things with Justin Michael and Patrick Joyce of JMC Consulting.

They are ripping up the rule book of the sales process and methodology. As we move into a post-pandemic world (This sounds like a Michael Bay movie) the way we sell in B2B is being upended. 

What channels should we be using?

What technology should we be using?

What data do we need?

Where does Automation fit into this?

How much further will Automation work before we realise we have gone too far? Have we gone too far already?

What even is the role of an SDR if research from Gartner is to be believed that one in three buyers do not want to engage with a seller throughout the buying process.

Mckinsey cites buyers are becoming more comfortable in spending big in a virtual world. 

Comp and reward, is this even fit for purpose?

We discuss what the future makeup of the sales team looks like?

Is History just repeating itself?

What is a Salesborg?

If you would like to understand this and more, tune in.

Connect with Justin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljustin/

Connect with (or text) Patrick - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pwilliamjoyce/