Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges (Bernie Borges - Host of the Modern Marketing Engine Podcast)
Explore every episode of Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun 2016 | How SAP Approaches Influencer Marketing to Reach its Audience | 00:26:16 | |
Amisha Gandhi, Senior Director Influencer Marketing at SAP treats influencers like clients. SAP's annual SAPPHIRE conference attracts 20,000 attendees and reaches 80,000-100,000 viewers online with help from their influencer community. Amisha points out that the impact of an influencer goes beyond the audience they bring to the table. In this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast, Amisha explains SAP’s influencer marketing strategy and the impact it’s having on their business. Tune in to find out how to locate influencers and involve them so that both parties benefit from the relationship. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/sap-approaches-influencer-marketing-reach-audience | |||
| 25 Apr 2018 | How Synapse is Transforming Tampa Bay through Innovation Ecosystems | 00:23:42 | |
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 PersonasSynapse 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:
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 VisionSynapse’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 BayBrian’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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedBe 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.
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| 28 Nov 2018 | How to Get Started with Artificial Intelligence in Content Marketing | 00:33:25 | |
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There are many ways to apply artificial intelligence in content marketing. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Social Business Engine is an expert when it comes to the intersection of content marketing and the application of AI to it. Paul Roetzer is the CEO of PR 20/20, author of “The Marketing Performance Blueprint,” and the creator of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. When asked why he launched MAII Paul says it was…’to translate the buzz around AI into real-world knowledge and actionable insights for marketers, so that it’s approachable and tactical.” Paul regularly translates the concepts behind AI-related technologies into terms marketers can understand. He does this to help them know why AI matters and how to use it (or not) in day-to-day marketing. On this episode, Bernie and Paul discuss practical ways to get started with AI, specifically in content marketing. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Join Vengreso at STAR, February 11-13, 2019 to mix and mingle with forward thinking sales executives and thought leaders. We're extending a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. For full details visit: frost.com/vengreso and use discount code MARIO at registration.Those Who Embrace Content Marketing AI Now Will Be At An AdvantageRecent studies show that only 18% of companies have figured out how to use AI to the point that they are scaling it in their operations. That means that no matter what area of marketing you work in, or what level of knowledge you have about AI, you are NOT behind the curve. There are still amazing opportunities on the horizon for marketers who are willing to learn and embrace artificial intelligence. Those marketing professionals and the companies they work for will have a distinct competitive advantage in days to come. In this conversation Paul provides a number of helpful use-cases for AI at this stage in the game, demonstrating how it can be used to simplify workflows, offload repetitive tasks to save time and money, and even enhance the strategic parts of what we do as marketers. You won’t want to miss what he shares. It’s very easy to understand and makes perfect sense for marketers of all stripes. The 2 Main Reasons Marketers Should Be Using Artificial IntelligenceIf you are interested in using artificial intelligence to enhance your marketing efforts, where should you begin? Paul says there are two primary models you should consider to determine how to use AI in your content marketing. The first model is surrounding problems that are time intensive or data intensive for easy wins when it comes to applying AI as a possible solution in your content marketing strategy. The second model is what Paul refers to as a use-case model. AI is built to do narrowly defined tasks, so look at daily marketing activities such as reporting, editing and analytics, then discern the benefit you'd receive if those things were done automatically. In both cases, look for ways you can drive efficiency or increase revenue by doing things better. AI is often best used to enable cost reduction or revenue generation. How The Average Marketer Can Get Started With AIIf you are eager to get artificial intelligence into your content marketing mix, you first need to look at repetitive, manual tasks in your marketing workflow. It doesn’t matter your area of specialty. Make a list of use-cases, identify which ones could be intelligently automated, then start looking for a solution. Check the MAII website for possible solution providers (see the link below). Next, look at ways you can get more out of your existing data. Most companies have tons of data from CRMs, Google Analytics, and more that sits on servers doing nothing. AI can help you utilize that data to gain greater insights, predict outcomes, determine smarter strategies, and more. Finally, look at the core technologies that are already a part of your marketing tech stack. How are those providers using AI? Do they have AI features as part of their solution that you are not implementing? Perhaps they have ideas about how you can better use their solution coupled with AI from another source? Don’t miss this great conversation. Paul concludes by addressing how AI is going to impact marketing careers in both the short-term and long-term. You’ll want to hear what he has to say about that. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Join Vengreso at STAR, February 11-13, 2019 to mix and mingle with forward thinking sales executives and thought leaders. We're extending a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. For full details visit: frost.com/vengreso and use discount code MARIO at registration.
Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine
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 | |||
| 11 Apr 2017 | Up Close 2: Marketing & Sales Alignment | 00:13:08 | |
Welcome to Series 2 of our Up Close podcast series. The theme of this series is A 5 Step Blueprint for Lead Generation Through Content Marketing. My co-host is Guillaume Decugis, CEO of Scoop.it. We’re releasing 5 episodes in a row Monday through Friday.
April 11th episode 2: Marketing & Sales Alignment
You can get access to all five episodes in one recording – running about an hour – by going here: http://www.findandconvert.com/upclose2 | |||
| 05 Sep 2013 | Social Business Engine Introduction | 00:05:45 | |
An introduction to The Social Business Engine by Bernie Borges. | |||
| 19 Jun 2019 | The State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn in 2019 | 00:37:16 | |
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 ResumeMost 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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People Mentioned
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
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.
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| 09 May 2018 | The Value of Relationship Intelligence in Account-Based Selling with Jaxson Khan | 00:34:57 | |
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 ResultsYou 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 EffectiveGiven 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 SellingGiven 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:
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 IntelligenceIt’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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedSPONSOR: 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.
Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine
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 | |||
| 08 May 2019 | We Only Need Great Content Marketing | 00:26:55 | |
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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 MarketingWebinars 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 & Seleste here) Be sure to listen to the entire episode for Stephanie’s insights and recommendations for great content marketing.
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| 04 Aug 2015 | How Walmart Today Was Launched to Celebrate the Customer | 00:39:37 | |
This week's podcast features Chad Mitchell, Senior Director of Digital Communications at Walmart. Chad is an ex-politician who uses his communication and strategic thinking expertise to serve the largest company in the world. With over 11,000 stores located in 28 countries across the globe there are plenty of stories to tell on their blog, which is newly titled Walmart Today. In this episode you'll discover the process Chad and his team went through before launching the new blog. Visit our show notes page for links to things we discussed: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-walmart-today-was-launched-to-celebrate-the-customer | |||
| 06 Jul 2015 | How the Marines are Recruiting Talent with Social Media | 00:28:33 | |
In this episode I’d like to introduce you to Dan Evans, the Social Marketing Director and Employee Advocacy Coordinator at the United States Marine Corps. Dan is responsible for developing and rolling out a comprehensive social media strategy for over 1,000 recruiters across the Western U.S. In addition to being a Marine, Dan is also an entrepreneur, a fellow podcaster, and most importantly a husband and father of three. Tune in to episode 67 to discover how Dan is pioneering the new recruiter training program using mobile and social media. Visit our show notes page for more insight into Dan Evans' story. http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-the-marines-are-recruiting-talent-with-social-media | |||
| 15 Aug 2016 | IU Health's Digital Transformation Into an Online Health News Hub | 00:30:02 | |
Sarah Burns is Editorial & Social Media Strategy Manager at Indiana University Health, the largest research hospital in Indiana. In this podcast episode, Sarah discusses how IU Health has implemented an online news hub to increase their reach and provide consumer-friendly content for their audience. View the show notes for more: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/iu-healths-digital-transformation-into-online-health-news-hub/ | |||
| 06 Nov 2019 | All Together Now: Brand and Demand Generation | 00:32:27 | |
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 ApproachIn 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 PipelineJulie 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.
How To Be Brand-Centric And Demand Generation Centric At The Same TimeJulie 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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People Mentioned
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| 10 Dec 2020 | The Sales Messaging Playbook that Converts Prospects to Conversations with Mario Martinez Jr. | 00:34:31 | |
Sales messaging is a vital part of a sales reps’ daily work. It’s how they engage with prospects and it can make a big difference in their results. While the perfect sales message will connect and engage the buyer (eventually leading to a sale), a weak sales message will just be ignored, or worse, will damage the reputation of your company. In this article and episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast, my guest, Mario Martinez Jr., CEO and Founder at Vengreso, discusses what marketing and sales leaders need to know about sales messaging and some actionable tips you can start implementing today. Plus, he announced a new tool Vengreso created to help your sales team deploy a consistent message throughout your sales organization. Now, it is self-evident that sales messaging is crucial for sellers, but why is sales messaging important for marketers? Mario says that marketers should be supporting the sales team with all of the right messaging, from the Go-To-Market messaging to the messaging to engage with buyers, including messages for social media and sales enablement content such as playbooks, sales cadences, case studies, ebooks, blogs and the like. At the end of the day, there is just one type of messaging: messaging designed to attract your buyer, not sales or marketing messaging. Today, the modern marketer is more integrated in the sales ecosystem than EVER before, so it’s imperative that marketers have a defined sales messaging strategy. Things Every Sales Messaging Strategy NeedsAutomation in sales and B2B marketing has made life easier for our teams in many regards. But it also has reduced a lot of the personal touch we used to have in sales messaging. That’s why at Vengreso, we teach our sellers to leverage personalization and hyper personalization in all their sales messages. In fact, we created a sales methodology with the foundation of hyper-personalization. It’s called the PVC method, which stands for Personalization, Value, and Call to Action. The PVC Sales Methodology focuses on prospecting, from the “pre-hello” to the “hello.” The purpose of this methodology is to help salespeople who are having a hard time connecting with potential customers, create more conversations with their targeted buyers. And the best thing is that the PVC sales methodology can be used in inbound or outbound sales, when writing an email, a text message, a LinkedIn message, or making a phone call or video conference via Zoom. No matter the medium, every effective sales messaging strategy needs to be personalized, valuable and contain the appropriate call to action for the situation. “Sales messaging should be structured around PVC to attract our buyers, not detract or distract them,” Mario says. “Never before has the buyer been so digitally connected, socially engaged, mobile-attached, and video hungry. And salespeople must be as well, becoming video producers to create engaging video messages.” Mario says that in the new normal, sellers will be remote 60% of the time. In fact, according to Gartner’s Future of Sales research, by 2025 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels. Why? Because 33% of all buyers desire a seller-free sales experience (44% for millennials). There is no going back to a sales rep that is 100% of the time in the field. That’s why we must teach sellers social selling skills, including how to personalize their messaging, bring value and add the right CTAs to their sales messages. At Vengreso, we offer virtual sales training programs in modern selling skills, such as Selling with Video, Selling with LinkedIn and more. Now, let’s look at the PVC components in more detail. Components that Every Sales Messaging Framework Should HaveLet’s talk about each of the components of your sales messaging framework: P – Personalization V – Value C – Call-to-Action Personalization is more than just using the prospect’s first name. If possible, sellers should take the time to research the prospect’s social networks and find shared experiences or recent events or news related to the prospect’s company that they can mention in the sales prospecting message. When creating a sales messaging strategy (whether cold calling scripts or video messages) make sure the sales message brings value to the conversation. Adding value may sound like a cliche, but we must realize that each buyer has an individual business pain, and if our messaging speaks to that particular pain, we’ll have a greater chance of getting through. So, how do you bring value? With content that helps solve their problems, especially related to the solution you are selling. It can be a webinar, a report or a relevant blog article. Provide value instead of just asking for a meeting. Instead of asking for a meeting, add a call to action that keeps the sales conversation going, such as asking a question for them to respond or inviting them to an event. Sales-Ready Messaging vs. Marketing MessagingWhat’s the difference between a sales-ready message and a marketing message? Marketing messaging is generally one-to-many. For example, marketing will create an email drip campaign to take leads, convert them to MQLs, then to SQLs and finally hand them over to the sales organization. Sellers do the same thing but instead of one-to-many, they do it one-to-one. That is why sellers have to deliver hyper-personalized messages. Marketing can’t create messages the same way. Marketing messaging is focused on the buyer persona, trying to hit the pains of that persona. In sales-ready messaging this can also be the case if the seller doesn’t have enough information to personalize the messages, as in a cold email or cold call. But the ideal sales-ready message is hyper-personalized to the individual, not the buyer persona. The seller must be able to find out details about the prospect, such as interests, particular needs, and other background information. For example, when Vengreso sellers reach out to sales leaders, they do it through video, holding a whiteboard and writing the prospect’s name on the board. They find bits of information to use in their sales-ready messages such as an interesting LinkedIn post or a recent promotion. That way, they can personalize their messages with phrases like “I saw that you posted….” or “Congratulations on your recent promotion to…” Now, who’s responsible for writing these sales messages? Marketers usually cringe at the idea of a seller writing a message. And, in general, you don’t want salespeople writing messages if they are not writers, as it would take them too long to write and may not be as good as the text from a trained copywriter. Mario says that the responsibility for writing these messages falls on the shoulders of the Sales Enablement team -- or if you don't have one, the marketing team. “But the marketing team must be in tune with what is happening in the field before writing. We have our marketing team listen to sales calls weekly so they can structure sales messaging. They must understand the sales process in order to create messaging that attracts buyers and sells more.” What is a Sales Message vs. a Product Message?Another important distinction we must make is between a sales message and a product message. In short, while a sales message includes the PVC components discussed above, a product message centers around features and functions. Product messaging should always reside inside of marketing. The idea is to take the features and what the products do and translate them into benefits, into how they solve real-world problems. Sellers are usually trained on products to attract a potential customer, but they are sometimes not trained in communicating how the product solves actual problems. From our experience, if you were to ask 100 sales reps at a company to tell in one sentence what business problem they solve for their customer (the value proposition), 80% would not be able to answer consistently. Marketing must be able to articulate in one sentence the business problem that the company solves and sales leaders should make sure their sellers know it well so that they are all communicating the same message. For example, at Vengreso we know that VPs of Sales have two common problems: a) they want to increase the number of sales conversations that their sellers are having and b) increase their sales pipeline. So, a message to that buyer persona (if the seller doesn’t have details to personalize the messaging to the individual) would start by asking if they have one of those two problems. If the answer is “no,” they would just stop reading. If the answer is “yes,” they’ll continue reading. In that case, the sales-ready message should provide value before introducing the solution. For example, the sales-ready message could say: If you have any of those two problems, here are two resources that can help you out:
Do you see what we are doing here? We are providing value, which is what a good sales message will do. Once a conversation is started with the prospect, product messaging comes in. That’s when the seller goes deep to explain the product features and translate those features into business benefits. How to Develop Sales MessagingThe PVC method will help you develop your sales messaging with the right elements. But how do you deploy those messages so your team can use them? Usually, the marketing team would create a “42-page document” with the messaging, upload it to a local server or the internet and send the link to the sales team for them to use. The reality is that most sellers will not use that document. That is why we created a sales productivity and sales messaging tool called FlyMSG. FlyMSG is a text expander tool under the sales prospecting tools category. This Chrome extension helps marketers and sellers improve their productivity and efficiency by letting them expand pre-written communication templates and messages for use in their daily digital communication. Or as we like to say it: “Type less. Sell more." FlyMSG solves these three real-life problems:
A large portion of our PVC Sales Methodology templates are inside of FlyMSG for free to download. FlyMSG is the only text expander tool that allows you to add images, video, rich text format, hyperlinks, as well as categorize your templates. Mario says that with a corporate account, a marketing team can own the creation and distribution of a company’s sales messaging. “Marketing can write the messages, add the templates to FlyMSG and make them available to all sellers,” Marios says. “Then, all sellers have to do is type the shortcut (FlyCut) and the message will automatically expand, ensuring usage, adoption and consistency in all sales messaging across the sales organization.” Mario gives the example of a FlyCut he created called -bookameeting which he created to expand automatically to a pre-written sentence inviting someone to book a meeting with him with his calendar link included. It's a huge time saver since he uses it often.
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| 01 Nov 2016 | Learn how Hewlett Packard Enterprise is growing its employee advocate economy | 00:46:51 | |
Mark Gyles, a Digital Marketing Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), is the featured guest on episode 137 of the Social Business Engine podcast. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a global organization that sells cloud and workplace applications. As a Digital Marketing Manager, Mark's focus is on social media marketing and employee advocacy. In this episode, Mark reveals Hewlett Packard Enterprise's approach to its employee advocate economy including the “why” and the “how." Tune in for a crash course in employee social media advocacy. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/learn-how-hewlett-packard-enterprise-is-growing-its-employee-advocate-economy | |||
| 18 Oct 2016 | How Microsoft Handled Social Care During Their Largest Product Launch | 00:26:56 | |
Episode 135 features Miri Rodriguez, Sr. Lead for Social and Communities Support at Microsoft recorded at Social Media Strategies Summit in San Francisco. Miri leads three teams of social care specialists for Microsoft products in Global English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Her teams handle social customer care for all products and services except XBox. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/microsoft-handled-social-care-largest-product-launch | |||
| 06 Sep 2016 | How McDonald's Integrates Employees into its Marketing | 00:33:43 | |
Returning for her second appearance on the Social Business Engine podcast, Elly Deutch is the featured guest on episode 129. As Global Social Campaign & Advocacy Manager at McDonald's, Elly provides insight into the expanding role of employee and customer advocacy in McDonald’s marketing strategy. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-mcdonalds-integrates-employees-into-its-marketing | |||
| 18 Aug 2015 | How to Deepen the Connection with Your Customers Through Social Listening | 00:31:13 | |
Grab a glass of wine and settle in for this week's podcast episode with Frog's Leap Winery's Social Media Manager, Natalie Barnard, and General Manager, Jonah Beer. Frog's Leap's entrance into the social media world began with a Facebook page managed by Jonah. They have since evolved into a social business with the help of Natalie and a focus on social listening. Through social listening Frog's Leap has been able to increase engagement by sharing content their audience wants to see. Abbie the adorable winery dog, and the statuses of their grapes are staple posts that garner interaction. By tuning in to what their audience wants to hear Natalie is able to regularly create engagement driving content. Tune in to discover the history of Frog's Leap Winery and learn how effective social listening can be when building a brand's community. View the show notes for lots of pictures, including Abbie the winery dog. http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/connect-to-your-customers-through-social-listening | |||
| 11 Mar 2020 | Why Sales Enablement Strategy Fits Best in Marketing | 00:32:57 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice Who is best equipped to carry out an effective Sales Enablement Strategy? Sales? Marketing? Maybe another department? Bernie’s guest on this episode of Modern Marketing Engine is Genefa Murphy PhD, SVP and CMO at Micro Focus, one of the world’s largest digital transformation solutions providers. Genefa believes that Marketing should own Sales Enablement and the goal of this podcast episode is to understand why. We'll also get a peek into how it’s being carried out at Micro Focus. You’ll learn how Genefa’s team organizes “Sales Councils” to inform and empower Sales Enablement, how they go about repurposing and creating the right content for Sales, and how she evaluates Sales Enablement efforts both qualitatively and quantitatively. Be sure you listen to the entire podcast episode! This episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales engagement. Xant has authored the Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence. Get your copy at www.SalesCadenceGuide.com Is There A Compelling Reason For Sales Enablement To Belong In Marketing?Genefa believes that the buyer’s journey is influenced by both marketing and sales. Marketing delivers messaging to the marketplace, which establishes brand identity and reputation, while sales delivers the message first-hand to potential customers. She says it’s crucial that identical messaging is happening in both of those scenarios and that Marketing is best equipped to ensure that happens. But, the insular perspective of a marketer could come up short when it comes to real-life scenarios that sellers face. Additionally, the buyer’s journey is not linear, so there must be a continuous feedback loop that allows for iteration and improvement of resources, training, and Sales Enablement methodology. In Genefa’s words, having Sales Enablement under the Marketing banner “enables marketing and sales to be singing from the same sheet of music.” However, contrary to what you might think the relationship between Marketing and Sales isn’t always completely harmonious. In her words, there needs to be a “healthy tension” between them so there is a kind of push-back that allows for mutual growth and accountability between the two teams. How Content Fits Into An Effective Sales Enablement StrategyOne of the clear areas of need that Sales Enablement must meet is that of creating effective tools and resources that can be delivered to team members in all roles within the sales organization. With that goal in mind, Genefa’s Sales Enablement team has developed a robust content repository that enables them to get the right content into the hands of the right team members, and in the timing that matches each stage of the buying journey. They’ve developed:
This wealth of content enables sellers to reinforce company messaging more effectively, avoid duplication of effort, increase consistency, avoid fragmented customer experiences, and leverage the knowledge and expertise of the individuals on her team who have in-the-trenches sales experience. Making Contracts Between Sales And Sales Enablement Through A Sales CouncilA great example of applying a Sales Enablement Strategy to great effect can be seen in the way Micro Focus rolled out its new sales methodology. In order to get buy-in from everyone company-wide and to facilitate consistency, the Sales Enablement team created a “Sales Council” in collaboration with Sales Leadership. It’s a team made up of individuals from all roles within the Sales organization who serve as a sounding-board for Sales Enablement. Genefa says this step was vital because it enabled the Sales Enablement team — those responsible for building the methodology into practical tools — to create something relevant and useful for the Sales team, those who consume and use the content. An additional benefit is that the members of these Sales Councils became vested in the process personally and thus became advocates within their departments for the Sales Enablement strategy behind the new Sales Methodology. Adoption was effective as a result. How Genefa Measures Micro Focus’ Sales Enablement StrategyGenefa confesses that she enjoys data and the insights that come from it. But she also realizes that the data may not tell the whole story. There are ways to measure the effectiveness of their Sales Enablement strategy that are not strictly tied to the metrics, but also give them viable insight into the impact of the strategy. To that end, Genefa pays close attention to what’s happening during the day to day interactions with the sales team. Are Sales professionals reaching out to the Sales Enablement team with questions or for help? If yes, that means the tools being created by Sales Enablement are being used. During sales meetings, are sales reps referring to the tools Sales Enablement has provided pertaining to their selling activities? If so, it’s a great indication that the right tools have been created. But that’s purely a qualitative analysis, what about the quantitative markers that metrics provide? Genefa looks at the data to discover whether the Sales team is becoming certified in the new methodologies in greater numbers, if there is evidence of greater pipeline productivity, if they are closing more deals or closing them faster, and if they are increasing the value of opportunities. All of these metrics indicate that the tools created by Sales Enablement are being used and are proving to be effective in the sales organization. Listen to hear more details of Genefa’s Sales Enablement Strategy at one of the largest digital transformation companies in the world - Micro Focus. It’s on this episode of Modern Marketing Engine. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales engagement. Xant has authored the Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence. Get your copy at www.SalesCadenceGuide.com
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| 01 Apr 2020 | Managing A Remote Marketing Team As The New Normal | 00:33:52 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. With the changes happening in the business world due to the Coronavirus crisis, many marketing leaders are learning that managing a remote team of marketers is not a simple matter. Since the entire Vengreso team is remote- now known as “WFH” (work from home) - I wanted to offer help for those making the transition. I invited Matt Langie, CMO of Xant to help me pull it off. And, he delivered! Matt’s background working for tech giant Adobe and other tech firms has enabled him to amass the experience you’d expect from the CMO of an up and coming sales technology company like Xant. During his career, he’s had plenty of experience working with remote marketing teams so his insight into the subject will serve you well. If you’re a team member who’s now working from home or a manager looking for tips on how to manage a remote team, you’ll find Matt’s advice to be golden. Don’t miss it! This episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales engagement. Xant has authored the Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence. Get your copy at www.SalesCadenceGuide.com Managing A Remote Team Begins With Setting Clear ExpectationsIf your marketing team has been moved off-campus due to the “shelter at home” restrictions implemented by local authorities, you're not alone. If you're a team leader, you’ve got to remember that many of your team members have never had to work in that kind of an isolated, distraction-prone environment before. They’re going to need your help to set proper boundaries and approach their work with an attitude that will enable your entire team to thrive. Start by setting expectations for work hours, meeting attendance and protocols, and the use of tech platforms you’ll use to communicate and share resources. When remote team members understand what's expected of them and the tools they’ll be using to accomplish their work, they’ll feel more confident in their new environment. Your proactive leadership and patience will go a long way in helping them make a healthy transition. Remote Marketers Need To Set Appropriate Boundaries At HomeConsider the differences between working in an office environment as opposed to a home office. First off, many people on your team who are transitioning to working from their homes don’t have an actual office in their homes. They may have to set up shop on a dining room table, in a corner of the basement, or in a spare bedroom. That sort of isolation in itself is going to be very different for them. In addition, many of them will have pets, children, or spouses at home who need to be considered and taken into account—and your team still needs to get their work done! Help your team understand the importance of setting appropriate physical and psychological boundaries for themselves and with their family members. When they do, they will help their “home team” (their families) come alongside their efforts to continue working and will make it easier for everyone to understand how this “new normal” needs to work. Matt has great advice about the issues to address and how to address them sensitively and with compassion. A Remote Team Needs The Tools To SucceedIt’s wise for marketing managers who are transitioning team members to remote work to take a careful look at the tools typically used in their office environment. Does the software and platforms you’ve been using for on-campus work fit the digital/remote context? Do you need to find new ways to communicate, collaborate, and deliver assets? Matt says that most teams will need laptop computers, clear channels of communication, and processes that fit the remote work situation. Making communication clear and effective is key. Matt says that his remote teams have weekly check-in meetings every Monday morning using a video conferencing platform. Seeing each others’ faces, hearing the tone of voice and seeing the body language of team members goes a long way toward building a sense of being in this together. As well, getting clear on the workflow for the week helps everyone be on the same page and feel connected to what’s going on. In his words, managers need to “over-communicate” to ensure everything is understood clearly, including deliverables and deadlines and that work is progressing according to schedule. Don’t Forget To Celebrate The Wins Of Your Remote TeamIn your office environment, you experience natural opportunities to celebrate with your team. Office drop-ins, high-fives, and other regular celebrations of progress and success are fairly common on a healthy team. When team members go remote, team celebrations become more difficult but no less important. If you are the team leader, it’s your job to ensure that wins are still celebrated and that everyone has the opportunity to join in. Matt suggests using a portion of your meeting time each week to share wins, large and small. He also suggests the use of workflow platforms to encourage sharing and interaction that builds and supports team spirit. The point is that team members and the contributions they make are no less valuable when accomplished remotely. The manager needs to ensure everyone feels valued and is recognized regularly for their part in the success of the whole. There’s a whole lot more Matt and I talked about on this episode, so make sure you take the time to listen. You’ll hear how he’s been able to lead remote teams successfully and I’m sure you’ll learn some tips to help you make your team’s transition to remote work successful. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales engagement. Xant has authored the Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence. Get your copy at www.SalesCadenceGuide.com
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
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| 19 Apr 2016 | Digital Transformation Takes an OPPOSITE Approach | 00:41:39 | |
Brian Solis is Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group, a Prophet Company, and an award-winning author, keynote speaker and digital anthropologist. Brian's focus on digital transformation in his recent research on the 8 Success Factors of Digital Transformation inspired me to extend the invitation to him to share the key findings on our podcast. Through Brian's research, he and Jaimy Szymanski, Digital Experience Analyst at The Altimeter Group, uncovered a framework many digital leaders follow unconsciously - the "OPPOSITE" approach. This unusually long acronym represents a compilation of eight best practices guiding today’s successful organizations through their digital transformation. Listen to this episode to gain valuable insight into Brian's findings about the digital customer experience, as well as a look into Brian's latest book X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/digital-transformation-takes-opposite-approach | |||
| 16 Jun 2014 | Storytelling at Scale @Autodesk | 00:38:30 | |
On this episode, you'll learn from Marielle Covington and Dan Zucker how Autodesk's social business journey is focused on storytelling at scale. The company views social media as a culture and a channel to connect with designers and consumers that use Autodesk products. Autodesk is a 30 + year old software company that makes 3d design and entertainment software, used by designers, students, hobbyists, and engineers addressing problems around the world. Background on Autodesk's Social Business JourneyAutodesk's marketing leadership challenged their team to shift from engaging the customer on social media in an ad-hoc and experimental manner to a much more targeted and intentional manner. Notice the social business focus! So, they organized around a hub and spoke model to make the shift. At the center of their model is a small team which manages and works closely with stakeholders from different vertical areas of the company. Catch the entire interview with Bernie Borges on episode 23 of the Social Business Engine. | |||
| 25 Jun 2015 | How to Sell Through Social Media | 00:31:28 | |
Ian Cleary is the founder of RazorSocial, a popular social media consulting and training company that he operates out of Dublin, Ireland. A popular globe trotting speaker at marketing conferences, Ian is especially known for his expertise in social media tools. His website, RazorSocial.com, was listed as a Top 10 Social Media Blog by Social Media Examiner in 2013 and 2014. In this episode, we tackle a controversial topic which Ian blogged about, and that is - how to sell through social media. Visit the show notes page for a detailed summary and links to everything we discuss on this podcast episode: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-to-sell-through-social-media | |||
| 20 Oct 2015 | How the Online Community at SAS Provides Customer Support | 00:34:30 | |
This podcast features Chris Hemedinger and Shelley Sessoms, two SAS employees whose efforts can be seen on the SAS Support Communities. As Senior Manager of Online Communities, Chris leads the team of three Community Managers including Shelley. The SAS Support Communities complement their technical support team and are not meant to replace it. In this episode, you'll discover how the re-energized community plays a pivotal role in their customer support strategy and adds marketing value to SAS. In an effort to create a deeper connection with community members, SAS evolved their 10-year-old online support community to include more technical and newsworthy content. Established in 1976, SAS is a recognized leader in business analytics software and the largest independent company in the business intelligence market. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/sas-support-online-community-benefits | |||
| 16 May 2018 | The Future Is Now With Artificial Intelligence For Marketing | 00:30:35 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play For some time now Bernie has been talking about the growing importance of learning how to use Artificial Intelligence for marketing. While we still have a lot to learn, AI has finally developed to a point that it can be used effectively, at scale, to reach more customers in personalized ways. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Andrew Malcolm, Chief Marketing Officer at Evernote. Andrew tells how he and his team are doing exactly that and explains why their approach has enabled Evernote to evolve into a technology-driven marketing organization. Toward the end of the conversation, Andrew wraps up with best practices that can be applied to your organization. Anyone interested in the future of marketing tech needs to hear this real-life application of AI to marketing. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration.Believe It Or Not, AI CAN Be Used To Market In A Personalized WayIt’s a strange way to say it, but Andrew Malcolm describes the approach the Evernote team takes in integrating AI into their marketing systems as being “creatively analytic.” They use big data, machine learning, and AI to connect to just the right person at just the right time - and it’s through that approach that they are able to do something paradoxical - deliver personal marketing using a machine. It’s an insightful approach that is enabling them to market effectively for 2 cents per user, per year. Did you get that? Their approach is a demonstration of powerful, personalized marketing that is scalable and effective. In this conversation Andrew outlines how to establish a system of AI-powered marketing through determining what TYPE of message is best to deliver to your customers first (based on geography, device type, time of day, their setting, and the type of content they are already interacting with) and then use the probabilities you discover to deliver the right content with a touch of human creativity. Andrew and his team have spent the time to work out an incredible system for Evernote and what he shares on this episode can help you blaze the same trail in your marketing department, so be sure you listen. Modularizing Content To Fit The Needs Of A CustomerBernie’s curiosity about the use of AI and machine learning in Evernote's marketing strategy led him to ask Andrew a question about how the Evernote team is making content that is personalized, yet relevant to a wide variety of users. Andrew’s answer reveals a powerful insight into the very structure of content itself. He says that all content is made up of a series of components that remain the same, but may be rearranged or selectively chosen or left out. What is included or not depends on individual customer scenarios. Humans can’t make the kinds of determinations to make it happen, but machines (otherwise known as algorithms, not true physical devices) can based on thousands of data points. The right content can be selected from a repository of available content and displayed for a user in a way that fits them, in seconds rather than hours. But before taking that step, the system needs to key in on the moments in a customer's experience that matter the most in order to know WHEN to deliver the content at the most opportune time. Andrew explains that the important thing is not that you need to know exactly WHAT to say to a customer, it’s that you know exactly WHEN to say it. That’s why the Evernote team spends lots of time doing what they call, “moment testing” rather than copy testing. Find out how Evernote’s marketing department uses moment testing, a content cache, and AI to send users the right messaging at exactly the right time - on this episode. The Tools You Need To Use Artificial Intelligence For MarketingAs you begin thinking about using artificial intelligence in your marketing systems, you’re naturally going to wonder what tools you will need. Andrew warns that at this point in the development of AI, tools that say they contain everything you need to automate your marketing effectively are making claims they can’t always back up, so you should be wary. He advises that you keep it simple. The first thing you need is not a piece of software, but clean data. The tools you wind up using will only be as good as the data you provide to them, so you need to make sure that you’re getting accurate data that represents your customer’s experience well. Beyond that, you’ll need a content management system, an analytics tool, a campaign management tool, and some sort of data repository. Listen to this episode to hear Andrew’s explanation of how these basic tools have been combined at Evernote to create an automated marketing system that provides personalized, customer-specific content to their marketing team so that a final, human touch of creativity and customization can be added. How To Get Started Using Artificial Intelligence For MarketingAs you consider using AI as part of your marketing systems, don’t be overwhelmed. There are low risk ways to get started, because you’re not experimenting with critical aspects of your marketing mix. Andrew gives an example of this sort of experiment using the homepage of a website. By making use of geotargeting you can offer a different, culturally attractive version of your website to visitors depending on what part of the world they are viewing from. And how do you know what content to provide to users from different parts of the world? By the data you’ve been able to collect through your own software or services. Andrew explains it all in this conversation and it’s not as complicated as it sounds. The integration of AI into marketing is becoming a reality right before our eyes. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to put your marketing approach on the cutting edge, reach customers in a more personalized way, and do so faster and more economically than you ever have before. You can meet Andrew Malcolm, Chief Marketing Officer at Evernote at the Frost & Sullivan 19th Annual Marketing Impact MindXchange event, July 16 - 18 in Nashville, TN where he is speaking on this topic. Featured on This Episode
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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
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| 17 Jan 2018 | Marketing & Sales Alignment Has Arrived with Barb Giamanco | 00:36:31 | |
If you don’t know Barbara Giacomo, she is CEO of Social Centered Selling and globally recognized as a sales leader. She’s the co-author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media. Barb is a popular keynote speaker, sales and social media strategist and she is also the host of the popular Razor's Edge podcast, which you’ll hear more about it in this episode. Barb is consistently a Top 25 Influential Leader in Sales, a Top 25 Sales Influencer on Twitter, one of the Top Sales World’s Top 50 Sales and Marketing Influencers and she’s recognized as one of the world's Top 65 Women Business Influencers alongside leaders like Arianna Huffington, Sheryl Sandberg, and Melinda Gates. That’s pretty impressive! Join Bernie and Barbara for a great conversation about how to better align marketing and sales within your organization. In sales, if you are not evolving, you are dying. ~ Barbara GiamancoSocial media was just starting to develop when Barbara Giamanco retired from Microsoft to start her own business. From that day until today she’s had a passion for people and a passion for technology. Combine that with her love of sales and marketing and you’ll understand why she began experimenting with the early social media tools. At that time they were clunky - Facebook didn’t exist yet and blogs were typically terrible, but the very next year, Barbara joined LinkedIn and began to feel like there would be more transformation of sales and marketing ahead. She’s come to see that with the rapid pace of changing technologies, if you’re not evolving, you’re dying. Barbara is one of those individuals who gets sales and marketing but also gets the technology side of things. This conversation is an amazing look at some of the ways sales and marketing can become better aligned, for the success of individuals, the benefit of customers, and the profitability of companies. Companies that are embracing technology are light years ahead when it comes to marketing and sales alignment. But don’t make the mistake of depending only on the techIn the world we live in today, we have marketing technology at our disposal that enables more potential for alignment between marketing and sales than ever before. Barbara Giamanco says that technology is so much more advanced than it used to be, creating the foundation for a strong sales and marketing strategy. But she’s also aware that sometimes there's an over-reliance on technology to solve the entire problem of misalignment between the sales department and the marketing department. Not all challenges related to sales and marketing, and certainly not everything having to do with the alignment of those two can be solved by technology alone. It's obviously got to be there but there are other things that are important to make the alignment work. In this conversation, Barbara and Bernie discuss how the C-suite can bring about a greater alignment between marketing and sales, and how a more intentional focus on customer experience can turn the tide. Don’t miss it. CEOs and C-suite Leaders: If you are not fully behind the alignment of marketing and sales, your team's efforts will be seriously compromisedOftentimes the sales and marketing departments begin to gain some traction but discover that the CEO or other C-suite leaders have not fully bought into the initiative, they really aren’t driving it as they need to be. In that situation, maybe you'll get somewhere, maybe you won't. But the fact of the matter is this: Sales and marketing alignment starts at the top with a focus on delivering on customer experience. In the end, that means better alignment throughout all the departments not just sales and marketing. If you are C-suite leader in your company, Barbara and Bernie discuss issues directly related to the role you play in not only aligning marketing and sales for greater productivity but also building a healthier, more vibrant culture that will drive the company forward long term. Don’t miss this great conversation. Sponsor: Lithium Technologies helps brands navigate the sometimes overwhelming world of social media marketing and management, social customer service, online communities and social analytics. A leader in the space, they're guiding brands to build trust with their clients while delivering top-notch customer experiences. Dayle leads the charge at Lithium Technologies on all strategic marketing initiatives. Featured on This Episode
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There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the Listen Now button at the top of this page… Or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through iTunes orStitcher. This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies. This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies. | |||
| 06 Sep 2017 | B2B Influencer Marketing is Dead - All Hail Marketing to Influencers! | 00:24:08 | |
Dayle Hall, SVP of Marketing at Lithium Technologies, is joining me for this special UpClose Podcast Series. In this five part series, we are looking at The 5 Most Influential Topics for B2B Marketing. In episode one, Dayle explains effective B2B influencer marketing and reviews a few case studies of B2B brands succeeding at influencer marketing. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/b2b-influencer-marketing-dead | |||
| 23 Sep 2020 | Creating Sales Engagement Through Corporate Gifting | 00:27:31 | |
In 2020 with in-person conferences being redirected to online events, marketers are looking for alternative ways to continue to grow their demand generation efforts and ensure that they can drive quality leads into the sales funnel. One of those ways is gift marketing. Marketing teams are allocating budgets and efforts toward gifting, as opposed to sponsoring virtual events, as some marketers are not seeing the ROI from a $10k+ sponsorship. How can you use gift marketing in your company and what are some great use cases? That is the topic of this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast with my guest, Nick Grant, Head of Marketing at Postal.io. Postal.io is an integrated direct mail platform for sales and marketing teams that leverages machine learning to automate and optimize the creation, delivery, and reporting of personalized physical assets (a.k.a. gifts) in the sales process. The Postal.io platform integrates into HubSpot, Salesloft and Salesforce. Postal.io activities can be tracked in CRM, such as if the gift was received or denied, and reports on different metrics so marketers can know what works and doesn’t. It can also trigger other events to happen, like an email or call right after the gift was received. Listen to this episode to learn more about modern gift marketing. How Companies are Using Gift MarketingAlmost every industry can use gifting to help with their marketing. One common way is to share knowledge by sending books. The book helps build rapport with customers and it can be about something that supports content your business writes about or contain content that your prospect will find relevant for their specific business. For example, Postal.io often uses Giftology: The Art & Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention, to educate their clients on how they can effectively use gifting in their marketing and sales process. Although some brands have their own books, most don’t. However, they can use books from recognized thought leaders in their industry. For example, agencies use books like This is Marketing by Seth Godin or Sales Engagement from the team at Outreach. These books not only educate their prospects, but also help position themselves as an expert in their space by providing these hand-picked resources. Most books cost around $20 and are a very cost-effective way to experiment with driving more engagement at the top of the funnel. Personalization in Gift MarketingAlthough it is difficult to automate and scale personalized gifts, Nick says that he has seen it often in the SaaS space. There is a lot of competition in the SaaS industry, so companies try to get in front of key prospects and get them into their sales funnel through personalized gifts. “This is where swag can come into play,” Nick says, “as you can do a bit of research on a prospect and often find out some info about things they’re passionate about, like where they went to college or a sports team that they support. Just find what they post about on Instagram and perhaps send them a Yeti Mug with their college logo on it, or a hat from their favorite sports team.” Another common example is companies sending gifts that relate to their client’s pets, like a box of cat toys. Such gifts help companies stand out amongst the competition. An added benefit is that people get excited when they receive the gifts and usually post their pictures with the gifts on social media, raving about the company. Nick talked about some interesting use cases for gift marketing in particular industries. Finance and Real EstateNick says that clients in these industries are often introducing new services and they need a way to market them to their existing clients, so they can try to get them interested in learning more about their new offerings. “This is where we often see food-related items used to help get them into the funnel and engaged with the new offerings. Like sending a box of cookies or fruit basket with some information for them to review, which helps to make them more receptive to learn about the new offerings.” Veteran-Owned Organizations“We have a client who is a veteran and he owns a sales training company that works with a lot of other veteran-owned businesses,” Nick says. “He likes to leverage an American Flag as a gift to help drive leads into the top of the funnel. This was not something we originally had in our marketplace, but when he told us about his business we brainstormed and thought it would be the perfect item for him to use.” In gift marketing, every gift should be tailored to the company’s unique business needs to get the best possible results. Webinars and Virtual EventsWith in-person events went virtual, a lot of demand generation managers shifted their focus onto webinars as a way to drive leads at the top of the funnel. However, with so many webinars going on right now, it can be difficult to get people to sign up and attend. Nick says he has seen some really savvy SaaS companies using gift cards after a webinar registration occurs to help drive registrations AND attendance. “We see them use a mix of charity gift cards, where the recipient can pick from a variety of charities, often going with someone local they want to support. Or having it go to a Covid related charity. In addition we see food delivery or coffee gift cards used as well. Being able to have lunch while watching a webinar is a great pairing and all of these digital gifts help build rapport and trust, so that registrants want to attend and see what the webinar is all about.” Can Gift Marketing Contribute to Marketing and Sales Alignment?Nick says that they often see marketing partnering closely with sales to help send out gifts to secure meetings with their strategic accounts that hadn’t responded to outreach in the past. “This really boosts the ability for marketers to get these leads engaged and help sales to drive more meetings that they could with only relying on emails, texts, phone calls and Linkedin InMails.” Through Postal.io sales and marketing can see what types of gifts are effective to book meetings, fill the pipeline and close more sales. Don’t miss this episode to hear more about how you can use gift marketing in your marketing strategy. Featured on This EpisodeOutline of this Episode[1:50] About Postal.io [3:09] What is modern gift marketing [4:50] How are companies using gifting [7:20] Personalization with gifting [12:14] How does a marketer track the gift in the CRM [15:00] Webinars and gifting [17:24] Gifting and Marketing and Sales Alignment
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| 17 Oct 2018 | How To Be A Modern Marketer In The Age Of Data And Analytics | 00:30:02 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Modern marketers have what seems like an ever-changing and highly demanding role in today’s B2B world. There are big challenges to address - including ABS (Account Based Selling), the role of analytics, and application of AI. For this episode, Bernie invited Victor Belfor SVP of Channel Sales and Business Development at Conversica to describe what he’s seeing in his interaction with CMOs and marketers across a variety of industries. From his seat as a business development exec at a marketing tech company, Victor is exposed to marketers across many companies. That means he’s got a strong read on the pulse of the modern marketer. Victor calls it like he sees it and offers suggestions you can use, on this episode. This episode is brought to you by CONVERSICA: AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. You can find out more at http://Conversica.com Today’s CMOs Have The Most Integrated Role In The CompanyIt’s not easy being the Chief Marketing Officer at a company today. That’s because digital channels have blurred the lines between marketing and sales. Modern marketers are tasked with producing results for multiple stakeholders within the organization, which requires additional expertise. They also have to integrate with product marketing, tie directly into sales, and adapt to ABS (account based selling), and more. Top all this off with the reality of reporting directly to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or the CEO in many cases and you see why it’s a tall order for anyone. Victor Belfor says the role demands a person who is willing to embrace the new mindset of modern marketing along with the toolsets and apply different tech stacks to produce the results the company needs. But more than anything, the CMO MUST have the passion drive and grit to be a marketing evangelist who can shape company culture to embrace and support the new role that marketing plays in the digital economy. Join Bernie and Victor as they discuss how marketing professionals can adapt to their ever-expanding role, on this episode of Social Business Engine. How To Cope With Marketing Difficulties Caused By Increasing AnalyticsBetter analytics is undoubtedly a good thing. Every business needs to know the data behind what is working and what is not working. But the ever-growing tech stack is producing challenges too. How do you take flows from all the tech stack solutions and interrelate them to produce a coherent marketing plan that is data-driven? How can marketers measure what really matters to the business? That’s an important thing to nail down, but it’s not the only challenge. There’s also the plethora of channels from which leads are coming in - events, webinars, social media, field marketing, PPC, SEO, and even from employees. How do you run cohort analysis and how do you track attribution from all these unique sources? How do you track costs? A good tech stack can start chipping away at it, but it also requires consistent effort to change company culture to embrace marketing’s expanded strategic role in the organization. In this podcast conversation, you’ll hear Victor share what he’s seeing marketing leaders do to address these challenges. Can AI Solve The Problems of Modern Marketing?AI has grabbed a lot of attention - and you might be tempted to say that AI is - at least in part - what is putting the pressure on modern marketers. But Victor is convinced that AI is not the cause of the marketing chasm. He says the problem when it comes to AI is that while many are interested in experimenting with AI, they are leary either because they don’t know how to use it properly or are feeling threatened by it. They want to experiment but are not completely certain if the outcomes of using AI will be better than what they are currently doing. Hearing this, Bernie asked if marketing leaders should be doing experimental, low-risk AI trials to become familiar with its benefits. But Victor says dipping your toes into the water of AI may not be the best way to get started. Why? Because with AI, the larger your dataset or time of use, the better your results will be, which in turn will give you a better idea of how AI can benefit your marketing efforts. You simply can’t accomplish that with a short-duration test, or a small dataset. You can hear what Victor recommends instead, on this episode. 3 Specific Use Cases For AI Implementation For MarketingVictor says there are three primary areas where AI can benefit the modern marketing approach… #1 - Analytics - AI allows you to build models, predict what your best customers will look like, and analyze your pipeline to anticipate what deals are most likely to close - and all this is done without human bias or false assumptions. #2 - Recommendations - AI can suggest topics for sales conversations by analyzing a variety of data sources (social media, email, CRM contacts, etc.) to help you move prospects toward sales conversations. #3 - Conversational AI - AI-powered bots can reach out to prospects, start conversations, and get as much as 20 times the ROI a human can, and can do it at scale because unless humans, AI conversationalists never call in sick. These are just some of the ways AI can address the needs of the modern marketer and you’ll hear Victor expand on them in this podcast conversation. Tune in. Share it with a friend. Featured on This Episode
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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
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| 13 Feb 2019 | Why Every Marketing Department Should Be Its Own Agency | 00:33:43 | |
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 ResultsThe 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 KnifeDo 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 ImagesLet’s take a moment to consider all the areas for which a modern marketing department may need to produce content.
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
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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. | |||
| 27 Sep 2017 | The State of Social Engagement 2017 | 00:16:17 | |
The UpClose Podcast Series with Dayle Hall, SVP of Marketing at Lithium Technologies continues with episode four. Of The 5 Most Influential Topics for B2B Marketing, so far we've discussed influencer marketing, data overload, and digital customer experience. On episode four we look at the current state of social engagement by reviewing Lithium's "The State of Social Engagement Report." Find out what challenges brands and marketers are facing and learn how you can get more from your digital and social investments. Get all five episodes in one recording plus Social Business Journal Volume 10 now. | |||
| 21 Jun 2016 | 2016 Midyear Recap | 00:28:46 | |
The first 25 episodes of the Social Business Engine Podcast in 2016 cover many facets of social business. I interviewed social business practitioners from major brands as well as social technology thought leaders and even an aspiring entrepreneur. On this episode I provide a recap of each episode and the biggest takeaway from each one. A common thread among them is how social business is strategic and tied to business goals. You'll also hear how employee advocacy and social selling are proven and here to stay, supplemented by a word of caution. Tune in and decide which episode you want to go back and listen to. You're going to learn a lot about social business over the next half hour. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/2016-midyear-recap | |||
| 16 Nov 2014 | Global Local Social Media Advocacy at Schneider Electric | 00:31:19 | |
On this episode, Social Business Engine podcast host Bernie Borges interviews Tanya Donnelly. Tanya is Global Social Media Director at Schneider Electric. Tanya leads the execution of the social business strategy on a global scale in 190 countries and while leading the integration of social media into the business processes for Schneider Electric and associated brands. Catch the show notes and links to all of Schneider Electric's social channels at http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/.
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| 29 Nov 2017 | Deploying and Integrating a Modern CRM System | 00:31:03 | |
Brian Shultz is Vice President of Sales & Marketing at ABB, a pioneering tech company that is over 100 years old. Their biggest competitors are GE and Siemens. The two main elements of ABB are electricity and process automation, where Brian's role resides. He leads his teams to optimize business while delivering a premium experience for ABB’s customers and partners. In this podcast episode, we discuss what it takes to deploy a modern CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. The insights Brian provides may change the way you think about CRM systems regarding their value to a business. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/deploying-integrating-modern-crm-system | |||
| 10 Oct 2018 | How to Win Friends and Drive Business in the Age of Social Media | 00:32:59 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts In the age of social media, friendships have taken on an entirely different look than years previous. Take a step further and you can easily see that building friendships via digital drives business growth as well. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Social Business Engine is Jon Ferrara, founder and CEO of Nimble. Jon has a long history of building relationships, building friendships, building companies, and driving business results. He’s the perfect person to talk to about how we can drive business through genuine friendships in the age of social media. On this episode Jon shares how he engages on social media to connect, engage, educate, inspire, help, and be his authentic self with everyone he encounters. Jon explains how his approach to using social media wins friends, influences people, and wins lots of business too.
Why Salespeople Should Be Using Social Media For ProspectingImagine the interactions and engagements that are going on in your industry or niche as a river. There are many conversations, people, and companies that contribute to the activity that makes up the river and the majority of them these days are happening on social media. You don’t want to be among the people sitting on the bank watching everything happen without you. You need to jump into the river and start swimming. Jon Ferrara says that when salespeople become willing to dive into the river and start swimming - which means authentically engaging, investing time, building relationships, being helpful - they will discover a whole new world of prospects and business that traditional sales models simply can’t access. Listen to hear the practical things Jon does to be fully engaged in the social media river on this episode.
In The Age Of Social Media, One Platform Is Not Enough For Driving BusinessFor business and professional relationships, LinkedIn is the platform of choice for most professionals. For personal interactions, it’s often Facebook or Instagram that is the go-to social media tool. Jon has discovered that salespeople need to be engaged in all forms of interaction - professional, personal, etc. in order to come across as a "real" person. It’s by showing your personality, and discovering commonalities and building personal trust that people often begin to trust you. Every relationship takes time, and Jon is willing to put in the time required to walk the relational path with people online. He encourages today’s salespeople to be willing to do the same. Utilize every social media platform you can reasonably keep up with so that you can connect with prospects on many different levels. You can only drive business when people feel comfortable with YOU first.
Service Is The New Selling, So Stop Trying To Get A Lead Right NowThere are many ways salespeople could approach the use of social media for prospecting - and Jon has seen the best and worst practices. Bernie asked him to share some of the worst things he’s seen and he was quick to respond. First, don’t talk about yourself or your products. Really, don’t. You need to be a presence on social media who is genuinely interested in helping, that’s it. As people notice your helpfulness and expertise, they’ll check you out in ways they feel comfortable with. Many of those people will become prospects, you just need to give it time. Keep this in mind: People don’t buy great products, they buy a better version of themselves. So pitching your product the first chance you get is never a good play, ESPECIALLY on social media. The people you’re trying to sell need to first see your genuine concern for them - that you WANT them to become that better version of themselves that they are striving for. When they see you are able to help them get there, they will be open to talking with you about the stuff you’re selling. Featured on This Episode
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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 | |||
| 08 Jan 2020 | Why Customer Success Belongs in Marketing | 00:32:05 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice If your Customer Success team isn’t contributing to your growth strategy, maybe this function is in the wrong department? Your customers not only need to be happy with what you sold them, they also need to have a great experience with your brand. Creating a team that is exclusively focused on providing that experience is one of the best ways to ensure customer happiness, loyalty and repeat purchases. But where does the Customer Success team fit inside the broader organization? That’s a question not always so easily answered. This episode of Modern Marketing Engine features Jeanne Hopkins, CMO at Lola.com - a business travel company that makes it easy to track expenses, save money, and create a more enjoyable experience for business travelers. Jeanne explains how and why she’s made Customer Success at Lola an integral part of the marketing team. She also unpacks why marketing is the natural fit for this vital customer-facing team. Most Companies Don’t Know Where To Put Customer SuccessJeanne points out that CEOs and Boards often know that an effective Customer Success team is vital but that they don’t always know where it fits into the existing organizational structure. It sometimes winds up as a part of the product team, sometimes is attached to sales, and other times it is integrated into technical support. But are those teams the most relevant resources to work hand in hand with Customer Success? Jeanne says, “No.” In her mind, marketing is the natural fit for Customer Success. Why? Because marketing owns the website, runs webinars, has direct access to the CRM, and because everything they do touches what Customer Success is all about. None of the other organizations within a company have the power that marketing has to reach customers and solidify a communication calendar across the organization. First 90 Days Are Vital For Customer SuccessAre you familiar with the phrase “time-to-value?” Jeanne uses it a few times during this conversation to express how important it is for new customers to quickly benefit from the service her team provides. Her Customer Success team is focused on making the time-to-value as small as possible for their customers. The target time frame her team works toward is 90 days. Listen to hear how the Customer Success experts at Lola.com - known as Wombats - drive adoption of their app within the first 90 days and tangible customer success. Jeanne explains the results they achieve from hitting this goal, and how ongoing interaction and connection with customers even after the 90-day target is essential to renewals, product updates and features, and more business opportunity. Customer Success Must Tackle Friction Points Head-OnAs with any service or product, trouble spots can occur. Any point where customers typically experience frustration, setbacks, inconvenience, or other types of friction are vital to address. For the Lola.com team, many of those areas initially appear to be outside their control - confused hotel bookings, ever-changing airline schedules, and missing or incorrect rental car reservations are all examples within their industry. Jeanne and her success team have decided that it’s not acceptable to allow their customers to be at the mercy of the services they’ve booked through Lola. The Customer Success team digs deeply into their partnerships with service providers, working on the customer’s behalf to prevent issues from happening and to correct problems rapidly should they arise. This proactive approach has made the Lola Customer Success team a shining example of how to care for customers and drive ongoing revenue through renewals. Making It Profitable For Salespeople To Be In Alignment With Customer SuccessTrue customer success is more easily achieved when a customer success mindset is baked into the company’s overall DNA. Since salespeople are the ones to work alongside prospects to the point they become customers, they must have a vested interest in that customer’s success once they have sealed the deal. At Lola, sales teams are part of the customer success formula, with certain aspects of the future revenue of their salespeople tied to ongoing customer success and retention. That enables salespeople - whether in direct sales roles or account management roles - to be highly motivated to continue providing great value and assistance to customers every step of the way. Featured on This Episode
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| 26 Oct 2014 | 5 Social Ambition Entry Points in The Enterprise | 00:31:23 | |
On this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast, Bernie Borges welcomes Cynthya Peranandam. Cynthya is a Senior Marketing Manager for IBM Social Business, setting strategy for IBM’s diverse portfolio, and is an advocate for driving people-centric engagement. She has also led marketing for IBM Cloud Computing for many years and drove adoption and commercialization of emerging technology through IBM's early-adopter program. Cynthya and Bernie discuss the five Social Ambitions That Drive Business Impact as documented in a new report from the IBM Center for Applied Insights. Tune in to discover the key take aways from this report. | |||
| 14 Mar 2018 | How SAP Is Innovating in Social Selling ROI Measurement | 00:30:21 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play What is the real ROI of social selling in a global company like SAP? With social selling still being relatively new, it’s hard to tell because there are few baseline standards to compare against. But the SAP team is creating innovative ways to measure social selling. The theme of this fifth and final episode of this UpClose series is how SAP is measuring Social Selling ROI. You’ll hear from Kirsten Boileau - Global Head of Regional Engagement & Social Selling Michael Labate - Head of Program Development & Operations for Social Selling, and Arif Johari (AJ) - Global Head of Communication and, Social Selling for SAP. 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.SAPs 3 Pronged Approach To Assessing Social Selling ROISo far, it’s been difficult to measure the direct ROI of social selling in most companies. The data and knowledge of how to assess social selling efforts simply haven't existed. But at SAP, that's no longer the case. They have determined 3 key indicators that enable them to assess the effort sales teams are making in social selling. First, is the SSI or Social Selling Index provided through LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It enables the leaders to assess the levels of activity salespeople are engaging in on social. Second is the issue of attribution, an attempt at assessing how the salespeople are attributing their lead generation and pipeline activity to their social behaviors. And finally, SAPs leadership is considering the value metrics behind the sales pipeline and revenue, things such as conversion rates, acceleration rates, and run rates. Combined, this 3 pronged approach to measuring the ROI of social selling gives SAP a clearer picture of what's happening. Be sure you listen to hear how SAP is setting the standard for the measurement of social selling ROI. Social Selling Behaviors Are The Key To Assessing Social Selling ROIBecause the way B2B buyers make purchase decsions has changed - and much of that change revolves around social media or digital activity - the way sales success is measured has to change as well. Rather than assessing numbers of calls and appointments made, criteria have to be determined to show what's happening via the connections made through social. Companies need to know whether sellers are achieving better or worse numbers when social selling behaviors are involved. SAP is on the cutting edge of assessing social selling ROI. The company's leadership teams are trying to understand the issue of causation between social sales behaviors and sales success, not just correlations between the two. Listen to learn more of how SAPs team is assessing the impact of social behaviors on deal size, win/close rates, and lost and discontinued leads. An Effective Internal Communication Strategy Keeps SAPs Social Selling Success RollingIn any sales program, success stories need to be told - especially to those key stakeholders who have a vested interest in the sales program. These might be Executives, Sales Trainers & Program Managers, or the Trainees themselves. When the training efforts and sales approaches being used are shown to be successful, everyone is motivated to be a part of the program because they can see that it's working. The SAP team's internal communication strategy includes bi-monthly calls between departments where those featured in the company’s social selling success stories are publically rewarded and recognized, and where data is shared to show how sales are increasing as a result of social selling. Good communication about the ROI of the social selling program keeps SAPs marketing and sales teams moving forward with confidence and motivation. A New Approach To Measurement Using Social Selling Key IndicesNow that social selling has been around for a few years, successful companies need to discover better ways to measure its effectiveness. This will enable the leadership to train social selling behaviors that are proven to really work. The SAP sales teams have created their own ways of measuring social selling success through using indexes as a comparison for sales performance. These Social Selling Key Indices give salespeople an idea of how they perform compared to the indexes in categories like sales conversions, speed to close, average deal size, and more. Those who are found to be underperforming those indexes are provided additional training and support. The sellers who are overperforming the indexes are asked to share what they are doing so others can learn, grow, and become more successful. Learn more about SAPs innovative Social Selling Indices approach, on this episode. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedBe 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.
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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. | |||
| 15 Nov 2017 | A Top-Down Approach to Employee Engagement on Social Media | 00:37:44 | |
Karin Aviles is Senior Manager of Demand Generation & Field Marketing at Direct Energy Business. Previously, she was with Verizon for nine years. In this podcast episode, Karin explains how she's applying everything she learned at Verizon, into her role at Direct Energy Business where she's currently rolling out an employee engagement program. Direct Energy Business is part of the parent company Centrica Business Solutions, a large power company with four million customers in the United States. Karin leads demand generation and field marketing for North America. Listen to this episode to learn about the incredible success of the program at Verizon and the lessons she learned and is now applying at Direct Energy Business. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/top-down-approach-employee-engagement | |||
| 07 Jun 2016 | How Monsanto Creates Customer and Employee Advocacy | 00:41:19 | |
I met this week's featured podcast guest, Nick Weber, earlier this year through the Social Media Strategies Summit in Chicago. As the Global Social Media Strategy Lead at Monsanto Company, Nick provides a look at how they're empowering customers and employees to advocate, or as they call it agvocate, for the brand. In 2003 Monsanto Company was spun off from the original Monsanto (established in 1901) as an agricultural unit. Between 2008 and 2009 Monsanto Company recognized the need to have a presence on social media so they could respond to consumers. Tune in to hear how Monsanto Company is leveraging their biggest advocates, their customers, to help tell their story. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-monsanto-creates-customer-employee-advocacy | |||
| 05 Jun 2019 | 3 Ways To Ensure Marketing and Sales Produce Measurable Results | 00:28:45 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts The marketing and sales teams in fast-growing technology companies must be aligned to produce measurable results. Conversica is a fast-growing tech company with a leadership team dedicated to marketing and sales being tightly aligned. Learn what it takes to create united marketing and sales groups and how unity produces measurable results, with Rashmi Vittal, CMO, and Gregg Ames, CSO of Conversica. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.comHow Traditional Marketing and Sales Alignment Is DefinedTraditionally, marketing and sales have been organized independently of one another in an organization. The marketing team is responsible for brand building, lead generation and attracting opportunities in the market for a company. The sales team is responsible for diligently following up on leads to meet revenue targets. Historically, each department handled their individual tasks with individual goals rather than working collaboratively. Separating marketing and sales activities and goals has led to distrust and disagreement over many topics ranging from the quality of leads to the meaning of data and metrics. Each team sought to achieve their results based on their own goals. At Conversica, marketing and sales leadership works very collaboratively. In fact, their mindset is one of unity between marketing and sales with a shared focus on meeting the needs of their customer. The Ideal Customer Profile Explored And DefinedGregg explains that marketing and sales work closely together to define the ideal customer profile, aka ICP. Additionally, the success and delivery teams also play a key role in understanding their ICP. They have created a bullseye chart to define and illustrate their ideal customer profile. They constantly monitor their achievement in winning customers within their ICP and even explore winning outside their ICP bullseye. The leadership team at Conversica invests heavily in training and enablement. The more knowledgeable their teams are, the more effective they are in their sales conversations. Investing in ongoing training and in industry knowledge empowers and enables the sales team to grow their lead conversions. Both Gregg and Rashmi believe that collaboration has strengthened their vision of the ideal customer profile and the message they use to attract companies to learn how Conversica’s AI assistant technology can help improve their business results. Feedback From The Customer Success Team Fuels ChangeDeriving and interpreting feedback from the Customer Success (CS) team is critical to ongoing success. Customer Success interacts directly with the client and is the gateway through which both marketing and sales garner information about how they use Conversica. These insights enable them to be responsive to the needs of the customer during the buyer’s journey. The collaborative work between marketing and sales enables them to revise the sales process as needed. Customer Success teams also play a paramount role in reducing “churn.” Their feedback on how the customer uses Conversica‘s products, allows the marketing and sales teams to take action to minimize churn and maximize winning best-fit customers. How Mutual Accountability Drives PerformanceGregg and Rashmi are impressively passionate about how their teams are accountable to each other and to the company. They both want Conversica to succeed and stay profitable and they understand they must win together through collaboration. Digging into the data together, evaluating operational details, and working together on a shared view of the business allows them to optimize their time and make adjustments where needed. Rashmi explains how working together through open lines of communication builds and maintains mutual respect and trust. This allows the teams to work more effectively. Gregg touches on how marketing and sales are not static. United marketing and sales teams continuously adapt and refine their processes. Building integration and collaboration across marketing, sales, and customer success play a huge role in Conversica’s ability to create measurable results while being adaptive to evolving market dynamics. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.com
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
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. | |||
| 01 Sep 2015 | Building An Owned Audience from Scratch at TechBeacon | 00:37:45 | |
As the sixth largest software company in the world it should come as no surprise that HP Software's recent launch of TechBeacon is quickly gaining clout in the technology industry. Started approximately three months ago, this content-filled learning center is already receiving 60,000 views per month. Marcel Santilli, the Chief Content Officer for TechBeacon, spent a month doing research before starting what he said was the most challenging task — the executive approval process. In this episode of the Social Business Engine, Marcel reveals how HP is taking a customer serving approach to their content marketing through TechBeacon. The focus of TechBeacon is to give HP Software's customers a place to learn. The only mentions of products you'll see are references in reports or statistics. Listen to this podcast to discover Marcel's strategy for launching TechBeacon and the benchmarks from his previous work with Security Intelligence at IBM. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/building-an-owned-audience-from-scratch-hp-techbeacon | |||
| 24 Feb 2021 | Mission-Driven Marketing and Sales | 00:32:40 | |
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 CrisisAt 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 RemoteThe 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 ProductiveBy 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 RemoteIn 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 SalesThe 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. | |||
| 17 May 2017 | How to Integrate Personalized Video Email into Digital Sales | 00:43:11 | |
On this episode, I'm joined by Ethan Beute, Vice President of Marketing at BombBomb Digital Video. A masterful communicator, and teacher, Ethan is all about connecting goals to strategies and tactics. During our conversation, he explains how to use video email in a digital sales strategy. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-to-integrate-personalized-video-email-into-digital-sales | |||
| 16 Jul 2014 | Celebrating The Customer With User Generated Content | 00:31:04 | |
On this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast, Bernie Borges interviews Tom Schwab of Goodbye Crutches. Tom is on a mission to share his learned insights about the power of "marketing is not a department" through user generated content coming from loyal customers. In this episode we discuss the five keys to build and harness long term customer relationships through user generated content. This episode is sponsored by PeopleLinx: Social Selling Made Easy. Learn How to Empower Employees to Become Brand Advocates. | |||
| 27 Jan 2021 | Digital Selling Tips for the Modern Seller | 00:38:10 | |
What drives the success of a sales team today? Knowing how to engage the digitally savvy modern buyer. And modern buyers need modern sellers. While digital marketing is a mature ecosystem with proven processes and practices, digital selling is still evolving. Many sales organizations were reluctant to implement a digital sales transformation until COVID-19 came and forced everyone into remote selling. Today, digital selling is more important than ever. In this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, I talked with Ed Terpening, Industry Analyst at Altimeter Group, who recently released the 2020 State of Digital Selling research report. This survey sought to understand the capabilities and key success factors enabling the digital transformation of selling among B2B businesses. It was based on a survey of 506 sales professionals across North America, Europe, and China, and it offers a comprehensive view of how B2B sales teams are leveraging digital in their sales processes. Listen to this episode to learn about the key findings of this report and how you can apply that knowledge to your organization. The State of Digital SellingEd provided some great insights on the key findings from the report. Here they are: 1. Now, more than ever, selling is a team sport.The customer is the center of experience in any business. Marketing is the front end of customer experience. They then go through sales and then they go through service and customer success. So it's really important to connect all of those dots between those organizations and think not just about digital marketing but also digital selling and how they work together and then customer success and service. “All of the teams that touch the customer must have a consistent view,” Ed says. They have to understand what white papers the customers are reading from marketing, what service problems they're having, what kind of value propositions work in the sales process.” Their research found that those selling teams that had a well aligned Marketing, Sales and Service teams always did better than others that didn't. 2. Sales teams need to make the digital mindset shift.According to the report, a sales team with a strong digital culture will accomplish its objectives and perform better, as sellers trust the value of data and the tech tools they use. “The technology industry really outperformed other industries when it came to digital selling,” Ed says, “because they have a digital culture, they're in this business and they're actually much more effective in this world and achieve higher results. Making that culture mindset shift is so important.” The seller's mindset needs to really shift and think about engaging digitally through value. 3. High-touch, high-value cross-functional selling outperforms automated high-volume selling.Automation in sales has been rapidly growing in the past few years, but Altimeter Group’s research found that it underperforms when compared to other high-touch approaches, such as Account-Based Marketing and Account-Based Selling, which are more customer-centric. Cross-functional teams that partner on key accounts are more effective in achieving revenue and customer success goals than sellers who rely on automation. “This reinforces the fact that it's not just digital, it’s people teaming together and getting the highest results,” Ed says. Listen to the episode to learn about the three models of selling they tested and which one performs better. 4. Top performers focus on the customer through customer-focused metrics, cross-functional teaming, and selling by vertical industry.The fourth key finding was that top sales organizations prioritized customer satisfaction above metrics such as sales quota achievement, recognized and addressed the diversity of B2B buying committees and customized sales approaches by industry vertical. “Successful companies are focused on the customer,” Ed says. “Digital sellers that were not as mature were focused on things like revenue growth, rather than leveraging existing customers and really optimizing the value from those customers. Instead, they tended to seek out new customers.” Part of having the right focus is knowing that the modern B2B buyer expects sellers to understand their industry to the point that they become a trusted partner in their own success. 5. As teams build digital excellence, boundaries are likely to blur between sales and marketing teams.Digital marketing automation is a mature practice, while sales automation is evolving. Ed provided the analogy of left brain versus right brain to talk about this difference between digital marketing and digital selling. “Marketing is sort of the left brain, very analytical, very focused on data to make decisions,” Ed says. “Versus the sales team that might be more about the gut feeling, more relationship-based. They're complimentary, of course, but as sales teams become more digitally mature, they rely more on data analytics technology and AI to guide their next moves.” Sales must undergo a cultural shift to develop trust in sales automation and data, using sales prospecting tools and sales forecasting software, for example. 6. Digitally mature sellers are outperforming less mature teams through the COVID-19 pandemic.Altimeter found there was a very strong correlation between mature digital sellers and less mature sellers regarding their success during the pandemic. Digitally mature teams have the enablement tools, the digital culture, the data, and the leadership alignment to succeed in a remote selling environment. The pandemic has laid bare the challenges businesses face as they transition, such as finding cross-functional alignment to achieve seamless customer experience, made possible through leadership alignment. Ed’s advice to marketing leaders is to get ready to help your sales teams succeed in embracing digital. Marketers should see themselves as partners of the sales team. Don’t miss my conversation with Ed and don’t forget to download The 2020 State of Digital Selling. | |||
| 15 May 2019 | A Modern Approach To Marketing & Sales Alignment In Manufacturing | 00:34:28 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Marketing and sales alignment in manufacturing has undergone an evolution as digital transformation has become more pervasive. Some tried-and-true methods have become less effective because of the change in buyer habits. In this episode, Bernie speaks with the head of sales and the head of marketing at Kadant Johnson - a manufacturing company - about their digital sales transformation journey. You won’t want to miss this episode as Dr. Wes Martz, VP of Marketing, and Carl Howe, VP of Sales, discuss how embracing digital transformation at Kadant has positively impacted their marketing and sales alignment and practices allowing their teams to reach customers previously unavailable to them. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.comHow Tried And True Traditional Marketing Strategies Have EvolvedKadant Johnson is a manufacturing company that has been in business since 1930. They manufacture and distribute mechanical sealing devices that allow their industrial manufacturing customers to create paper towels, aluminum foil, corrugated cardboard boxes, etc. Traditionally their marketing and sales strategy has focused heavily on printed collateral, public relations, trade shows, and focusing on long-standing relationships in their key industries. Their message of value has not changed but how they communicate their messaging has changed. Dr. Martz discusses Kadant Johnson‘s evolution from print media to their website in the 90s, to their content marketing strategy and SEO focus providing them greater visibility in the online space. Their time and marketing spend are significantly directed toward their digital marketing platforms and being present in the major social media channels. These changes have increased the Kadant Johnson brand’s reach, which lends itself to a warm, direct selling environment. Digital Transformation Has Fostered Greater Marketing And Sales AlignmentCarl speaks on how the Kadant Johnson sales force focuses on selling its products to three primary industries. Their brand name recognition is strong and recognized within those core industries, and each customer relationship leads to the next. They struggled, however, with building relationships in their secondary markets because the relationships were not there and the buyer has changed. Digital transformation is allowing his sales teams to reach out to the potential customers they want while also allowing them greater access to their company. In this approach, marketing and sales are aligned to create greater reach through digital practices and processes. The marketing teams build various funnels by generating appropriate content. When the customer moves through the funnel, the sales team takes over and maintains the message while providing further value that builds confidence in the brand. The sales team has also developed a greater ability to reach customers through digital channels that were previously unattainable, creating much greater marketing and sales alignment. Has The Changing Buyer Persona Affected Manufacturing Sales?At Kadant Johnson the traditional relationship-centered marketing and sales approach is as strong as ever, but how they foster the relationship has changed. Dr. Martz discusses how customers have evolved along with changes in the digital marketing world. Many times the buyers have also already researched Kadant before they ever look to engage with a salesperson. Dr. Martz takes this one step further in discussing the changing demographics of their customer base. The modern buyer is more educated, well read, younger, and brand focused. Rather than the buyer wanting to foster long-term relationships, they are looking online to find effective solutions that do not require a great deal of time to learn about and getting quick answers to questions.. How Digital Transformation Is Revolutionizing Sales Alignment And ProcessesCarl further discusses the changes that the increased online presence has made on the sales processes at Kadant. Traditionally, their sales team would drive down the road, see a smokestack, and reach approach the receptionist to find the gatekeeper at the company. Their sales team now uses LinkedIn and other platforms to find their potential customer’s information and to reach out through social media. The sales team has evolved from being focused mostly on face-to-face sales conversations to seeking out initial online engagement to start a conversation. From LinkedIn’s 3rd Annual “State of Sales Report,” one of the data points is that 62% of decision-makers read a salesperson’s LinkedIn profile looking for an informative profile before deciding to talk with that salesperson. Carl mentioned how surprised he is that customers and other people reach out and find him on LinkedIn and his salespeople without them always having to reach out. Kadant’s Digital Transformation Journey UnveiledDr. Martz discusses the Kadant digital transformation more fully by bringing the conversation back to their updated LinkedIn profiles. Many businesses now use LinkedIn to research their potential vendors. Just as Kadant researches their potential clients, they know that they too are being researched and have arranged for their entire sales team to have their LinkedIn profiles made over into a resource for their current and prospective customers. The next step in their journey is to increase engagement between their sales teams and their prospective buyers on LinkedIn. The goal is to focus their traditional method of targeting their ideal industries and use that focus in digital channels, engaging with people in their target industries. Dr. Martz also wants to increase recognition of their company wins to create more excitement among the sales and marketing teams and increase their momentum through their use of LinkedIn. Carl Howe and Dr. Wes Martz expect to see the changes in behavior in their sales and marketing departments continue to build momentum accelerating their ability to sell and market Kadant Johnson in this new digital age. They have already seen some big wins and are looking forward to more. They have also noted a positive response from others in their organization. While Kadant Johnson has a decentralized corporate structure, their peers have noticed and are interested in learning how they too can benefit from the digital transformation that Dr. Martz and Carl have launched. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.com
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| 05 Jul 2017 | Shattering the Digital Sales Paradigm | 00:33:19 | |
On this special episode, I interview my co-founders at Vengreso. What we’re doing at Vengreso is relevant to the editorial mission of the Social Business Engine podcast. It is my goal that each episode brings you valuable insights from brands, tech companies, authors and analysts that might get you inspired to think differently and take action to improve results in your business or your career. So, in that context, I’m introducing you to my co-founders at Vengreso. To be clear, I'm NOT pitching you on our company. Rather, I want to share with you a need we recognized in the way that businesses implement digital sales strategies, and how we’re addressing that need through digital sales transformation – aka the digital selling ecosystem. You will hear how Vengreso addresses the digital sales transformation and hopefully, you'll notice our passion and inspiration for "the movement" that makes up this digital sales ecosystem. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/shattering-the-digital-sales-paradigm | |||
| 11 Nov 2020 | 3 Pillars of Digital Marketing Transformation for Sustained Resilience and Growth | 00:37:08 | |
In recent history, there have been three important events that have led marketing teams to shift their focus and embrace digital marketing transformation. The first event was 9/11 in 2001 and how fear and uncertainty gripped the U.S. (and others) which hindered planned marketing activities including travel and events where thousands of people congregated. The second event was the economic crisis of 2008 which had both businesses and consumers concerned about the repercussions that came out of every dollar spent. Third, is how COVID has affected many lives and how we conduct business. March 2020 provided the world with a new chapter. Those who accepted and embraced the changes with compassion for each other have figured out ways to conduct business, despite the challenges many businesses have faced. My guest this week on the Modern Marketing Engine podcast is Sara Larsen. Sara’s experience and “marketing scars” come from years of marketing leadership roles at organizations such as IBM, SAP, and Dassault Systems. Most recently, Sara was the CMO at Brightcove, the leading online video streaming platform. Sara and I spoke about what she describes as the three digital marketing transformation pillars every organization needs in order to become successful in the face of significant change. Marketing Transformation PivotBefore I reveal Sara’s three pillars, the word pivot warrants attention. This word is likely on the list of words that marketers didn’t anticipate we would use so much in 2020. The word is commonly used to define a slight change that ensures short term survival. This is exactly what many marketers thought 2020 needed, a slight change in the way we market our businesses. But as the events of 2020 unfolded, we continued to see no indications that things would return back to its pre-COVID state. So, the word pivot was not only used to describe short term survival, instead, it was used to describe long term resilience and growth. Most organizations have already gone through the first part which is ensuring short-term survival. For example, some businesses in B2C have adjusted for the short term such as bakeries pivoting to sell kits to bake at home and alcohol distilleries pivoting to make hand-sanitizers. However, these adjustments or pivots aren’t necessarily sustainable and we now need to think about how we pivot towards long-term resilience and growth. Pillar #1 - How Relevant are you during this Marketing Transformation?Many organizations began to experience the reality that some customers didn’t view them as necessary or relevant in the “new normal.” As marketers, we need to understand that buyer’s needs have changed, and we must ask ourselves, is what we’re selling still relevant? This is where marketers need to be aligned not just with sales but also with your product strategy. Sales can tell you what conversations they’re having with buyers. What are they looking for now? What are their highest priorities and where in their organization does your product fit in? This will help define how imminent a pivot will be from what you were doing before to what you need to be offering now. We’ve always seen alignment as important but in the face of digital marketing transformation we see that it is more important than ever. Business continuity is also at an all-time high. For example, video messaging can sometimes substitute for those virtual meetings that your buyers may no longer consider as high-priority. Pillar #2 - The Marketing Mix Has Fundamentally ChangeInterestingly, many of us can tell you the exact day, hour, and even minute when we realized back in March that our plans for the year were going to be turned upside down. When the COVID-19 outbreak has deemed a pandemic everything changed. The most notable marketing pivot in 2020 centered around events and event planning. Most events have either been canceled or have gone entirely virtual. These new events have given organizations the need to step up their innovation to keep attendees engaged. Though Sara estimates that in-person events are likely to resume after Q2 of 2021, the results from virtual events have been mostly positive. At in-person events, it was tough to keep an attendee engaged for over 20 minutes, but virtual events allow organizations to showcase technology and this is all thanks to video best practices. Social content, podcasts, video content, these are all great platforms for brands to showcase their assets. We referenced both 9/11 and the 2008 economic crisis earlier in this post. In 2008, similar to this year, everyone was saying that things would resume in 2009, and for the most part, things did. But how are things different this year? For starters, people’s lives are in play by contrast to 2008, which was an economic-only event. Today, the technology is more advanced, and with so much invested in digital marketing transformation and content marketing, marketers have the ability to pivot to this new normal. Sure, events will come back eventually but we might be looking at hybrid events. Being Helpful can Benefit you in the Long RunSara’s team at Brightcove began to offer free live-streaming video to organizations who could use it to support their community. They offered this service to schools and churches and community theatres. They offered up to 50 free hours and this was not only rewarding but was also a very helpful research opportunity. With the information gathered, they began to see what problems organizations were facing during the pandemic in the midst of their digital marketing transformation. It was a good way to learn what problems most organizations were facing and what solutions they needed. Pillar #3 - Evolving Talent Needs in the Midst of Digital Marketing TransformationMarketers often raise the question, what do I need to learn next? Marketing leaders and their teams need to continually keep up with the latest trends to stay competitive. But this year things have been different. It used to be, what would I need to know next year? Today it’s what do I need to know for next week? Trends are changing at an alarming rate. Selling with video and selling with social media used to be a suggestion, today it’s a necessity to stay relevant. Sara says that as marketing leaders, we need to know where the world is headed. What does the buyer care about? How do we speak to buyers on their preferred digital channels? The conventional wisdom that in order to close bigger deals, customers need to meet with salespeople face-to-face is no longer true…That big sales aren’t likely to happen virtually. Sara highlights a recent study conducted by McKinsey that says, over 70% of B2B buyers are open to self-service models of up to $50k. Over 27% said they’d spend over $500k. What does this mean? That your buyers understand that the world has gone virtual so you need to adapt as well. A study conducted by Gartner in 2020 states that the modern B2B buying committee only spends 17% of its time in their customer journey, talking to suppliers. The rest of the time is spent defining their requirements, looking up websites, competitors, and watching videos and reading reviews. That means, instead of worrying about how much time you spend speaking to prospective buyers, you need to be thinking about what content will appeal to your buyer to be included in their research. This includes all forms of content including video, podcasts and social media posts. Many executives are reluctant to invest in online training or peer mentoring because they would rather wait until “things get back to normal.” Sara is an advocate of staying current by keeping talent up to speed on the trends that are needed today. She says that current talent demands include event planning, putting on digital experiences, investing in digital training, and lastly, research. You need to determine whether or not your buyer type is the same or if your product or service is best suited for a different buyer persona. Shifting Towards Digital Marketing TransformationI thoroughly enjoy speaking with marketing visionaries who are constantly looking to better themselves and those around them. Sara says that digital marketing transformation isn’t always planned and this year is a clear example of it. We ended the episode on a high note with Sara emphasizing the importance of having empathy for your team, clients, and colleagues while driving our businesses forward. This change has affected everyone so as we move out of this pivot and into the long-term resilience and growth, empathy will carry us through and into our next chapter. Outline of this Digital Transformation Episode[2:40] Sara Larsen Bio and Introduction [3:50] 3 digital transformation pillars she wants to talk about [4:00] Importance of Pivoting towards short term change and long term resilience and growth [4:30] First Pillar: Are you Relevant? Will your traditional marketing strategies be enough? [11:00] Second Pillar: The Digital Marketing Mix has Fundamentally Changed [12:30] When are events coming back? Importance of Digital technology. [15:45] The difference between this market change and the change in the 2008 economic recession. [20:30] Third Pillar: Evolving Talent Needs [25:40] Invest in Online Training and Peer Mentoring [27:00] Marketing evolution and continuous need to reassess | |||
| 28 Jun 2016 | How SAP Scales Social Selling | 00:31:38 | |
Kirsten Boileau, Director of Digital Innovations at SAP is leading the charge to take social selling to the next level for SAP sales professionals. SAP employs more than 30,000 salespeople globally. Through social selling training and enablement delivered at scale, the impact on the business has been very positive. In this podcast episode, Kirsten discusses the role of social selling in SAP's B2B sales environment. Tune in to hear a couple of inspiring success stories and to find out how Kirsten is focused on Training and Enablement to scale social selling at SAP. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-sap-scales-social-selling | |||
| 26 Jan 2016 | Getting a Seat at the Breakfast Table through Transparent Communication | 00:33:06 | |
Today's featured guest is Rick Wion, an accomplished marketing professional recognized by AdWeek as a Top 50 Innovator in digital marketing. Rick is currently the Senior Director of Consumer Engagement at the Kellogg Company and a long time fan of Frosted Flakes. On this episode, Rick reveals Kellogg’s strategy behind their web property openforbreakfast.com. We discuss how Rick is leading the movement at Kellogg for transparent communication across the spectrum of nutrition, sustainability, and philanthropy. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/getting-a-seat-at-the-breakfast-table-through-transparent-communication-kellogg | |||
| 10 Apr 2019 | How Brands Break Through To Audiences With Video | 00:30:34 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Are you connecting to your buyers with video? Whether or not you are, this episode is one you should be sure to listen to. Bernie’s guest is Sara Larsen, CMO of Brightcove - Frost & Sullivan’s Global Company of the Year and Leader in 2018 Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Video Content Management. Brightcove specializes in video content management and delivery so whether you’re just starting out with video or building your brand around it, Brightcove empowers you to scale as you grow and promises zero growing pains. In this conversation, Bernie and Sara talk about the ways brands are using video to reach out and engage their target market, to highlight customer stories, and to make a human connection with those in their audience. Sara also shares a way you can attend the upcoming Brightcove PLAY event via a discounted rate. Be sure to listen to get all the details. Attend the annual Brightcove PLAY event May 14 – 16, 2019. Visit www.play.brightcove.com to get all the details. Bernie will be there both days, speaking on May 15th at 11am on how salespeople can use video to engage the modern buyer. Get 20% off by using this code: PLAYpc2019 How Are Brands Reaching Out To Customers And Followers With Video?There are many lessons to be learned by watching what the big brands are doing with video and other marketing tools. Bernie asked Sara what she’s seeing as brands use video and she shared a wide variety of approaches.
In these and many other use cases, Sara says the consistent theme is that these brands need a great way to connect with their audience. Video is their medium of choice because it’s the only content format that uses eyes and ears to make an emotional connection with people. Listen to learn from these great examples! Challenges To Building A Video-Based Connection With An AudienceNaturally, no brand or marketer can jump right into video creation and effective distribution. There is a very real learning curve and technological hurdle to overcome. But Sara points out that the tech challenges are less formidable as the tools now available are smarter and easier to use. That means there is more time to focus on telling great stories, which is what is at the heart of using video well. The real challenge is to stay focused on that objective. In Sara’s mind, we are still in the early days of using video among corporate marketers. There is a lot that has been learned but much more that is still to be discovered about how to use the medium effectively. But it’s a medium brand marketers are starting to understand better. During this conversation, Sara highlights many of the approaches Brightcove customers are taking that are getting great results. How The Brightcove PLAY Event Can Help You Breakthrough With VideoMany brands already know that video is one of the most powerful mediums to use in order to make human connections with customers and prospects. Sara believes that now is the ideal time for content marketers and brands to embrace video more than ever before. Brightcove is hosting it’s 9th Brightcove PLAY event in May of 2019 and it is a “must attend” event for those looking to get into video marketing or to take their video marketing to the next level. The event will highlight Brightcove customers who are getting great results from their use of video, and many themes will be laced throughout the event sessions. Some of them are…
Bernie will be presenting at the event on May 15th on the topic of how salespeople can use video to engage the modern buyer to stand out from the competition. If you attend Brightcove PLAY, you will leave with actionable ideas, tips and best practices to leverage video to build a following and engage your customers more effectively. You’ll have plenty of food for thought regarding whether you should insource or outsource your video production, you’ll understand the learning curve surrounding video implementation, and you'll understand how to use video analytics tools well so you can measure effectiveness and maximize your efforts. Don’t miss this episode with Brightcove CMO Sara Larsen and don’t miss the Brightcove PLAY event May 14 - 16, 2019. Be sure to get your 20% discount when you register using code: PLAYpc2019 ! Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedAttend the Brightcove PLAY event May 14 – 16, 2019. Visit www.play.brightcove.com to get all the details. Bernie will be there both days, speaking on May 15th at 11am on how salespeople can use video to engage the modern buyer. Get 20% off by using this code: PLAYpc2019
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
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. | |||
| 09 Feb 2015 | A World Gone Social | 00:34:41 | |
On this episode, I'm joined by Ted Coiné, Chief Marketing Officer of Meddle.it, the next generation of content marketing for organizations and individuals. Ted is a Forbes Top 100 Social Media Power Influencer, Inc. Top 100 Leadership Expert, and Inc. Top 100 Speaker. A three-time CEO, Ted Coiné is also the co-author with Mark Babbitt of "A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive." This episode is sponsored by Cision. Reserve your copy of the Social Business Journal Volume 2, the How to Guide in Influencer Marketing to publish in March. Of course, it's free. You can reserve your copy today at socialbusinessengine.com/
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| 23 Nov 2015 | Why Recruitment is Marketing | 00:38:19 | |
Abby Euler, Global Marketing Evangelist for Talent Acquisition at IBM, reveals the merit of taking a data-driven marketing approach to recruitment. She explains why the art and science of recruiting is really a digital marketing campaign, made possible through strategy and social technologies. The fact that recruiters say they would not rehire 39% of their recent hires exposes a fault in the classic, reactive recruitment strategy. Listen to this episode to gain an understanding of how taking a proactive approach to recruitment provides the opportunity to have the right candidates available when a position opens up and how your company's culture plays a role in the recruitment process. Recruitment is evolving; it's time to start treating your candidates like consumers. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/recruitment-is-marketing | |||
| 26 Sep 2013 | Deloitte South Africa's Social Business Journey | 00:24:28 | |
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. | |||
| 19 Apr 2017 | Tactics to Increase Employee Engagement on Social Media | 00:37:10 | |
Casey Hall is the Head of Social Media for Business Communications at Thomson Reuters.On this episode, Casey reveals how Thomson Reuters uses best practices to enable employees to use social media. You probably know the Thomson Reuters name for their news business services. But, did you know that they're also a provider of information for professionals in finance, law and other B2B disciplines? They provide actionable insights from data and information to help their professional clients serve their customers better and find the best answer. Thomson Reuters is a public company with 45,000 employees across the globe. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-thomson-reuters-earned-the-brand-as-the-answer-company
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| 16 Jul 2020 | How the Right Market Intelligence Enables Organizations to Thrive in Challenging Times | 00:33:12 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Companies must have a strategic plan to grow and expand, especially in challenging times like the current pandemic, where market dynamics have shifted and priorities have shifted. Most B2B companies use traditional market reports to guide their strategic decisions, but they are not enough. However, with the right market intelligence, B2B organizations can prioritize their accounts, reevaluate territories and rethink their ideal customer profile to actually thrive. In this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, my guest, Elizabeth Cholawsky, PhD, describes how technology intelligence helps companies plan with confidence and make better decisions. She is a seasoned executive leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing successful SaaS-based businesses. Elizabeth has led and worked with companies to build market-leading offerings, using in-house talent as well as through partnerships and acquisitions. Elizabeth is the CEO at HG Insights. The company has built the world’s largest and most accurate database of B2B technology customer intelligence, tracking more than a million businesses and the specific technology stack products they are using. Elizabeth won Comparably’s 2019 Best CEO for Women Award. This post summarizes our conversation. I invite you listen to the entire episode (33 minute interview) to learn more about market intelligence and how it can help your marketing or sales team succeed. Success Begins with Strategic PlanningWhether your company is trying to determine which territories to expand to, how to align sales and marketing with the right accounts, staff your business appropriately and invest in effective tools for growth or persuade investors to fund you, or pivot due to COVID-19 you need strategic planning. But where do you start? You must start with data. Unfortunately, traditional market reports are not enough to make informed decisions. Most are based on customer surveys interpreted by analysts and provide only high-level numbers on potential size and growth of a market. These reports are too generic and not very actionable. This is where technology intelligence comes in. Technology IntelligenceElizabeth says that her clients are usually looking for much deeper insights than what’s provided on an analyst report, which is generally an estimate of the total available market (TAM) or serviceable available market (SAM). What they need is to understand their serviceable obtainable market (SOM), which represents the segment of the market they think they can realistically capture with their product or service. And to obtain the SOM, they need detailed tech intelligence on what technology products their accounts or prospective buyers have installed. Tech intelligence allows the entire organization to make better decisions. For instance:
Elizabeth says that the data HG Insights provides is so detailed that their clients can understand what technology products are installed at each account and what the budgets are for those products. That way they can make fair comparisons between markets. In our interview, Elizabeth shared an example contrasting tech intelligence between Germany and France, providing data to support the decision to invest in one country over the other. In Challenging Times You Must be Able to Change Your Plan QuicklyWhen a crisis such as COVID-19 hits, organizations must re-think everything: from reevaluating territories to reevaluating their ICP. In the current environment, account prioritization becomes critical. How can the right market intelligence help marketing and sales teams to focus their efforts? Elizabeth says that tech intelligence can help sales by identifying accounts with the highest propensity to buy, with insights about a company’s tech stack and what their budgets are. And it can help marketing in developing messaging to address pain points for better engagement rates. One success story Elizabeth shared is Citrix, which used tech intelligence to build an $80M pipeline, reduce sales cycles by 30% and quadruple the rate at which they turned leads into opportunities. Listen to the entire episode as Elizabeth shares more details about how the right market intelligence can enable B2B companies to identify the best opportunities, even in the midst of the COVID crisis. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People Mentioned
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice | |||
| 18 Oct 2014 | Agile Selling | 00:30:17 | |
This week on the Social Business Engine podcast, I welcome Jill Konrath, author of three best selling books on sales topics. On this episode we discuss Agile Selling. Jill reveals how the modern sales model has been influenced by the paradigm shift in social, and we also discussed the skills needed to succeed in the modern selling paragigm. Visit our show notes page for a summary and links to resources we discussed. http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/agile-selling | |||
| 22 Sep 2015 | Overcoming Information Density through Shareability | 00:31:00 | |
I'm joined by Mel Attia, V.P. of Marketing at Vanilla Forums. Together, we talk with Mark Schaefer about his new book, The Content Code. Mark Schaefer is a college educator, author, speaker, and social media strategy consultant. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the CBS News; he is also the author of five popular marketing books that are used as text books in over 50 universities. We review some of the key points in Mark's book and really dig into why content marketers have to overcome information density to stand out. Specifically, we review how content can get "ignited" through the process of "Building Shareability into Your Content." Tune in to hear this vibrant conversation with Mark about how the modern marketer can cut through the wall of noise through shareability. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/content-marketers-overcoming-information-density-shareability-mark-schaefer | |||
| 02 Nov 2014 | 7 Digital Marketing Skills Needed in a Social Business | 00:30:49 | |
This week on the Social Business Engine podcast, I welcome Christian Karasiewicz. Christian is a popular social business influencer. He consults, podcasts and writes on social business topics. Christian and I discuss the seven digital marketing skills needed in a social business. Discover why these 7 digital marketing skills are needed by all organizations to be a social business, and why they are NOT just marketing skills. | |||
| 20 Sep 2017 | Digital Customer eXperience is the New Battle Ground | 00:18:01 | |
Dayle Hall, SVP of Marketing at Lithium Technologies is back for episode three of this UpClose Podcast Series. So far of The 5 Most Influential Topics for B2B Marketing, we've discussed influencer marketing and data overload. On this episode, we're focusing on digital customer experience. This is a big topic, and we cover as much as we can in this short podcast episode. The statistics we point out further bolster the argument to engage on the digital customer experience (CX) battle ground. Get all five episodes in one recording plus Social Business Journal Volume 10 now. | |||
| 02 Apr 2015 | Turning Cheesy Fingers Into Raving Fans | 00:31:14 | |
In this episode I'm joined by Elly Deutch, Associate Director of Digital & Social Media at Garrett Popcorn Shops. Elly describes how Garrett Popcorn has gone from a beloved local brand in Chicago to a global powerhouse with multiple locations in the U.S., Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. Don't be surprised if you get a little hungry for Garrett Popcorn (happy food) from this episode... Visit the show notes page for fun pics and more insights at: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/garrett-popcorn-turning-cheesy-fingers-into-raving-fans | |||
| 03 Nov 2015 | How to Harness Content & Social Media to Drive Business Value | 00:39:32 | |
3M is mobilizing content and social media to tell their story across the globe and drive business value. A global company with over $30 billion in revenue and more than 89,000 employees across nearly 200 countries, 3M does more than just "sticky notes." In this episode, Carlos Abler, Leader of Content Marketing Strategy, and Christian Plewacki, Social Media Strategist, chatted with me about the thought process and "work in progress" state of social business at 3M. A recent relaunch has repositioned 3M as the science company that it truly is. They have a new tone of voice and are now functioning more like publishers. Tune into this podcast to hear how 3M has recognized the need to develop relationships through content on digital channels and how to do so at your organization. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-to-harness-content-social-media-to-drive-business-value/ | |||
| 06 Jun 2018 | Leveraging Analytics to Enhance Sales at NICE Nexidia | 00:30:25 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Technological advances are providing more and more opportunities for sales organizations to enhance sales and on this episode, Rachel Stuve, Sr. Business Analytics Manager at NICE Nexidia explains one of the ways it's happening. Nexidia Analytics enables brands to unlock the untapped value inside the massive amounts of unstructured audio they possess – mostly phone conversations between customers and sales agents. By utilizing their analytics technology, they are able to better understand what’s really being said by their customers, what products are really selling and not selling, and most importantly, why. As a result, the brand can identify opportunities to cross-sell, upsell, and increase operational efficiency and new business opportunities. If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you hear the real-world examples Rachel shares about how their analytics is enhancing sales for real customers. 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.How Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics Can Enhance Your SalesFor years companies have been answering customer service calls, inbound sales calls, and conducting surveys to discover how prospects and customers actually feel about their products. But until now the findings have been entirely dependent on what the employee on the phone line understood the customer to mean. No more. NICE Nexidia has developed a technology - Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics - that can analyze the actual sounds of the language contained in recorded phone calls and related data, interpret it accurately, and convert it into searchable data. Can you imagine the sales implications of that kind of data? Listen to this episode to hear Rachel Stuve describe actual customer experiences that demonstrate how this data analytics is being used to enhance sales in amazing ways. Demonstrating The Effectiveness Of Nexidia’s SolutionWhat’s the best way to experience the effectiveness of a technology solution that promises to increase and enhance your company’s sales process? How about a “proof of concept” demonstration using your own data? Rachel Stuve explains how NICE Nexidia uses the unstructured data of prospective customers to demonstrate how powerfully their analytics service is, and how the use of that data can increase sales conversions by 50%. Listen to hear the entire story and to understand how this technology enables brands to get a 360 view of their customer’s buying journey. Taking The Human Interpretation Of Data Out Of The Sales EquationIt is all too common for misperceptions to happen in customer-facing sales interactions. We humans don’t always hear what we think we hear and we don’t always notice the deeper issues behind the words customers or prospects say to us. The result is that sales conversations, surveys, and customer service calls wind up with conclusions about customers that are not always accurate. The shining strength of the NICE Nexidia technology is that it interprets audio sales conversations. The detailed things customers and prospects actually say can be analyzed in ways that enable real issues and objections to be identified and effectively addressed. The Nexidia system supplies sales prompts to salespeople from the data it has analyzed, enabling them to inject deeply relevant responses into the sales conversation, oftentimes resulting in as much as a 4X increase in effectiveness. Rachel shares more details about how the system works and explains why it’s so effective, on this episode. Understand The Customer Journey To Provide a 50% Increase In ConversionsWhat impact would it have on your sales team’s conversations if you were able to pull together data from every angle of a customer’s buying journey? If you take the time to consider the question on even an elementary level you’ll understand that data of that kind would give you an incredible sales advantage. You’d be able to speak to your prospects in ways that take into account everything they’ve experienced in their sales journey and speak directly to them, where they are in their relationship with your brand. NICE Nexidia enables that 360-degree view of the customer’s buying journey to be yours through their Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics platform. Bernie’s guest on this episode, Rachel Stuve explains how the system works, provides two real-life use cases to demonstrate how powerfully it enhances sales, and reveals how you can make profitable use of the unstructured data that’s been sitting in your computer servers for years to increase sales conversions. Don’t miss this episode Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThe 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.
Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine
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
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| 28 Jul 2015 | How NASA Does Social Media Marketing for all of Humanity | 00:33:42 | |
After hearing John Yembrick speak at Social Shake Up 2015, I knew I had to have him on my Social Business Engine show. John is the Social Media Manager at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Alongside Jason Townsend, John's goals with NASA's social media accounts are to engage their audience, inspire, and inform the public about the projects NASA is currently working on. Listen to this podcast to discover how NASA is targeting individuals with different interests across their 500 social media accounts. Think about how you can put John's insight on specialized social media accounts to work for your brand now. This episode will blow your mind out of this world and straight out to Pluto! Visit our show notes page for links to resources discussed in the podcast: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-nasa-does-social-media-marketing-for-all-of-humanity | |||
| 17 May 2016 | Glenn Gaudett of GaggleAMP Talks Employee Advocacy Do’s and Don’ts | 00:15:16 | |
Glenn Gaudet, President and Founder of GaggleAMP, joined me on this Periscope-recorded episode at the AMPlify conference last week. AMPlify is GaggleAMP's Employee Advocacy Conference where attendees have the opportunity to learn more about employee advocacy and network with their peers. A cloud-based technology solution that brings together employees to be part of the online marketing engine, GaggleAMP does over 40 different things to make it easy and fun for employees to amplify their employer's content. They help companies to encourage shares about the organization, positive reviews on Glass Door, the sharing of ideas, and other employee advocacy efforts. On this podcast, Glenn shares his insights on trends and best practices of employee advocacy. Tune in to find out what questions you should be asking when rolling out an employee advocacy program, how HR can be included, and the general do’s and don’ts of employee advocacy. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/gaggleamp-employee-advocacy-dos-and-donts | |||
| 24 Jul 2019 | What’s Changed In My 15 Years Of Marketing Leadership | 00:33:52 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts
Assurance is a B2B commercial insurance brokerage managing over 6,000 clients for all things insurance, to include property and casualty, employee benefits, life insurance, worker’s compensation, etc. Steven was the first full-time marketing person on staff and has worked to build the brand of not only the company but also the individual brokers. Listen as he shares how Assurance has evolved from the days of cold calling into the world of digital sales in an industry that has been around since the 19th century. Get the Vengreso State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn 2019 report to learn how sales professionals stack up on requisite modern selling skills. You’ll also hear from 15 executives with their insights and key recommendations. You’ll also learn how you can arrange to get your own custom digital selling benchmark for your sales team. Just go tostateofdigitalselling.com. Why Building A Brand Is The First Priority Of MarketingWhen Steven first started at Assurance, his initial focus was to build the brand of the company. Their goal was to be the “Google” of insurance in workplace morale and environment. They wanted to attract the top brokers, to their company and in Steven’s opinion, they’ve succeeded. After building the Assurance brand, the marketing focus shifted toward its online presence. Steven realized that while Assurance needed a strong brand, so too did its brokers. The modern buyer does their research prior to interacting with a company, so their brokers need to be prepared to enter into conversations with potential clients at any point in their journey. Building the individual brands of their brokers became the new focus to widen the Assurance net of influence. How Social Platforms Affect Marketing StrategyTo build their broker’s individual brands, Steven and the marketing department focused on building professional, branded social profiles. They recognized that the buyer was interested in what their brokers were sharing online both on their personal and professional profiles. They encourage their client-facing employees to share valuable content on their branded social profiles to establish their expert status in the industry. Once their client-facing employees’ profiles were established, Steven’s team turned toward the entire company workforce. Assurance encourages every employee to brand their profile and share information about the company and the industry, expanding the online presence of Assurance. By using the digital signals of their potential clients, the marketing team creates content that speaks to their client’s pain points. That content is shared by their employees across all of their professional profiles. Why In Today’s World Marketing IS SalesIn Steven’s words, gone are the days of marketing being singularly creative. They are no longer only the “make it pretty people.” Every marketing interaction is a potential sales opportunity and marketing and sales have become one. Marketing enables sales to do their jobs by providing useful data on the modern buyer. The sales team uses the data provided to them through their marketing channels to reach out to pre-qualified clients. Every piece of content that the marketing department creates aims at bringing the modern buyer deeper into the sales process so that the sales team is working with qualified leads. Marketing continues to nurture those potential buyers making them warmer through every interaction with the company. How Marketing Leadership Has EvolvedAs digital selling has become more prominent, the role of the marketing leader has turned toward being an educator. The marketing professional has to train and help salespeople use the tools provided to reach their target audience more effectively. The salesperson has to know their market. Not every interaction needs to happen online, but regardless of the industry, the broker needs to know how to engage using social platforms. No matter the industry or the target, salespeople need to prepare to be available and willing to respond quickly. Speed is important because the modern buyer is always on and so too should be the sales professional. Listen in to this episode with Steven Handmaker, CMO of Assurance to hear why education, speed, and marketing and sales alignment are the key focal points in Assurance’s marketing strategy. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedGet the Vengreso State of Digital Selling with LinkedIn 2019 report to learn how sales professionals stack up on requisite modern selling skills. You’ll also hear from 15 executives with their insights and key recommendations. You’ll also learn how you can arrange to get your own custom digital selling benchmark for your sales team. Just go to stateofdigitalselling.com.
Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine
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.
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| 10 Mar 2021 | The Importance of Customer Data Marketing for Modern Marketers | 00:35:35 | |
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 MarketingPaul 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. | |||
| 08 Nov 2017 | The Modern Buyer Needs a Modern Seller | 00:38:58 | |
Glenn Donovan, Director of Clients at GaggleAMP is the featured guest on episode 184. Glenn and I have a conversation about a topic we are both passionate about, and that’s how the modern buyer needs a modern seller. Without a modern seller, there’s a disconnect, and, that’s a bad experience for the modern buyer. As you can guess, it’s also a bad situation for the seller too–there won’t be a lot of selling success if he or she isn’t engaging with the modern buyer the way he or she wants to engage. GaggleAMP is a social media engagement and reach amplification platform that enables brands to get their employees engaged on digital. As Director of Clients, Glenn looks after sales and customer success activities for the entire lifecycle. In his role, it’s very apparent that the modern buyer needs a modern seller. Let’s take a closer look at what we mean by that. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/modern-buyer-needs-modern-seller/ | |||
| 15 Nov 2016 | The 2016 State of Social Business: Shift from Innovator to Integrator | 00:32:57 | |
Ed Terpening, Industry Analyst at Altimeter Group, a Prophet Company, is back for his second appearance on the Social Business Engine podcast. We discussed governance last time he was on the show. In this episode, Ed reviews findings from their newest report: 2016 State of Social Business: Social’s Shift from Innovator to Integrator. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/the-2016-state-of-social-business-shift-from-innovator-to-integrator | |||
| 19 Jul 2016 | Why Legal Should be Your Best Friend | 00:32:54 | |
This is a first for the Social Business Engine podcast. This week I feature a lawyer! Ryan Garcia, Legal Director at Dell, joined me to discuss the role of legal in social media engagement at Dell. In his role, Ryan works with the consumer retail business, Dell's gaming brand, and the Global Social Media and Community team at Dell. You may remember episode 59 with Amy Heiss describing Dell's social media training, SMaC U. Amy told us about the logistics of the program and Ryan is speaking on how legal ties in. Tune into this podcast to hear how Dell began integrating legal into the modules early on to make employees aware of the social media rules and laws, thereby preventing future issues. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/why-legal-should-be-your-best-friend | |||
| 30 Apr 2015 | The Benefits of a Branded Forum-Based Online Community | 00:29:32 | |
Episode 58 of the Social Business Engine podcast features my interview with Luc Vezina, CEO of Vanilla Forums. Luc and I dove into detail on the ins and outs of a forum-based, branded online community. Tune in to hear our full conversation on the benefits a branded online community can have for your business and your customers. You'll hear about a B2C example at Big Green Egg and a B2B example that uses gamification at ShipStation. Visit the show notes page for links to the B2C and B2B branded communities we discussed: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/the-benefits-of-a-branded-forum-based-online-community | |||
| 11 Jun 2015 | Why Customer Experience is the New Marketing | 00:32:14 | |
On episode 64 of the Social Business Engine podcast I am joined by Dan Gingiss, Head of Digital Customer Experience and Social Media at Discover Card. Dan was a speaker at Social Media Marketing World where we first met, and in fact is a frequent speaker at social media conferences around the country. On this episode Dan and I discuss how "customer experience is the new marketing." The strong customer service culture at Discover shines through in their social media activity, as well as the experience the customer receives when using their website. http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/why-customer-experience-is-the-new-marketing. Tune in to up your customer experience game. | |||
| 27 May 2020 | The Power Of Human In Growth Marketing During A Pandemic | 00:28:41 | |
Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Growth marketing is what drives pipeline and increases sales in the long run. The correlation is undisputed. During a time of social and financial disruption like the current COVID-19 pandemic, growth marketing can be perceived by some as insensitive and opportunistic. What is the modern marketer’s best response? I’m happy to have Meredyth Jensen as my guest on this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. She serves as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Brand Communications at RGP. During our conversation, I learned that RGP is a spinoff from Deloitte in 1996 and has become a global company that has served more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies with services spanning financial, legal, HR, IT and supply chain. Meredyth’s perspective is simple yet powerful: Marketing that is human is marketing that works, no matter the social or economic climate. Join us for this intriguing conversation where Meredyth outlines her personal approach to her own marketing career, why RGP has not missed a beat in its marketing efforts despite COVID-19, and so you can benefit from her advice on ways you might want to adjust your marketing approach to reach your ideal customers. We Marketers Still Need To Do Our Job During Social And Economic CrisisEvery season in the life of a business has its unique challenges, but right now (H1 of 2020) companies worldwide are facing unprecedented obstacles. COVID-19 has changed the story when it comes to the needs of the consumer or business we’re marketing to. Many things that used to be pertinent talking points have become irrelevant — or at least no longer appropriate to be part of the marketing conversation. In this environment, marketing teams still have to do their job, albeit with more compassion than ever. Meredyth acknowledges that although this is true, it doesn’t change the approach of brands who have been doing marketing with an authentic emphasis on people all along. Meredyth approaches marketing from a “human” perspective, meaning she leads her team to craft both her marketing approach and messages to the person on the other end of the conversation. She wants to provide true care FOR that person, whatever form it might take. That's a big reason why her transition into her current role at RGP is such a perfect fit. Hear more about when you listen to this episode. RGP’s moniker is "The Power of Human." This is a mindset that most marketers would say they want in their approach but one that's not always practiced. Listen to this podcast episode to hear Meredyth explain the RGP mindset to get inspired in your own growth marketing strategy. How Can A Company Be Truly Human?It may sound like hyperbole to say that RGP, a business that serves over 80 of the Fortune 100 companies is a “human” company, but it’s legit. Meredyth explains that she hears it from their customers. One of the most common sentiments expressed by their customers goes something like this, “You don’t just work for us, you work with us.” To Meredyth, that’s proof that the RGP team has “the power of human” in their DNA. The vision is more than a slogan at RGP. Human is how they do business. The people on the other end of their marketing are what matter. The assumption that when the customer is cared for in a human way, loyalty and profitability are natural outcomes, has proved to be true since their founding in 1996. Marketing practitioners have much to learn from such a great example. Listen to learn more about how to orient your growth marketing around a human approach. Growth Marketing Cares For The People On The Other EndAt the outset of this episode you’ll hear Meredyth say the following… “I don’t even want to say we’re marketing to people right now. We’re helping people. How can we be helpful and be a resource and be useful?” Her comment is at the heart of what it means to be human as a company. It’s a practice of care and concern for the people behind any possible sales conversation. COVID-19 is a stark example of how the circumstances that happen in life impact both the needs of companies as well as the needs of the people within those businesses. Think it through for your situation — as those you seek to do business with work through the situations caused by this pandemic. Consider how you can be a resource to them in ways that are helpful and of value? That type of care and concern for the people your business serves builds a level of trust that may not yield immediate business results but may open the door to a relationship that can serve both you and them in the future. This mindset is well suited for a virtual sales team as well as they engage in their selling activities with customers whether it’s an existing customer or a new customer. Join us for this conversation to learn more about how growth marketing can be human. Featured on This Episode
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| 31 Jan 2018 | Mobilizing Employees at Frontier Communications as Brand Advocates in the Face of Business Challenges | 00:29:42 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Every business, large or small could use brand advocates - those customers who trumpet the businesses praise and express their delightful experiences with the company to others. But it’s also vital that a company’s leadership learn to nurture that same attitude among its employees. The benefits of building that kind of culture among a working team can be incredible. On this episode of Social Business Engine Bernie chats with Andy Malinoski, Manager of Corporation Communications and Government Relations at Frontier Communications. He shares how Frontier Communications, a U.S. provider of residential and commercial broadband, video voice, wireless internet data access and bundled service offerings, is empowering employees to be brand ambassadors in the face of 4 unique types of business challenges. Employees can be the best advocates your brand has if you help them do itThe value of an ecstatic customer can’t be underestimated. Those are the people who make the business because they happily tell their family and friends about the great experience and feeling they have from dealing with the company. Take that thought and apply it to the interaction customers have with front-line employees of the company and you can easily see why those team members need to be brand advocates par excellence. What are you doing to help your customer facing employees deal with customer issues and complaints effectively and in a way that delights your customers in spite of the problem? On this episode, Andy Malinoski describes how the Frontier Communications team is equipped with the information needed to answer customer questions, head off problems before they escalate, and disseminate answers to common questions via social media - all for the sake of creating the happy, loyal customers every business wants and needs. You can learn some valuable approaches to fostering an advocate mindset in your team members by hearing what he has to share. Operational hiccups are a great opportunity for employee brand advocates to calm the watersMany times when things go wrong with a company’s services or systems, the biggest problem both customers and the business in question have is communication. Here’s the reality: Customers are usually OK with temporary glitches or outages in service because they know technology is not foolproof. But they need to know what’s going on in order to maintain that calm demeanor. In this conversation, Bernie and his guest, andy Malinoski of Frontier communications discuss some of the ways the leadership at Frontier has worked to engage employees as part of the response team to system outages or issues. The company has dedicated employees who provide social media content for everyone to use to inform their customers, clear the air, and help everyone rest easy. Think about what the Frontier team does in light of your industry. What can your company do to engage employees as brand advocates? As you listen to the ways Frontier has done it you’ll probably come up with ideas of your own. Do you struggle finding and recruiting top talent? Enlisting employees can be a powerful approachWhen it comes to building an all-star team of employees, from the C-suite all the way to the entry-level position, it’s powerful to remember that high quality people usually run with high quality people. That means equipping your employees to be recruiters on your behalf can enable you to find the people you’re looking for, faster. This conversation with Andy Malinoski highlights the approach the Frontier Communications team takes to recruiting, particularly as it relates to making existing team members advocates for the company as they relate to those in their networks. Andy explains how all-star teams can be built by making connections through existing employees, so be sure you take the time to listen, learn, and apply what the Frontier team has modeled so well.
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*************************** This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies. | |||
| 27 Jun 2018 | Social Recruiting at Scale with Facebook Lead Ads | 00:30:49 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts One of the most difficult things for any company to do quickly is to effectively hire a large team - and thanks to digital transformation, social recruiting is a viable way to do it at scale. On this episode Bernie invited a duo to join him to discuss the issue - Bill Quirk, Strategic Account Manager at Work4 Labs and Robert Constantine, Director of Digital and Social Media Marketing at iQor. You’ll hear how iQor, a global Business Process Outsourcing company with a need to staff up quickly for work in call centers and customer care centers around the globe has partnered with Work4Labs to source talent at scale using Facebook Lead Ads. You’ll hear about the method they are using and the impressive results they’re experiencing by applying digital marketing best practices to talent recruiting. And if recruiting employees isn’t your responsibility, you’ll still want to listen because you’ll hear relevant ideas that you may be able to apply to your overall digital strategy. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville!Facebook is a Gold Mine For Companies Needing to Recruit At ScaleOver 2 billion people currently use Facebook across the globe (2018). That’s a massive group of people hanging out in the same place online. And they are digitally savvy people - so it makes sense for companies to tap into that amazing talent pool to find and nurture leads for the purpose of recruiting. The iQor team needed to find better ways to fill positions in their global call centers, so they turned to the Work4Labs team for help. What they learned is that Facebook Lead Ads enable them to apply a digital marketing approach of lead - nurture - convert to their social recruiting, with great success. What you’ll hear on this episode is an amazing case study that demonstrates how digital transformation is changing the way companies do business in a variety of areas, not just in sales and marketing. You’ll glean many insights from this conversation that you can apply across the board in your digital strategy, not just in the area of recruiting, so be sure you take the time to listen. How iQor and Work4Labs Pioneered A Social Recruiting ApproachThe approach the Work4Labs team applied to the iQor recruiting process was truly a first-of-its-kind strategy. The advent of Facebook Lead Ads in 2015 is what made it possible to effectively target talent with specific skill sets and characteristics. Using the platform they can even create “look-alike” audiences that enables their ads to have even greater reach. This strategy has become a core approach the Work4Labs team uses with dozens of their clients, to great effect. You can hear the results iQor got from this targeted way of finding employee leads, how they’ve nurtured relationships with those potential employees, and how those social relationships have converted to new hires at scale, on this episode of Social Business Engine. Social Recruiting Finds Exclusive Candidates (Those Not Looking For A Job)As the Work4Leads team got started with their social recruiting strategy they discovered a very surprising and delightful reality about their approach - they were connecting with and nurturing relationships with qualified people who weren’t actually looking for jobs. That means up to 70% of the candidates that finally interviewed for the positions they were seeking to fill were not being courted by other companies at all. The approach has been so successful that Facebook is now the #2 source for applicants for iQor, behind employee referrals. Another great benefit of using Facebook Lead Ads to generate recruiting leads is that iQor’s cost per candidate wound up being very low - from $1 to $3 per lead. It made the ability to find qualified candidates in record time amazingly affordable and even more effective than traditional approaches. Digital transformation has made recruiting at scale a reality. But more importantly, this social recruiting case study featuring Work4Labs and iQor demonstrates how companies who are willing to boldly use the tools at their disposal can increase their effectiveness and become pioneers in their industry. Featured on This Episode
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Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville!
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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 | |||
| 05 Feb 2015 | Smead Organomics Keeping You Organized | 00:31:35 | |
On this episode, Bernie Borges speaks with John Hunt. John is the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing, Communication, and Content for Smead Manufacturing, a leader in office filing products and records management systems for over 100 years. John has more than 25 years experience in both traditional and non-traditional media. John is also the host of the “Keeping You Organized” weekly video and audio podcast which is produced by Smead. And, that's what we discussed on this episode. In our upcoming Volume 2 of the Social Business Journal, we've partnered with Cision to create a How to Guide in Influencer Marketing. You'll hear from dozens of business experts on everything from what an ideal influencer looks like, to the "secret sauce" of penetrating the sphere of an influencer.
This special edition of the Social Business Journal will be published in March, but you can reserve your FREE copy today here.
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| 04 Oct 2016 | How to Get a LinkedIn Post to Go Viral | 00:30:14 | |
Chris Beall, CEO at ConnectAndSell, is a 30-year veteran of the software industry with a background in sales. Aside from being a very cool name, ConnectAndSell is a groundbreaking service that delivers live business conversations to sales people at an astounding pace. Chris uses their service to generate leads. Chris became a LinkedIn member around 2003, but he admits his skills with the platform are very minimal. Recently he had a mind blowing experience on LinkedIn that opened his eyes to the potential of social selling. Although you don’t usually hear the words “viral” and “LinkedIn” in the same sentence, Chris’s post went viral on LinkedIn. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-to-get-a-linkedin-post-to-go-viral | |||
| 18 Apr 2018 | How the Content Marketing Institute Markets | 00:32:05 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play On this episode of Social Business Engine you’re going to meet Cathy McPhillips, Vice President of Marketing at the Content Marketing Institute. CMI has successfully positioned itself as the premier resource for marketers who want to learn about content marketing. Cathy reveals a key metric in their marketing that enables the company to convert by a factor of 10 on their most coveted offering, the annual Content Marketing World conference. Bernie has spoken at the event 7 times and it ranks as one of his favorite weeks out of the year. You’ll want to check it out. Cathy is in a unique position at CMI because she is able to filter all of the company’s marketing strategy for CMW through her own lens as a marketer. In most scenarios, applying a personal lens to marketing is a bad idea. In Cathy’s case, however, she IS representative of the target audience for CMW. Her career experiences and expertise in content marketing make for a fantastic conversation. 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.Why Marketing to Marketers is What the Content Marketing Institute Does BestCMI creates resources for marketers that are the benchmark standard for anything relating to content marketing. They are the top cited resource for companies across the globe and they strive to connect to CMOs through a variety of different strategies. Cathy and her team realize the challenges that CMI faces when trying to market to people who do content marketing for a living. A CMO’s schedule is stretched more thinly than ever before and individuals have limited time to check email, watch a webinar, or listen to a podcast. The team at the Content Marketing Institute understands their audience and their concerns fully, and having that understanding allows them to create world-renowned resources. You don’t want to miss hearing Cathy tell Bernie about the latest and greatest strategies CMI has up its sleeve. How CMI Identifies Who Are 10x More Likely to Attend Content Marketing WorldContent Marketing World is CMI’s greatest event every calendar year. What started as a simple conference with 600 attendees has grown into a massive gathering of content marketing professionals. The event covers the entire content marketing process, from content creation to analytics and measuring ROI. It’s the largest event of its kind on the planet and attracts professionals from across the world. Cathy expects over 6,000 attendees for the 2018 conference in September, and the event shows no signs of slowing down. How does Cathy know just how many people to expect, even before registrations are submitted? She explains to Bernie that people who take 3 or more actions within the CMI website (i.e. subscribing to an email, watching a webinar, etc.), are 10x more likely to attend the CMW event in person. By using an omnichannel marketing approach CMI is able to put content in front of people in a variety of ways and then capture their attention and convert it into registration dollars. Cathy shares insider secrets relevant to Content Marketing World 2018 that you don't want to miss. Be sure to listen. An Old School Idea That Has Secured Over 27,000 Qualified Subscribers for the Content Marketing InstituteThe Content Marketing Institute also uses metrics and data analysis for business practices outside of the CMW sector. In an interesting turn of the conversation, Bernie and Cathy discuss how the CMI team publishes a quarterly, printed magazine entitled Chief Content Officer. This magazine is yet another example of CMI’s fantastic omnichannel marketing approach. Cathy knows that it’s simultaneously harder and easier to market to professional content marketers. That’s why she and her team aren’t afraid to pursue every avenue of content delivery. Even though some may argue print is outdated, the CCO publication has resulted in over 27,000 qualified subscribers for CMI. In other words, it has built an amazingly robust audience database of people that are intimately engaged with the best materials CMI releases every quarter. When professional marketers disconnect from technology, they’re still connected to CMI and content marketing through the CCO magazine. It brings the brand to life and is an ingenious way of sharing the latest information on the content marketing industry. Featured on This Episode
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Resources & People MentionedBe 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.
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| 31 Mar 2021 | Why Analytics is a Must in Account-Based Marketing | 00:38:50 | |
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 ListWho 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:
Once you have that list, start filtering them by:
All of the above are analytics that marketers can use to determine which accounts to target using internal data. Using Analytics DataNow, 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. | |||
| 30 Nov 2016 | How CenturyLink Doubled Employee Shares Through a Contest | 00:38:42 | |
Christa Gorham, Group Manager, Large Business Marketing & Communications at CenturyLink is the featured guest on episode 141. She explains how they're growing their employee advocacy program to increase awareness and generate more demand. CenturyLink is a global communications, hosting, cloud, and IT services company. Their solutions and services enable customers to transform their business and lives through innovative technology. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-centurylink-doubled-shares | |||
| 17 Mar 2021 | Marketing’s Role in the Modern Sales Experience | 00:42:38 | |
B2B buyers have changed dramatically, especially during COVID. Consider these three recent trends, for example:
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 Experience1. 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 messageResearch 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:
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 timeBuyers 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. | |||
| 20 Dec 2017 | Why Procurement is a Front Runner to Digital Transformation | 00:32:27 | |
Dr. Marcell Vollmer, Chief Digital Officer at SAP Ariba, is the featured guest for episode 190. I met Marcell when he contributed to a five-episode podcast series publishing here soon that features social selling practices at SAP. On this episode, Marcell delivers fascinating insights into digital transformation strategies, particularly in the strategic role of procurement in a business. My conversation with Dr. Marcell Vollmer will open your eyes, as it did mine, in understanding why the procurement function in business is a front-runner in digital transformation to make any business future ready. Listen to the episode to understand why he says, "Uber yourself before you become Kodak." View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/procurement-front-runner-digital-transformation | |||
| 18 Jan 2015 | The Evolution of Sales in Modern Business | 00:33:22 | |
On this episode, Bernie Borges speaks with Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble. We discussed the evolution of sales in business as it has evolved from the industrial age of mass production and mass media promotion, back to relationship building as it was in the neighborhood village where everyone knew your name and interests. Jon's key point is that "modern business views sales as a service." Visit the show notes page at http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/evolution-sales-modern-business | |||
| 04 Jan 2015 | A Culture of Content | 00:32:09 | |
On this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast, host Bernie Borges interviews Jessica Groopman, Senior Researcher at Altimeter Group to discuss key findings from a research report co-authored by Jessica and Altimeter Group's Rebecca Lieb titled: A Culture of Content. We discuss the four elements to the engine of a Culture of Content. Catch the show notes at http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/culture-content/. Tune in. | |||
| 21 Apr 2021 | How Internal Communication Drives Marketing ROI | 00:39:46 | |
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 Strategy1. 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:
Some examples of goals are:
“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/ValuesMark 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. ContentContent 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. | |||
| 31 May 2016 | Using Social to Create Experiences That Tie to Business Goals at Johns Hopkins Medicine | 00:29:44 | |
I met Therese Lockemy at the Social Media Strategies Summit in Chicago where she gave a terrific presentation on the social strategy at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Therese is Director of Internet Marketing & Social Engagement at Johns Hopkins Medicine. When I learned of their business-focused approach to social, I knew I had to have her as a featured guest on my podcast. Therese and her team monitor for international mentions of Johns Hopkins Medicine, which is an academic medical center with six academic and community hospitals and 39 outpatient hospitals. In this episode, Therese explains how she leads a social media command center to create richer customer experiences that tie back to their six strategic priorities. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/using-social-to-create-experiences-that-tie-to-business-goals-at-johns-hopkins-medicine | |||
| 06 Dec 2014 | The Coming Social Business Revolution | 00:33:49 | |
On episode 41, SBE podcast host Bernie Borges interviews Michael Brenner. Michael Brenner is a popular modern marketing thought leader and Head of Strategy at NewsCred. Michael shares his insights on the social business imperative; why the case for social business is rooted in a culture focused on the customer, and why the corporate website is dead. Visit www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts for the show notes. | |||
| 18 Oct 2017 | Marketing Cyber Security Software through Account Based Marketing | 00:33:04 | |
Mike Volpe is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cybereason. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Mike for about ten years, and I consider him to be one of the brightest marketing minds. He combines inbound content, SEO, video, podcast and traditional marketing with account based marketing strategies to support the sales efforts at his current company, Cybereason. Mike is a very hands-on marketing executive. As a member of the founding team and CMO at HubSpot, he drove their growth from zero to 1,000 employees and 15,000 plus customers, as well as a successful IPO. Mike is also an angel investor, advisor, or board member at more than 25 companies, primarily software startups in Boston. On this episode, we discuss how Cybereason's marketing and sales teams work together leveraging an integrated approach. We even talk a little bit about some offline marketing tactics that you don’t hear a lot about in today’s digital marketing landscape. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/marketing-cyber-security-software-through-account-based-marketing | |||
| 03 Sep 2014 | Shifting the Culture of a 60k-Employee Company | 00:29:31 | |
In episode 31 of the Social Business Engine podcast, we invited Nick Robinson, Digital Straetgy Manager at SAP North America to share the social business journey at SAP, including where they've been, where they are and where they are headed. We dig into the evolution of SAP’s social business strategy, how it evolved over the past couple of years and what they are doing now in order to stay ahead of the game in the digital age of social media. Nick also talks about the necessary shift that had to be made in the employee culture of their massive corporation in order to adjust to this new era. Catch the show notes at http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/. | |||
| 30 Nov 2015 | Get Social | An Employee Ambassador Initiative at Avery Dennison | 00:32:38 | |
Under the leadership of James Moat, Avery Dennison is mobilizing employees to Get Social for inspired storytelling that is good for business development, talent retention and even recruiting. James Moat is Director of Global Digital Communications at Avery Dennison, a maker of "innovative sticky stuff" that has operations in more than 50 countries and employs over 25,000 people. Established in 1935, Avery Dennison is a global leader in solutions with operations and labeling and packaging materials. Listen to this episode to hear about their social business journey and how two years into it, James already realizes that it's a worthy, never-ending journey. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/avery-dennison-get-social-employee-ambassador | |||
| 13 Jun 2018 | The Truth about the Consumer’s Journey with Connected Home Devices | 00:32:19 | |
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 FarThe 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 ConsumersWhen 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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThe 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.
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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 | |||
| 25 Aug 2015 | How Whole Foods Market Aligns Core Values with Social Media | 00:33:51 | |
Whole Foods Market is a natural and organic grocery retailer founded in 1980. Natanya Anderson, is the Director of Social Media and Community and the featured guest on this episode. Whole Foods' focus on hyper-local social has yielded over 850 social media accounts across 400 retail locations in 12 regions across North America and the UK. Similar to the constantly evolving social media landscape, they are regularly updating their quality standards to stay current with new scientific findings about food and their source of origin. In this podcast episode Natanya discusses the priority Whole Foods places on alignment of the company's core values with quality standards in the way that they engage in social media. Whole Foods works hard to empower each store to represent itself uniquely in their local market through their own social media channels. Natanya's insights will inspire any executive or individual in charge of a company's social media to question how well they are portraying their values through their social media activities. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-whole-foods-market-aligns-core-values-with-social-media | |||
| 23 Aug 2016 | Social Selling Insights from #1 Social Influencer on Cloud Software in the UK | 00:34:25 | |
Ian Moyse is Sales Director at Axios Systems in the UK. Some of his recent accolades include being honored as UK Sales Director of the Year by the Institute of Sales and Marketing in 2015, #1 Social Influencer in Cloud in 2015 and 2016 by Onalytica and ranked 48th globally as a Data Security Influencer by Onalytica. He reminds us that you "can't always predict what you're going to get in the end," just go on the journey and see where it leads you. Tune in to hear more from Ian on how he has embraced social selling at Axios with impressive results for his customers and his personal brand. View the show notes: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/social-selling-insights-from-1-social-influencer-on-cloud-software-in-the-uk
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| 09 Jan 2019 | Move Over Alexa It’s Time to Re-Humanize the Sales Process | 00:33:59 | |
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 ReplaceMost 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 DifferenceShari 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 EnoughIn 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 DoAs 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...
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
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Frost & 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.
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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 | |||
| 14 Nov 2018 | The Influential Role of Content in Sales Enablement | 00:34:07 | |
Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Does your organization have a clear sales enablement strategy that is aligned with your customer’s journey? According to Bernie’s guest for this podcast conversation, Tamara Schenk, you’ll experience more sales wins if you do. Tamara is Research Director for CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group. She is focused on global research regarding all things sales enablement, CX, and sales effectiveness. The book she’s co-authored with Miller Heiman Group CEO Byron Matthews, “Sales Enablement – A Master Framework to Engage, Equip, and Empower a World-Class Sales Force,” provides incredible insight into the value of effective sales enablement. On this episode, Bernie and Tamara discuss the influential role of content in sales enablement as well as the evolving role of sales enablement in the modern organization. You’ll learn about the critical nature of sales enablement for modern sales and how it can provide the tools needed in order for marketing, sales, and internal processes to work together to win more deals. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.comWhat Is The Role Of Sales Enablement In Modern Sales?In order to engage in this topic effectively, let’s begin with a definition of the term, “Sales Enablement.” Tamara says it’s a strategic, cross-functional discipline with the goal of increasing predictable sales results. It does this by providing scalable enablement services such as training, content, coaching, and a variety of tools for customer-facing professionals and their managers. This enables them to serve as relevant and valuable sources of expert knowledge in every buyer interaction. As you can see, sales enablement is a focused role that seeks to equip all members of the sales team with key understanding of the buyer’s journey. In order to be effective, it requires clear insight into the buyer’s needs, and the various roles buyers play in their organizations. Listen to learn what Tamara and her team have discovered about the role of sales enablement in the modern sales environment. Content Plays A Powerful Role In Sales EnablementAs Miller Heiman Group’sCEO, Byron Matthews often says, “The modern buyer has become better at buying faster than the seller has gotten better at selling.” That means sales teams need to adapt their sales approach so they can meet the buyer where they are and how the buyer wants to engage. It’s a process that relies heavily on the type and quality of content they have at their disposal. The creation and distribution of that content is one of the major responsibilities of the sales enablement team. Through the research of customer personas, the enablement team creates content aimed at various stages in the buyer’s journey. The sales team uses that content to serve the buyer in relevant ways. Blog posts, podcasts, and media of various sorts are used to gain trust, build credibility, and carry the conversation in ways that directly address the buyer’s needs and questions. But that’s not everything we mean when we refer to “content” produced by the sales enablement team. There is also internal enablement content the customer never sees but that serves as vital tools to make sales teams more effective. Tamara mentions things like playbooks, comparison guides, objection guides, solution configuration tools, pricing tools, and closing/order templates as some of those possible resources. Tamara's insights on this subject are research-based and detailed, so don't miss this conversation. Organizations With A Clear Content Strategy Have Higher Win RatesDoes a clear content strategy exist in your sales organization? If so, you’re in the minority. Tamara says that only ⅓ of organizations have a clear, relevant content strategy in place. To be clear, we’re talking about a plan to create and use specific content that addresses questions and needs buyers have from the beginning of the customer journey all the way to the close of the deal. It’s content that helps to evolve the relationship with the buyer in valuable, relevant, and unique ways. The impact of having a clear content enablement strategy in place is huge. Companies with a clear content strategy experience a 55% win rate as compared to 43% win rate for organizations without one. As you can see, it makes sense (to the tune of a 12% increase) to organize content creation and management to achieve better sales results. But be careful: Just because an enablement team creates content resources doesn’t mean the sales team is automatically going to know how to use them. Training is required to make the best use of the resources. Tamara recommends you champion the members of your sales team who have been highly successful - empower them to record short videos showing how they use the content assets in various buying situations. Don’t let it get too complicated, just focus on things that will be practically helpful to your team. Tamara and Bernie wrap up their conversation with a discussion of the main pitfalls to watch out for as you implement your sales enablement strategy, so be sure you listen to get all the details. Featured on This Episode
Outline of This Episode
Resources & People MentionedThis episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at https://conversica.com
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| 25 Oct 2017 | Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage | 00:28:01 | |
The featured guest on episode 182 is Daniel Burrus. Daniel is recognized as one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts. You can tap into his insights by listening to this episode. Another way to absorb his futurist ideas is by reading his seventh and latest book, The Anticipatory Organization. On this episode, Daniel explains why he wrote his newest book, who it's for, and why brands need to be anticipatory rather than reacting once there's already a problem. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/anticipatory-organization-daniel-burrus | |||
| 06 Mar 2014 | Social Media Tools Favs with Ian Cleary | 00:24:47 | |
My guest on this episode is a charming and popular lad from Dublin, Ireland. Ian Cleary is widely recognized as a social media tools expert around the world. His company, Razor Social is a one stop resource for businesses to find the social media tools they need. Ian travels across Europe and America to share his wisdom with audiences at marketing conferences as a speaker. He is also a contributor to blogs such as Social Media Examiner. On this episode, I had the privelege of a one-on-one chat with Ian to hear about which social media tools he likes and why, as well as which social media tools he doesn't like and why. Don't be surprised if you learn of new social media tools on this episode. Give it a listen. BTW, the smile on his face in the thumbnail image is permanent. Ian is always smiling! | |||
| 14 Apr 2015 | How Homesnap Launched a Real Estate App Thru Social Media | 00:31:47 | |
This episode features Gayle Weiswasser, Vice President of Marketing and Social Engagement at Homesnap. You'll hear how Gayle's expertise from 8 years in social media marketing has enabled her to successfully launch a new and innovative real estate app on a small budget and all by herself with no staff. Visit the show notes page at: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/how-homesnap-launched-real-estate-app-thru-social-media
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| 01 Nov 2017 | A Strategy for Global Sales and Marketing Team Alignment | 00:33:03 | |
Jorge Solorio is the Industrial Americas Business Manager at Lubrizol Advanced Materials where he is responsible for marketing and sales for their Corzan product line. On this episode, Jorge explains how he led a strategic initiative to launch an online destination centered on one dedicated product within a large company. He also discusses how he is achieving alignment between sales and marketing with the results to prove it. Lubrizol is a large chemical company that started in 1928. Corzan is their chlorinated polyvinyl chloride or CPVC product. Jorge said it's similar to the PVC you'd buy from a home-improvement retailer, only it's post-chlorinated and can be used with higher temperatures. Listen to this episode to discover how Jorge launched a dedicated website for Corzan and hear about the results they're enjoying. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/global-sales-marketing-team-alignment-strategy | |||
| 06 Dec 2017 | How Conversational AI Provides Marketing and Sales a Competitive Edge | 00:35:29 | |
Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica is an accomplished and award-winning Internet business veteran with a strong track record of driving results and growth. Conversica, an award-winning SaaS software company, was recently named 2017 Best in Biz Enterprise Product of the Year in the sales software category. This award recognizes how Conversica’s AI-powered sales assistant is revolutionizing how businesses connect with their prospects and customers at scale. Listen to episode 188 to hear more about how Conversica's conversational AI product works at scale. | |||