Social audio has become very popular recently with the advent of Clubhouse. According to  Edison Research 15% of social media users 18+ say they have used Clubhouse.  Podcasting is a form of social audio. And, it continues to grow as a content channel. According to  Edison Research’s Share of Ear study, which began tracking audio consumption in 2014, podcasting’s share of all audio listening is now 6% of consumption. This level marks an all-time high for podcasting, up from 2% in 2014.  Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have launched or plan to launch social audio functionalities. I’ve had a love affair with podcasting for nearly 10 years. In fact, I listen to many podcasts. MME is my second podcast. My first podcast ran for 49 episodes. I co-hosted it with a buddy of mine. We bantered about digital marketing topics. The big difference between my first podcast and my second podcast is that I didn’t have a strategy with my first podcast. I had fun recording them. But, there was no strategy.  We just horsed around, recorded them and published them hoping something good would come of them. In truth, some good did come from the first podcast. But, we all know that hope is not a strategy, right?  So, what is my B2B podcast strategy? My strategy is relationship building. I set out to build relationships with marketing executives working at B2B brands. The method is simple: I provide a platform to feature marketing executives. I interview each guest and share their experience and wisdom with my audience.  This relationship-building strategy in podcasting has a business benefit. First, it starts with a human connection. I genuinely try to connect with each of the guests I’ve had on the podcast. I don’t mean just connect on LinkedIn. I mean, I want to make an authentic human connection with each guest.  So, what’s the benefit of this relationship building?  Life is all about relationships. People do business with people they know, like and trust and that is relationship-based. Some have become friends. And, some of my guests have become clients of Vengreso. And, in some cases I was able to offer something of value to my guest in the relationship whether it’s an introduction to someone or an endorsement or whatever.  The purpose of the MME podcast is for me to build relationships with marketing executives at B2B brands – it’s that simple. And, if you’re thinking this strategy is over simplified, you’re right because it doesn’t need to be more complicated than building authentic relationships with no more agenda than that.  However, there is something I do behind the scenes that works really well for this relationship-building strategy. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to learn what it is. An Important Announcement This episode is the last one of the MME podcast. The reason is that I’ve accepted a new opportunity at a different company and the Vengreso leadership team has decided to sunset the MME podcast.  Vengreso has a sales-centric podcast called the Modern Selling Podcast, hosted by Vengreso’s founder and CEO, MMJr. He’s published more than 175 episodes at the time of this recording. It’s a wildly popular podcast and you and or your sales leader at your company should definitely check it out.  Additionally, Vengreso has a live show called the Modern Sales Mastery show, which is broadcast live every Friday at 11:30 am ET.  I tell all about my journey at Vengreso and my next steps in a  blog post here. Finally, I want to thank you, for listening to the MME podcast. I TRULY hope I’ve delivered value to you through the modern marketers I’ve interviewed on this show. It has been a privilege.

Social audio has become very popular recently with the advent of Clubhouse. According to <a href="https://www.edisonresearch.com/clubhouse-users-in-america/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Edison Research</a> 15% of social media users 18+ say they have used Clubhouse.  Podcasting is a form of social audio. And, it continues to grow as a content channel. According to <a href="https://www.edisonresearch.com/podcastings-share-of-listening-in-the-u-s-hits-all-time-high/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Edison Research’s Share of Ear study</a>, which began tracking audio consumption in 2014, podcasting’s share of all audio listening is now 6% of consumption. This level marks an all-time high for podcasting, up from 2% in 2014.  Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have launched or plan to launch social audio functionalities. I’ve had a love affair with podcasting for nearly 10 years. In fact, I listen to many podcasts. MME is my second podcast. My first podcast ran for 49 episodes. I co-hosted it with a buddy of mine. We bantered about digital marketing topics. The big difference between my first podcast and my second podcast is that I didn’t have a strategy with my first podcast. I had fun recording them. But, there was no strategy.  We just horsed around, recorded them and published them hoping something good would come of them. In truth, some good did come from the first podcast. But, we all know that hope is not a strategy, right?  So, what is my B2B podcast strategy? My strategy is relationship building. I set out to build relationships with marketing executives working at B2B brands. The method is simple: I provide a platform to feature marketing executives. I interview each guest and share their experience and wisdom with my audience.  This relationship-building strategy in podcasting has a business benefit. First, it starts with a human connection. I genuinely try to connect with each of the guests I’ve had on the podcast. I don’t mean just connect on LinkedIn. I mean, I want to make an authentic human connection with each guest.  So, what’s the benefit of this relationship building?  Life is all about relationships. People do business with people they know, like and trust and that is relationship-based. Some have become friends. And, some of my guests have become clients of Vengreso. And, in some cases I was able to offer something of value to my guest in the relationship whether it’s an introduction to someone or an endorsement or whatever.  The purpose of the MME podcast is for me to build relationships with marketing executives at B2B brands – it’s that simple. And, if you’re thinking this strategy is over simplified, you’re right because it doesn’t need to be more complicated than building authentic relationships with no more agenda than that.  However, there is something I do behind the scenes that works really well for this relationship-building strategy. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to learn what it is. An Important Announcement This episode is the last one of the MME podcast. The reason is that I’ve accepted a new opportunity at a different company and the Vengreso leadership team has decided to sunset the MME podcast.  Vengreso has a sales-centric podcast called the Modern Selling Podcast, hosted by Vengreso’s founder and CEO, MMJr. He’s published more than 175 episodes at the time of this recording. It’s a wildly popular podcast and you and or your sales leader at your company should definitely check it out.  Additionally, Vengreso has a live show called the Modern Sales Mastery show, which is broadcast live every Friday at 11:30 am ET.  I tell all about my journey at Vengreso and my next steps in a <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/my-four-year-branding-journey-at-vengreso" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> blog post here</a>. Finally, I want to thank you, for listening to the MME podcast. I TRULY hope I’ve delivered value to you through the modern marketers I’ve interviewed on this show. It has been a privilege.

My B2B Podcasting Strategy

B2B influencer marketing is not the same as it is in B2C, where you have celebrities like top athletes and Hollywood actors endorse a brand and post on Instagram about it. B2B marketing leaders can leverage industry influencers in their marketing efforts with a solid plan. That is the topic of conversation with my guest in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, Amisha Gandhi, SVP of Marketing at Tipalti. Amisha is a groundbreaking B2B innovator with deep marketing and communications expertise across multiple industries and geos. She was recognized in PR Week’s Women to Watch 2020, Top 50 Influence Marketer by Talking Influence and Top Digital Marketer on LinkedIn. Amisha is also an accomplished speaker at multiple industry conferences including Content Marketing World, MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum, and many others. Listen to our conversation to learn how to find and work with B2B influencers. What is a B2B Influencer? Influencer marketing is the practice of engaging internal influencers at your company or industry who are experts, analysts, bloggers or public speakers who have active networks of influence. They can influence their audiences to help you achieve your business goals. “It's about people,” Amisha says, “it's about community. B2B influencers aren't celebrities, but they could be celebrities in the business world. They've written books, some of them are even academics.” Start by asking yourself:  Whose audience do you want to reach?  Why do you want to reach them? What are you trying to convey and what is the outcome that you hope to achieve by working with influencers?  How to Find B2B Influencers Amisha says there is definitely a process to identifying and selecting influencers. There are specific tools you can use, but you can start by using Google and search for the top influencers in your industry. Then use LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Clubhouse. “It just depends who you're trying to reach and how you would like to relate to your audience.” Amisha says. “You have to find out where your audience is and who they're listening to and who they’re influenced by. Look at the conferences, third-party associations and other places where people are speaking, you'll start seeing some names popping up.” Then you have to look deeper at the content these people are sharing and the level of engagement their content has. Once you have a list of potential influencers, you should assess which ones can help you achieve your goals in a mutually beneficial relationship. Amisha says you should look at influencer marketing as a holistic practice that you can apply across the entire customer journey. For example, can you get some good top funnel content? Can you create some demand? Can you create a community of advocates? “Once you find folks that are really influencing your audience, reach out to a couple of influencers, start talking to them, see if they’d like to work with you. Say, ‘we're thinking about doing this upcoming campaign, what do you think?’ And have a conversation, because they may tell you, ‘I don't think that's going to work for my audience.’ That will help you frame up your campaign and make it even better than what it is.” Start with top of the funnel activities, like a podcast, to create awareness with their audience. Then you can go into demand generation content like co-authored ebooks or a webinar series where people are willing to give you their information. “There are some influencers who are very speaker heavy and they don't do long form content. They are thought leaders and they do more podcasts. That's why you have a group of influencers. You're going to have some people that are going to do top funnel and events and some people who are great speakers and great on video. There are some people who are great only in voice and folks that do longer form content.” Over time some influencers can become advocates. This happens when they keep talking about your brand even when not taking part in your marketing campaign, because they consider your content to be of value to their audience. Listen to episode 299 for specific ideas of what you can do when working with an influencer and some of the pillars and best practices for co-creating content and sponsored content. Finally, Amisha reminds us that customers can be our best influencers, so we should take care of them.

B2B influencer marketing is not the same as it is in B2C, where you have celebrities like top athletes and Hollywood actors endorse a brand and post on Instagram about it. B2B marketing leaders can leverage industry influencers in their marketing efforts with a solid plan. That is the topic of conversation with my guest in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amishagandhi/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amisha Gandhi</a>, SVP of Marketing at Tipalti. Amisha is a groundbreaking B2B innovator with deep marketing and communications expertise across multiple industries and geos. She was recognized in PR Week’s Women to Watch 2020, Top 50 Influence Marketer by Talking Influence and Top Digital Marketer on LinkedIn. Amisha is also an accomplished speaker at multiple industry conferences including Content Marketing World, MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum, and many others. Listen to our conversation to learn how to find and work with B2B influencers. What is a B2B Influencer? Influencer marketing is the practice of engaging internal influencers at your company or industry who are experts, analysts, bloggers or public speakers who have active networks of influence. They can influence their audiences to help you achieve your business goals. “It's about people,” Amisha says, “it's about community. B2B influencers aren't celebrities, but they could be celebrities in the business world. They've written books, some of them are even academics.” Start by asking yourself: <ul> <li>Whose audience do you want to reach? </li> <li>Why do you want to reach them?</li> <li>What are you trying to convey and what is the outcome that you hope to achieve by working with influencers?</li> </ul> How to Find B2B Influencers Amisha says there is definitely a process to identifying and selecting influencers. There are specific tools you can use, but you can start by using Google and search for the top influencers in your industry. Then use LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Clubhouse. “It just depends who you're trying to reach and how you would like to relate to your audience.” Amisha says. “You have to find out where your audience is and who they're listening to and who they’re influenced by. Look at the conferences, third-party associations and other places where people are speaking, you'll start seeing some names popping up.” Then you have to look deeper at the content these people are sharing and the level of engagement their content has. Once you have a list of potential influencers, you should assess which ones can help you achieve your goals in a mutually beneficial relationship. Amisha says you should look at influencer marketing as a holistic practice that you can apply across the entire customer journey. For example, can you get some good top funnel content? Can you create some demand? Can you create a community of advocates? “Once you find folks that are really influencing your audience, reach out to a couple of influencers, start talking to them, see if they’d like to work with you. Say, ‘we're thinking about doing this upcoming campaign, what do you think?’ And have a conversation, because they may tell you, ‘I don't think that's going to work for my audience.’ That will help you frame up your campaign and make it even better than what it is.” Start with top of the funnel activities, like a podcast, to create awareness with their audience. Then you can go into demand generation content like co-authored ebooks or a webinar series where people are willing to give you their information. “There are some influencers who are very speaker heavy and they don't do long form content. They are thought leaders and they do more podcasts. That's why you have a group of influencers. You're going to have some people that are going to do top funnel and events and some people who are great speakers and great on video. There are some people who are great only in voice and folks that do longer form content.” Over time some influencers can become advocates. This happens when they keep talking about your brand even when not taking part in your marketing campaign, because they consider your content to be of value to their audience. Listen to episode 299 for specific ideas of what you can do when working with an influencer and some of the pillars and best practices for co-creating content and sponsored content. Finally, Amisha reminds us that customers can be our best influencers, so we should take care of them.

B2B Influencer Marketing for the Entire Customer Journey

Most CMOs favor external communications (demand generation, content marketing, etc.) over internal communications. Why? Because these external activities seem to create more measurable ROI. However, with the modern workforce internal communications are now more important than ever to motivate and activate people within the organization to be a channel of communication. My guest in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast, Mark Derks, has great insights about how much effort marketing should put into internal communications. Mark is the CMO at BlueGrace Logistics. Founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics is one of the fastest growing leaders of transportation management services in North America. As a full service third party logistics provider (3PL), BlueGrace helps businesses manage their freight spend through industry-leading technology, high-level freight carrier relationships and overall understanding of the complex $750 Billion U.S. freight industry. Listen to our conversation to learn the pros and cons of allocating resources to internal communications versus external communications. Five Pillars to Develop a Profitable Internal Communications Strategy 1. Develop your strategy/goals. Any successful program must identify the goals it is trying to achieve and the strategy and tactics to get there. Ask yourself these questions about your internal communications:  Is it going to be multi-touch? How frequently will I communicate to the organization? At what velocity will information be shared?  Some examples of goals are:   Having 100% of your internal resources know and being able to recite your mission, vision and values.  Having your internal resources know your company revenue projections and targets and your gross profit targets.  “I think that our own internal resources and our own people are a marketing channel for the company,” Mark says. “You should build a strategy around and goals around things that bring strong results. So there has to be a metric if you're going to engage in a robust internal comms plan. What are the key factors to success and what are the metrics that you as an organization are going to agree on that you can either identify as a success or identify those gaps where you need to continue to refine and improve.” 2. Mission/Vision/Values Mark says that case studies have shown, organizations who have stated missions, visions and that drive stated values are higher performing than businesses that do not, because they build a strong culture around those pillars.  “We're empowering our employees to share public information that they've learned through internal communications to our external customers,” Mark says. “And to be really successful, you have to make it easily accessible to all employees. We need to make it available in multiple places, on our website, in our hallways and on the signage and our offices.” 3. “How does my job contribute to the company’s success?” “We have to look at our organizations where every employee adds value and it's our job through internal communications to tell them how they do that, to make sure that they know how their specific job leads to company growth.” Highly engaged employees are those that understand how their contributions help the company grow. And when they know that, they become more creative, more productive, more innovative, and they're more successful in their own professional goals and what they're trying to do. 4. Content Content is at the intersection of external communications and internal comms, sharing content between teams and channels. Not all internal communications can go externally, but almost all external communications can be shared internally. You can take the content that you share with your customers, partners, suppliers and share it with your internal teams through an  employee advocacy program. Mark says that will make them better service providers, better salespeople, better marketers. Listen to the whole episode to learn some great ideas on how to repurpose marketing content for internal comms. 5. How does the CMO lead the internal communication strategy? “Make sure you have a solid strategy and stated goals that you're pursuing and that everybody knows,” Mark says. “So when we measure our efforts we can clearly come back and see if we've been meeting our goals. So be a leader of strategy, focus on what's important, communicate that strategy, clearly measure the impact and ROI.”  As the CMO you don't do this by yourself. “You're a leader, but you have teams, so consider allocating head count as a resource to internal communications. Consider adding resources around culture and standing up things like diversity, equity and inclusion programs within your company. Make sure that you're communicating critical attributes of your ideal customer profile.” Your employees are one of our best external marketing channels, but they're only good if they have internal comms that have educated them on messaging, target customer profile, new products, new customers, changes within the organization, mission, vision, and values. Don’t miss this episode to learn more about finding a balance between external and internal communications and how to develop a profitable strategy.

Most CMOs favor external communications (<a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/all-together-now-brand-demand-generation" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">demand generation</a>, content marketing, etc.) over internal communications. Why? Because these external activities seem to create more measurable ROI. However, with the modern workforce internal communications are now more important than ever to motivate and activate people within the organization to be a channel of communication. My guest in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast, Mark Derks, has great insights about how much effort marketing should put into internal communications. Mark is the CMO at BlueGrace Logistics. Founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics is one of the fastest growing leaders of transportation management services in North America. As a full service third party logistics provider (3PL), BlueGrace helps businesses manage their freight spend through industry-leading technology, high-level freight carrier relationships and overall understanding of the complex $750 Billion U.S. freight industry. Listen to our conversation to learn the pros and cons of allocating resources to internal communications versus external communications. Five Pillars to Develop a Profitable Internal Communications Strategy 1. Develop your strategy/goals. Any successful program must identify the goals it is trying to achieve and the strategy and tactics to get there. Ask yourself these questions about your internal communications: <ul> <li>Is it going to be multi-touch?</li> <li>How frequently will I communicate to the organization?</li> <li>At what velocity will information be shared?</li> </ul> Some examples of goals are:  <ul> <li>Having 100% of your internal resources know and being able to recite your mission, vision and values. </li> <li>Having your internal resources know your company revenue projections and targets and your gross profit targets.</li> </ul> “I think that our own internal resources and our own people are a marketing channel for the company,” Mark says. “You should build a strategy around and goals around things that bring strong results. So there has to be a metric if you're going to engage in a robust internal comms plan. What are the key factors to success and what are the metrics that you as an organization are going to agree on that you can either identify as a success or identify those gaps where you need to continue to refine and improve.” 2. Mission/Vision/Values Mark says that case studies have shown, organizations who have stated missions, visions and that drive stated values are higher performing than businesses that do not, because they build a strong culture around those pillars.  “We're empowering our employees to share public information that they've learned through internal communications to our external customers,” Mark says. “And to be really successful, you have to make it easily accessible to all employees. We need to make it available in multiple places, on our website, in our hallways and on the signage and our offices.” 3. “How does my job contribute to the company’s success?” “We have to look at our organizations where every employee adds value and it's our job through internal communications to tell them how they do that, to make sure that they know how their specific job leads to company growth.” Highly engaged employees are those that understand how their contributions help the company grow. And when they know that, they become more creative, more productive, more innovative, and they're more successful in their own professional goals and what they're trying to do. 4. Content Content is at the intersection of external communications and internal comms, sharing content between teams and channels. Not all internal communications can go externally, but almost all external communications can be shared internally. You can take the content that you share with your customers, partners, suppliers and share it with your internal teams through an <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/leverage-employee-advocacy-program-increase-company-social-reach" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> employee advocacy program</a>. Mark says that will make them better service providers, better salespeople, better marketers. Listen to the whole episode to learn some great ideas on how to repurpose marketing content for internal comms. 5. How does the CMO lead the internal communication strategy? “Make sure you have a solid strategy and stated goals that you're pursuing and that everybody knows,” Mark says. “So when we measure our efforts we can clearly come back and see if we've been meeting our goals. So be a leader of strategy, focus on what's important, communicate that strategy, clearly measure the impact and ROI.”  As the CMO you don't do this by yourself. “You're a leader, but you have teams, so consider allocating head count as a resource to internal communications. Consider adding resources around culture and standing up things like diversity, equity and inclusion programs within your company. Make sure that you're communicating critical attributes of your ideal customer profile.” Your employees are one of our best external marketing channels, but they're only good if they have internal comms that have educated them on messaging, target customer profile, new products, new customers, changes within the organization, mission, vision, and values. Don’t miss this episode to learn more about finding a balance between external and internal communications and how to develop a profitable strategy.

How Internal Communication Drives Marketing ROI

How would you plan the marketing strategy for a new brand? What are some factors that marketing leaders should take into consideration when rolling out a new product? That is the topic of conversation of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast, with my guest Armen Najarian. Armen is the CMO at RSA Fraud &amp; Risk Intelligence, which is part of the larger RSA Security, a 38-year old global brand. As his division expanded and with more revenue and customers around the globe, they decided to transform the Fraud &amp; Risk Intelligence division into a stand-alone business. As the CMO, Armen was responsible for creating and implementing the marketing strategy for this new business unit. Listen to the episode to learn how he did it and some key lessons you can implement in your own organization. Creating a Marketing Strategy 1. Assemble a Team “I'm spending a lot of time on organizational design,” Armen says. “I'm working very closely with the HR leader for this business and really plotting up the next three years and the type of organization I need to assemble.” What are the roles you need and what is the hiring priority? Listen to find out. 2. Develop the brand “Second, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about the brand, knowing that we are moving from a product portfolio within the broader RFA family into a more independent business with its own identity. How we describe that business, what we call it, how the product is positioned.” Armen and his team decided to create a new name while taking advantage of the history of its parent company. However, the buyer persona of the new company is different from the persona of RSA Security, which created new challenges. To navigate the complexities of rebranding a global company, Armen hired an external agency to help create a new website and sales collateral pieces. 3. Content Strategy “We have a product called Fraud Action, and that is our risk intelligence team,” he says. “So this is actually the team that investigates the dark web, goes deep undercover and understands the organized crime organizations around the world, uncovering very important and interesting insights. So we take those insights and we actually package those up as services.” This primary research is the fuel for great thought leadership, so they publish Quarterly Trends Reports from the insights, blog posts and a podcast. “Every CMO should have a content strategy. We have 3 or 4 anchor pieces that are evergreen, that we are always refreshing, always publishing, and our Director of Content Strategy is largely accountable and responsible for keeping that pipeline of great content flowing.” Listen to the whole episode to learn about the challenges Armen has faced during this transformation, including organizationals challenges, managing finite resources, prioritizing areas of focus and issues with having a global presence (language and privacy issues).

How would you plan the marketing strategy for a new brand? What are some factors that marketing leaders should take into consideration when rolling out a new product? That is the topic of conversation of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast, with my guest <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/najarian/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Armen Najarian</a>. Armen is the CMO at RSA Fraud &amp; Risk Intelligence, which is part of the larger RSA Security, a 38-year old global brand. As his division expanded and with more revenue and customers around the globe, they decided to transform the Fraud &amp; Risk Intelligence division into a stand-alone business. As the CMO, Armen was responsible for creating and implementing the marketing strategy for this new business unit. Listen to the episode to learn how he did it and some key lessons you can implement in your own organization. Creating a Marketing Strategy 1. Assemble a Team “I'm spending a lot of time on organizational design,” Armen says. “I'm working very closely with the HR leader for this business and really plotting up the next three years and the type of organization I need to assemble.” What are the roles you need and what is the hiring priority? Listen to find out. 2. Develop the brand “Second, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about the brand, knowing that we are moving from a product portfolio within the broader RFA family into a more independent business with its own identity. How we describe that business, what we call it, how the product is positioned.” Armen and his team decided to create a new name while taking advantage of the history of its parent company. However, the buyer persona of the new company is different from the persona of RSA Security, which created new challenges. To navigate the complexities of rebranding a global company, Armen hired an external agency to help create a new website and sales collateral pieces. 3. Content Strategy “We have a product called Fraud Action, and that is our risk intelligence team,” he says. “So this is actually the team that investigates the dark web, goes deep undercover and understands the organized crime organizations around the world, uncovering very important and interesting insights. So we take those insights and we actually package those up as services.” This primary research is the fuel for great thought leadership, so they publish Quarterly Trends Reports from the insights, blog posts and a podcast. “Every CMO should have a content strategy. We have 3 or 4 anchor pieces that are evergreen, that we are always refreshing, always publishing, and our Director of Content Strategy is largely accountable and responsible for keeping that pipeline of great content flowing.” Listen to the whole episode to learn about the challenges Armen has faced during this transformation, including organizationals challenges, managing finite resources, prioritizing areas of focus and issues with having a global presence (language and privacy issues).

Planning the Marketing Strategy for a Global Brand

How do you formulate an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy? How do you decide which accounts to target? And what is the role of analytics in ABM planning? That is the topic of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast with my guest, Chris Rack, President at PureB2B. PureB2B leverages a database of B2B decision-makers in combination with their predictive analytics technology, to provide a full suite of solutions that help their clients meet their specific B2B demand generation sales and marketing revenue goals. Listen to this episode to learn how to plan a successful ABM strategy. Building Your ABM List Who is responsible for creating the ABM list? Marketing or sales? Chris says it should be a very collaborative approach, “taking a data approach and combining thought and feedback from both leaders, frontline sellers, sales leaders and front line marketers to come up with a real collaborative list.” Marketing must go through a process of digital marketing transformation to rely on data and analytics to build a list of target accounts. Instead of just going for the larger enterprise clients out there, marketers should start by looking at their CRM data to see:  Who is buying with the highest frequency Who are the prospects answering sales calls Who is engaging with your website Who is engaging with your emails Which gates have the highest conversions on your website  Once you have that list, start filtering them by:  Job title Company size Geo Industry Buyer personas Roles Level  Influencers Buying history Public/private  All of the above are analytics that marketers can use to determine which accounts to target using internal data. Using Analytics Data Now, there are also external analytics or predictive indicators marketers can use, with some tech tools available. However, Chris says, the intent signals from these tools are not designed to identify when people are ready to buy. “Only Google knows that,” Chris says. External analytics can identify when a buyer has a problem they need to solve, based on their content consumption triggers as well as public data such as job board postings. For example, certain tools can identify companies who are consuming content across topics that are related to the solutions you offer, either content on your own website or other websites.  If you want to know when a customer is “in market,” your first task is to know the ICP and then partner with analytics providers to acquire intent data. Chris says that companies of all sizes have access to these analytics tools, but large companies have more data to process from their CRM and many more products to sell requiring more analytics to uncover intent signals compared to smaller companies. There are also many analytics companies as a service who can help smaller companies analyze data to identify buyer intent. Chris says that in a startup scenario his first hire would be a Rev Ops person to understand their buyers and to select the tools needed to create a successful ABM target list. Listen to the whole episode to learn more about using analytics and  sales tools in your account-based marketing plan.

How do you formulate an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy? How do you decide which accounts to target? And what is the role of analytics in ABM planning? That is the topic of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast with my guest, Chris Rack, President at PureB2B. PureB2B leverages a database of B2B decision-makers in combination with their predictive analytics technology, to provide a full suite of solutions that help their clients meet their specific B2B demand generation sales and marketing revenue goals. Listen to this episode to learn how to plan a successful ABM strategy. Building Your ABM List Who is responsible for creating the ABM list? Marketing or sales? Chris says it should be a very collaborative approach, “taking a data approach and combining thought and feedback from both leaders, frontline sellers, sales leaders and front line marketers to come up with a real collaborative list.” Marketing must go through a process of digital marketing transformation to rely on data and analytics to build a list of target accounts. Instead of just going for the larger enterprise clients out there, marketers should start by looking at their CRM data to see: <ul> <li>Who is buying with the highest frequency</li> <li>Who are the prospects answering sales calls</li> <li>Who is engaging with your website</li> <li>Who is engaging with your emails</li> <li>Which gates have the highest conversions on your website</li> </ul> Once you have that list, start filtering them by: <ul> <li>Job title</li> <li>Company size</li> <li>Geo</li> <li>Industry</li> <li>Buyer personas</li> <li>Roles</li> <li>Level </li> <li>Influencers</li> <li>Buying history</li> <li>Public/private</li> </ul> All of the above are analytics that marketers can use to determine which accounts to target using internal data. Using Analytics Data Now, there are also external analytics or predictive indicators marketers can use, with some tech tools available. However, Chris says, the intent signals from these tools are not designed to identify when people are ready to buy. “Only Google knows that,” Chris says. External analytics can identify when a buyer has a problem they need to solve, based on their content consumption triggers as well as public data such as job board postings. For example, certain tools can identify companies who are consuming content across topics that are related to the solutions you offer, either content on your own website or other websites.  If you want to know when a customer is “in market,” your first task is to know the ICP and then partner with analytics providers to acquire intent data. Chris says that companies of all sizes have access to these analytics tools, but large companies have more data to process from their CRM and many more products to sell requiring more analytics to uncover intent signals compared to smaller companies. There are also many analytics companies as a service who can help smaller companies analyze data to identify buyer intent. Chris says that in a startup scenario his first hire would be a Rev Ops person to understand their buyers and to select the tools needed to create a successful ABM target list. Listen to the whole episode to learn more about using analytics and <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/how-calculate-sales-tools-roi" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> sales tools</a> in your account-based marketing plan.

Why Analytics is a Must in Account-Based Marketing

B2B buyers have changed dramatically, especially during COVID. Consider these three recent trends, for example:  B2B buyers are looking critically at any opportunity that comes to them, whether it comes from marketing content or from a sales conversation. B2B buyers are giving less access to sales people and traditional conversations. In fact, 83% of the buyer journey does not include a sales rep. B2B buyers place a greater priority on perspective and recommendations from people who aren't sales people, from their peers and from subject matter experts via content marketing.  So, as marketers, how do we approach the modern buyer? That is the topic of conversation in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine with my guest, Spencer Wixom, Sr. VP Marketing at Challenger. Listen as Spencer unpacks marketing’s role in the modern sales experience. The 3 Pillars of the Modern Sales Experience 1. Role of messaging to the buyer “I think it's really critical for B2B marketers to think about how we are interacting with today's buyer,” Spencer says, “who is putting more scrutiny on their decisions, who's giving less access to traditional channels for education and who is listening to so many other sources.” Spencer believes that B2B marketers should use the three-act structure of classic playwriting to engage with buyers. Act one is about introducing and building the understanding of the various characters, and introducing the problem those characters are going to face. “In act one of the messages we create, we need to establish our credibility, why we have a perspective or a point of view about that customer’s business and we need to introduce a problem in their business that we're going to have a perspective or point of view on.” Act two is the journey or the struggle. In act two of the marketing message, we have to introduce the status quo or the current actions that the customer is taking.  “Those actions are costing them something in rational and emotional ways, and we need to explore that to build some motivation.” And act three is the solution. We must suggest the next steps they need to take and connect that to our differentiators or our solution. So, what is marketing’s role in developing this narrative? Spencer says marketing should not create this message by itself. “It really is a cross-functional group that needs to come together to develop that narrative and we'd recommend marketing play a key role in that. But you also need to get the feedback of sales people who will ultimately be delivering that narrative as part of a conversation. You need to make sure that product is involved in representing the end part of that narrative where you do talk about the solution.” Think about the story you want to tell to the market and then “atomize” it. That means telling the story in bite-size content throughout your website, social media posts, sales conversations, pitch books and other channels. Listen to the whole episode to learn the three types of content you must use: Spark, Introduce, and Confront. 2. Foundational skills for sales to deliver the message Research reveals that buyers are not satisfied with the experience that sellers create in the remote selling environment.   Spencer says that it is on the shoulders of salespeople to improve that experience, to get better at presenting information, listening, using silence to build constructive tension more effectively, and having more engaging virtual experiences with customers. However, marketing must look at the narrative and give sellers compelling content to bring to the conversation. In essence, sellers need to:  Address the unique perspective they have of the customer’s business Express what that perspective means to their business  And marketers can help with more confront tools, with bite-size content for natural conversation and making it easy for sellers to create conversation. “If you can build a confront tool that can get that buyer or that buying group to really evaluate themselves and capture that data and you put that in the hands of your sales people, then they're not having to do that confront exercise on their own. They can take the output of that exercise and have a powerful conversation with the buyer around that output.” Don’t miss this episode to learn more about creating great sales messaging for sellers. 3. Arming sellers with the right content for the right time Buyers trust others in their network more than sellers. In fact, only 12% of buyers rank sellers as top trusted resources. That’s why modern sales must be done through advocates of mobilizers. Marketers have to build content not only for their sellers to use, but that B2B customers can understand and then use within their organizations to build consensus. “It has to be clear,” Spencer says. “It has to be defensible. So when they get those questions and objections, they can easily handle those because they have the resources and the information they need to be able to defend the narrative, the concept, the insight that you've presented to them.” Sellers need to identify those individuals and pass that content to them at the right moments so they can use it in consensus-building. Sales enablement tools will help teams to know what information and when it should be used to interact with customers. Listen to our conversation to learn how to measure the efficacy of your marketing content in sales conversations.

B2B buyers have changed dramatically, especially during COVID. Consider these three recent trends, for example: <ul> <li>B2B buyers are looking critically at any opportunity that comes to them, whether it comes from marketing content or from a sales conversation.</li> <li>B2B buyers are giving less access to sales people and traditional conversations. In fact, 83% of the buyer journey does not include a sales rep.</li> <li>B2B buyers place a greater priority on perspective and recommendations from people who aren't sales people, from their peers and from subject matter experts via content marketing.</li> </ul> So, as marketers, how do we approach the modern buyer? That is the topic of conversation in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine with my guest, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-wixom-26a1a837/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spencer Wixom</a>, Sr. VP Marketing at <a href="https://www.challengerinc.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Challenger</a>. Listen as Spencer unpacks marketing’s role in the modern sales experience. The 3 Pillars of the Modern Sales Experience 1. Role of messaging to the buyer “I think it's really critical for B2B marketers to think about how we are interacting with today's buyer,” Spencer says, “who is putting more scrutiny on their decisions, who's giving less access to traditional channels for education and who is listening to so many other sources.” Spencer believes that B2B marketers should use the three-act structure of classic playwriting to engage with buyers. Act one is about introducing and building the understanding of the various characters, and introducing the problem those characters are going to face. “In act one of the messages we create, we need to establish our credibility, why we have a perspective or a point of view about that customer’s business and we need to introduce a problem in their business that we're going to have a perspective or point of view on.” Act two is the journey or the struggle. In act two of the marketing message, we have to introduce the status quo or the current actions that the customer is taking.  “Those actions are costing them something in rational and emotional ways, and we need to explore that to build some motivation.” And act three is the solution. We must suggest the next steps they need to take and connect that to our differentiators or our solution. So, what is marketing’s role in developing this narrative? Spencer says marketing should not create this message by itself. “It really is a cross-functional group that needs to come together to develop that narrative and we'd recommend marketing play a key role in that. But you also need to get the feedback of sales people who will ultimately be delivering that narrative as part of a conversation. You need to make sure that product is involved in representing the end part of that narrative where you do talk about the solution.” Think about the story you want to tell to the market and then “atomize” it. That means telling the story in bite-size content throughout your website, social media posts, sales conversations, pitch books and other channels. Listen to the whole episode to learn the three types of content you must use: Spark, Introduce, and Confront. 2. Foundational skills for sales to deliver the message Research reveals that buyers are not satisfied with the experience that sellers create in the remote selling environment.   Spencer says that it is on the shoulders of salespeople to improve that experience, to get better at presenting information, listening, using silence to build constructive tension more effectively, and having more engaging virtual experiences with customers. However, marketing must look at the narrative and give sellers compelling content to bring to the conversation. In essence, sellers need to: <ol> <li>Address the unique perspective they have of the customer’s business</li> <li>Express what that perspective means to their business</li> </ol> And marketers can help with more confront tools, with bite-size content for natural conversation and making it easy for sellers to create conversation. “If you can build a confront tool that can get that buyer or that buying group to really evaluate themselves and capture that data and you put that in the hands of your sales people, then they're not having to do that confront exercise on their own. They can take the output of that exercise and have a powerful conversation with the buyer around that output.” Don’t miss this episode to learn more about creating great sales messaging for sellers. 3. Arming sellers with the right content for the right time Buyers trust others in their network more than sellers. In fact, only 12% of buyers rank sellers as top trusted resources. That’s why modern sales must be done through advocates of mobilizers. Marketers have to build content not only for their sellers to use, but that B2B customers can understand and then use within their organizations to build consensus. “It has to be clear,” Spencer says. “It has to be defensible. So when they get those questions and objections, they can easily handle those because they have the resources and the information they need to be able to defend the narrative, the concept, the insight that you've presented to them.” Sellers need to identify those individuals and pass that content to them at the right moments so they can use it in consensus-building. Sales enablement tools will help teams to know what information and when it should be used to interact with customers. Listen to our conversation to learn how to measure the efficacy of your marketing content in sales conversations.

Marketing’s Role in the Modern Sales Experience

Marketing professionals need to have a strong grip on data. These uncertain times have inspired marketers to rely less on qualitative insights and more on data-driven insights.  This is what my guest realized during 2020. Paul Cowan, CMO at FreshBooks, joins me in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast to talk about why they are doubling down on customer data marketing in 2021. FreshBooks serves mainly the small business owner segment with easy-to-use accounting software. As many organizations, the pandemic affected their business initially but it then bounced back and they started to experience growth in 2020. So, they decided to invest in a direct sales force, target international markets and focus on demand generation to accelerate growth. Join our conversation to discover how you can use customer data in your own marketing organization. Leveraging Customer Data Marketing Paul says that after 15 years of operations, FreshBooks realized they were sitting on a lot of data they had not previously leveraged. For instance, they had a tremendous amount of invoice and expense data within the SMB universe ― 15 years of historical data on how small businesses have either created revenue or spent their money.  For example, looking at the data, they discovered some interesting trends and published a report on the impact that Covid had on women business owners and how it took them longer to recover than their male counterparts in many different industries. “When we talk about the opportunity in data marketing,” Paul says, “we're sitting on this huge resource to be able to turn that to our customers or to prospects in the industry in general and say hey, here's how your business should be performing, here are all the historical norms that you should be expecting your business to do.”  Besides reports on specific trends, FreshBooks has created gated microsites with specific information related to particular verticals and industries. “People can go through and see how their vertical looks, how it has changed and be able to drive insights into their business so it helps them with their planning and then eventually, we all assume that it's going to then help drive activity back to us and convert through the funnel.” This focus on content marketing using data has been driving leads for FreshBooks. Furthermore, data on their engagement with the content brings even more insights on their customers that then they can use to improve their marketing efforts. “The cool thing is that it's like this virtuous data circle where it all started with knowing something about our customer and then bringing other people in and then progressively knowing more about them because they engage with customer data. We'll bring them all through and then at the end of it all it helps us improve our overall funnel efficacy and in our conversion rates overall.” We also discussed the dynamics of the current marketing team and why it is important for marketers to understand data analytics and the sales process.  Listen to this episode to learn more about how FreshBooks is using customer data to improve marketing and how they incorporate the feedback from their sales teams.

Marketing professionals need to have a strong grip on data. These uncertain times have inspired marketers to rely less on qualitative insights and more on data-driven insights.  This is what my guest realized during 2020. Paul Cowan, CMO at FreshBooks, joins me in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast to talk about why they are doubling down on customer data marketing in 2021. FreshBooks serves mainly the small business owner segment with easy-to-use accounting software. As many organizations, the pandemic affected their business initially but it then bounced back and they started to experience growth in 2020. So, they decided to invest in a direct sales force, target international markets and focus on demand generation to accelerate growth. Join our conversation to discover how you can use customer data in your own marketing organization. Leveraging Customer Data Marketing Paul says that after 15 years of operations, FreshBooks realized they were sitting on a lot of data they had not previously leveraged. For instance, they had a tremendous amount of invoice and expense data within the SMB universe ― 15 years of historical data on how small businesses have either created revenue or spent their money.  For example, looking at the data, they discovered some interesting trends and published a report on the impact that Covid had on women business owners and how it took them longer to recover than their male counterparts in many different industries. “When we talk about the opportunity in data marketing,” Paul says, “we're sitting on this huge resource to be able to turn that to our customers or to prospects in the industry in general and say hey, here's how your business should be performing, here are all the historical norms that you should be expecting your business to do.”  Besides reports on specific trends, FreshBooks has created gated microsites with specific information related to particular verticals and industries. “People can go through and see how their vertical looks, how it has changed and be able to drive insights into their business so it helps them with their planning and then eventually, we all assume that it's going to then help drive activity back to us and convert through the funnel.” This focus on content marketing using data has been driving leads for FreshBooks. Furthermore, data on their engagement with the content brings even more insights on their customers that then they can use to improve their marketing efforts. “The cool thing is that it's like this virtuous data circle where it all started with knowing something about our customer and then bringing other people in and then progressively knowing more about them because they engage with customer data. We'll bring them all through and then at the end of it all it helps us improve our overall funnel efficacy and in our conversion rates overall.” We also discussed the dynamics of the current marketing team and why it is important for marketers to understand data analytics and the sales process.  Listen to this episode to learn more about how FreshBooks is using customer data to improve marketing and how they incorporate the feedback from their sales teams.

The Importance of Customer Data Marketing for Modern Marketers

The pandemic hit just about every industry hard and many companies are still trying to recover. That’s why stories of B2B companies helping out others around them are so encouraging. And I’m excited to bring you one such story in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. My guest is Kathie Johnson, CMO at Talkdesk, a cloud-based contact center, unified communications and artificial intelligence software provider. Customers use their contact center software to scale and improve their customer support experience. Traditionally, customer support was limited to call centers, which involved agents receiving phone calls. But today they're really contact centers because when people reach out for service or support or to even purchase online, they use many different channels, not just the phone. “We like to say we're the best solution for those companies who are customer-obsessed,” says Kathie. Listen to this episode to discover how Talkdesk became a mission-driven organization during the Covid crisis. Mission Driven Marketing in Response to Crisis At the start of 2020, Talkdesk had plans to launch 20 new products. But then, Covid happened. “It was a fun marketing campaign idea,” Kathie says. “But the world had shifted, what was important to people had really shifted. So we pulled together a group of people across the company to say, what can we do to help? You know, we said we're customer obsessed, so we want to figure out, what can we do to help our customers, other companies and the community at large?” As a result, Talkdesk revisited their 20 in 2020, and launched a program called Business Continuity, with 12 of the original 20 offers. Pre-Covid, 5% of the workforce in the US worked in a contact center, and 85% of them worked on-premises. That meant that many organizations would face a challenge to get their employees remote and safe. “In a contact center, they're sitting three feet apart,” Kathie says. “There are hundreds or thousands of people in a room making calls or answering emails. So this was a pretty big issue for companies. How do I get my employees out of the building? And how do I still maintain productivity for my business?” They rolled out their strategy in the following three phases. Phase 1: Get Remote The first challenge was to get employees remote and fast. They launched this offer on March 4th, helping clients get remote in only 24 hours, and offered the service for free to industries like travel and hospitality. Not only that, but they launched Mobile, to allow employees to connect from their phones. Phase 2 : Get Productive By March 21, Talkdesk began phase 2, to get employees productive and leverage AI and training to help not only their clients, but people in the community. In this phase, Talkdesk launched a new gig economy platform, called CX Talent, which trained people to become certified agents or supervisors in a matter of hours and then paired them with companies looking for agents.  “This was one way we could really help not only our customers who needed to hire agents quickly in remote locations who are trained, but also to help people out in the world who all of a sudden were displaced and didn't have a form of income.” Phase 3: Permanent Remote In the summer, Talkdesk began thinking about the future of their clients, anticipating there would be a new normal, where remote working could be permanent. So on July 1st, they launched phase 3 with remote management solutions and solutions against fraud and for authentication. This is now a reality, where remote selling is the norm and our customers are working from home. “We're still in Phase 3,” Kathie says. “Companies today are still making the decision on what their contact centers will look like in the future. I believe most will be hybrid. But some people are going back into offices and we'll have people working in buildings again.” The Impact on Marketing and Sales The marketing team at Talkdesk was doing full-throttle marketing at this time, educating analysts, sending out press releases, raising awareness through thought leadership and blogs. “There was no playbook for Covid for any marketer,” Kathie says. “But we really found that people had a huge appetite for content. So we spent a lot of time writing content to help companies and people understand what's happening, the impact on the business and how we could help them continue to survive and hopefully thrive in this environment. So full-funnel marketing across every offer is we brought to market.”  Kathie says that the sales team at Talkdesk really embraced the challenge of offering free services and giving back to the community.  “This is why I talk about this as being mission-driven,” she says, “the way that we could help people, the way that we could help the community, the way that we could help companies. I think everyone at Talkdesk rallied behind that.” Listen to this episode to learn more about what Talkdesk is continuing to do in phase 3 and innovating in driven-mission marketing.

The pandemic hit just about every industry hard and many companies are still trying to recover. That’s why stories of B2B companies helping out others around them are so encouraging. And I’m excited to bring you one such story in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. My guest is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathiecjohnson/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kathie Johnson</a>, CMO at <a href="https://www.talkdesk.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Talkdesk</a>, a cloud-based contact center, unified communications and artificial intelligence software provider. Customers use their contact center software to scale and improve their customer support experience. Traditionally, customer support was limited to call centers, which involved agents receiving phone calls. But today they're really contact centers because when people reach out for service or support or to even purchase online, they use many different channels, not just the phone. “We like to say we're the best solution for those companies who are customer-obsessed,” says Kathie. Listen to this episode to discover how Talkdesk became a mission-driven organization during the Covid crisis. Mission Driven Marketing in Response to Crisis At the start of 2020, Talkdesk had plans to launch 20 new products. But then, Covid happened. “It was a fun marketing campaign idea,” Kathie says. “But the world had shifted, what was important to people had really shifted. So we pulled together a group of people across the company to say, what can we do to help? You know, we said we're customer obsessed, so we want to figure out, what can we do to help our customers, other companies and the community at large?” As a result, Talkdesk revisited their 20 in 2020, and launched a program called Business Continuity, with 12 of the original 20 offers. Pre-Covid, 5% of the workforce in the US worked in a contact center, and 85% of them worked on-premises. That meant that many organizations would face a challenge to get their employees remote and safe. “In a contact center, they're sitting three feet apart,” Kathie says. “There are hundreds or thousands of people in a room making calls or answering emails. So this was a pretty big issue for companies. How do I get my employees out of the building? And how do I still maintain productivity for my business?” They rolled out their strategy in the following three phases. Phase 1: Get Remote The first challenge was to get employees remote and fast. They launched this offer on March 4th, helping clients get remote in only 24 hours, and offered the service for free to industries like travel and hospitality. Not only that, but they launched Mobile, to allow employees to connect from their phones. Phase 2 : Get Productive By March 21, Talkdesk began phase 2, to get employees productive and leverage AI and training to help not only their clients, but people in the community. In this phase, Talkdesk launched a new gig economy platform, called CX Talent, which trained people to become certified agents or supervisors in a matter of hours and then paired them with companies looking for agents.  “This was one way we could really help not only our customers who needed to hire agents quickly in remote locations who are trained, but also to help people out in the world who all of a sudden were displaced and didn't have a form of income.” Phase 3: Permanent Remote In the summer, Talkdesk began thinking about the future of their clients, anticipating there would be a new normal, where remote working could be permanent. So on July 1st, they launched phase 3 with remote management solutions and solutions against fraud and for authentication. This is now a reality, where <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/what-is-remote-selling" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">remote selling</a> is the norm and our customers are working from home. “We're still in Phase 3,” Kathie says. “Companies today are still making the decision on what their contact centers will look like in the future. I believe most will be hybrid. But some people are going back into offices and we'll have people working in buildings again.” The Impact on Marketing and Sales The marketing team at Talkdesk was doing full-throttle marketing at this time, educating analysts, sending out press releases, raising awareness through thought leadership and blogs. “There was no playbook for Covid for any marketer,” Kathie says. “But we really found that people had a huge appetite for content. So we spent a lot of time writing content to help companies and people understand what's happening, the impact on the business and how we could help them continue to survive and hopefully thrive in this environment. So full-funnel marketing across every offer is we brought to market.”  Kathie says that the sales team at Talkdesk really embraced the challenge of offering free services and giving back to the community.  “This is why I talk about this as being mission-driven,” she says, “the way that we could help people, the way that we could help the community, the way that we could help companies. I think everyone at Talkdesk rallied behind that.” Listen to this episode to learn more about what Talkdesk is continuing to do in phase 3 and innovating in driven-mission marketing.

Mission-Driven Marketing and Sales

What is the future of buying and selling? How do marketing and sales approach digital native decision-makers? That is the topic of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine with my guest, Dave Boyce. Dave is the Chief Strategy Officer, XANT, where he divides his time between corporate development, corporate strategy, and operational strategy. He is also a board member of Forrester Research Inc. since 2017. This episode was inspired by two articles that Dave published on LinkedIn:   The Future of Buying  The Future of Sales  Join us in this conversation to learn why marketers must understand the  modern buyer. The Journey of the Modern Buyer Both marketers and sellers must be aware of the changes to their buyer personas in the past year.  Today, our buyers are sitting in their living room, the people who are signing purchase orders are at home, almost nobody is at an office. That means that almost everyone involved in the decision process is using digital channels to research potential suppliers. Dave says the modern buyer is a digital native. That means that:  They will do independent research online about our products and our competitors They don’t like to fill out forms so they will rely on ungated content They trust their network and will ask other people for recommendations and experiences  After the steps described above, the buyer is now 60% to 70% of their way towards understanding their options. “The remaining amount of her journey,” Dave says, “she's going to have to do collaboratively with the sales team. But her silent partner during that 70% of her journey was our marketing team. Not that they were talking to her, but they were publishing and orchestrating and curating a learning journey that was either easy to use and therefore she really leaned into it or is less easy to use and therefore she learned from our competitor.” Marketing needs to focus on providing a great experience during the modern buyer’s journey, even if it means ungating content.  Dave says that instead of collecting information through forms, marketers can use technology like intent signals. This technology tracks searches from domains to know when people from certain companies are searching for specific terms related to your solutions. Then it can flag your CRM so you can do outreach to existing contacts from those companies. The Modern Seller In the US, 56% of the B2B sales force were field sellers. But with now remote selling being the norm, those sellers are either out of a job or doing something different. And the truth is that buyers like the new normal and don’t want to go back to the old field sales model. “The buyer doesn't want protracted exchanges with the salesperson,” Dave says. “They don't want to retreat again from acquiring information digitally. They don't want us to force them into the conference room to have a stakeholder meeting with a white board. They actually like the way it's working right now and it's better for everybody. If we're honest with ourselves as salespeople, we're more efficient. If we're not spending our time navigating airports and trains and cabs and Ubers and instead we're on the job of selling most of our time. So it's not going back. We have to figure out how to lean into the future and do it faster than our competition.” Sales leaders must now focus on modernizing their sales teams with the five modern seller attributes:  Fast (answering to their messages quickly) Always-online (engage the buyer when they want to engage) Customer-centric (being empathetic, sympathetic and helpful) Content-rich (adding value with information that is helpful to the buyer) Technology-enabled (it's not just Zoom and LinkedIn but the entire marketing and tech stack, including a CRM and sales prospecting tools)  “It's all about being where the buyer is and being a resource to the buyer,” Dave says. Don’t miss this episode to hear some great insights from Dave about the role of the modern seller.

What is the future of buying and selling? How do marketing and sales approach digital native decision-makers? That is the topic of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine with my guest, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/boycedave/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dave Boyce</a>. Dave is the Chief Strategy Officer, XANT, where he divides his time between corporate development, corporate strategy, and operational strategy. He is also a board member of Forrester Research Inc. since 2017. This episode was inspired by two articles that Dave published on LinkedIn: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-buying-dave-boyce/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Future of Buying</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-sales-dave-boyce/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Future of Sales</a></li> </ul> Join us in this conversation to learn why marketers must understand the <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/anatomy-modern-buyer-modern-seller" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> modern buyer</a>. The Journey of the Modern Buyer Both marketers and sellers must be aware of the changes to their buyer personas in the past year.  Today, our buyers are sitting in their living room, the people who are signing purchase orders are at home, almost nobody is at an office. That means that almost everyone involved in the decision process is using digital channels to research potential suppliers. Dave says the modern buyer is a digital native. That means that: <ul> <li>They will do independent research online about our products and our competitors</li> <li>They don’t like to fill out forms so they will rely on ungated content</li> <li>They trust their network and will ask other people for recommendations and experiences</li> </ul> After the steps described above, the buyer is now 60% to 70% of their way towards understanding their options. “The remaining amount of her journey,” Dave says, “she's going to have to do collaboratively with the sales team. But her silent partner during that 70% of her journey was our marketing team. Not that they were talking to her, but they were publishing and orchestrating and curating a learning journey that was either easy to use and therefore she really leaned into it or is less easy to use and therefore she learned from our competitor.” Marketing needs to focus on providing a great experience during the modern buyer’s journey, even if it means ungating content.  Dave says that instead of collecting information through forms, marketers can use technology like intent signals. This technology tracks searches from domains to know when people from certain companies are searching for specific terms related to your solutions. Then it can flag your CRM so you can do outreach to existing contacts from those companies. The Modern Seller In the US, 56% of the B2B sales force were field sellers. But with now <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/what-is-remote-selling" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">remote selling</a> being the norm, those sellers are either out of a job or doing something different. And the truth is that buyers like the new normal and don’t want to go back to the old field sales model. “The buyer doesn't want protracted exchanges with the salesperson,” Dave says. “They don't want to retreat again from acquiring information digitally. They don't want us to force them into the conference room to have a stakeholder meeting with a white board. They actually like the way it's working right now and it's better for everybody. If we're honest with ourselves as salespeople, we're more efficient. If we're not spending our time navigating airports and trains and cabs and Ubers and instead we're on the job of selling most of our time. So it's not going back. We have to figure out how to lean into the future and do it faster than our competition.” Sales leaders must now focus on modernizing their sales teams with the five modern seller attributes: <ol> <li>Fast (answering to their messages quickly)</li> <li>Always-online (engage the buyer when they want to engage)</li> <li>Customer-centric (being empathetic, sympathetic and helpful)</li> <li>Content-rich (adding value with information that is helpful to the buyer)</li> <li>Technology-enabled (it's not just Zoom and LinkedIn but the entire marketing and tech stack, including a CRM and sales prospecting tools)</li> </ol> “It's all about being where the buyer is and being a resource to the buyer,” Dave says. Don’t miss this episode to hear some great insights from Dave about the role of the modern seller.

The Future of B2B Buying and Selling

This is a different, but very special, episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. My guest is Hang Black, VP, Revenue Enablement, Juniper Networks and I invited her to talk about her new book, Embrace Your Edge: Pave Your Own Path as an Immigrant Woman in the Workplace. This book has the potential to be life-changing for some. Hang says the idea for this book was in her head for a decade. It not only describes Hang’s experience as a Vietnamese immigrant to the United States, but also deals with important issues of  diversity and inclusion in the workplace. So don’t miss our fascinating conversation about inclusion, diversity and access from a perspective you haven’t seen before. Tokenism Although Hang was raised in a diverse culture, she really never felt included or excluded. As an Asian, she wasn’t shunned from the black community when growing up, but neither was she fully embraced -- and the same thing happened within the white community. “One of the reasons I wrote the book was there's a lot of conversation about diversity and inclusion,” Hang says, “but it's an incomplete conversation without a discussion about access.” Whether it’s women or ethnic minorities, more and more people are gaining access to leadership roles in the workplace. Nonetheless, they may still be a minority. Hang explains that minorities are the smaller population in the room. However, when there is only one person of a minority group at the table, that person may feel that she got a token seat and will try to hold onto that position at all costs --unintentionally excluding others. This is known as the Queen Bee syndrome. Hang thinks this needs to change. “I never ever proposed a revolution,” she says. “I prefer Evolution. And that's where I'm trying to have these very frank conversations because the most heartbreaking thing for me is to see minorities who bemoan injustice, turn around and do the same to other minorities behind them.” Building Access The reality is that sometimes a person from a minority is invited to the table because there was a diversity initiative.  “So the question is,” Hang says, “once you get to the table, do you have a voice? Do you have your role? Do you know what your goal is at the table? Are you sitting, are you serving or are you speaking? They’re all very different things.” Access is not just about getting to the table, but once you get there, how much voice are you allowed to have? And if you don't have a voice, how do you gain that voice?  Hang’s experience is that there will always come a point in a person’s career where they will need to find a person who will give them access to opportunities where meritocracy is not enough. “Meritocracy works for a while, it works through the individual contributor ranks. But as you move up, you need to find a person who will show you the secret door and give you the secret code. That's what access is.” The people who will help others move along the journey to the top are a combination of mentors, sponsors and allies. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to learn the difference and how to identify them. Intentional Evolution Hang says that there needs to be an intentional evolution in the conversation about diversity and inclusion. That means we need to get to a point where it is not an issue, but it just happens. And it all begins with leadership. “It's so important to ensure that leaders not only talk the talk, but they walk the walk,” Hang says. “Every executive has about three to five people in their closest circle. In that circle, do they have any one that represents diversity? Even if it's just one. There are many categories of diversity: age, tenure, religion, gender, all of that stuff. And if they don't, my challenge to leaders is: are you willing to find someone, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it goes into a little bit of a lower rank than you're used to, because there have not been enough women and minorities promoted?” Embrace Your Edge Hang wrote Embrace Your Edge for the next generation, those who are exhausted, for people who don’t have access and for people in power to understand this population. This book is written for those who did not inherit access, but who have clawed their way to earn every step forward. It is written for those with will and grit, who are searching for guidance to build their own powerful networks and to shape their own destinies.  This book is dedicated to those who are highly capable but may be exhausted or stuck.  This book is also written for those in power who want to attract these scrappy ones, the often diverse talent pool who possess an innate entrepreneurial spirit. And for this audience, the book is written without anger or accusation, but with a simple mission to seek mutual understanding and support. Listen to the entire episode to discover more on this important topic from Hang Black.  

This is a different, but very special, episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. My guest is Hang Black, VP, Revenue Enablement, Juniper Networks and I invited her to talk about her new book, <a href="https://hangwithhang.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Embrace Your Edge: Pave Your Own Path as an Immigrant Woman in the Workplace</a>. This book has the potential to be life-changing for some. Hang says the idea for this book was in her head for a decade. It not only describes Hang’s experience as a Vietnamese immigrant to the United States, but also deals with important issues of <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/inclusion-diversity-in-sales-enrich-workplace-sara-jones" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> diversity and inclusion</a> in the workplace. So don’t miss our fascinating conversation about inclusion, diversity and access from a perspective you haven’t seen before. Tokenism Although Hang was raised in a diverse culture, she really never felt included or excluded. As an Asian, she wasn’t shunned from the black community when growing up, but neither was she fully embraced -- and the same thing happened within the white community. “One of the reasons I wrote the book was there's a lot of conversation about diversity and inclusion,” Hang says, “but it's an incomplete conversation without a discussion about access.” Whether it’s women or ethnic minorities, more and more people are gaining access to leadership roles in the workplace. Nonetheless, they may still be a minority. Hang explains that minorities are the smaller population in the room. However, when there is only one person of a minority group at the table, that person may feel that she got a token seat and will try to hold onto that position at all costs --unintentionally excluding others. This is known as the Queen Bee syndrome. Hang thinks this needs to change. “I never ever proposed a revolution,” she says. “I prefer Evolution. And that's where I'm trying to have these very frank conversations because the most heartbreaking thing for me is to see minorities who bemoan injustice, turn around and do the same to other minorities behind them.” Building Access The reality is that sometimes a person from a minority is invited to the table because there was a diversity initiative.  “So the question is,” Hang says, “once you get to the table, do you have a voice? Do you have your role? Do you know what your goal is at the table? Are you sitting, are you serving or are you speaking? They’re all very different things.” Access is not just about getting to the table, but once you get there, how much voice are you allowed to have? And if you don't have a voice, how do you gain that voice?  Hang’s experience is that there will always come a point in a person’s career where they will need to find a person who will give them access to opportunities where meritocracy is not enough. “Meritocracy works for a while, it works through the individual contributor ranks. But as you move up, you need to find a person who will show you the secret door and give you the secret code. That's what access is.” The people who will help others move along the journey to the top are a combination of mentors, sponsors and allies. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to learn the difference and how to identify them. Intentional Evolution Hang says that there needs to be an intentional evolution in the conversation about diversity and inclusion. That means we need to get to a point where it is not an issue, but it just happens. And it all begins with leadership. “It's so important to ensure that leaders not only talk the talk, but they walk the walk,” Hang says. “Every executive has about three to five people in their closest circle. In that circle, do they have any one that represents diversity? Even if it's just one. There are many categories of diversity: age, tenure, religion, gender, all of that stuff. And if they don't, my challenge to leaders is: are you willing to find someone, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it goes into a little bit of a lower rank than you're used to, because there have not been enough women and minorities promoted?” Embrace Your Edge Hang wrote Embrace Your Edge for the next generation, those who are exhausted, for people who don’t have access and for people in power to understand this population. This book is written for those who did not inherit access, but who have clawed their way to earn every step forward. It is written for those with will and grit, who are searching for guidance to build their own powerful networks and to shape their own destinies.  This book is dedicated to those who are highly capable but may be exhausted or stuck.  This book is also written for those in power who want to attract these scrappy ones, the often diverse talent pool who possess an innate entrepreneurial spirit. And for this audience, the book is written without anger or accusation, but with a simple mission to seek mutual understanding and support. Listen to the entire episode to discover more on this important topic from Hang Black.

Shifting the Conversation of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

The Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges is the podcast for the modern marketer who wants to hear from their peers in the trenches and the occasional analyst or rock-star-influencer sharing strategies and tactics about what’s working in modern marketing. Show notes are available at http://bit.ly/MME-show

Extreme useful social media marketing information.  Looking forward to more!

Great show!

One of the best podcasts on social business I&#39;ve ever heard! Thank you Bernie!

Great podcast

The Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges is the podcast for the modern marketer who wants to hear from their peers in the trenches and the occasional analyst or rock-star-influencer sharing strategies and tactics about what’s working in modern marketing. Show notes are available at <a href="http://bit.ly/MME-show" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/MME-show</a>

Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges

Discover how Deloitte South Africa has advanced on their social business journey in their region of the world and how they collaborate on a global scale. 

Discover how Deloitte South Africa has advanced on their social business journey in their region of the world and how they collaborate on a global scale.

Deloitte South Africa's Social Business Journey

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Innovation and Florida are in the same sentence at Synapse, a company that’s deploying a ground-breaking methodology to connect all business personas within a multifaceted ecosystem. Brian Kornfeld, co-founder and Head of Operations at Synapse, is featured on this episode of Social Business Engine and shares the inspiring story behind this breakout company’s impact on innovation in a region that isn’t widely recognized for innovation. Brian explains the 3 key elements to Synapse and shares why the timing has never been better for innovation and entrepreneurial ventures to flourish in the Tampa Bay area. He also offers insights into the 2019 Synapse Innovation Summit and what’s to come for the company’s future. This conversation includes examples of innovative companies in Tampa Bay and is key to understanding why Florida is a hotspot for entrepreneurship and innovation. The 8 different personas found in business and entrepreneurship are all united under the Synapse ecosystem. Brian and Bernie’s conversation provides insights into the value of this ecosystem in the Tampa Bay Area and throughout the state of Florida, so be sure to listen. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. Synapse: 3 Platforms Uniting the 8 Business Personas Synapse was born out of a desire to create a connected business community in the Tampa Bay area to accelerate innovation. It’s improving the brand of the city by joining innovation and entrepreneurship while boosting the economy. Synapse has 3 main platforms: publishing, web platforms, and live events. These 3 platforms cohesively focus on the 8 personas Brian and his team believe are critical to business growth:  Entrepreneurs Investors Government Agencies Service Providers Large Scale Corporations Talent (people) Educational Institutions Entrepreneurial Incubators  The Tampa Bay business community has been energized over the past decade and its growth shows no signs of slowing. Synapse is helping to overcome the stigmas of “no money, no talent, no customers” that has plagued the area. Brian shares his passion for Synapse and its goals in a way that may convince you to relocate to Tampa Bay, or expand your business footprint in the area, so be sure to listen. Using Live Events and a Powerful Digital Platform to Achieve the Synapse Vision Synapse’s two largest platforms, web and live events, seek to achieve two main goals: enabling connections in the local community and attracting people to the Tampa Bay innovation ecosystem. The web platform is an online community that spans the geographical distance that separates businesses across the state of Florida, not just in Tampa Bay. The platform is free to join and offers members multiple ways to connect with other members including: 1 to 1 connections, innovation challenges sponsored by local businesses, articles and videos, local events, jobs and internships, topical discussions and more. The idea behind the Synapse web platform is to make it easy for anyone in the local business community to thrive by providing an ecosystem that encourages collaboration and innovation whether you’re starting a new business or you want to expand your current business in the area. The second annual Synapse Innovation Summit was held in March 2018 and brought over 3,200 attendees to Tampa Bay and injected an unprecedented level of energy and buzz into the local entrepreneurial sphere. Brian explains that “It made a dent in the universe” in Tampa Bay and his team is already planning the Synapse Innovation Summit 2019. Future Goals for Synapse and the Innovation Ecosystems in Tampa Bay Brian’s biggest goal for Synapse in the coming years is to accelerate the community feel of the innovation ecosystem that exists in Tampa Bay. He wants to engage “The other 90%” of the community that’s not currently connected to Synapse. Hosting corporate innovation challenges, bringing in world class speakers for the Synapse Innovation Summit, and producing better research results on smaller budgets are all goals the Synapse team is focusing on. If you’re interested in learning how you can harness the energy Synapse is creating in Tampa Bay to inspire and accelerate innovation, give this episode your full attention. Featured on This Episode  Video conversation on YouTube Connect with Brian on Linkedin Follow Synapse on Twitter: @SynapseFL Synapse website and platform Synapse’s 2018 Innovation Summit Tech Data company Publix stores ConnectWise company ARTICLE: “5 Insights for Entrepreneurs” USSOCOM agency University of South Florida College of Engineering Gasparilla Parade of Pirates  Outline of This Episode  [0:31] Bernie introduces his guest for this episode, Brian Kornfeld of Synapse [1:46] What is Synapse? [3:02] The 3 major platforms of Synapse [5:24] Why the timing’s right for Synapse to grow and accelerate in Tampa Bay [8:44] The brilliant idea behind Synapse’s web platform [12:35] Injecting creative energy into Tampa Bay through the Innovation Summit events [14:46] Brian looks toward the future of Synapse  Resources &amp; People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP, our sponsor for this episode. It’s available for download, ungated here.  Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way”   In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing.   The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> Innovation and Florida are in the same sentence at Synapse, a company that’s deploying a ground-breaking methodology to connect all business personas within a multifaceted ecosystem. Brian Kornfeld, co-founder and Head of Operations at Synapse, is featured on this episode of Social Business Engine and shares the inspiring story behind this breakout company’s impact on innovation in a region that isn’t widely recognized for innovation. Brian explains the 3 key elements to Synapse and shares why the timing has never been better for innovation and entrepreneurial ventures to flourish in the Tampa Bay area. He also offers insights into the 2019 Synapse Innovation Summit and what’s to come for the company’s future. This conversation includes examples of innovative companies in Tampa Bay and is key to understanding why Florida is a hotspot for entrepreneurship and innovation. The 8 different personas found in business and entrepreneurship are all united under the Synapse ecosystem. Brian and Bernie’s conversation provides insights into the value of this ecosystem in the Tampa Bay Area and throughout the state of Florida, so be sure to listen. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “<a href="https://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.</a>” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. Synapse: 3 Platforms Uniting the 8 Business Personas Synapse was born out of a desire to create a connected business community in the Tampa Bay area to accelerate innovation. It’s improving the brand of the city by joining innovation and entrepreneurship while boosting the economy. Synapse has 3 main platforms: publishing, web platforms, and live events. These 3 platforms cohesively focus on the 8 personas Brian and his team believe are critical to business growth: <ol> <li>Entrepreneurs</li> <li>Investors</li> <li>Government Agencies</li> <li>Service Providers</li> <li>Large Scale Corporations</li> <li>Talent (people)</li> <li>Educational Institutions</li> <li>Entrepreneurial Incubators</li> </ol> The Tampa Bay business community has been energized over the past decade and its growth shows no signs of slowing. Synapse is helping to overcome the stigmas of “no money, no talent, no customers” that has plagued the area. Brian shares his passion for Synapse and its goals in a way that may convince you to relocate to Tampa Bay, or expand your business footprint in the area, so be sure to listen. Using Live Events and a Powerful Digital Platform to Achieve the Synapse Vision Synapse’s two largest platforms, web and live events, seek to achieve two main goals: enabling connections in the local community and attracting people to the Tampa Bay innovation ecosystem. The web platform is an online community that spans the geographical distance that separates businesses across the state of Florida, not just in Tampa Bay. The platform is free to join and offers members multiple ways to connect with other members including: 1 to 1 connections, innovation challenges sponsored by local businesses, articles and videos, local events, jobs and internships, topical discussions and more. The idea behind the Synapse web platform is to make it easy for anyone in the local business community to thrive by providing an ecosystem that encourages collaboration and innovation whether you’re starting a new business or you want to expand your current business in the area. The second annual Synapse Innovation Summit was held in March 2018 and brought over 3,200 attendees to Tampa Bay and injected an unprecedented level of energy and buzz into the local entrepreneurial sphere. Brian explains that “It made a dent in the universe” in Tampa Bay and his team is already planning the Synapse Innovation Summit 2019. Future Goals for Synapse and the Innovation Ecosystems in Tampa Bay Brian’s biggest goal for Synapse in the coming years is to accelerate the community feel of the innovation ecosystem that exists in Tampa Bay. He wants to engage “The other 90%” of the community that’s not currently connected to Synapse. Hosting corporate innovation challenges, bringing in world class speakers for the Synapse Innovation Summit, and producing better research results on smaller budgets are all goals the Synapse team is focusing on. If you’re interested in learning how you can harness the energy Synapse is creating in Tampa Bay to inspire and accelerate innovation, give this episode your full attention. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Video conversation on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/vengreso" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li> <li>Connect with Brian on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-kornfeld-mba-53613030/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Linkedin</a></li> <li>Follow Synapse on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/synapsefl" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@SynapseFL</a></li> <li>Synapse website <a href="http://synapsefl.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">and platform</a></li> <li><a href="http://synapsefl.com/innovationsummit2018/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Synapse’s 2018 Innovation Summit</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.techdata.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Tech Data company</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.publix.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Publix stores</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.connectwise.com/company/about-us" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ConnectWise company</a></li> <li>ARTICLE: <a href="http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/5_Insights_for_entrepreneurs/$File/5_Insights_for_entrepreneurs.pdf" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">“5 Insights for Entrepreneurs”</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.socom.mil/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">USSOCOM agency</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.usf.edu/engineering/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">University of South Florida College of Engineering</a></li> <li><a href="http://gasparillapiratefest.com/main-festival/parade/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gasparilla Parade of Pirates</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:31] Bernie introduces his guest for this episode, Brian Kornfeld of Synapse</li> <li>[1:46] What is Synapse?</li> <li>[3:02] The 3 major platforms of Synapse</li> <li>[5:24] Why the timing’s right for Synapse to grow and accelerate in Tampa Bay</li> <li>[8:44] The brilliant idea behind Synapse’s web platform</li> <li>[12:35] Injecting creative energy into Tampa Bay through the Innovation Summit events</li> <li>[14:46] Brian looks toward the future of Synapse</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP, our sponsor for this episode. It’s available for download, <a href="http://vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ungated here</a>. <ul> <li>Grab your copy of “<a href="http://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way</a>”</li> </ul> <ul> <li>In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/5-most-influential-topics-b2b-marketing" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing</a>.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a>

How Synapse is Transforming Tampa Bay through Innovation Ecosystems

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts The path to leadership in marketing can be a daunting one for women. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Tricia Sacchetti, VP of Worldwide Marketing for Learning Tree International, a leader in the IT training industry. Tricia shares the story of her journey to a marketing leadership role and provides actionable advice for women looking to have a fulfilling career in marketing including earning leadership roles in their organizations. Tricia initially started her career in journalism but found that the industry was a hard one to break into. She took her communications background and applied it to marketing instead. She has since worked her way to the head of worldwide marketing in the leading provider of IT training, an industry dominated by male leadership. Tricia is passionate about being a role model for other women on their journey in their marketing careers. This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to www.gong.io to get started. Mentorship Is Key To Building A Successful Career for Women in Marketing No matter what industry you are in learning from other leaders’ experience is invaluable. Women especially stand to gain by associating with other women leaders in marketing. When done properly, a mentor can help women navigate career decisions, provide insights into other people’s leadership styles, and help propel them in the right direction.   A mentor can help women narrow their focus and niche into an appropriate marketing discipline as experience is gained. Many corporations have mentorship programs, so Tricia recommends check with the HR department before reaching out to individuals directly. There are also programs through LinkedIn and LeanIn.org where women can find join a local LeanIn Circle and build strong relationships with other women.  How Women Can Gain Visibility Early In Their Career Visibility is a key component of reaching higher levels of leadership in an organization, but the question is, how should women in marketing make themselves more visible? Tricia recommends finding projects to work on that showcase your skills and your leadership ability. Also, offer to help members of the leadership staff with tasks and projects that they are working on. Becoming visible requires time and a willingness to put in good hard work, but the return on that time usually pays off. By offering your time and skills, reaching out to other women in the organization, and making yourself available, you are showing your willingness to learn and grow. That drive and need to succeed will get you noticed. What Does It Mean To Be “Stratactical” As Women In Marketing Tricia has come up with her own word to describe an affliction that affects many women in the workforce. Women typically have a “do it all myself” mentality but need to learn to delegate tasks and think strategically while executing tactical details. A certain level of hands-on is needed to show that you can do the work, but remember that not every task is tactical, some are administrative. Women in marketing looking to be effective women leaders in marketing can only get to that pinnacle if they learn how to distinguish career priorities. Tricia warns that the more tasks you take on, the more your organization will put on your plate, but becoming a leader does not mean taking on every task. Think strategically about your career as well as the needs of your organization and execute those tactical moves needed to get you to your goals. Properly Navigating Workplace Culture Leads To Greater Opportunity Every organization has a vibe to its company culture that influences behavior and action in the workplace. Aside from linking up with a credible and invested mentor, understanding and navigating the culture in your organization will help women propel forward in their career. Attempt to understand the organization’s culture and model actions and decisions accordingly. Finding a mentor, understanding workplace culture, making yourself visible, and learning how to be stratactical are the keys to successfully becoming a woman of leadership in marketing. Tricia’s final advice for women in marketing is to be authentic, recognize your value within an organization, and realize when you’re the one holding yourself back. If you don’t have the skills needed for a role, learn them, and be enthusiastic about the drive to learn. Marketing needs women in leadership roles, and the roles are there. Follow Tricia’s advice to help you - and other women in your life - enjoy a fulfilling career in marketing. Featured on This Episode  Tricia on Twitter: @piscestls Tricia on LinkedIn Tricia on Instagram Learning Tree International LTI on Twitter: @LearningTree LTI on LinkedIn LTI on Facebook: @LearningTreeIntl LTI on YouTube Lean In Circles  Outline of This Episode  [01:18] Welcome Tricia Sacchetti, VP of Worldwide Marketing at Learning Tree International (LTI). [02:37] Learn more about Tricia, LTI, and her role there. [04:38] Tricia shares more about her journey into marketing. [05:49] What is the first piece of advice Tricia shares with women in marketing? [07:07] How should women seek out mentors in their industry? [08:55] Should women in marketing seek out a niche or stay in a generalist role?  [11:34] Hear Tricia expand on a pivotal moment in her career and ABM versus ABE. [15:05] Tricia shares words of wisdom for creating visibility on the path to leadership. [17:40] What does stratactical mean and how do you use it? [20:38] Tricia gives advice on navigating the dynamics of culture in the workplace. [25:13] Bernie begins his summary of the conversation. [29:44] Hear Tricia’s final addition to the episode.  Resources &amp; People Mentioned This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to www.gong.io to get started.  LinkedIn Mentorship Groups Sales Management Matrix: gong.io/matrix The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine  https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> The path to leadership in marketing can be a daunting one for women. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Tricia Sacchetti, VP of Worldwide Marketing for Learning Tree International, a leader in the IT training industry. Tricia shares the story of her journey to a marketing leadership role and provides actionable advice for women looking to have a fulfilling career in marketing including earning leadership roles in their organizations. Tricia initially started her career in journalism but found that the industry was a hard one to break into. She took her communications background and applied it to marketing instead. She has since worked her way to the head of worldwide marketing in the leading provider of IT training, an industry dominated by male leadership. Tricia is passionate about being a role model for other women on their journey in their marketing careers. This episode is brought to you by <a href="http://Gong.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gong.io</a>, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to <a href="http://www.gong.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.gong.io</a> to get started. Mentorship Is Key To Building A Successful Career for Women in Marketing No matter what industry you are in learning from other leaders’ experience is invaluable. Women especially stand to gain by associating with other women leaders in marketing. When done properly, a mentor can help women navigate career decisions, provide insights into other people’s leadership styles, and help propel them in the right direction.   A mentor can help women narrow their focus and niche into an appropriate marketing discipline as experience is gained. Many corporations have mentorship programs, so Tricia recommends check with the HR department before reaching out to individuals directly. There are also programs through LinkedIn and <a href="http://LeanIn.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LeanIn.org</a> where women can find join a local LeanIn Circle and build strong relationships with other women.  How Women Can Gain Visibility Early In Their Career Visibility is a key component of reaching higher levels of leadership in an organization, but the question is, how should women in marketing make themselves more visible? Tricia recommends finding projects to work on that showcase your skills and your leadership ability. Also, offer to help members of the leadership staff with tasks and projects that they are working on. Becoming visible requires time and a willingness to put in good hard work, but the return on that time usually pays off. By offering your time and skills, reaching out to other women in the organization, and making yourself available, you are showing your willingness to learn and grow. That drive and need to succeed will get you noticed. What Does It Mean To Be “Stratactical” As Women In Marketing Tricia has come up with her own word to describe an affliction that affects many women in the workforce. Women typically have a “do it all myself” mentality but need to learn to delegate tasks and think strategically while executing tactical details. A certain level of hands-on is needed to show that you can do the work, but remember that not every task is tactical, some are administrative. Women in marketing looking to be effective women leaders in marketing can only get to that pinnacle if they learn how to distinguish career priorities. Tricia warns that the more tasks you take on, the more your organization will put on your plate, but becoming a leader does not mean taking on every task. Think strategically about your career as well as the needs of your organization and execute those tactical moves needed to get you to your goals. Properly Navigating Workplace Culture Leads To Greater Opportunity Every organization has a vibe to its company culture that influences behavior and action in the workplace. Aside from linking up with a credible and invested mentor, understanding and navigating the culture in your organization will help women propel forward in their career. Attempt to understand the organization’s culture and model actions and decisions accordingly. Finding a mentor, understanding workplace culture, making yourself visible, and learning how to be stratactical are the keys to successfully becoming a woman of leadership in marketing. Tricia’s final advice for women in marketing is to be authentic, recognize your value within an organization, and realize when you’re the one holding yourself back. If you don’t have the skills needed for a role, learn them, and be enthusiastic about the drive to learn. Marketing needs women in leadership roles, and the roles are there. Follow Tricia’s advice to help you - and other women in your life - enjoy a fulfilling career in marketing. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Tricia on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/piscestls" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@piscestls</a></li> <li>Tricia <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciasacchetti/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Tricia on <a href="https://instagram.com/piscestls" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.learningtree.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Learning Tree International</a></li> <li>LTI on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/LearningTree" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@LearningTree</a></li> <li>LTI <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/164699" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>LTI on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LearningTreeIntl/?ref=ts" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@LearningTreeIntl</a></li> <li>LTI <a href="http://www.youtube.com/learningtree#p/u" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on YouTube</a></li> <li><a href="https://leanin.org/circles" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lean In Circles</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[01:18] Welcome Tricia Sacchetti, VP of Worldwide Marketing at Learning Tree International (LTI).</li> <li>[02:37] Learn more about Tricia, LTI, and her role there.</li> <li>[04:38] Tricia shares more about her journey into marketing.</li> <li>[05:49] What is the first piece of advice Tricia shares with women in marketing?</li> <li>[07:07] How should women seek out mentors in their industry?</li> <li>[08:55] Should women in marketing seek out a niche or stay in a generalist role? </li> <li>[11:34] Hear Tricia expand on a pivotal moment in her career and ABM versus ABE.</li> <li>[15:05] Tricia shares words of wisdom for creating visibility on the path to leadership.</li> <li>[17:40] What does stratactical mean and how do you use it?</li> <li>[20:38] Tricia gives advice on navigating the dynamics of culture in the workplace.</li> <li>[25:13] Bernie begins his summary of the conversation.</li> <li>[29:44] Hear Tricia’s final addition to the episode.</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned This episode is brought to you by <a href="http://Gong.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gong.io</a>, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to <a href="http://www.gong.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.gong.io</a> to get started. <ul> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/mentorsmentees" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn Mentorship Groups</a></li> <li><a href="http://gong.io/matrix" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sales Management Matrix: gong.io/matrix</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast</a></li> </ul>   Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">There are TWO WAYS you can l</a>isten to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Career Advice For Women In Marketing

Steve Paul, Vice President of Sales and Commercial Operations at Breg is the featured guest on episode 191. Breg is a manufacturer of sports rehabilitation products and solutions. Steve is responsible for a global team that drives customer acquisition and retention. My conversation with Steve is focused on a business challenge that all businesses face – winning and keeping customers for long-term sustainable value. We all want to win and retain customers. On this episode, Steve explains how the customer segmentation and customer mapping process have enabled Breg to increase from 50% to 70% of customers being on a retained solution program. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/winning-keeping-customers-long-term-sustainable-value

Steve Paul, Vice President of Sales and Commercial Operations at Breg is the featured guest on episode 191. Breg is a manufacturer of sports rehabilitation products and solutions. Steve is responsible for a global team that drives customer acquisition and retention. My conversation with Steve is focused on a business challenge that all businesses face – winning and keeping customers for long-term sustainable value. We all want to win and retain customers. On this episode, Steve explains how the customer segmentation and customer mapping process have enabled Breg to increase from 50% to 70% of customers being on a retained solution program. View the show notes page: <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/winning-keeping-customers-long-term-sustainable-value" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/winning-keeping-customers-long-term-sustainable-value</a>

Winning and Keeping Customers for Long-Term Sustainable Value

On episode 15, Jay Baer joins Bernie Borges to discuss how employees are the greatest marketing asset, or at least they should be in terms of brand advocacy. We discuss the impact of culture on employee advocacy, and the importance of establishing social media guidelines (not policy) to encourage employees to be social. We also discuss the importance of ongoing training and support to help employees be social on behalf of the brand. Jay also answers a question which he has asked more than 100 times: "If you could have a Skype call with any living person, who would that be?" Tune in to hear Jay's answer to that question, and much more insight from Jay on the important topic of employee advocacy in a social business.  This episode is sponsored by PeopleLinx. Download their e-book: Everyone's in Marketing.

On <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">episode 15</a>, Jay Baer joins Bernie Borges to discuss how employees are the greatest marketing asset, or at least they should be in terms of brand advocacy. We discuss the impact of culture on employee advocacy, and the importance of establishing social media guidelines (not policy) to encourage employees to be social. We also discuss the importance of ongoing training and support to help employees be social on behalf of the brand. Jay also answers a question which he has asked more than 100 times: "If you could have a Skype call with any living person, who would that be?" Tune in to hear Jay's answer to that question, and much more insight from Jay on the important topic of employee advocacy in a social business.  This episode is sponsored by PeopleLinx. Download their e-book: <a href="http://socialbusinessengine.com/peoplelinx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Everyone's in Marketing</a>.

How to Turn Employees into Brand Advocates 

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts LinkedIn post effectiveness is somewhat of a mystery. As Bernie’s guest, Scott Ayres says, “LinkedIn is like the Uncle who always comes to the family reunion with a great casserole, but you forget is there.” So Scott and his team at Agorapulse decided to do a social media experiment to see exactly what post types are effective on LinkedIn. Scott is a Content Scientist for Agorapulse - he runs experiments as part of the company’s Social Media Lab. During this conversation with Bernie you’ll hear how he runs experiments using different content on the various social media platforms, verifies it through the expertise of an actual data scientist, and publishes the results. Scott’s findings from a recent experiment about LinkedIn posts is the special topic of interest for this episode. Sales Professionals Need Social Best-Practices Based on Data, Not Anecdotes Any Google search for “How to post effectively on LinkedIn” or “LinkedIn best-practices” will provide hundreds of results, but how do you know which of the posts returned are actually trustworthy? The leadership at Agorapulse, a social media scheduling tool, has dedicated a significant portion of its monthly budget to run data-driven social media experiments through what they call “The Social Media Lab.” Scott Ayres leads that team in carrying out all kinds of tests and trials based on this pattern: Problem -&gt; hypothesis -&gt; research -&gt; findings With the help of an actual data scientist who is on staff at Agorapulse, the team is uncovering best-practices and publishing them publicly for anyone to learn from. Our team here at Vengreso is very keen on LinkedIn, so Bernie asked Scott to elaborate on the findings from a recent SML experiment about the kind of LinkedIn posts that perform best. You will find the results surprising. Text-Only Posts on LinkedIn Are Viewed Massively More Than Others One of the principles you hear touted about using social media effectively is that it’s a visual medium - so posts that include images, gifs, videos, etc. are more effective. Scott Ayres wanted to test that hypothesis, especially as it has to do with LinkedIn. His team at the Social Media Lab used three accounts with large followings to test the following hypothesis - Text-only posts would garner the lowest amount of views. The team posted a variety of content types over a specified period of time, and tracked the engagement for each. What were the results? In Scott’s words, “Text-only posts on LinkedIn had an increase of 1,069% views.” That’s the type of data that helps those of us in sales and marketing understand how to garner better engagement for the sake of establishing relationships and uncovering needs. Listen to this podcast to hear more about how posting on LinkedIn create more sales conversations. How Effective Are Hashtags on LinkedIn? It hasn’t been around for long, but LinkedIn now supports the use of hashtags. It’s easy to forget that the functionality even exists on LinkedIn but those who are utilizing hashtags are seeing great results - and the data Scott and his team have been able to compile from their experiments prove it’s not just anecdotal. The Social Media Lab experiment about LinkedIn hashtags shows that posts using at least one hashtag get 29.59% higher impressions. Based on those findings, Bernie and Scott discuss the ways hashtags can be used to coordinate sharing efforts by a sales or marketing team, how searches can be made using hashtags. If you’re interested in increasing your activity on LinkedIn and think hashtags could help you do that, listen to this episode to get Scott and Bernie’s advice on the issue. Featured on This Episode  The Social Media Lab Podcast Agorapulse website Scott Ayres on Facebook Scott on LinkedIn Scott on Twitter  Outline of This Episode  [0:43] The fun job Scott Ayers gets to do for Agorapulse [2:55] What is Agorapulse? - An amazing social media tool and a social media lab [6:53] The criteria behind choosing social media experiments to run [10:12] LinkedIn Post types: Is LinkedIn like the other sites? [13:13] The hypothesis behind the text-only post advantage [18:23] The new hashtag experiment Agorapulse has run recently  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  LinkedIn experiment discussed on this episode: https://www.agorapulse.com/social/linkedin Melonie Dadaro’s book: The LinkedIn Code Measure your LinkedIn Social Selling Index Viveka von Rosen Hashtag examples: #VengresoVids #VengresoPics www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> LinkedIn post effectiveness is somewhat of a mystery. As Bernie’s guest, Scott Ayres says, “LinkedIn is like the Uncle who always comes to the family reunion with a great casserole, but you forget is there.” So Scott and his team at Agorapulse decided to do a social media experiment to see exactly what post types are effective on LinkedIn. Scott is a Content Scientist for Agorapulse - he runs experiments as part of the company’s Social Media Lab. During this conversation with Bernie you’ll hear how he runs experiments using different content on the various social media platforms, verifies it through the expertise of an actual data scientist, and publishes the results. Scott’s findings from a recent experiment about LinkedIn posts is the special topic of interest for this episode. Sales Professionals Need Social Best-Practices Based on Data, Not Anecdotes Any Google search for “How to post effectively on LinkedIn” or “LinkedIn best-practices” will provide hundreds of results, but how do you know which of the posts returned are actually trustworthy? The leadership at Agorapulse, a social media scheduling tool, has dedicated a significant portion of its monthly budget to run data-driven social media experiments through what they call “The Social Media Lab.” Scott Ayres leads that team in carrying out all kinds of tests and trials based on this pattern: Problem -&gt; hypothesis -&gt; research -&gt; findings With the help of an actual data scientist who is on staff at Agorapulse, the team is uncovering best-practices and publishing them publicly for anyone to learn from. Our team here at Vengreso is very keen on LinkedIn, so Bernie asked Scott to elaborate on the findings from a recent SML experiment about the kind of LinkedIn posts that perform best. You will find the results surprising. Text-Only Posts on LinkedIn Are Viewed Massively More Than Others One of the principles you hear touted about using social media effectively is that it’s a visual medium - so posts that include images, gifs, videos, etc. are more effective. Scott Ayres wanted to test that hypothesis, especially as it has to do with LinkedIn. His team at the Social Media Lab used three accounts with large followings to test the following hypothesis - Text-only posts would garner the lowest amount of views. The team posted a variety of content types over a specified period of time, and tracked the engagement for each. What were the results? In Scott’s words, “Text-only posts on LinkedIn had an increase of 1,069% views.” That’s the type of data that helps those of us in sales and marketing understand how to garner better engagement for the sake of establishing relationships and uncovering needs. Listen to this podcast to hear more about how posting on LinkedIn create more sales conversations. How Effective Are Hashtags on LinkedIn? It hasn’t been around for long, but LinkedIn now supports the use of hashtags. It’s easy to forget that the functionality even exists on LinkedIn but those who are utilizing hashtags are seeing great results - and the data Scott and his team have been able to compile from their experiments prove it’s not just anecdotal. The Social Media Lab experiment about LinkedIn hashtags shows that posts using at least one hashtag get 29.59% higher impressions. Based on those findings, Bernie and Scott discuss the ways hashtags can be used to coordinate sharing efforts by a sales or marketing team, how searches can be made using hashtags. If you’re interested in increasing your activity on LinkedIn and think hashtags could help you do that, listen to this episode to get Scott and Bernie’s advice on the issue. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://www.agorapulse.com/social-media-lab" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Social Media Lab Podcast</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.agorapulse.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Agorapulse website</a></li> <li>Scott Ayres <a href="https://www.facebook.com/public/Scott-Ayers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on Facebook</a></li> <li>Scott <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwayneayres/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Scott on <a href="https://twitter.com/scottayres?lang=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:43] The fun job Scott Ayers gets to do for Agorapulse</li> <li>[2:55] What is Agorapulse? - An amazing social media tool and a social media lab</li> <li>[6:53] The criteria behind choosing social media experiments to run</li> <li>[10:12] LinkedIn Post types: Is LinkedIn like the other sites?</li> <li>[13:13] The hypothesis behind the text-only post advantage</li> <li>[18:23] The new hashtag experiment Agorapulse has run recently</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li>LinkedIn experiment discussed on this episode: <a href="https://www.agorapulse.com/social/linkedin" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.agorapulse.com/social/linkedin</a></li> <li>Melonie Dadaro’s book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/LinkedIn-Code-Prospects-Professional-Marketing-ebook/dp/B00KJ0O88Q" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The LinkedIn Code</a></li> <li>Measure your <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-ssi" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn Social Selling Index</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Viveka von Rosen</a></li> <li>Hashtag examples: #VengresoVids #VengresoPics</li> <li><a href="http://www.digitalsellingbenchmarkreport.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

Effective LinkedIn Posts: The Science Doesn’t Lie

Jaxson Khan

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Account-based selling is experiencing a surge in popularity in B2B sales due to changes in technology that have appeared over the past few years. One of those technologies is what is referred to as “relationship intelligence.” In this conversation, Jaxson Kahn describes how marketing can leverage relationship intelligence to more effectively collaborate with sales and how managers can use relationship intelligence to enable customer success across the board. Relationship intelligence one of the new technologies that is changing the way sales is done - and it provides huge benefits for every sales role throughout an organization. Jaxson Khan is Head of Marketing at Nudge.ai, a relationship intelligence platform. Nudge.ai helps companies establish new accounts and analyze the risk of their deals with those accounts based on the strength of the relationships they have. The goal is to help sales professionals and sales leaders improve their process by integrating relational information with other sales tools that are being used such as Gmail, Salesforce, Outlook, and more. Jason has a great deal of insight into how relational intelligence can improve the sales cycle at every step, so don’t miss what he has to share. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. Personalizing Account Based Sales Efforts Produces Better Results You will often hear people say, "Personalization will increase the effectiveness of outreach by X percent," or "Personalization will double your success," but Jaxson Kahn explains that those claims are only true if a DEEP personal connection is made. In this conversation, he details the basic requirements needed to successfully personalize a message in a way that fosters the development of deep connections. As an example, Jaxson asks a fundamental question to highlight whether or not a sales team is even taking the first steps to connecting with buyers in a relational way: “Are you searching for unique pieces of content about a contact before reaching out to them?” If you aren’t, you’re missing a great opportunity to be relevant to the buyer immediately. You might even be reinforcing the negative stereotypes many have about sales professionals because of the "hard-driving" approach that has been prevalent in the past. Learn how taking that one, simple action enables you to approach buyers in a “warm” way that opens the door to a relationship more quickly, on this episode. Relationship Intelligence Makes Sales Roles Throughout The Pipeline More Effective Given the “newness” of the technologies spoken about on this episode, it’s easy to be confused about how to apply them to the variety of roles that exist in the average sales process. For that reason, Bernie asked Jaxson to explain which sales roles can best use relationship intelligence in an account based sales approach. First, those involved in sales development can utilize relational intelligence tools to gain insights about prospects that enable them to do outreach in a “warm” way. This may happen through understanding the things the prospect is dealing with currently, or through analyzing the prospect’s existing connections and colleagues to discover common connections. Account executives can also benefit through being enabled to see how strong a relationship is from the start, to identify their top tier accounts and assess the level of "relational health" in that connection, and to establish an intelligent follow-up cadence that is based on multiple relationships within the company. Sales managers are able to use relationship intelligence to know the status of relationships across accounts. It’s a powerful understanding that can enable more accurate forecasting and the ability to equip team members in a more effective way. How AI Can Help Marketing in Account Based Selling Given that account based sales strategies have picked up quite a bit over the past few years, there is a greater need for marketers to understand how strong relationships with potential buyers really are, over time. Examples of the things that are important to know:  Which accounts have strong existing relationships? Which accounts don’t? Does the ability exist to build relationships with influential buyers or those who have connections to them?  Relationship technologies like Nudge.ai enable the marketing department to effectively answer those questions, and in so doing, come into alignment with the sales department to a greater degree. This enables marketing to produce relevant content and to market in a way that is cohesive with the messaging sales is communicating to buyers later in the process. This keeps relationships with buyers in growth mode, from step one all the way through to the point they become customers and into the post-purchase phase of the relationship. Using the data provided by these newer tools, the focus can be shifted from “how to sell and how to market” to thoughtful and intentional personalization that reaches prospects and clients alike, on a human level. Culture Is The Starting Point For Relationship Intelligence It’s an undisputed reality that we’ve built a sales culture that is hustle driven. Because of it, we’re in danger of buyers tuning out our marketing and sales messaging because we’re too focused on making deals happen and not focused enough on building caring relationships with buyers. A culture change is in the works - we’re seeing it all across the sales industry. Relationships are the new avenue to more sales. With the culture change, A.I. technologies can plug into existing CRMs to provide an additional level of insight into existing relationships - the very thing we need to focus on - so that they can be strategically built over time. You may see the need to prioritize relationships in your sales process, but do you know how? Do you have the tools needed to do it effectively? The starting place is to put yourself in your buyer’s position to discover how buyers are actually making buying decisions. To help you know how to build relationships with buyers, Jaxson has a free resource: #HowIBuy - a guide to help you understand how prospects are actually buying. Find out how you can get a copy by listening to this great conversation. Featured on This Episode  Nudge.ai Find Jaxson’s guide for free, #HowIBuy https://nudge.ai/how-i-buy-vol-1/ Follow Jaxson on Twitter: @Jaxson Follow Jaxson on Facebook Follow Jaxson on LinkedIn  Outline of This Episode  [0:40] Who is Jaxson Khan? - Learn more about relationship intelligence and how it can be leveraged for sales [3:22] Personalization – Why sales professionals need to be personalizing their efforts using digital tools and tech [5:53] Personalization - How sales professionals can achieve a good level of personalization and how to drive it towards relationship intelligence [9:51] The insights you need about prospects are the kind that drive relationships [14:22] The type of sales roles that are helped by relationship intelligence [17:290] Is marketing involved in this or is this strictly a pure sales leadership play? [19:47] What role does sales culture or process play in relationship intelligence? [23:26] Bernie's summary: harnessing relationship information for better sales leadership [28:23] Jaxson's tips and 50-page guide entitled "#HowIBuy" [29:55] It all boils down to "empathy" [31:36] Bernie's takeaway: The value of understanding relationships at scale  Resources &amp; People Mentioned SPONSOR: Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here.  Salesforce Gmail Gary Vaynerchuk Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> Account-based selling is experiencing a surge in popularity in B2B sales due to changes in technology that have appeared over the past few years. One of those technologies is what is referred to as “relationship intelligence.” In this conversation, Jaxson Kahn describes how marketing can leverage relationship intelligence to more effectively collaborate with sales and how managers can use relationship intelligence to enable customer success across the board. Relationship intelligence one of the new technologies that is changing the way sales is done - and it provides huge benefits for every sales role throughout an organization. Jaxson Khan is Head of Marketing at <a href="http://Nudge.ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nudge.ai</a>, a relationship intelligence platform. <a href="http://Nudge.ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nudge.ai</a> helps companies establish new accounts and analyze the risk of their deals with those accounts based on the strength of the relationships they have. The goal is to help sales professionals and sales leaders improve their process by integrating relational information with other sales tools that are being used such as Gmail, Salesforce, Outlook, and more. Jason has a great deal of insight into how relational intelligence can improve the sales cycle at every step, so don’t miss what he has to share. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “<a href="https://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.</a>” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. Personalizing Account Based Sales Efforts Produces Better Results You will often hear people say, "Personalization will increase the effectiveness of outreach by X percent," or "Personalization will double your success," but Jaxson Kahn explains that those claims are only true if a DEEP personal connection is made. In this conversation, he details the basic requirements needed to successfully personalize a message in a way that fosters the development of deep connections. As an example, Jaxson asks a fundamental question to highlight whether or not a sales team is even taking the first steps to connecting with buyers in a relational way: “Are you searching for unique pieces of content about a contact before reaching out to them?” If you aren’t, you’re missing a great opportunity to be relevant to the buyer immediately. You might even be reinforcing the negative stereotypes many have about sales professionals because of the "hard-driving" approach that has been prevalent in the past. Learn how taking that one, simple action enables you to approach buyers in a “warm” way that opens the door to a relationship more quickly, on this episode. Relationship Intelligence Makes Sales Roles Throughout The Pipeline More Effective Given the “newness” of the technologies spoken about on this episode, it’s easy to be confused about how to apply them to the variety of roles that exist in the average sales process. For that reason, Bernie asked Jaxson to explain which sales roles can best use relationship intelligence in an account based sales approach. First, those involved in sales development can utilize relational intelligence tools to gain insights about prospects that enable them to do outreach in a “warm” way. This may happen through understanding the things the prospect is dealing with currently, or through analyzing the prospect’s existing connections and colleagues to discover common connections. Account executives can also benefit through being enabled to see how strong a relationship is from the start, to identify their top tier accounts and assess the level of "relational health" in that connection, and to establish an intelligent follow-up cadence that is based on multiple relationships within the company. Sales managers are able to use relationship intelligence to know the status of relationships across accounts. It’s a powerful understanding that can enable more accurate forecasting and the ability to equip team members in a more effective way. How AI Can Help Marketing in Account Based Selling Given that account based sales strategies have picked up quite a bit over the past few years, there is a greater need for marketers to understand how strong relationships with potential buyers really are, over time. Examples of the things that are important to know: <ul> <li>Which accounts have strong existing relationships?</li> <li>Which accounts don’t?</li> <li>Does the ability exist to build relationships with influential buyers or those who have connections to them?</li> </ul> Relationship technologies like <a href="http://Nudge.ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nudge.ai</a> enable the marketing department to effectively answer those questions, and in so doing, come into alignment with the sales department to a greater degree. This enables marketing to produce relevant content and to market in a way that is cohesive with the messaging sales is communicating to buyers later in the process. This keeps relationships with buyers in growth mode, from step one all the way through to the point they become customers and into the post-purchase phase of the relationship. Using the data provided by these newer tools, the focus can be shifted from “how to sell and how to market” to thoughtful and intentional personalization that reaches prospects and clients alike, on a human level. Culture Is The Starting Point For Relationship Intelligence It’s an undisputed reality that we’ve built a sales culture that is hustle driven. Because of it, we’re in danger of buyers tuning out our marketing and sales messaging because we’re too focused on making deals happen and not focused enough on building caring relationships with buyers. A culture change is in the works - we’re seeing it all across the sales industry. Relationships are the new avenue to more sales. With the culture change, A.I. technologies can plug into existing CRMs to provide an additional level of insight into existing relationships - the very thing we need to focus on - so that they can be strategically built over time. You may see the need to prioritize relationships in your sales process, but do you know how? Do you have the tools needed to do it effectively? The starting place is to put yourself in your buyer’s position to discover how buyers are actually making buying decisions. To help you know how to build relationships with buyers, Jaxson has a free resource: #HowIBuy - a guide to help you understand how prospects are actually buying. Find out how you can get a copy by listening to this great conversation. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://nudge.ai/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nudge.ai</a></li> <li>Find Jaxson’s guide for free, #HowIBuy <a href="https://nudge.ai/how-i-buy-vol-1/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://nudge.ai/how-i-buy-vol-1/</a></li> <li>Follow Jaxson on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/jaxson" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@Jaxson</a></li> <li>Follow <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaxsonkhan" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Jaxson on Facebook</a></li> <li>Follow <a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jaxson" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Jaxson on LinkedIn</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:40] Who is Jaxson Khan? - Learn more about relationship intelligence and how it can be leveraged for sales</li> <li>[3:22] Personalization – Why sales professionals need to be personalizing their efforts using digital tools and tech</li> <li>[5:53] Personalization - How sales professionals can achieve a good level of personalization and how to drive it towards relationship intelligence</li> <li>[9:51] The insights you need about prospects are the kind that drive relationships</li> <li>[14:22] The type of sales roles that are helped by relationship intelligence</li> <li>[17:290] Is marketing involved in this or is this strictly a pure sales leadership play?</li> <li>[19:47] What role does sales culture or process play in relationship intelligence?</li> <li>[23:26] Bernie's summary: harnessing relationship information for better sales leadership</li> <li>[28:23] Jaxson's tips and 50-page guide entitled "#HowIBuy"</li> <li>[29:55] It all boils down to "empathy"</li> <li>[31:36] Bernie's takeaway: The value of understanding relationships at scale</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned SPONSOR: Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, <a href="http://vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ungated here</a>. <ul> <li><a href="https://www.salesforce.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Salesforce</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.google.com/gmail/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gmail</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gary Vaynerchuk</a></li> <li>Grab your copy of “<a href="http://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way</a>”</li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

The Value of Relationship Intelligence in Account-Based Selling with Jaxson Khan

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Effective Sales A.I. Is Great, But There Are Human Things It Can’t Replace Most sales professionals these days are excited about the ways A.I. is changing the sales landscape. Automated lead generation and lead nurture, as well as the way follow-up can be streamlined effectively, are just some of the benefits technology is bringing to the world of sales. But there are certain things tech can’t and shouldn’t replace. Among those is the human quality of empathy. In this conversation, Shari Levitin explains how empathy builds trust, why it takes a human to express it, and how sales leaders can strategically hire and build their teams around the soft skills needed to complement new sales technologies and close more deals. The PEOPLE Who Implement Your Sales Process Make The Biggest Difference Shari points out that if we neglect the human aspect of sales, we do so to our own peril. There is a person on the other side of every sales conversation or interaction and the responses to their needs that lead the sales process forward are the ones that are most human. Drawing from a new book, “The Road To Character,” Shari points out that there are two kinds of virtues in people - Resume Virtues and Eulogy Virtues. Both are important, but it’s the Eulogy Virtues that are of greatest value when it comes to hiring and training effective sales teams. What ARE Eulogy Virtues? They are the kinds of things people would emphasize or memorialize in a eulogy - things like kindness, curiosity, drive, and a growth mindset. Hiring managers need to have these in view as they consider candidates for the sales positions in their organization. Why? Because they are the traits that enable sales reps to be agile enough to learn, hustle, and build trust with customers in the fast-paced sales world we live and work in. You May Be Missing Quota Because Your Sales Process Is Not Human Enough In its 2018 - 2019 Sales Performance Study report, CSO Insights revealed that 53% of sales professionals are missing their sales quotas. That’s a consistent drop from recent years. In this conversation, Bernie was very curious how Shari interprets the research and asked for her opinion. He was mostly curious whether it reveals that the adoption of sales tech has distracted sales reps from the more human aspects of the sales process. Shari says that very often, the issue with missing quota is not that sales reps aren’t making enough calls, but that they are not making the right kind of calls. She means that their sales presentations and conversations are lacking some of the human skills needed to make them effective. The good news is that it’s a problem that can be fixed. Listen to learn how. Why Your Sales Reps Must Do What Alexa Can’t Do As A.I. is implemented more and more in the sales industry, the effective salespeople of the future will be skilled at doing what Alexa and the other technologies can’t do. Shari refers to those things by using the acronym C.A.L.L. It describes 4 things that only a human can do...  CONNECT to another human ASK questions that get to the heart of why people would buy LISTEN to the emotion, what is not said, what’s being said by things like body language LINK all that to a brighter future for the customer that connects to their product or service  Listen to this great conversation. You’ll see why Shari is one of the most powerful and compassionate speakers on the sales circuit. You'll also understand why you should consider purchasing her new book Heart and Sell and see her speak live at the upcoming Frost and Sullivan STAR event February 11 - 13, 2019. . Look below for a discount code for the event. Featured on This Episode  Website:https://www.sharilevitin.com Shari’s new book: Heart and Sell : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632650746 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharilevitin/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharilevitin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShariLevitinGroup/  Outline of This Episode  [0:44] Why Shari is on the show to discuss the importance of building trust [3:28] It’s important to keep the human factor in the sales process, in spite of A.I tech [5:50] The soft skills needed and why sales leaders are accepting Shari’s message [8:30] How to hire sales people in light of humanizing the sales process [11:28] Dealing with your existing situation means leaders have to lead the way [13:49] How much of missing quotas is that sales reps lack a human component? [20:12] Is it harder to sell today than it was 20 to 25 years ago?  Resources &amp; People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost &amp; Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at https://Frost.com/Vengreso and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings.  BOOK: The Road To Character by David Brooks : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812983416 CSO Insights : https://www.csoinsights.com/ The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Xvoyant: Coaching platform company : https://www.xvoyant.com/ Rob Jeppsen, Founder and CEO of Xvoyant : https://www.linkedin.com/in/robjeppsen/  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine    Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> Effective Sales A.I. Is Great, But There Are Human Things It Can’t Replace Most sales professionals these days are excited about the ways A.I. is changing the sales landscape. Automated lead generation and lead nurture, as well as the way follow-up can be streamlined effectively, are just some of the benefits technology is bringing to the world of sales. But there are certain things tech can’t and shouldn’t replace. Among those is the human quality of empathy. In this conversation, Shari Levitin explains how empathy builds trust, why it takes a human to express it, and how sales leaders can strategically hire and build their teams around the soft skills needed to complement new sales technologies and close more deals. The PEOPLE Who Implement Your Sales Process Make The Biggest Difference Shari points out that if we neglect the human aspect of sales, we do so to our own peril. There is a person on the other side of every sales conversation or interaction and the responses to their needs that lead the sales process forward are the ones that are most human. Drawing from a new book, “The Road To Character,” Shari points out that there are two kinds of virtues in people - Resume Virtues and Eulogy Virtues. Both are important, but it’s the Eulogy Virtues that are of greatest value when it comes to hiring and training effective sales teams. What ARE Eulogy Virtues? They are the kinds of things people would emphasize or memorialize in a eulogy - things like kindness, curiosity, drive, and a growth mindset. Hiring managers need to have these in view as they consider candidates for the sales positions in their organization. Why? Because they are the traits that enable sales reps to be agile enough to learn, hustle, and build trust with customers in the fast-paced sales world we live and work in. You May Be Missing Quota Because Your Sales Process Is Not Human Enough In its <a href="https://www.csoinsights.com/the-growing-buyer-seller-gap-results-of-the-2018-buyer-preferences-study/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">2018 - 2019 Sales Performance Study</a> report, CSO Insights revealed that 53% of sales professionals are missing their sales quotas. That’s a consistent drop from recent years. In this conversation, Bernie was very curious how Shari interprets the research and asked for her opinion. He was mostly curious whether it reveals that the adoption of sales tech has distracted sales reps from the more human aspects of the sales process. Shari says that very often, the issue with missing quota is not that sales reps aren’t making enough calls, but that they are not making the right kind of calls. She means that their sales presentations and conversations are lacking some of the human skills needed to make them effective. The good news is that it’s a problem that can be fixed. Listen to learn how. Why Your Sales Reps Must Do What Alexa Can’t Do As A.I. is implemented more and more in the sales industry, the effective salespeople of the future will be skilled at doing what Alexa and the other technologies can’t do. Shari refers to those things by using the acronym C.A.L.L. It describes 4 things that only a human can do... <ul> <li>CONNECT to another human</li> <li>ASK questions that get to the heart of why people would buy</li> <li>LISTEN to the emotion, what is not said, what’s being said by things like body language</li> <li>LINK all that to a brighter future for the customer that connects to their product or service</li> </ul> Listen to this great conversation. You’ll see why Shari is one of the most powerful and compassionate speakers on the sales circuit. You'll also understand why you should consider purchasing her new book Heart and Sell and see her speak live at the upcoming Frost and Sullivan STAR event February 11 - 13, 2019. . Look below for a discount code for the event. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Website:<a href="https://www.sharilevitin.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.sharilevitin.com</a></li> <li>Shari’s new book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632650746" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Heart and Sell</a> : <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632650746" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632650746</a></li> <li>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharilevitin/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharilevitin/</a></li> <li>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/sharilevitin" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sharilevitin</a></li> <li>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ShariLevitinGroup/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ShariLevitinGroup/</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:44] Why Shari is on the show to discuss the importance of building trust</li> <li>[3:28] It’s important to keep the human factor in the sales process, in spite of A.I tech</li> <li>[5:50] The soft skills needed and why sales leaders are accepting Shari’s message</li> <li>[8:30] How to hire sales people in light of humanizing the sales process</li> <li>[11:28] Dealing with your existing situation means leaders have to lead the way</li> <li>[13:49] How much of missing quotas is that sales reps lack a human component?</li> <li>[20:12] Is it harder to sell today than it was 20 to 25 years ago?</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost &amp; Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at <a href="https://frost.com/Vengreso" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Frost.com/Vengreso</a> and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings. <ul> <li>BOOK: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Character-Thorndike-Press-Large-Print/dp/1594139377" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Road To Character by David Brooks</a> : <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812983416" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812983416</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.csoinsights.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CSO Insights</a> : <a href="https://www.csoinsights.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.csoinsights.com/</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> <li><a href="https://www.xvoyant.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Xvoyant</a>: Coaching platform company : <a href="https://www.xvoyant.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.xvoyant.com/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robjeppsen/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rob Jeppsen</a>, Founder and CEO of Xvoyant : <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robjeppsen/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/robjeppsen/</a></li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul>   Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">There are TWO WAYS you can l</a>isten to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/paul-johns-account-based-marketing/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

Move Over Alexa It’s Time to Re-Humanize the Sales Process

Anthony Kennada is a B2C marketer trapped in a B2B body. He is CMO of Gainsight and has been with the company since inception. Anthony has a bit of an unconventional marketing background that you'll learn about in the podcast. Marketing was something he hadn't done before starting with Gainsight. On this episode, you’ll discover how Anthony applies a B2C mindset to B2B brand marketing with exceptional results to show for it. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/b2b-brand-marketing-drive-growth

Anthony Kennada is a B2C marketer trapped in a B2B body. He is CMO of Gainsight and has been with the company since inception. Anthony has a bit of an unconventional marketing background that you'll learn about in the podcast. Marketing was something he hadn't done before starting with Gainsight. On this episode, you’ll discover how Anthony applies a B2C mindset to B2B brand marketing with exceptional results to show for it. View the show notes: <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/b2b-brand-marketing-drive-growth" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/b2b-brand-marketing-drive-growth</a>

B2B Brand Marketing as a Driver of Growth

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Every person who makes their livelihood from selling could benefit from improving their selling skills. In today’s sales climate, the growth of digital selling skills is one of the best returns on the investment of time it takes to grow as a sales professional. On this episode, Bernie’s guest is Kurt Shaver, co-founder and Chief Sales Officer at Vengreso. Kurt explains the 4 pillars of the modern seller, how his sales career led him to become a modern seller, what that means and what it takes to become one, and a few examples of modern selling in action. It doesn’t matter if you are in a direct sales role or not. If you recognize the impact of modern digital practices in business, this episode is relevant to you. You might even want to share it with others on your team. The 4 Must-Have Pillars of Being a Modern Seller A modern seller is one who is prepared to meet the modern buyer - on their terms and on the platforms they want to engage through. Is that via social? Via phone call? Via text? A modern seller learns what each prospect likes and engages in those ways. Beyond that foundational mindset, the modern seller develops these 4 essential modern selling skills.  They establish their professional brand through an optimized LinkedIn profile. They develop a valuable online network (B2B engagement usually happens on LinkedIn) They do effective prospecting based on personas They engage through liking, commenting, sharing, and serving as an expert resource  Bernie and Kurt unpack each of these modern sales skills in detail, so don’t miss this episode. How To Assess Your LinkedIn Profile For Effectiveness Every sales professional probably has a LinkedIn profile, but is it optimized to be attractive to your buyer? Kurt recommends that you think of your LinkedIn profile as you would a personal website. It should be designed with this one question in mind, “Who are you trying to attract?” Once you answer that question, you’ll be able to make effective decisions about the types of things those people are interested in - and how you can provide it to them on your profile so that you are positioned as a credible, expert resource they will respect. Your LinkedIn profile should serve as your individual website working for you 24/7. You’ll discover even more tips from Kurt just like this one, on this episode. Learn The Powerful Modern Selling Skills of Networking And Digital Prospecting Networking and prospecting are as old as the sales profession, but the digital age has brought us entirely new ways of doing them. Those who develop digital skills to do both effectively have a distinct advantage over those who are slow to adopt to modern selling. When it comes to networking, it needs to happen on two levels. First, you need to be able to make connections with potential customers. But you also need to establish relationships with people you consider partners - professionals in related or vertical industries who serve the same clientele you do. It’s the same approach as in the past, but it’s initiated primarily through digital channels - which is a new selling skill you may need to develop. Likewise prospecting today is very different than in the past, in ways that have huge advantages. First, you are able to overlay your personal network onto your prospect list to determine what relationships you may already have with your prospects, or what relationships a partner may have with them. Secondly, you are able to do significant research about your prospects via social before reaching out so that you can connect with them in relevant, helpful ways. These are just two of the modern digital selling skills necessary for success. Kurt shares all 4 in this conversation. Engagement Is Where Modern Selling Magic Happens It’s vital for every salesperson to become a trusted resource to those who are in their digital networks. The main way this is accomplished is through sharing content that is thoughtful and beneficial to the people within your network. But many sellers make the mistake of blasting their network with only their company’s content. It’s important to offer a balanced mix of general business news and info, in addition to content from your own vault. This enables others to see that you’re generous in sharing the expertise of others as well as sharing content about your own solutions. This tip from Kurt is a powerful form of sales enablement. Another important piece of the engagement puzzle is commenting. You want to engage with what others are sharing in a way that demonstrates your own interest, expertise, and care relating to the topics being discussed. It’s nothing more than getting involved in conversations - as salespeople are used to doing - only now it’s also done via digital channels. These selling skills are vital to the success of the modern B2B sales professional. Catch this entire podcast with Kurt Shaver to hear firsthand what takes to be a modern seller. Featured on This Episode  Kurt on LinkedIn Kurt on Twitter: @KurtShaver  Outline of This Episode  [0:51] What you can expect from Kurt Shaver on this episode [2:10] How Kurt became a modern seller over the course of a long sales career [3:59] What does it mean to be a modern seller? [5:19] The 4 pillars for the modern seller [7:55] An optimized LinkedIn Profile: How to assess and modify yours [9:53] Growing a modern, digital network effectively [12:42] Prospecting in modern times is very different than in the past [15:40] What is effective engagement? [18:28] Examples of effective modern sellers applying great sales skills  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  The FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report - www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> Every person who makes their livelihood from selling could benefit from improving their selling skills. In today’s sales climate, the growth of digital selling skills is one of the best returns on the investment of time it takes to grow as a sales professional. On this episode, Bernie’s guest is Kurt Shaver, co-founder and Chief Sales Officer at Vengreso. Kurt explains the 4 pillars of the modern seller, how his sales career led him to become a modern seller, what that means and what it takes to become one, and a few examples of modern selling in action. It doesn’t matter if you are in a direct sales role or not. If you recognize the impact of modern digital practices in business, this episode is relevant to you. You might even want to share it with others on your team. The 4 Must-Have Pillars of Being a Modern Seller A modern seller is one who is prepared to meet the modern buyer - on their terms and on the platforms they want to engage through. Is that via social? Via phone call? Via text? A modern seller learns what each prospect likes and engages in those ways. Beyond that foundational mindset, the modern seller develops these 4 essential modern selling skills. <ol> <li>They establish their professional brand through an optimized LinkedIn profile.</li> <li>They develop a valuable online network (B2B engagement usually happens on LinkedIn)</li> <li>They do effective prospecting based on personas</li> <li>They engage through liking, commenting, sharing, and serving as an expert resource</li> </ol> Bernie and Kurt unpack each of these modern sales skills in detail, so don’t miss this episode. How To Assess Your LinkedIn Profile For Effectiveness Every sales professional probably has a LinkedIn profile, but is it optimized to be attractive to your buyer? Kurt recommends that you think of your LinkedIn profile as you would a personal website. It should be designed with this one question in mind, “Who are you trying to attract?” Once you answer that question, you’ll be able to make effective decisions about the types of things those people are interested in - and how you can provide it to them on your profile so that you are positioned as a credible, expert resource they will respect. Your LinkedIn profile should serve as your individual website working for you 24/7. You’ll discover even more tips from Kurt just like this one, on this episode. Learn The Powerful Modern Selling Skills of Networking And Digital Prospecting Networking and prospecting are as old as the sales profession, but the digital age has brought us entirely new ways of doing them. Those who develop digital skills to do both effectively have a distinct advantage over those who are slow to adopt to modern selling. When it comes to networking, it needs to happen on two levels. First, you need to be able to make connections with potential customers. But you also need to establish relationships with people you consider partners - professionals in related or vertical industries who serve the same clientele you do. It’s the same approach as in the past, but it’s initiated primarily through digital channels - which is a new selling skill you may need to develop. Likewise prospecting today is very different than in the past, in ways that have huge advantages. First, you are able to overlay your personal network onto your prospect list to determine what relationships you may already have with your prospects, or what relationships a partner may have with them. Secondly, you are able to do significant research about your prospects via social before reaching out so that you can connect with them in relevant, helpful ways. These are just two of the modern digital selling skills necessary for success. Kurt shares all 4 in this conversation. Engagement Is Where Modern Selling Magic Happens It’s vital for every salesperson to become a trusted resource to those who are in their digital networks. The main way this is accomplished is through sharing content that is thoughtful and beneficial to the people within your network. But many sellers make the mistake of blasting their network with only their company’s content. It’s important to offer a balanced mix of general business news and info, in addition to content from your own vault. This enables others to see that you’re generous in sharing the expertise of others as well as sharing content about your own solutions. This tip from Kurt is a powerful form of sales enablement. Another important piece of the engagement puzzle is commenting. You want to engage with what others are sharing in a way that demonstrates your own interest, expertise, and care relating to the topics being discussed. It’s nothing more than getting involved in conversations - as salespeople are used to doing - only now it’s also done via digital channels. These selling skills are vital to the success of the modern B2B sales professional. Catch this entire podcast with Kurt Shaver to hear firsthand what takes to be a modern seller. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Kurt <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/KurtShaver/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Kurt on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/KurtShaver" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@KurtShaver</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:51] What you can expect from Kurt Shaver on this episode</li> <li>[2:10] How Kurt became a modern seller over the course of a long sales career</li> <li>[3:59] What does it mean to be a modern seller?</li> <li>[5:19] The 4 pillars for the modern seller</li> <li>[7:55] An optimized LinkedIn Profile: How to assess and modify yours</li> <li>[9:53] Growing a modern, digital network effectively</li> <li>[12:42] Prospecting in modern times is very different than in the past</li> <li>[15:40] What is effective engagement?</li> <li>[18:28] Examples of effective modern sellers applying great sales skills</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li>The FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report - <a href="http://www.digitalsellingbenchmarkreport.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

The 4 Digital Selling Skills Of The Successful Modern Seller

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice How does a company with a premium offering, but little or no brand recognition, market to a universe of buyers who assume that solution providers are all pretty much the same? It’s not easy or simple, but thankfully there are companies out there demonstrating there are ways to to build brand equity and gain the attention you need to set up their sales team for conversations with qualified prospects. This episode features, Dean Nicolls, Vice President of Marketing at Jumio. Jumio as a company has found itself in the position described here - in spite of having won numerous impressive awards in its market segment. Dean speaks with Bernie about the ways he’s leading the Jumio marketing team to use PR, analyst relations, and sales enablement to elevate the profile of what the company has to offer as a premium brand. Unknown Premium Brands Build Reputation Through Education At Vengreso, we often say that modern sellers need to sell in ways that modern buyers like to buy through providing valuable content that demonstrates expertise and ability. Dean agrees with that approach. He says that sales is not about selling, it’s about educating.  The Jumio team works overtime to educate their ideal buyers about the challenges of their current approach to identity verification. Any brand who requires a user to register or sign up online - banking, consumer goods, etc. - can recognize the limitations or problems of their current identity verification solutions. Consequently, they are more willing to engage in conversations about how to improve their approach to minimize abandonment and improve the user experience. Listen to learn how you can use an educational approach to build brand equity for your company. Jumio’s 30/70 Split Between Brand Awareness And Demand Generation Dean says that Jumio spends about 30% of its marketing efforts and budget on building brand awareness. The other 70% is used for demand generation activities. The branding side of the split is of particular interest for marketers who find themselves fighting an uphill battle to gain the recognition their solutions deserve. How does Jumio do it? The company works with many PR firms that use a variety of strategies to get the company into the spotlight. Among those strategies are the publication of byline articles, trend jacking, and traditional press coverage when the company has a new product or rolls out an update. But there’s also emphasis placed on entering the company and its products into recognized competitions within the industry. Winning provides a natural way to gain wide-scale attention that puts them on the radar of their ideal buyers. Utilize Stories And Practical Tools To Empower Your Sales Team Success stories have a way of demonstrating product fit that are much more effective than slide decks and presentations. That’s because stories connect to the human beings involved in the buying equation, enabling them to picture themselves in the story, experiencing the solutions described. Dean’s marketing team has developed assets that enable the Jumio sales team to tell effective stories about their product’s positive impact on real-life customers. During this conversation, Dean also tells a story of his own about a big win the Jumio team has experienced through the creation of an online calculator. One member of the Jumio Latin America sales team made use of it in ways the marketing team didn’t anticipate and was able to increase his personal sales numbers to the point that other sellers on the team began to take notice. As you hear what happened through the creation of this easy to use tool you’ll recognize there are likely similar tools or resources your marketing team could create.  Find Champions On Your Team Who Can Empower Everyone Else Premium brands that succeed in penetrating their market do so as a team. They work together to increase the visibility and effectiveness of efforts across the board. One of the ways Jumio has been able to do this is through identifying marketing and sales champions who are excelling in their roles. These team members are invited to share their experience, to become role models for the rest of the team. They’ve discovered that just like their clients appreciate relevant stories, their internal teams appreciate the impact of real-life stories - and when those stories recount the successful experiences of co-workers, their enthusiasm for the Jumio brand value proposition gets amplified and effectiveness increases. Join Bernie as he invites Dean to reveal the careful thought and diligent work that goes into building brand equity for an unknown premium brand, on this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. Featured on This Episode  Dean on LinkedIn Dean on Twitter: @Dean_Nicolls Jumio - where Dean serves as VP of Marketing  Outline of This Episode  [1:20] The challenge of getting noticed among premium brands [2:08] Jumio: Online identity verification - and Dean’s role as VP of Marketing [3:18] The needs of the customers that Jumio markets to (those with something at risk) [7:45] A not-so-well-known brand has unique challenges when it comes to marketing [10:31] The PR / Analyst balance to brand building [15:26] How can the sales team be enabled to meet the needs of modern buyers? [18:39] Challenges to telling better stories and how to overcome them [20:37] Collaboration is imperative between marketing and sales  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  The State of Digital Selling 2019 Report The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine  https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice

<a href="http://bit.ly/MME-Channels" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice</a> How does a company with a premium offering, but little or no brand recognition, market to a universe of buyers who assume that solution providers are all pretty much the same? It’s not easy or simple, but thankfully there are companies out there demonstrating there are ways to to build brand equity and gain the attention you need to set up their sales team for conversations with qualified prospects. This episode features, Dean Nicolls, Vice President of Marketing at Jumio. Jumio as a company has found itself in the position described here - in spite of having won numerous impressive awards in its market segment. Dean speaks with Bernie about the ways he’s leading the Jumio marketing team to use PR, analyst relations, and sales enablement to elevate the profile of what the company has to offer as a premium brand. Unknown Premium Brands Build Reputation Through Education At Vengreso, we often say that modern sellers need to sell in ways that modern buyers like to buy through providing valuable content that demonstrates expertise and ability. Dean agrees with that approach. He says that sales is not about selling, it’s about educating.  The Jumio team works overtime to educate their ideal buyers about the challenges of their current approach to identity verification. Any brand who requires a user to register or sign up online - banking, consumer goods, etc. - can recognize the limitations or problems of their current identity verification solutions. Consequently, they are more willing to engage in conversations about how to improve their approach to minimize abandonment and improve the user experience. Listen to learn how you can use an educational approach to build brand equity for your company. Jumio’s 30/70 Split Between Brand Awareness And Demand Generation Dean says that Jumio spends about 30% of its marketing efforts and budget on building brand awareness. The other 70% is used for demand generation activities. The branding side of the split is of particular interest for marketers who find themselves fighting an uphill battle to gain the recognition their solutions deserve. How does Jumio do it? The company works with many PR firms that use a variety of strategies to get the company into the spotlight. Among those strategies are the publication of byline articles, trend jacking, and traditional press coverage when the company has a new product or rolls out an update. But there’s also emphasis placed on entering the company and its products into recognized competitions within the industry. Winning provides a natural way to gain wide-scale attention that puts them on the radar of their ideal buyers. Utilize Stories And Practical Tools To Empower Your Sales Team Success stories have a way of demonstrating product fit that are much more effective than slide decks and presentations. That’s because stories connect to the human beings involved in the buying equation, enabling them to picture themselves in the story, experiencing the solutions described. Dean’s marketing team has developed assets that enable the Jumio sales team to tell effective stories about their product’s positive impact on real-life customers. During this conversation, Dean also tells a story of his own about a big win the Jumio team has experienced through the creation of an online calculator. One member of the Jumio Latin America sales team made use of it in ways the marketing team didn’t anticipate and was able to increase his personal sales numbers to the point that other sellers on the team began to take notice. As you hear what happened through the creation of this easy to use tool you’ll recognize there are likely similar tools or resources your marketing team could create.  Find Champions On Your Team Who Can Empower Everyone Else Premium brands that succeed in penetrating their market do so as a team. They work together to increase the visibility and effectiveness of efforts across the board. One of the ways Jumio has been able to do this is through identifying marketing and sales champions who are excelling in their roles. These team members are invited to share their experience, to become role models for the rest of the team. They’ve discovered that just like their clients appreciate relevant stories, their internal teams appreciate the impact of real-life stories - and when those stories recount the successful experiences of co-workers, their enthusiasm for the Jumio brand value proposition gets amplified and effectiveness increases. Join Bernie as he invites Dean to reveal the careful thought and diligent work that goes into building brand equity for an unknown premium brand, on this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Dean <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannicolls/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Dean on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Dean_Nicolls" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@Dean_Nicolls</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.jumio.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Jumio</a> - where Dean serves as VP of Marketing</li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[1:20] The challenge of getting noticed among premium brands</li> <li>[2:08] Jumio: Online identity verification - and Dean’s role as VP of Marketing</li> <li>[3:18] The needs of the customers that Jumio markets to (those with something at risk)</li> <li>[7:45] A not-so-well-known brand has unique challenges when it comes to marketing</li> <li>[10:31] The PR / Analyst balance to brand building</li> <li>[15:26] How can the sales team be enabled to meet the needs of modern buyers?</li> <li>[18:39] Challenges to telling better stories and how to overcome them</li> <li>[20:37] Collaboration is imperative between marketing and sales</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li><a href="https://hubs.ly/H0jg58v0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The State of Digital Selling 2019 Report</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast</a></li> </ul> <a href="http://bit.ly/MME-Channels" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice</a>

How to Market An Unknown Premium Brand

In this episode I interview Tom Martin, author of The Invisible Sale. Tom and I discuss how social selling is like "seduction" and how the lines are blurring between marketing and sales. We discussed several examples to give you take aways using this provocative analogy. Tune in and be sure to let us know how you are becoming more "seductive" in your social selling practices. Tweet me @BernieBorges or Tom at @TomMartin or our show @SBEngine.  This episode is sponsored by Pixability, a big data software company that helps major brands dramatically increase YouTube impact on their target audiences. Visit our website to download a FREE white paper: The Top 100 Global Brands - Key Lessons for Success on YouTube.   

In this episode I interview Tom Martin, author of <a href="theinvisiblesale.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Invisible Sale</a>. Tom and I discuss how social selling is like "seduction" and how the lines are blurring between marketing and sales. We discussed several examples to give you take aways using this provocative analogy. Tune in and be sure to let us know how you are becoming more "seductive" in your social selling practices. Tweet me @BernieBorges or Tom at @TomMartin or our show @SBEngine.  This episode is sponsored by <a href="http://www.pixability.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pixability</a>, a big data software company that helps major brands dramatically increase YouTube impact on their target audiences. Visit our <a href="http://www.thesocialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">website</a> to download a FREE white paper: The Top 100 Global Brands - Key Lessons for Success on YouTube.

Episode 3.1: Social Selling is Like Seduction.

In episode 4.1 I discuss with Aaron Kahlow key findings from The State of Digital Marketing Talent report including:  1. There is a pervasive, deeply running digital marketing talent gap - a substantial difference between what employers value and what talent is available to them. 2. The industry is rife with missed opportunities in existing training and skills acquisition efforts - level setting programs are infrequently used and underutilized, impeding returns on marketing investment.  3. There is a broad sense of entitlement among young employees. Employers report a wide spread attitude of entitlement among young hires. This attitude results in significant risk of career self sabotage, and also interferes with the ability of the organization to generate results. 4. There is currently a need for solid, measurable and accurate digital talent education. Programs are sorely needed but few organizations implement any organized formal team training programs. Organizations aware of existing programs feel that these these programs are not adequate or sufficient for their needs. This episode is sponsored by Crimson Hexagon. Download their e-book: The New IQ. How Leading Brands are Using Social Media to Make Strategic Business Decisions

In episode 4.1 I discuss with <a href="http://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/expert-instructors/social-media-class-instructors/aaron-kahlow/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aaron Kahlow</a> key findings from The State of Digital Marketing Talent report including:    1. There is a pervasive, deeply running digital marketing talent gap - a substantial difference between what employers value and what talent is available to them.   2. The industry is rife with missed opportunities in existing training and skills acquisition efforts - level setting programs are infrequently used and underutilized, impeding returns on marketing investment.    3. There is a broad sense of entitlement among young employees. Employers report a wide spread attitude of entitlement among young hires. This attitude results in significant risk of career self sabotage, and also interferes with the ability of the organization to generate results.   4. There is currently a need for solid, measurable and accurate digital talent education. Programs are sorely needed but few organizations implement any organized formal team training programs. Organizations aware of existing programs feel that these these programs are not adequate or sufficient for their needs.   This episode is sponsored by Crimson Hexagon. Download their e-book: <a href="http://inbound.findandconvert.com/pod-social-iq-ebook" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The New IQ. How Leading Brands are Using Social Media to Make Strategic Business Decisions</a>

The State of Digital Marketing Talent

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice In a global marketing campaign, is it possible to focus on Brand Messaging and Demand Generation at the same time? The team at Nutanix has pulled it off incredibly well in their 2018 “Freedom” campaign and now in their new 2019/2020 “All Together Now” campaign, which launche in October 2019. The Nutanix brand focuses on bringing siloed technologies such as computing, storage, virtualization, and networking into an integrated single software stack that can operate on just about any hardware. Their goal is to bring siloed technologies and siloed teams together. This episode features Julie O’Brien, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Nutanix. Bernie and Julie discuss the road from the Freedom Campaign into the All Together Now Campaign with an eye toward unpacking how the demand generation side of the equation is integrated into the campaign in a way that stays true to the brand’s promise in clear and concise ways. You’ll hear how the campaign was intentionally created to be outside the creative norm for their industry, about the marketing assets they are using to create the campaign's public messaging, and how they've trained their team around 3 specific sales plays which have set them up to reap the rewards of all their hard work. Listen now! “All Together Now” Is Outside The Creative Norm In Its Marketing Approach In conceiving the new campaign for 2019 and 2020 the Nutanix team desired to focus on the core of their brand promise - simplicity, choice, and delight - but to also tell the brand story in a differentiated and fun way that communicates their technology solutions. This meant they would focus their team on three key sales plays and roll them out to their sales organization in a way that stays consistent with their brand promise. The, “All Together Now” campaign is aimed at communicating the desire to break down silos so that teams within companies can truly work together. The Nutanix creative team decided to communicate that message using people to personify the tech and apps in the cloud that are part of their solution. This makes their messaging fun, human, and relatable. They also used eye-popping colors which are very different from typical enterprise marketing and advertising campaigns. To wrap it all up nicely, they created an “anthem” for the campaign from the old song by The Turtles, “Happy Together.” As you can tell, the All Together Now campaign was masterfully thought out and put into action methodically and carefully. Listen to hear more of the details from Julie and to consider how you can approach your next campaign with similar creativity. A Global Campaign Comprised Of Many Facets to Generate Sales Pipeline  Julie explains how this campaign has hefty sales pipeline goals and how her team is attributing contribution to pipeline. The campaign tells the story of the three-stage journey the Nutanix team sees their customers going on in their journey with Nutanix. First, they build a private cloud as the core foundation. Second, they run their own apps on that foundation. Third, they build an environment where the best of the technology from their private cloud is merged with the public technology cloud where and if it makes sense. To communicate that journey in an effective marketing campaign, the team used many assets and resources.  Digital paid media Retargeting Takeovers in key publications/sites where their customers go Surgical out of home placements Opportunities where buyers are, but the company is not (like trade shows - Julie calls these “guerilla marketing takeovers”) ABM micro-targeting where their top 50 customers are located And broad demand generation such as webinars, direct mailers, and other “meeting makers”  How To Be Brand-Centric And Demand Generation Centric At The Same Time Julie says that the Nutanix global marketing organization has grown into the stage it is in now - able to execute a far-reaching global campaign that has measurable impact on sales pipeline. But it hasn’t always been integrated in a way where global demand generation activities were synchronized globally. The learning curve the team has been on has enabled them to learn what works and what doesn’t - and to modify their approach on the fly when necessary. Three different sales plays were organized, resourced, and rolled out to both inside and outside sales teams long before the campaign launched. Everything from customer-facing presentations, call scripts, channel enablement, and the overall marketing blitz (direct mail, digital, webinar series) had to be aligned with both the brand’s identity and the demand generation needs of the organization. What Kind Of Team Does It Take To Do Such An Effective Campaign? The Nutanix global marketing team responsible for planning and executing this impressive campaign is in the range of 200 people, under Julie’s leadership. They are able to pull in sales, customer support, and marketing professionals from their entire global workforce to advise about various aspects of their customer’s needs. They also engaged agencies for help with many aspects of the campaign.  Are there ways you can take a similar approach with a smaller team and fewer assets? Absolutely. Julie says… “The best ideas often come from inside the company… you probably have the creativity within your own walls now. Who are the people you can bring into a meeting room, close the door, and riff on a whiteboard what your demand generation goals are, what your brand value proposition is, and how you can bring that together and be smart about the resources you have. That might be bringing someone in from inside sales, bringing in someone from product marketing, and bringing in someone from your customer support team who is talking with customers every day.” Julie's advice goes on to include budgetary constraints and more. Be sure you listen to this in-depth conversation to learn more about the Nutanix All Together Now global campaign! Featured on This Episode  Nutanix - where Julie serves as SVP of Corporate Marketing Julie on LinkedIn Julie on Twitter: @JulieAObrien The Nutanix All Together Now video: https://youtu.be/WUMmCb4dgn0 Nutanix on LinkedIn  Outline of This Episode  [1:06] Introduction to Julie O’Brien, SVP of Nutanix and her company’s vision [3:03] What is a hyper-converged infrastructure? [4:59] The current “All Together” campaign Nutanix is running: What is it about? [6:52] What goes into a Nutanix global campaign? [9:20] Blending branding and demand generation to great effect - how Nutanix does it [12:10] How the sales team was brought onboard for the campaign [18:02] The marketing team behind these great campaigns [20:00] Does the campaign change over time as it is running? [22:06] Advice for listeners with smaller marketing teams [28:35] Why it’s important to be as relatable as possible in spite of the technology  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  “Happy Together” by the Turtles The Register TechTarget TechCrunch Grizzly Creative Agency 2 Rivers Video and Audio Production Oracle Open World Microsoft SQL Server The State of Digital Selling 2019 Report The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine  https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice

<a href="http://bit.ly/MME-Channels" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice</a> In a global marketing campaign, is it possible to focus on Brand Messaging and Demand Generation at the same time? The team at Nutanix has pulled it off incredibly well in their 2018 “Freedom” campaign and now in their new 2019/2020 “All Together Now” campaign, which launche in October 2019. The Nutanix brand focuses on bringing siloed technologies such as computing, storage, virtualization, and networking into an integrated single software stack that can operate on just about any hardware. Their goal is to bring siloed technologies and siloed teams together. This episode features Julie O’Brien, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Nutanix. Bernie and Julie discuss the road from the Freedom Campaign into the All Together Now Campaign with an eye toward unpacking how the demand generation side of the equation is integrated into the campaign in a way that stays true to the brand’s promise in clear and concise ways. You’ll hear how the campaign was intentionally created to be outside the creative norm for their industry, about the marketing assets they are using to create the campaign's public messaging, and how they've trained their team around 3 specific sales plays which have set them up to reap the rewards of all their hard work. Listen now! “All Together Now” Is Outside The Creative Norm In Its Marketing Approach In conceiving the new campaign for 2019 and 2020 the Nutanix team desired to focus on the core of their brand promise - simplicity, choice, and delight - but to also tell the brand story in a differentiated and fun way that communicates their technology solutions. This meant they would focus their team on three key sales plays and roll them out to their sales organization in a way that stays consistent with their brand promise. The, “All Together Now” campaign is aimed at communicating the desire to break down silos so that teams within companies can truly work together. The Nutanix creative team decided to communicate that message using people to personify the tech and apps in the cloud that are part of their solution. This makes their messaging fun, human, and relatable. They also used eye-popping colors which are very different from typical enterprise marketing and advertising campaigns. To wrap it all up nicely, they created an “anthem” for the campaign from the old song by The Turtles, “Happy Together.” As you can tell, the All Together Now campaign was masterfully thought out and put into action methodically and carefully. Listen to hear more of the details from Julie and to consider how you can approach your next campaign with similar creativity. A Global Campaign Comprised Of Many Facets to Generate Sales Pipeline  Julie explains how this campaign has hefty sales pipeline goals and how her team is attributing contribution to pipeline. The campaign tells the story of the three-stage journey the Nutanix team sees their customers going on in their journey with Nutanix. First, they build a private cloud as the core foundation. Second, they run their own apps on that foundation. Third, they build an environment where the best of the technology from their private cloud is merged with the public technology cloud where and if it makes sense. To communicate that journey in an effective marketing campaign, the team used many assets and resources. <ul> <li>Digital paid media</li> <li>Retargeting</li> <li>Takeovers in key publications/sites where their customers go</li> <li>Surgical out of home placements</li> <li>Opportunities where buyers are, but the company is not (like trade shows - Julie calls these “guerilla marketing takeovers”)</li> <li>ABM micro-targeting where their top 50 customers are located</li> <li>And broad demand generation such as webinars, direct mailers, and other “meeting makers”</li> </ul> How To Be Brand-Centric And Demand Generation Centric At The Same Time Julie says that the Nutanix global marketing organization has grown into the stage it is in now - able to execute a far-reaching global campaign that has measurable impact on sales pipeline. But it hasn’t always been integrated in a way where global demand generation activities were synchronized globally. The learning curve the team has been on has enabled them to learn what works and what doesn’t - and to modify their approach on the fly when necessary. Three different sales plays were organized, resourced, and rolled out to both inside and outside sales teams long before the campaign launched. Everything from customer-facing presentations, call scripts, channel enablement, and the overall marketing blitz (direct mail, digital, webinar series) had to be aligned with both the brand’s identity and the demand generation needs of the organization. What Kind Of Team Does It Take To Do Such An Effective Campaign? The Nutanix global marketing team responsible for planning and executing this impressive campaign is in the range of 200 people, under Julie’s leadership. They are able to pull in sales, customer support, and marketing professionals from their entire global workforce to advise about various aspects of their customer’s needs. They also engaged agencies for help with many aspects of the campaign.  Are there ways you can take a similar approach with a smaller team and fewer assets? Absolutely. Julie says… “The best ideas often come from inside the company… you probably have the creativity within your own walls now. Who are the people you can bring into a meeting room, close the door, and riff on a whiteboard what your demand generation goals are, what your brand value proposition is, and how you can bring that together and be smart about the resources you have. That might be bringing someone in from inside sales, bringing in someone from product marketing, and bringing in someone from your customer support team who is talking with customers every day.” Julie's advice goes on to include budgetary constraints and more. Be sure you listen to this in-depth conversation to learn more about the Nutanix All Together Now global campaign! Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://www.nutanix.com/together" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nutanix</a> - where Julie serves as SVP of Corporate Marketing</li> <li>Julie <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-o-brien-72bb3/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Julie on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/julieaobrien" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@JulieAObrien</a></li> <li>The Nutanix All Together Now video: <a href="https://youtu.be/WUMmCb4dgn0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/WUMmCb4dgn0</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nutanix/ads/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nutanix on LinkedIn</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[1:06] Introduction to Julie O’Brien, SVP of Nutanix and her company’s vision</li> <li>[3:03] What is a hyper-converged infrastructure?</li> <li>[4:59] The current “All Together” campaign Nutanix is running: What is it about?</li> <li>[6:52] What goes into a Nutanix global campaign?</li> <li>[9:20] Blending branding and demand generation to great effect - how Nutanix does it</li> <li>[12:10] How the sales team was brought onboard for the campaign</li> <li>[18:02] The marketing team behind these great campaigns</li> <li>[20:00] Does the campaign change over time as it is running?</li> <li>[22:06] Advice for listeners with smaller marketing teams</li> <li>[28:35] Why it’s important to be as relatable as possible in spite of the technology</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li>“<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Together_(song)" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Happy Together</a>” by the Turtles</li> <li><a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Register</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">TechTarget</a></li> <li><a href="https://techcrunch.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a></li> <li><a href="https://madebygrizzly.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Grizzly Creative Agency</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.2riversmultimedia.com/?page_id=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">2 Rivers Video and Audio Production</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.oracle.com/openworld/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Oracle Open World</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Microsoft SQL Server</a></li> <li><a href="https://hubs.ly/H0jg58v0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The State of Digital Selling 2019 Report</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast</a></li> </ul> <a href="http://bit.ly/MME-Channels" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice</a>

All Together Now: Brand and Demand Generation

Many aspects of sales relationships are beneficial, but nothing builds trust and connection quite like a face to face interaction. Britta Schellenberg serves as Vice President of Corporate Marketing Operations at Brightcove. Britta is a seasoned marketer who delivers results through creative thoughts, ideas, and strategies and she knows how to create an engaging customer conference that drives customer retention and prospect conversions. You might say “face to face” experiences are her specialty. In this conversation, Britta and Bernie discuss how the use of online video can create incredible demand for live events, and how she’s been able to do so for the annual Brightcove event called Play. Whether or not you have responsibility for event planning, you’ll pick up ideas and insights about using online video in your digital strategy from what Britta has to share on this episode. Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts How Has Online Video Evolved In Digital Marketing? When video first became available through the Internet it was cumbersome. It had to be downloaded and watched locally (on individual devices) and took a long time to do so. But technology has advanced significantly and now online video can stream easily - so it’s everywhere. Not only have tech advances made video easier to consume, it’s also much easier to produce. There is virtually no cost to producing basic videos. Brands who are willing to experiment and learn can produce video easily. When your brand takes that bold step,  social selling takes on a whole new level of effectiveness. Your customers are able to see, hear, and get a feel for your brand representatives, developing the “know, like, trust” factor with them and your brand like never before. In this episode, Britta Schellenberg explains how any brand can become a media company, how salespeople and marketers can use video to tell stories and demonstrate solutions, and how online video can increase customer retention and even sales conversions. Every Brand Should Be Encouraged to Shoot Video One of the most important questions brands should be asking and answering about their place in the busy online marketplace is this: “How can we differentiate ourselves?” It’s a question that can be answered and implemented in powerful ways using online video. As you consider how to use video to differentiate your brand, think about what you can demonstrate, teach, or tap into that can add value to viewers and build trust for your brand? It’s about building relationships which lends support to your sales goals. And don’t forget about video when it comes to email. Click through rates for email are 12,000% higher when video is implemented in them, so it would be foolish to ignore this powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. In this conversation, Britta Schellenberg provides immense insight into how both B2B and B2C brands can use video effectively in their marketing and discusses how her company, Brightcove uses online video to promote Play, its annual conference for customers, partners and video creators. Powerful Event Promotion Strategy Using Video: Before, During, and After The power of an event is the in-person nature of it. Meeting people, learning things in a live environment, and the buzz and excitement of being there make it a special experience. You can use online video to capture and demonstrate some of those aspects of your next event in powerful ways. Britta explains how the Brightcove team uses online video in a "before, during, and after" approach with Play. They publish teasers of the event on social media, live stream conversations and happenings at the conference, and even provide the keynote session live on social media. In all their event-related efforts they are careful to use the event hashtag with every video - this year’s event hashtag was #Play2018. All of this and more is part of the Brightcove “Before, During, After” video strategy and it is very effective. Listen and learn how the Brightcove team makes use of video for their events, including digital session video as an added benefit to attendees and as a revenue generator for those unable to attend the event in person. How Brands Can Get Started Using Online Video If you’re convinced that online video is something your company should be using to market and build better connections with customers and prospects, Britta has some great advice for you.  Don’t be intimidated. Like anything, you’ll have to discover your own style and approach to using video, but it’s not as complicated as you may think. You also need to have clear goals. What are you trying to accomplish with your videos? Trust building? Promoting an event? Your goal should determine your approach, so don’t allow your efforts to be unfocused. Don’t try to copy massive brands. They may have millions of dollars to create the slick videos they do - and you likely don’t need that level of production anyway. Stay focused on your goals and work with what you have. What resources and personnel DO you have? Are there enthusiastic, well-spoken people on your team who would be natural on camera? Are there graphics professionals who could contribute? Do you have still images that could be compiled into slideshow-type videos?  You know your brand, so step out boldly to represent it through video. Try it out and learn from your mistakes as you go along and you’ll find that online video is one of the most powerful things you can do to engage with customers, promote events, and make your brand shine. Featured on This Episode  Brightcove and Brightcove Play The Brightcove blog (resources about creating video) Connect with Brita on LinkedIn Brita on Twitter: @MizzBritta  Outline of This Episode  [2:39] What is Brightcove and what does Britta do with the company? [5:57] Brand aspirations to use video in marketing and sales [7:23] Differences in how B2B and B2C companies are using video [10:19] Online video use to market events [20:21] How brands can get started using online video [22:01] Is it important to get the CEO on video?  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  The FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report - www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com Salesforce The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Many aspects of sales relationships are beneficial, but nothing builds trust and connection quite like a face to face interaction. Britta Schellenberg serves as Vice President of Corporate Marketing Operations at Brightcove. Britta is a seasoned marketer who delivers results through creative thoughts, ideas, and strategies and she knows how to create an engaging customer conference that drives customer retention and prospect conversions. You might say “face to face” experiences are her specialty. In this conversation, Britta and Bernie discuss how the use of online video can create incredible demand for live events, and how she’s been able to do so for the annual Brightcove event called Play. Whether or not you have responsibility for event planning, you’ll pick up ideas and insights about using online video in your digital strategy from what Britta has to share on this episode. Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> How Has Online Video Evolved In Digital Marketing? When video first became available through the Internet it was cumbersome. It had to be downloaded and watched locally (on individual devices) and took a long time to do so. But technology has advanced significantly and now online video can stream easily - so it’s everywhere. Not only have tech advances made video easier to consume, it’s also much easier to produce. There is virtually no cost to producing basic videos. Brands who are willing to experiment and learn can produce video easily. When your brand takes that bold step, <a href="https://vengreso.com/services/customized-social-selling-training-programs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> social selling</a> takes on a whole new level of effectiveness. Your customers are able to see, hear, and get a feel for your brand representatives, developing the “know, like, trust” factor with them and your brand like never before. In this episode, Britta Schellenberg explains how any brand can become a media company, how salespeople and marketers can use video to tell stories and demonstrate solutions, and how online video can increase customer retention and even sales conversions. Every Brand Should Be Encouraged to Shoot Video One of the most important questions brands should be asking and answering about their place in the busy online marketplace is this: “How can we differentiate ourselves?” It’s a question that can be answered and implemented in powerful ways using online video. As you consider how to use video to differentiate your brand, think about what you can demonstrate, teach, or tap into that can add value to viewers and build trust for your brand? It’s about building relationships which lends support to your sales goals. And don’t forget about video when it comes to email. Click through rates for email are 12,000% higher when video is implemented in them, so it would be foolish to ignore this powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. In this conversation, Britta Schellenberg provides immense insight into how both B2B and B2C brands can use video effectively in their marketing and discusses how her company, Brightcove uses online video to promote Play, its annual conference for customers, partners and video creators. Powerful Event Promotion Strategy Using Video: Before, During, and After The power of an event is the in-person nature of it. Meeting people, learning things in a live environment, and the buzz and excitement of being there make it a special experience. You can use online video to capture and demonstrate some of those aspects of your next event in powerful ways. Britta explains how the Brightcove team uses online video in a "before, during, and after" approach with Play. They publish teasers of the event on social media, live stream conversations and happenings at the conference, and even provide the keynote session live on social media. In all their event-related efforts they are careful to use the event hashtag with every video - this year’s event hashtag was #Play2018. All of this and more is part of the Brightcove “Before, During, After” video strategy and it is very effective. Listen and learn how the Brightcove team makes use of video for their events, including digital session video as an added benefit to attendees and as a revenue generator for those unable to attend the event in person. How Brands Can Get Started Using Online Video If you’re convinced that online video is something your company should be using to market and build better connections with customers and prospects, Britta has some great advice for you. <ol> <li>Don’t be intimidated. Like anything, you’ll have to discover your own style and approach to using video, but it’s not as complicated as you may think.</li> <li>You also need to have clear goals. What are you trying to accomplish with your videos? Trust building? Promoting an event? Your goal should determine your approach, so don’t allow your efforts to be unfocused.</li> <li>Don’t try to copy massive brands. They may have millions of dollars to create the slick videos they do - and you likely don’t need that level of production anyway. Stay focused on your goals and work with what you have.</li> <li>What resources and personnel DO you have? Are there enthusiastic, well-spoken people on your team who would be natural on camera? Are there graphics professionals who could contribute? Do you have still images that could be compiled into slideshow-type videos?</li> </ol> You know your brand, so step out boldly to represent it through video. Try it out and learn from your mistakes as you go along and you’ll find that online video is one of the most powerful things you can do to engage with customers, promote events, and make your brand shine. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://www.brightcove.com/en/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Brightcove</a> and <a href="https://play.brightcove.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Brightcove Play</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.brightcove.com/en/blog" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Brightcove blog</a> (resources about creating video)</li> <li>Connect with Brita <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittaschellenberg/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Brita on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/mizzbritta" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@MizzBritta</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[2:39] What is Brightcove and what does Britta do with the company?</li> <li>[5:57] Brand aspirations to use video in marketing and sales</li> <li>[7:23] Differences in how B2B and B2C companies are using video</li> <li>[10:19] Online video use to market events</li> <li>[20:21] How brands can get started using online video</li> <li>[22:01] Is it important to get the CEO on video?</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li>The FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report - <a href="http://www.digitalsellingbenchmarkreport.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.salesforce.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Salesforce</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul>Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3NiZW5naW5lLnNiZXNob3cubGlic3lucHJvLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a> There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

How To Create Demand And Engagement For Events And Conferences Through Online Video

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Vengreso recently published an original report titled The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019. We surveyed 862 B2B sales reps across five industries: professional services, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services to assess their digital selling skills. The sales reps were asked 10 multiple-choice questions about how they use LinkedIn in their sales activities to assess how their use of LinkedIn impacts their digital selling results. Tune into today’s episode as Bernie and his guest Kurt Shaver, Co-founder and CSO at Vengreso, summarize the key findings that are published in the 20-page report. Get the full report on the Vengreso website or at stateofdigitalselling.com. Don’t miss out on the full report’s finding to understand how reps are being effective in digital selling through LinkedIn. How Has LinkedIn Impacted Digital Selling? One of the key takeaways from The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report is that LinkedIn has been severely under-utilized by sales and marketing professionals. Despite being the largest publicly available B2B database in the world, the number of professionals using the platform for sales engagement is disappointing. LinkedIn is a comprehensive tool sales professionals should use to find, engage, connect with, and foster relationships with potential customers. The scope and depth of information housed in the LinkedIn platform are enough to keep most sales professionals’ digital Rolodex full of prime prospects for years. It has already revolutionized digital selling among those sales and marketing teams who use it appropriately. Your LinkedIn Profile Is More Than A Resume Most LinkedIn users recognize the platform as a way to present a professional face to the business world. However, beyond uploading a professional picture and completing the resume portion of the bio, most salespeople fail to optimize their profiles. Sales professionals need to move beyond using LinkedIn solely as a resume and instead focus on presenting a profile written through the eyes of their target customer. The report shows that most sales professionals are unaware that LinkedIn allows you to upload a variety of media files to include documents, PDFs, videos, and reports. The backbone of digital selling is creating and maintaining credibility with your target customer. The percentage of salespeople using LinkedIn to repurpose existing content and spread new content is surprisingly low considering the power such information has in generating trust. Are Your Connections Referring You Business? It’s true that the quality of your connections is more important than the quantity, but approximately half of the sales professionals surveyed had fewer than 500 connections. The salespeople who generate the most revenue are those with the biggest network. Having a net of just anyone is not effective, but when you focus on connecting with large numbers of people in your area of focus, you enhance your ability to sell more effectively and consistently. When you have a large network, you have more people from whom to gain referrals. However, the number of individuals in sales who are not using their network for referrals is astounding. 93 percent of those surveyed in The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report have not or are not sure if they have ever asked for a referral from their connections. Considering the networking opportunities on LinkedIn, this is a huge area of improvement needed by sales professionals. Why Aren’t Sales Professionals Using The Advanced Search Feature? Not only are sales professionals not using their connections often enough to generate referrals and leads, but they are also not using the Advanced Search feature within LinkedIn. Perhaps most salespeople are unaware that this feature exists since 40 percent of those surveyed indicated they have never used the Advanced Search tool. This feature provides sales professionals the ability to create and save searches to find people they want to connect with and create Search Alerts that notify the user of new contacts matching the search criteria. Those who know how to use the Advanced Search feature are more effective at prospecting on LinkedIn. Bernie and Kurt closed this episode with an invitation to get the full report to read key insights on how to use the findings gained from this survey. To get the full 20-page report just go to www.stateofdigitalselling.com. Featured on This Episode  Kurt on LinkedIn Kurt on Twitter: @KurtShaver  Outline of This Episode  [1:04] Bernie introduces today’s guest Kurt Shaver, CSO, and co-founder of Vengreso [2:16] Bernie reveals the purpose behind The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report and how the data was obtained. [3:40] Which version of LinkedIn are most sales teams using? [5:34] The version doesn’t matter so much as the training supplied to the reps. [6:33] How does the profile picture affect the efficacy of the profile as a whole? [9:03] Media takes your LinkedIn profile from a digital resume to a digital resource. [14:19] What the number of LinkedIn connections say about profile optimization? [17:01] Referrals through LinkedIn are tremendously underutilized. [18:55] LinkedIn’s least used resource? The Advanced Search feature. [21:08] How often are individual reps sharing content with their LinkedIn network? [25:28] Better sales calls are made when the sales rep does research. [26:29] Are salespeople using personal video messages in their digital selling tactics? [30:04] What does your LinkedIn SSI score say about your LinkedIn profile? [31:56] Download the report at stateofdigitalselling.com for additional insights. [32:35] Kurt’s final thoughts on the insights gained from The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report.  Resources &amp; People Mentioned   Episode 217 of The Modern Marketing Engine Podcast: The 4 Digital Selling Skills of the Successful Modern Seller  Episode 242 of the MME Podcast: How Marketing &amp; Sales Contribute To Digital Transformation At CenturyLink  Episode 230 of the SBE Podcast: The Influential Role of Content in Sales Enablement  Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP Eric Yuan, CEO and founder of Zoom Video Communications Episode 246 of the MME Podcast: The Career Journey of the Modern CMO  Episode 251 of the MME Podcast: 3 Ways to Ensure Marketing And Sales Produce Measurable Results The  Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine  https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> Vengreso recently published an original report titled The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019. We surveyed 862 B2B sales reps across five industries: professional services, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services to assess their digital selling skills. The sales reps were asked 10 multiple-choice questions about how they use LinkedIn in their sales activities to assess how their use of LinkedIn impacts their digital selling results. Tune into today’s episode as Bernie and his guest Kurt Shaver, Co-founder and CSO at Vengreso, summarize the key findings that are published in the 20-page report. Get the full report on the Vengreso website or at <a href="http://stateofdigitalselling.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">stateofdigitalselling.com</a>. Don’t miss out on the full report’s finding to understand how reps are being effective in digital selling through LinkedIn. How Has LinkedIn Impacted Digital Selling? One of the key takeaways from The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report is that LinkedIn has been severely under-utilized by sales and marketing professionals. Despite being the largest publicly available B2B database in the world, the number of professionals using the platform for sales engagement is disappointing. LinkedIn is a comprehensive tool sales professionals should use to find, engage, connect with, and foster relationships with potential customers. The scope and depth of information housed in the LinkedIn platform are enough to keep most sales professionals’ digital Rolodex full of prime prospects for years. It has already revolutionized digital selling among those sales and marketing teams who use it appropriately. Your LinkedIn Profile Is More Than A Resume Most LinkedIn users recognize the platform as a way to present a professional face to the business world. However, beyond uploading a professional picture and completing the resume portion of the bio, most salespeople fail to optimize their profiles. Sales professionals need to move beyond using LinkedIn solely as a resume and instead focus on presenting a profile written through the eyes of their target customer. The report shows that most sales professionals are unaware that LinkedIn allows you to upload a variety of media files to include documents, PDFs, videos, and reports. The backbone of digital selling is creating and maintaining credibility with your target customer. The percentage of salespeople using LinkedIn to repurpose existing content and spread new content is surprisingly low considering the power such information has in generating trust. Are Your Connections Referring You Business? It’s true that the quality of your connections is more important than the quantity, but approximately half of the sales professionals surveyed had fewer than 500 connections. The salespeople who generate the most revenue are those with the biggest network. Having a net of just anyone is not effective, but when you focus on connecting with large numbers of people in your area of focus, you enhance your ability to sell more effectively and consistently. When you have a large network, you have more people from whom to gain referrals. However, the number of individuals in sales who are not using their network for referrals is astounding. 93 percent of those surveyed in The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report have not or are not sure if they have ever asked for a referral from their connections. Considering the networking opportunities on LinkedIn, this is a huge area of improvement needed by sales professionals. Why Aren’t Sales Professionals Using The Advanced Search Feature? Not only are sales professionals not using their connections often enough to generate referrals and leads, but they are also not using the Advanced Search feature within LinkedIn. Perhaps most salespeople are unaware that this feature exists since 40 percent of those surveyed indicated they have never used the Advanced Search tool. This feature provides sales professionals the ability to create and save searches to find people they want to connect with and create Search Alerts that notify the user of new contacts matching the search criteria. Those who know how to use the Advanced Search feature are more effective at prospecting on LinkedIn. Bernie and Kurt closed this episode with an invitation to get the full report to read key insights on how to use the findings gained from this survey. To get the full 20-page report just go to <a href="http://www.stateofdigitalselling.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.stateofdigitalselling.com</a>. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Kurt <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/KurtShaver/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Kurt on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/KurtShaver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@KurtShaver</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[1:04] Bernie introduces today’s guest Kurt Shaver, CSO, and co-founder of Vengreso</li> <li>[2:16] Bernie reveals the purpose behind The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report and how the data was obtained.</li> <li>[3:40] Which version of LinkedIn are most sales teams using?</li> <li>[5:34] The version doesn’t matter so much as the training supplied to the reps.</li> <li>[6:33] How does the profile picture affect the efficacy of the profile as a whole?</li> <li>[9:03] Media takes your LinkedIn profile from a digital resume to a digital resource.</li> <li>[14:19] What the number of LinkedIn connections say about profile optimization?</li> <li>[17:01] Referrals through LinkedIn are tremendously underutilized.</li> <li>[18:55] LinkedIn’s least used resource? The Advanced Search feature.</li> <li>[21:08] How often are individual reps sharing content with their LinkedIn network?</li> <li>[25:28] Better sales calls are made when the sales rep does research.</li> <li>[26:29] Are salespeople using personal video messages in their digital selling tactics?</li> <li>[30:04] What does your LinkedIn SSI score say about your LinkedIn profile?</li> <li>[31:56] Download the report at <a href="http://www.stateofdigitalselling.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">stateofdigitalselling.com</a> for additional insights.</li> <li>[32:35] Kurt’s final thoughts on the insights gained from The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 report.</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/4-digital-selling-skills-of-successful-modern-seller" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Episode 217 of The Modern Marketing Engine Podcast: The 4 Digital Selling Skills of the Successful Modern Seller</a></li> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/marketing-sales-chris-sikora-centurylink" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Episode 242 of the MME Podcast: How Marketing &amp; Sales Contribute To Digital Transformation At CenturyLink</a></li> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/tamara-schenk-content-sales-enablement" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Episode 230 of the SBE Podcast: The Influential Role of Content in Sales Enablement</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.sap.com/corporate/en/company/leadership/bill-mcdermott.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsyuan2011" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Eric Yuan, CEO and founder of Zoom Video Communications</a></li> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/modern-cmo-darryl-praill" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 246 of the MME Podcast: The Career Journey of the Modern CMO</a></li> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/3-ways-to-ensure-marketing-sales-produce-measurable-results?utm_campaign=mme%20podcast&amp;utm_source=all&amp;utm_term=bernie&amp;utm_content=ep_251" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Episode 251 of the MME Podcast: 3 Ways to Ensure Marketing And Sales Produce Measurable Results</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast</a></li> </ul>   Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">There are TWO WAYS you can l</a>isten to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Every marketing department these days is facing a significant challenge. Things have changed. The days when the marketing department was only responsible for creating compelling ad copy and pretty images are long gone. Much more business impact is expected of marketing teams these days. Taylor Ryan, CMO of Valuer is Bernie’s guest on this episode. Together, they highlight the changes that have happened to the marketing landscape and make recommendations to help those in the marketing department understand the vital role they play in today’s organizations. You’ll hear Taylor address exactly why marketing departments need to think of themselves as their own agency, why they should not depend on the sales department alone for data and statistics, why every marketer is served well by becoming a swiss army knife, and more. Really? Why Should A Marketing Department Be Its Own Agency? Marketing is more complex than it used to be because the world has changed. The digital age has introduced many channels and opportunities for marketing professionals that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. It’s a fast paced environment that requires a diverse set of skills and knowledge. One example Taylor provides has to do with the issue of SEM (Search Engine Marketing). Many companies outsource their SEM needs, which makes sense, since there are many aspects of SEM that require specific, technical knowledge. But what winds up happening in some cases is that the contracted agency doesn’t measure what it’s doing according to what’s important for the specific market the company serves. Why? Because the agency is not well-versed in the issues that are important to the industry. They don’t KNOW the market as well as the company does. That means someone inside the company who DOES have the specialized knowledge of their industry needs to become well-versed in SEM in order to take on that role internally. Of course, there are external agencies that are very good at getting into the details of their customers’ industry. But Taylor’s point is well-taken. There’s a lot more on the plate of the modern marketing department than there used to be and sometimes external agencies aren’t enough to meet all the demands. The Marketing Department Needs To Take Ownership Of Tracking Results The data needed to make good marketing decisions gets stored in a good tech stack. You need to be able to use the tools you've selected to track, measure results, know where conversions came from, and understand what channels produce the most revenue. If you’re looking for reports on leads, the marketing department needs to set those up within the tech stack themselves instead of relying solely on the sales department to provide them. It’s not that the sales department is unwilling. It’s that sales professionals have a particular set of skills that make them great salespeople but not always great providers of detailed data needed by the marketing department. They typically aren’t focused on keeping detailed stats. It’s simply not how they are wired. The steps that need to be taken to ensure that every lead is followed up with appropriately and adequately needs to be put in place by the marketing department, through marketing and sales alignment. That means the head of marketing and the head of sales need to be collaborating together to ensure seamless integration of the data. This integration needs to benefit the entire organization, especially the sales team, otherwise it’s hard to get their collaboration. To Create Great Marketing Content, You Have To Be The Swiss Army Knife Do you remember the Swiss Army Knife? It's many tools in one - a knife, a screwdriver, a pick, maybe even a knife and fork. Whatever tool you need, the Swiss Army Knife is intended to handle it. Marketers in the world today need to be able to accomplish many tasks, oftentimes on-demand, without having to pass the work to someone else. They have to be like Swiss Army Knives. A diverse skill set is required, which is one of the reasons a wide-ranging, capable marketer will always be in demand. Listen to hear the skills Taylor suggests modern marketers adopt in order to be successful. He also shares helpful insights regarding the kind of attitude that enables marketers to thrive even when they don’t get the recognition they deserve. Modern Marketing Has Evolved Way Beyond Creative Ad Copy And Images Let’s take a moment to consider all the areas for which a modern marketing department may need to produce content.  Website Email newsletters Blog posts Podcasts Video SEM Social media Whitepapers Case studies Use cases And many more…  The point of this exercise is to illustrate how marketing has changed. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to marketing positions. Marketing departments these days need to function as internal agencies, effectively producing specialized content for their target market in a variety of forms. Featured on This Episode  Valuer - where Taylor serves as CMO Taylor Ryan on LinkedIn Taylor on Twitter: @TaylorRyanTweet  Outline of This Episode  [1:27] Who is Taylor Ryan and what is Valuer (where he serves as CMO) [2:46] Why Taylor believes marketing departments need to act like agencies [7:04] You can’t count on the sales department [12:23] Everyone has ideas but the marketing department are the ones who execute [15:22] Be the swiss army knife [19:10] Why marketing can be a thankless job [23:45] Marketing needs resources or nothing gets done [25:52] Marketing has evolved far beyond making pictures and ad copy  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  LIVE WEBINAR: Feb 19th - www.Vengreso.com/events - register for the webinar! Previous Episode of MME with the CEO of Vonage aHREFs The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> Every marketing department these days is facing a significant challenge. Things have changed. The days when the marketing department was only responsible for creating compelling ad copy and pretty images are long gone. Much more business impact is expected of marketing teams these days. Taylor Ryan, CMO of Valuer is Bernie’s guest on this episode. Together, they highlight the changes that have happened to the marketing landscape and make recommendations to help those in the marketing department understand the vital role they play in today’s organizations. You’ll hear Taylor address exactly why marketing departments need to think of themselves as their own agency, why they should not depend on the sales department alone for data and statistics, why every marketer is served well by becoming a swiss army knife, and more. Really? Why Should A Marketing Department Be Its Own Agency? Marketing is more complex than it used to be because the world has changed. The digital age has introduced many channels and opportunities for marketing professionals that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. It’s a fast paced environment that requires a diverse set of skills and knowledge. One example Taylor provides has to do with the issue of SEM (Search Engine Marketing). Many companies outsource their SEM needs, which makes sense, since there are many aspects of SEM that require specific, technical knowledge. But what winds up happening in some cases is that the contracted agency doesn’t measure what it’s doing according to what’s important for the specific market the company serves. Why? Because the agency is not well-versed in the issues that are important to the industry. They don’t KNOW the market as well as the company does. That means someone inside the company who DOES have the specialized knowledge of their industry needs to become well-versed in SEM in order to take on that role internally. Of course, there are external agencies that are very good at getting into the details of their customers’ industry. But Taylor’s point is well-taken. There’s a lot more on the plate of the modern marketing department than there used to be and sometimes external agencies aren’t enough to meet all the demands. The Marketing Department Needs To Take Ownership Of Tracking Results The data needed to make good marketing decisions gets stored in a good tech stack. You need to be able to use the tools you've selected to track, measure results, know where conversions came from, and understand what channels produce the most revenue. If you’re looking for reports on leads, the marketing department needs to set those up within the tech stack themselves instead of relying solely on the sales department to provide them. It’s not that the sales department is unwilling. It’s that sales professionals have a particular set of skills that make them great salespeople but not always great providers of detailed data needed by the marketing department. They typically aren’t focused on keeping detailed stats. It’s simply not how they are wired. The steps that need to be taken to ensure that every lead is followed up with appropriately and adequately needs to be put in place by the marketing department, through marketing and sales alignment. That means the head of marketing and the head of sales need to be collaborating together to ensure seamless integration of the data. This integration needs to benefit the entire organization, especially the sales team, otherwise it’s hard to get their collaboration. To Create Great Marketing Content, You Have To Be The Swiss Army Knife Do you remember the Swiss Army Knife? It's many tools in one - a knife, a screwdriver, a pick, maybe even a knife and fork. Whatever tool you need, the Swiss Army Knife is intended to handle it. Marketers in the world today need to be able to accomplish many tasks, oftentimes on-demand, without having to pass the work to someone else. They have to be like Swiss Army Knives. A diverse skill set is required, which is one of the reasons a wide-ranging, capable marketer will always be in demand. Listen to hear the skills Taylor suggests modern marketers adopt in order to be successful. He also shares helpful insights regarding the kind of attitude that enables marketers to thrive even when they don’t get the recognition they deserve. Modern Marketing Has Evolved Way Beyond Creative Ad Copy And Images Let’s take a moment to consider all the areas for which a modern marketing department may need to produce content. <ul> <li>Website</li> <li>Email newsletters</li> <li>Blog posts</li> <li>Podcasts</li> <li>Video</li> <li>SEM</li> <li>Social media</li> <li>Whitepapers</li> <li>Case studies</li> <li>Use cases</li> <li>And many more…</li> </ul> The point of this exercise is to illustrate how marketing has changed. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to marketing positions. Marketing departments these days need to function as internal agencies, effectively producing specialized content for their target market in a variety of forms. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://valuer.ai/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Valuer</a> - where Taylor serves as CMO</li> <li>Taylor Ryan <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorryan/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Taylor on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/taylorryantweet" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@TaylorRyanTweet</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[1:27] Who is Taylor Ryan and what is Valuer (where he serves as CMO)</li> <li>[2:46] Why Taylor believes marketing departments need to act like agencies</li> <li>[7:04] You can’t count on the sales department</li> <li>[12:23] Everyone has ideas but the marketing department are the ones who execute</li> <li>[15:22] Be the swiss army knife</li> <li>[19:10] Why marketing can be a thankless job</li> <li>[23:45] Marketing needs resources or nothing gets done</li> <li>[25:52] Marketing has evolved far beyond making pictures and ad copy</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li>LIVE WEBINAR: Feb 19th - <a href="http://www.vengreso.com/events" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.Vengreso.com/events</a> - register for the webinar!</li> <li>Previous Episode of <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/developing-21st-century-marketing-organization" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">MME with the CEO of Vonage</a></li> <li><a href="https://ahrefs.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">aHREFs</a></li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul>   Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">There are TWO WAYS you can l</a>isten to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Why Every Marketing Department Should Be Its Own Agency

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   Great content marketing is about more than just publishing content. Your content has got to stand out - it's got to be truly great. On this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, Bernie hosts Stephanie Stahl, the General Manager of the Content Marketing Institute. She says that the companies that do content marketing really well are those that are providing the best content, content that is aimed at connecting with audiences emotionally about things that really matter to them. Listen to this episode to learn how brands are doing great content marketing, why webinars are still very effective, what isn’t working for content marketing, and why having a clear picture of your audience's content consumption preferences is one of the most important things to understand. As GM of the Content Marketing Institute, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience to this topic, so be sure you listen! How Does Great Content Marketing Work Differently For B2C and B2B? Content marketing has evolved over the years and has traditionally required differing approaches for B2C and B2B. Today, both require a similar philosophical approach because both are aimed at attracting an engaged and loyal audience - and in both cases, the challenge is that there is so much content out there, it’s hard to create truly great content that overcomes the noise. The answer is to create truly great content all the time. Consistency is key. Brands that are doing successful content marketing are showing their personality, speaking directly to their target audience as people, and appealing to the human desire to see the greater good served. Listen to Stephanie’s description of great content marketing and use it as a benchmark for assessing your own content marketing strategy. Are you building the trust you need to build? Are you speaking to your customer avatar in the right way and using the right methods? Webinars Are Still A Winner For B2B Content Marketing Webinars have long been a mainstay as an effective tool for great content marketing. Stephanie says they are still working extremely well for many brands, though the format and approach have changed in many ways over the years. Webinars are a great way for prospective customers to spend an hour taking a deep dive into an important topic to learn something valuable that makes a connection to the brand delivering the webinar. Research shows this to be true, as does Stephanie’s experience. In her gut, she knows that webinars are still very powerful for content marketing. Is your organization conducting webinars? Why or why not? Does Your Content Marketing Include A Variety Of Types Of Content? Content marketing isn’t just about getting attention - it’s about earning trust and credibility with your audience. That means you need to learn the formats and channels that best suit your audience. How are you going to do that? You need to explore all the channels of content that your audience uses. We refer to this as the “Omnichannel approach.” In most cases, your ideal audience will not be focused on only one form of content. Publish many types of content and then assess what is most effective in reaching and engaging your audience. Stephanie points out that content marketers must study what’s effective with their particular audience. Are the channels you’re using the best ones for your audience? Is what you’re publishing resonating with your audience? It’s the only way to ensure you’re spending your time in the most productive content creating practices. You'll also hear about the Content Marketing Institute’s annual event - Content Marketing World coming up in September and how you can get a $100 discount to attend this year's event. Bernie is speaking yet again at CMW. This year he is partnering with Seleste Lunsford, Chief Research Officer at CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group. Bernie and Seleste are presenting key strategies for integrating content into sales enablement. (cham to insert CMW image of Bernie &amp; Seleste here) Be sure to listen to the entire episode for Stephanie’s insights and recommendations for great content marketing.  Featured on This Episode  Stephanie on LinkedIn Stephanie on Twitter: @EditorStahl Stephanie on Instagram: @Stephanie_Stahl Seleste Lunsford on LinkedIn  Outline of This Episode  [2:49] The evolution of content marketing in B2B and B2C [5:23] What are the things that are not working in the B2B space? [9:17] The annual event CMI puts on: Content Marketing World [16:25] A preview of the fun activities that happen at CMW [18:41] Bernie’s summary of the conversation  Resources &amp; People Mentioned  The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) Episode 206 of the podcast, with Cathy McPhillips of the Content Marketing Institute The Content Marketing World event (this year’s theme, “Amaze Your Audience” Seleste Lunsford, Chief Research Officer of CSO Insights The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Punchbowl Social Get into the conference for $100 off. Use the code “MME100” The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr   Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine  https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast    Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> Great content marketing is about more than just publishing content. Your content has got to stand out - it's got to be truly great. On this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, Bernie hosts Stephanie Stahl, the General Manager of the Content Marketing Institute. She says that the companies that do content marketing really well are those that are providing the best content, content that is aimed at connecting with audiences emotionally about things that really matter to them. Listen to this episode to learn how brands are doing great content marketing, why webinars are still very effective, what isn’t working for content marketing, and why having a clear picture of your audience's content consumption preferences is one of the most important things to understand. As GM of the Content Marketing Institute, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience to this topic, so be sure you listen! How Does Great Content Marketing Work Differently For B2C and B2B? Content marketing has evolved over the years and has traditionally required differing approaches for B2C and B2B. Today, both require a similar philosophical approach because both are aimed at attracting an engaged and loyal audience - and in both cases, the challenge is that there is so much content out there, it’s hard to create truly great content that overcomes the noise. The answer is to create truly great content all the time. Consistency is key. Brands that are doing successful content marketing are showing their personality, speaking directly to their target audience as people, and appealing to the human desire to see the greater good served. Listen to Stephanie’s description of great content marketing and use it as a benchmark for assessing your own content marketing strategy. Are you building the trust you need to build? Are you speaking to your customer avatar in the right way and using the right methods? Webinars Are Still A Winner For B2B Content Marketing Webinars have long been a mainstay as an effective tool for great content marketing. Stephanie says they are still working extremely well for many brands, though the format and approach have changed in many ways over the years. Webinars are a great way for prospective customers to spend an hour taking a deep dive into an important topic to learn something valuable that makes a connection to the brand delivering the webinar. Research shows this to be true, as does Stephanie’s experience. In her gut, she knows that webinars are still very powerful for content marketing. Is your organization conducting webinars? Why or why not? Does Your Content Marketing Include A Variety Of Types Of Content? Content marketing isn’t just about getting attention - it’s about earning trust and credibility with your audience. That means you need to learn the formats and channels that best suit your audience. How are you going to do that? You need to explore all the channels of content that your audience uses. We refer to this as the “Omnichannel approach.” In most cases, your ideal audience will not be focused on only one form of content. Publish many types of content and then assess what is most effective in reaching and engaging your audience. Stephanie points out that content marketers must study what’s effective with their particular audience. Are the channels you’re using the best ones for your audience? Is what you’re publishing resonating with your audience? It’s the only way to ensure you’re spending your time in the most productive content creating practices. You'll also hear about the Content Marketing Institute’s annual event - Content Marketing World coming up in September and how you can get a $100 discount to attend this year's event. Bernie is speaking yet again at CMW. This year he is partnering with Seleste Lunsford, Chief Research Officer at CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group. Bernie and Seleste are presenting key strategies for integrating content into sales enablement. (cham to insert CMW image of Bernie &amp; Seleste here) Be sure to listen to the entire episode for Stephanie’s insights and recommendations for great content marketing. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Stephanie <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-stahl-23a20410/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Stephanie on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/editorstahl?lang=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@EditorStahl</a></li> <li>Stephanie on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stephanie_stahl/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@Stephanie_Stahl</a></li> <li>Seleste Lunsford <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/selestelunsford" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[2:49] The evolution of content marketing in B2B and B2C</li> <li>[5:23] What are the things that are not working in the B2B space?</li> <li>[9:17] The annual event CMI puts on: Content Marketing World</li> <li>[16:25] A preview of the fun activities that happen at CMW</li> <li>[18:41] Bernie’s summary of the conversation</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned <ul> <li><a href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Content Marketing Institute</a> (CMI)</li> <li><a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/how-the-content-marketing-institute-markets" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 206 of the podcast</a>, with Cathy McPhillips of the Content Marketing Institute</li> <li>The <a href="https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Content Marketing World</a> event (this year’s theme, “Amaze Your Audience”</li> <li>Seleste Lunsford, Chief Research Officer of <a href="https://www.csoinsights.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">CSO Insights</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.rockhall.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.punchbowlsocial.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Punchbowl Social</a></li> <li>Get into the conference for $100 off. Use the code “MME100”</li> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://instagram.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast</a></li> </ul>   Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Play | Google Podcasts</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">There are TWO WAYS you can l</a>isten to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

We Only Need Great Content Marketing

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Social selling training is a key part of any modern, successful sales force. The team at SAP recognizes this fact and has put together a world-class social selling training program for their sales teams across the globe. The theme of this episode, number four in our series, “Savvy Social Selling, the SAP Way” is Social Selling Training &amp; Enablement. Bernie speaks with SAP team members, Marco Cai - Global Head of Social Enablement &amp; Training, Marco Argaez - Global Channel Marketing Director and Sales Enabler, Charrelle Robinson-Brown - Head of Global e-Learning &amp; Gamification for Social Selling, and Phil Lurie - VP of Sales Technology. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. How The Importance Of Social Selling Is Communicated In SAP’S Training The SAP sales training team recognizes that there are many sales professionals who don’t understand the concept of social selling. As a result, they likely don’t understand how important or how effective social selling has become. For that reason, a training emphasis is placed on the importance of social selling. At SAP, social selling training is not talked about in a generic way, it’s tied to the specific situations the team members being trained are dealing with. This focus on relevance makes the importance and specific implementation of social selling come alive. There’s also an emphasis on the facts about the effectiveness of social selling. Trainees are shown how both markets and customers have changed through an ingenious exercise - they are encouraged to look at the way they typically buy, as consumers themselves. When they recognize how technologies like social media influence their own buyer’s journey, they are better able to see how their own sales practices need to change in order to effectively reach and help their customers. How SAPs Social Selling Training Encourages Behavior Change There are many ways that SAPs sales trainers empower and encourage social selling behaviors within the SAP sales teams. First, trainers help trainees understand the goals of social selling. Next, it’s vital that they are taught how to update their own social profiles professionally. Trainees are equipped to develop a professional personal brand, are provided social advocacy tools and are shown how to use search engines to find customers and build their personal networks. But SAPs social selling training isn’t only focused on salespeople. Managers are trained to understand the proper role of social selling in the overall sales process. They coach their teams to use social selling as an important tool, but not to neglect the traditional social skills and sales approaches that establish and nurture good customer relationships. How Long Does It Take For A Novice Social Seller To Become Proficient? Naturally, even among SAPs sales team, the answer to this question depends on the person, their role, and their background in sales. But generally speaking, it takes 3 to 6 months for a person who is entirely new to social selling to learn the right approach and best practices that enable social selling success. A key ingredient to successful training is that the trainers recognize the different learning approaches that are typical of the generations within the sales force. For example, Millennials often understand social selling and learn it faster, while those from previous generations are more reticent at first, but once they are convinced of the impact social selling can have on their pipeline, they adapt to social selling very well. It’s also interesting to point out that salespeople who self-initiate social selling training experience a “deeper” learning of the concepts than some who are required to take the training. Self-initiators already recognize the benefits that social selling can provide to their own sales success and are motivated to learn and apply it to their sales approach. Hear the details of how SAPs sales trainers equip their teams toward success at social selling, on this episode. Featured on This Episode  SAP Marco Cai on Twitter: @MarcoCaihua Marcio Cai on LinkedIn Marco Argaez on Twitter: @Marco_Argaez Marco Argaez on LinkedIn Charrele Brown on Twitter: @charrele Carrele Brown on LinkedIn Phil Lurie on Twitter: @PMLurie Phil Lurie on LinkedIn  Outline of This Episode  [0:50] How do you convince your sales team of the importance of social selling? [6:24] What steps do you take to encourage behavior change toward social selling? [9:16] How do you maintain momentum among those trained for social selling? [13:28] Taking the beginning social seller to proficiency [20:16] Dealing with the resistance to the idea of social selling [21:42] How SAP has become one of the top social selling companies in the world  Resources &amp; People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here.  The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> | <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> | <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> Social selling training is a key part of any modern, successful sales force. The team at SAP recognizes this fact and has put together a world-class social selling training program for their sales teams across the globe. The theme of this episode, number four in our series, “Savvy Social Selling, the SAP Way” is Social Selling Training &amp; Enablement. Bernie speaks with SAP team members, Marco Cai - Global Head of Social Enablement &amp; Training, Marco Argaez - Global Channel Marketing Director and Sales Enabler, Charrelle Robinson-Brown - Head of Global e-Learning &amp; Gamification for Social Selling, and Phil Lurie - VP of Sales Technology. <a href="http://bit.ly/UpClose-SAP" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">SAP</a> is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. How The Importance Of Social Selling Is Communicated In SAP’S Training The SAP sales training team recognizes that there are many sales professionals who don’t understand the concept of social selling. As a result, they likely don’t understand how important or how effective social selling has become. For that reason, a training emphasis is placed on the importance of social selling. At SAP, social selling training is not talked about in a generic way, it’s tied to the specific situations the team members being trained are dealing with. This focus on relevance makes the importance and specific implementation of social selling come alive. There’s also an emphasis on the facts about the effectiveness of social selling. Trainees are shown how both markets and customers have changed through an ingenious exercise - they are encouraged to look at the way they typically buy, as consumers themselves. When they recognize how technologies like social media influence their own buyer’s journey, they are better able to see how their own sales practices need to change in order to effectively reach and help their customers. How SAPs Social Selling Training Encourages Behavior Change There are many ways that SAPs sales trainers empower and encourage social selling behaviors within the SAP sales teams. First, trainers help trainees understand the goals of social selling. Next, it’s vital that they are taught how to update their own social profiles professionally. Trainees are equipped to develop a professional personal brand, are provided social advocacy tools and are shown how to use search engines to find customers and build their personal networks. But SAPs social selling training isn’t only focused on salespeople. Managers are trained to understand the proper role of social selling in the overall sales process. They coach their teams to use social selling as an important tool, but not to neglect the traditional social skills and sales approaches that establish and nurture good customer relationships. How Long Does It Take For A Novice Social Seller To Become Proficient? Naturally, even among SAPs sales team, the answer to this question depends on the person, their role, and their background in sales. But generally speaking, it takes 3 to 6 months for a person who is entirely new to social selling to learn the right approach and best practices that enable social selling success. A key ingredient to successful training is that the trainers recognize the different learning approaches that are typical of the generations within the sales force. For example, Millennials often understand social selling and learn it faster, while those from previous generations are more reticent at first, but once they are convinced of the impact social selling can have on their pipeline, they adapt to social selling very well. It’s also interesting to point out that salespeople who self-initiate social selling training experience a “deeper” learning of the concepts than some who are required to take the training. Self-initiators already recognize the benefits that social selling can provide to their own sales success and are motivated to learn and apply it to their sales approach. Hear the details of how SAPs sales trainers equip their teams toward success at social selling, on this episode. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li><a href="https://www.sap.com/index.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">SAP</a></li> <li>Marco Cai on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcoCaihua" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@MarcoCaihua</a></li> <li>Marcio Cai <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcocaihua/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Marco Argaez on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Marco_Argaez" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@Marco_Argaez</a></li> <li>Marco Argaez <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcoargaez/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Charrele Brown on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/charrele" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@charrele</a></li> <li>Carrele Brown <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charrele/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Phil Lurie on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/pmlurie" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@PMLurie</a></li> <li>Phil Lurie <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillurie/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[0:50] How do you convince your sales team of the importance of social selling?</li> <li>[6:24] What steps do you take to encourage behavior change toward social selling?</li> <li>[9:16] How do you maintain momentum among those trained for social selling?</li> <li>[13:28] Taking the beginning social seller to proficiency</li> <li>[20:16] Dealing with the resistance to the idea of social selling</li> <li>[21:42] How SAP has become one of the top social selling companies in the world</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, <a href="http://vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ungated here</a>. <ul> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> <a href="http://bit.ly/UpClose-SAP" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">SAP</a> is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> | <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> | <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a>

Winning at Social Selling Training & Enablement

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play The better that product providers are able to understand their consumer's journey, the better they can serve those customers in a way that retains them, fosters loyalty, and produces raving fans. This episode of Social Business Engine features a conversation with Autumn Braswell, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise Solutions, iQor - and reveals the findings of a recent survey published by iQor - the CPX360 (Customer and Product Experience 360) survey. CPX360 reveals surprising results about the consumer’s journey in using digital devices in the connected home. Among those findings: 1 in 3 adults experience issues setting up or operating a connected device, which provides insight into how digital transformation has reached our living room and kitchens and how manufacturers and service delivery companies such as iQor are challenged with delivering a seamless experience across the 360 degree customer journey - and across the entire ecosystem of connected devices which often include more than one brand. As Autumn shares the findings of the iQor CPX360 survey, think about how your company delivers a seamless experience across the ecosystem of your customer’s journey. The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap. When A Connected Device Has Problems, What Does The Consumer Experience? One-third of consumers with connected home devices have experienced problems with their device in the last year. That’s what the CPX360 survey reveals. The important question for the providers of those devices is this: “How well are we providing a seamless, helpful experience to our customers when problems arise?” In this episode, Autumn Braswell points out that it’s not an easy question to answer, for a number of reasons. You’ll hear how iQor conducted the survey, who responded, what type of problems are most common for users of connected devices, and what insights can be gained about trouble-spots in the consumer journey - and how product companies can better address the needs of their customers. Self-Help Approaches to Connected Device Troubleshooting Only Go So Far The CPX360 survey reveals that the average consumer who experiences problems with their connected device takes 8 different steps attempting to solve their problem. That’s an amazing amount of patience, but it makes sense considering these are people who have purchased tech-related products, they are pretty savvy. But even with that kind of patience, DIY efforts only go so far. Eventually, most have to get help from the manufacturer. Autumn Braswell explains that when users of connected devices have to make contact with their product provider for troubleshooting help, the manufacturers need to have an understanding of how they are doing at not only helping the consumer but also making their journey seamless and as hassle-free as possible. The data Autumn shares on this episode from the CPX360 survey will help you consider your troubleshooting process in light of what consumers are actually experiencing, and how you can make adjustments that increase their satisfaction not only with your products but also with their experience with your company. Smart Device Providers Have An Increasingly Difficult Job Satisfying Consumers When it comes to connected devices in the home, it seems that making a quick troubleshooting call to the manufacturer’s technical support department is often not adequate to solve the problem. That’s because dealing with connected devices means the problems consumers experience may or may not be within the purview of the manufacturer. It could be a related connected product or service that is actually causing the issue. That means the average consumer speaks to 3 different companies and 3 different people when troubleshooting issues with their devices - and the information gathered from the first conversation may or may not make it all the way to the 3rd person who ends up solving the problem. That makes it extremely difficult for product manufacturers to provide a seamless, integrated consumer journey for those who buy their products. Listen to this episode, featuring Autumn Braswell of iQor, to discover the main places in the connected home device consumer journey where the process breaks down, and what it means to iQor as a service provider when helping consumers resolve problems to create a more seamless experience - a 360 degree experience. Featured on This Episode  Amber Braswell on LinkedIn iQor iQor on LinkedIn iQor on Twitter: @iQor The Customer and Product Experience 360 Survey  Outline of This Episode  [2:31] Who is iQor and what is Autumn’s role at the company? [4:05] Why iQor conducted the CPX360 survey: Understanding issues consumers were having with connected devices to help their clients [5:20] The common issues consumers experience with connected home devices [8:06] The surprising results discovered in the survey [9:20] YouTube is one of the most convenient and effective resources for most consumers [13:14] The complex environment manufacturers must navigate to provide customer satisfaction [16:04] How do most consumers address problems they have in their consumer journey? [20:03] How demographics fits into the findings of the survey [22:01] The big takeaways iQor discovered: status updates when repairs are needed!  Resources &amp; People Mentioned The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap.  The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr  Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine  https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine  Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> The better that product providers are able to understand their consumer's journey, the better they can serve those customers in a way that retains them, fosters loyalty, and produces raving fans. This episode of Social Business Engine features a conversation with Autumn Braswell, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise Solutions, iQor - and reveals the findings of a recent survey published by iQor - the CPX360 (Customer and Product Experience 360) survey. CPX360 reveals surprising results about the consumer’s journey in using digital devices in the connected home. Among those findings: 1 in 3 adults experience issues setting up or operating a connected device, which provides insight into how digital transformation has reached our living room and kitchens and how manufacturers and service delivery companies such as iQor are challenged with delivering a seamless experience across the 360 degree customer journey - and across the entire ecosystem of connected devices which often include more than one brand. As Autumn shares the findings of the iQor CPX360 survey, think about how your company delivers a seamless experience across the ecosystem of your customer’s journey. The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at <a href="http://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.Vengreso.com/sap</a>. When A Connected Device Has Problems, What Does The Consumer Experience? One-third of consumers with connected home devices have experienced problems with their device in the last year. That’s what the CPX360 survey reveals. The important question for the providers of those devices is this: “How well are we providing a seamless, helpful experience to our customers when problems arise?” In this episode, Autumn Braswell points out that it’s not an easy question to answer, for a number of reasons. You’ll hear how iQor conducted the survey, who responded, what type of problems are most common for users of connected devices, and what insights can be gained about trouble-spots in the consumer journey - and how product companies can better address the needs of their customers. Self-Help Approaches to Connected Device Troubleshooting Only Go So Far The CPX360 survey reveals that the average consumer who experiences problems with their connected device takes 8 different steps attempting to solve their problem. That’s an amazing amount of patience, but it makes sense considering these are people who have purchased tech-related products, they are pretty savvy. But even with that kind of patience, DIY efforts only go so far. Eventually, most have to get help from the manufacturer. Autumn Braswell explains that when users of connected devices have to make contact with their product provider for troubleshooting help, the manufacturers need to have an understanding of how they are doing at not only helping the consumer but also making their journey seamless and as hassle-free as possible. The data Autumn shares on this episode from the CPX360 survey will help you consider your troubleshooting process in light of what consumers are actually experiencing, and how you can make adjustments that increase their satisfaction not only with your products but also with their experience with your company. Smart Device Providers Have An Increasingly Difficult Job Satisfying Consumers When it comes to connected devices in the home, it seems that making a quick troubleshooting call to the manufacturer’s technical support department is often not adequate to solve the problem. That’s because dealing with connected devices means the problems consumers experience may or may not be within the purview of the manufacturer. It could be a related connected product or service that is actually causing the issue. That means the average consumer speaks to 3 different companies and 3 different people when troubleshooting issues with their devices - and the information gathered from the first conversation may or may not make it all the way to the 3rd person who ends up solving the problem. That makes it extremely difficult for product manufacturers to provide a seamless, integrated consumer journey for those who buy their products. Listen to this episode, featuring Autumn Braswell of iQor, to discover the main places in the connected home device consumer journey where the process breaks down, and what it means to iQor as a service provider when helping consumers resolve problems to create a more seamless experience - a 360 degree experience. Featured on This Episode <ul> <li>Amber Braswell <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-braswell-33312a5/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.iqor.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">iQor</a></li> <li>iQor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/iqor/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>iQor on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/iQor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@iQor</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.iqor.com/press/iqor-cpx360-survey-part-3" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Customer and Product Experience 360 Survey</a></li> </ul> Outline of This Episode <ul> <li>[2:31] Who is iQor and what is Autumn’s role at the company?</li> <li>[4:05] Why iQor conducted the CPX360 survey: Understanding issues consumers were having with connected devices to help their clients</li> <li>[5:20] The common issues consumers experience with connected home devices</li> <li>[8:06] The surprising results discovered in the survey</li> <li>[9:20] YouTube is one of the most convenient and effective resources for most consumers</li> <li>[13:14] The complex environment manufacturers must navigate to provide customer satisfaction</li> <li>[16:04] How do most consumers address problems they have in their consumer journey?</li> <li>[20:03] How demographics fits into the findings of the survey</li> <li>[22:01] The big takeaways iQor discovered: status updates when repairs are needed!</li> </ul> Resources &amp; People Mentioned The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at <a href="http://www.vengreso.com/sap" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.Vengreso.com/sap</a>. <ul> <li>The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-social-sales-social-selling-social-media-podcast/id1193697353?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Selling With Social Podcast</a> with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr</li> </ul> Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/bernieborges" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/bernieborges</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbengine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sbengine</a></li> </ul> Subscribe to Social Business Engine <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-business-engine-enterprise-podcast-on-social/id700914859?mt=2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/social-business-engine-podcast/social-business-engine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> |<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ibr2okwxfpl67xswu4bqecidt4a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a> There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on <a href="http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Social Business Engine</a>

The Truth about the Consumer’s Journey with Connected Home Devices

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