Podcasts about b2b it

Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy, CEO of Plugable The IT channel is no stranger to consumer brands attempting to make the leap into the B2B world, but few have navigated it as deliberately as Plugable. Originally known as a digital-native brand that built its reputation on Amazon, the connectivity and peripherals vendor is now turning its full attention to the channel. On this episode of In The Channel, Plugable chief executive officer Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy – a familiar face to Canadian partners from her time leading Westcon Canada – explains how the company is translating its consumer success into a reliable, low-friction offering for managed service providers. She notes that surviving the brutal review ecosystem on Amazon forced Plugable to build highly reliable, extensively tested products, which today translates into fewer helpdesk tickets for MSPs managing complex, mixed-vendor desktop environments. We also discuss the recent strategic investment from Acer Gadget. Smurthwaite-Murphy shares how this partnership gives Plugable the global supply chain muscle it needs to expand while remaining strictly vendor-neutral. Finally, we touch on a massive hardware innovation for the artificial intelligence era. Smurthwaite-Murphy shares details on Plugable’s upcoming Thunderbolt 5 AI enclosure, a modular hardware solution that promises to bring workstation-class, local AI processing power to standard laptops, giving MSPs a practical way to deploy AI hardware without relying entirely on emerging AI PCs. Read Full Transcript ROBERT DUTT: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Today, we’re talking about the desktop edge and how a brand born on Amazon is making waves in the IT channel. My guest is Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy, the chief executive officer of Plugable. Many of you will recognize Lynn from her deep roots here in the Canadian channel, including her time leading Westcon Canada. She joined Plugable a few years ago to help them transition from a prosumer favourite to a serious B2B player. We discuss why their trial by fire in the consumer review space actually makes their docking stations and peripherals perfect for MSPs looking to reduce help desk tickets in mixed hardware environments. We also dig into their recent investment from Acer Gadget and get a really exciting scoop on a new Thunderbolt 5 AI enclosure that gives partners a modular way to deploy serious local AI processing power. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy. ROBERT DUTT: Tim, thanks for taking the time. It’s great to talk to you again. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, it’s great to talk to you again as well. It’s been many years, we were just establishing. ROBERT DUTT: It has been a while, probably more than either of us would like to admit, but such is. A lot of our listeners will obviously know you from your time leading Westcon Canada and then your work at StarTech.com after that. Can you kind of walk us through your journey from the distribution side of the house to where you are now at the helm of Plugable? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, actually it’s been interesting because I started out at a service provider and then I spent many years at Westcon, and then I went to a vendor brand, which is where I’m at now as well. So you kind of get this 360-degree view of the channel and it’s been really interesting. I’ve been very fortunate. So about five years ago, I joined Plugable as the CEO and we’ve been undergoing a whole transformation. I mean, I can go into it if you want now, a little bit about why I joined the company, but I don’t want to jump on any questions you have. ROBERT DUTT: No, I appreciate that. And yeah, this would be a great time to do that. What did you see there? And I guess especially… yeah, let’s just start there. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah. So Plugable was known, and some of the channel partners do think of us as an Amazon seller. But what I loved about the… I mean, we were watching them closely because we were always competing with them when I was at StarTech.com. But what they really are is a data company, an e-commerce company, and they were founded on Amazon. So I saw this digital native that suddenly was showing up in the channel and the channel was asking for the Plugable products and I was like, what’s going on there? And I was very interested. And as I was talking to the founder, he really wanted to expand. We had this… what was happening was the Chinese factory brands were beginning to show up on Amazon and, I mean, they’re fine products, but the solutions are extremely broad compatibility for business. So suddenly I started noticing a lot of business in our point of sale and we invested in a whole channel team and we wanted to grow to this omnichannel wherever the business customers buy. And so I found it a very interesting business model. And I think that kind of leads to where we are today. It was sort of demand from the channel side of things. ROBERT DUTT: Interesting, because I was curious what kind of drove the strategic decision to go from the kind of direct-to-consumer and prosumer Amazon-centric brand to the sort of formalizing and B2B IT channel and making that kind of the bread and butter, it seems. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah. I mean, there were these factors that were happening. As I mentioned, there was disruption in the B2C side and then suddenly businesses are looking at the solution. And I think what interested me the most is the channel has a very broad portfolio that they’re responsible for with the customer. They can’t be master of every brand. And so they want, specifically in peripherals, they want something that they know will work and it’s easy to figure out what the compatibility is. So you had these two things coming together at the same time. And this company had to be built and survive and thrive with customers never talking to a customer yet selling something fairly complicated. So they had to do it all digitally. And that’s where I found… I think the channel was being asked for us initially because customers were doing online research, right? The B2B buyer’s journey is changing. And so they were asking for us and that’s kind of how it all began. ROBERT DUTT: How do you take that digital-only or digital-first kind of culture in terms of marketing, in terms of… well, there isn’t really so much enablement, but documentation support for customers… and turn that into channel enablement and all the stuff that one has to do when one’s working through the VAR or MSP channel? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, great question. So there’s a team of us that came over that had spent our career in the channel. So we knew what the channel required from a channel program, channel support. And so we started with distribution and made sure that we were in the right distribution partners and that we had our inventory available and that we were listed properly. And then we were supporting the channel. They knew how to reach us. And so it’s been that journey, and marketing programs and events, doing all that. And now, as the whole modern desk is becoming disrupted again, and so much more is being expected of it, things are becoming more complicated. It was time for us to hire a field team. And that field team can help generate leads for the channel, but also can help support the customers. That’s where we are today. We’re on this multi-year journey of transforming to a B2B company, which now the majority of our business is through the channel, which now we are all-channel as well. I consider Amazon a channel. We don’t take any share of the world. ROBERT DUTT: Especially with that talent in place and that muscle motion in place now, how do you address some of the classic partner concerns that I’m sure have come up? Deal reg, margin protection, MDF, especially when Amazon is part of the channel, but it is also a visible competitor to a lot of the folks who are in the VAR/MSP space. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Oh, great question. And it’s interesting, the channel partners ask us that every time they see us. And we do a little test. We say, let’s go online right now and let’s look at Amazon and several partners’ listings. And I challenge you to find where there’s a different price, where the channel is at a disadvantage. And it’s because we came from an Amazon partner to a channel partner, we have really good control over our pricing. So that’s number one. And then we were able to build a channel pricing strategy and promotion that we knew, coming from the channel, we knew would work. And so we’ve got a multi-tier channel program. We’re able to do volume opportunities, jam programs, and deal reg, all of that. ROBERT DUTT: You sat in the distributor’s chair for a long time. And as you point out, you were on the partner side for a while before that. How does that background inform the way you operate a vendor today? What kind of distribution and partner lessons, as well as the overall insights that you mentioned bringing in with the team, does that kind of background in distribution apply to how Plugable goes to market today? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: That’s a great question. Some of it might just be muscle memory, but I think I understand what makes both the service provider MSP and the distributor tick. And so I think we’re trying to make sure that we’re a really good partner to both of those constituents and try to deliver what they need and work with them in the way that they want. Even if you’re making price changes, for example, with the distributor, you know to do that at a timing that works with them. So we’re trying to be easy to work with. ROBERT DUTT: Price changes in a timely fashion in 2026 might be a little bit of a different discussion than it was a few years ago, but… LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Well, we went through the pandemic and that was kind of chaotic times. And we’re entering into a whole new chaotic time, really driven by AI. But anyway, you were asking about price changes. ROBERT DUTT: No, I was just making the observation that it’s certainly a different beast this year as a result of AI and RAMageddon and all that fun stuff that’s going on. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I was just… our founder and chief technology officer is over in Asia. He’s been over there for quite a while and it’s evolving. It’s an evolving story, but there are component level shortages that are beginning to rear, even more than I think people understood, and more than just the memory. So it’s where the pandemic we knew was going to end. We knew that it was a peak and valley and the demand and the constraint, but this is going to be sustained, at least for the foreseeable future. ROBERT DUTT: Grab your helmet, folks. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: That’s right. Fasten your seatbelt. ROBERT DUTT: A lot of folks in the solution provider community and MSPs are hyper-focused on SaaS, on cybersecurity, on cloud, on AI. Sometimes I think they think of peripherals as an afterthought, something that gets tacked on there. Why should they be paying more attention to this space? What are the opportunities or where are the margin dollars that they might not realize they’re leaving on the table in a deal if they’re not thinking about the kind of stuff that you guys are bringing to market? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, that’s a great question because, I mean, let’s face it, peripherals are not that sexy until somebody really realizes they need them. So you’ve got a few things happening, right? The modern desk is being disrupted, as we mentioned, by AI, but also by the demand for productivity. People are using more applications than ever, so they need multi-screens. So just at the very core, you get a new laptop because you had to upgrade it for AI or just for Windows 11. Now you need new peripherals. But those are also… you’re adding more devices, more screen space. And that screen is probably running… one of them is probably running AI. And so the modern desk could be anywhere. It could be hybrid, in a hybrid environment in terms of work. And then every office you go into, I defy you to find one that is 100% one brand, one GPU, one set of devices that you have to connect to. So let’s just assume that 95% of the environments are hybrid in some way. That’s what third-party docking station companies like ours do best. We work in a mixed environment because we have to work and test deeply for compatibility. Where if you’re buying the bundle, the OEM plus the OEM dock, that’s great for that particular one use. But if you’re in a hybrid environment, you’re plugging in different devices, is it going to work? Are you going to lose productivity? Are you going to have a poor customer experience? So there’s a lot of demand and complexity that’s being added to the modern desk. And the IT department, they don’t have the capacity to deal with that. They don’t have the time or the capacity. And so we also take those calls from the channel, we take the calls from the end user. “Doesn’t work?” We take them locally. ROBERT DUTT: I think that points out an interesting side of things that I hadn’t really thought of. My first thought is kind of as an upsell opportunity for a partner who’s selling a solution, selling hardware, tag on the peripherals to build a total deal size and hopefully raise TCO as well. But it sounds like you’re saying there’s an opportunity to potentially, if done right, offload some of the inevitable help desk tickets that come with, “My monitor won’t turn on,” or, “Well, when I’m plugged into this thing, it feels like my data transfer is slower than it is, even though it’s the same kind of connector.” Well, no, it’s not. It’s actually USB. It’s all USB-C, but that one, you’re used to Thunderbolt 3 or 4, and this is something lower. So it sounds like there’s a cost reduction opportunity there too. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah. I mean, as a business leader, I also had to pay for help desks in my P&L. And so I can attest to the fact that I’ve got those people busy trying to do rollouts or IT upgrades, or I don’t want them working on these little minor things, but I also don’t want my staff not being able to get connected. And there are stats that say people lose five, seven minutes every time they try to connect to a meeting, especially if they’re running in. So yes, I’m talking the productivity and user experience and cost savings, but also you mentioned the channel margin. And we do offer a higher margin. That’s something that if the channel partner is not thinking about the margin opportunity by just adding peripherals. And then when you add third-party peripherals… ROBERT DUTT: Let’s talk about the current situation, the recent investment from Acer Gadget. Tell me a bit about how that partnership came about and what does it mean for you guys in terms of R&D and roadmap and where things go. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, that’s great. We were so excited. Both parties just really are so complimentary. They’re global. They’ve got a global footprint. They’ve got brand halo that we really were pleased to partner with. And then supply chain stability, opportunity to access even a broader supply chain. And for Acer Gadget and Acer, we represent an agnostic, highly compatible device that could work in their environments, as well as a B2B and an e-commerce company and innovation. Some of the innovation that we’re doing, they really appreciated, specifically around the Thunderbolt 5 AI enclosure and some of that innovation. So we consider it more of a strategic partnership than we do a finance partnership. Although there is benefit there as well, which helped fund the field team that we’re announcing that we’ve hired. That’s for an example. ROBERT DUTT: It sounds like you say Acer values the agnosticism, as you describe it. That sounds like Plugable remains and the strategy is to remain pretty strictly vendor-neutral when it comes to docking and connectivity. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Absolutely. They would like the brand to remain agnostic. ROBERT DUTT: You already mentioned the AI enclosure. You mentioned how AI is changing the desktop. How are you guys thinking about where AI is at now and where it’s going in the future in terms of what it means for what you do and where you see Plugable? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Yeah, again, I think the modern desk is completely being disrupted and there’s so much more demand on it. AI PCs right now don’t have the power to run local models. What we’re seeing is in the cloud, there’s billions of dollars being spent on AI in the cloud and there’s going to be a lot of use case for that. But as we move to privacy, and privacy almost seems like it’s a little bit secondary right now. People are racing to leverage AI, but at some point there’s going to be big news. People will focus a little bit more on the privacy piece and what needs to stay local. You’ve got the capability of the hardware getting better and the GPUs being able to manage more, but also the models. The models are becoming more optimized. At some point, you’re going to have this come together where local is going to be a real option for people. It’s somewhere between now and 18, 24 months, it’s going to become more mainstream where there’s going to be repeatable or local workflows that need to be local. It could be because of token usage, it could be just because of privacy, but it’s going to be there. We wanted to get ahead of it. We’ve been on the bleeding edge of AI for our own company and we’ve got a really interesting roadmap, but the first launch was our Thunderbolt enclosure where we offered two solutions. One was the one for developers where you build your own local AI, and then we built an enterprise version where it’s intended to be plug-and-play AI. We’ve got a whole software stack and we wrote a chat harness. People in the channel can adopt this to drive a use case for AI and maybe give themselves an opportunity to have a seat at the table for the broader AI spend because use cases right now are where we’re not seeing successful proof of concepts. ROBERT DUTT: I guess from a peripheral point of view, it’s become an accepted and normal thing for docking to potentially include storage on board or directly connected. Why not have some processing as well and get into that AI boost? Then hopefully, I’m guessing the logic is I can have a less beefy machine hooked up to that and still get the better AI outcomes. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: That’s right. It works today with the Windows PC that you have where, if you were going with… first off, it’s 50 times more powerful than an AI PC. It depends what you’re trying to run. You can chat on an AI PC. You can’t run models. If you wanted to buy then a local solution like a DGX Spark, for example. Those are nice. They’re all built in one, but you have to use Linux. So you’ve got to add another operating system and it’s not modular. I know a lot of companies are trying to figure out when and how they get in and they don’t want to spend and then not be viable in the next couple of years. So ours is a modular solution. It works with the PC you have. It depends on the use case, what you’re trying to do. ROBERT DUTT: Given your roots, I have to ask about the distribution strategy in Canada. You said one of the first steps was to lock down what you want to do in distribution. Where are you at in Canada today and how are you approaching getting products into the hands of Canadian partners and getting in front of them and letting them know what you guys are up to? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Being here in Canada, we have about a third of our company population is Canadian. We’re nicely straddling North America as a North American company. So right now we’re in Ingram and we’re in the works of launching another distributor and we’re expanding our channel here. As part of our expanding a new field team, we also expanded our channel team. ROBERT DUTT: What is the end… I imagine given what you said it’s probably a pretty broad array, but what does the ideal Plugable partner look like? What are some of the common threads for a successful partner for you? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Well, it’s changing with the AI solution because with the AI solution, it’s got to be a partner probably within the Global 1000 that has an AI consulting development already because the beauty of that is it needs a channel partner to hook up all the data through MCP. They’ve got to integrate it and support it. But most of our partners are traditional partners. If you name one, we’re probably being sold by them. We initially started out where partners that had more of an e-commerce play, we were doing very well there, and then it’s just continued to expand. ROBERT DUTT: Last one for me. You’ve touched on this a little bit with the AI side of things, but what are the main priorities for Plugable over the next 12 to 18 months in terms of both building the market and the product roadmap? And I guess finally, your message to Canadian partners who might be hearing about Plugable for the first time? LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Ah, let’s unpack that. So what’s on the roadmap? Well, with this partnership with Acer Gadget and Acer, we will be expanding our product line. In the past we had to kind of choose an either-or and we spent a lot of time on innovation last year. Well, now we can do both. And so we’re going to be launching more new products this year than we have in a while. So we’re pretty excited about that. We want to continue to expand our footprint globally and we now have a path to do that faster. So basically they’re enabling us to accelerate our strategy. And then if I were a Canadian partner, what’s Plugable? I think what we’re told by the channel partners we work with is that A, we bring in more new business than most of our competitors because we’re being asked for by their customer. And B, we have the lowest return rate because it just works. And I really believe that that’s our digital native being born on Amazon. You live and die by your reviews. And if you don’t have this whole cycle process of taking the feedback, improving, improving, re-spinning and making sure that you’re listening to the customer’s user experience feedback and improving it, you’re not going to do well. So we bring that to a business-grade solution. So I think we’re low friction for a partner. ROBERT DUTT: Fascinating, especially fascinating as things continue to develop in terms of what you’re able to add to the PC as AI models get closer to the machine. Lynn, fascinating catching up and good luck with Plugable. LYNN SMURTHWAITE-MURPHY: Thank you so much. It’s been great to catch up. ROBERT DUTT: There you have it, Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy from Plugable. I’d like to thank Lynn for her time. And as always, thank you for listening. It’s fascinating to hear how a company weaponizes its Amazon background. Usually the consumer origin is something vendors tend to try to hide when they pivot to the channel, but Lynn makes a compelling case that surviving the consumer review gauntlet creates exactly the kind of bulletproof hardware that MSPs need. And that Thunderbolt 5 AI enclosure is definitely something to keep an eye on as we all try to figure out the hardware realities of this AI wave. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe to the channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. Leaving a rating or review also helps us as well. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel. Bye.

In B2B marketing, the biggest challenge isn’t always budget or bandwidth – it’s standing out in a market where every competitor looks, sounds, and says the same thing.  In this episode, Jaci and Michael sit down with Joya Scarlata, Director of Marketing at InterraIT, a B2B IT services firm serving clients across industries from automotive to retail to manufacturing. With over a decade of marketing experience, Joya knows firsthand how difficult it is to differentiate a service-based business in a crowded, fast-moving industry. The conversation covers what it really takes to build a recognizable B2B brand when your product is invisible – a service that’s hard to explain and even harder to make exciting. From navigating the “sea of sameness” in the IT space, to aligning marketing and sales, to knowing when your messaging has stopped working, Joya shares honest, practical insight from the trenches. If you’re a B2B marketer struggling to cut through the noise, make the case for branding internally, or get your messaging to actually resonate – this one’s for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at Overalls What if your employees had one central hub to handle real life? Meet Overalls. A smarter way to support your team, combining expert human LifeConcierges™ with AI to solve everyday challenges across healthcare, caregiving, benefits, insurance, finances, life admin, and more. From start to finish, Overalls handles the details — using existing benefits where they fit, and filling in the gaps where they don't. So employees save time, reduce stress, and stay focused at work, while employers boost engagement and get more value from their benefits. Overalls is redefining how work supports life, helping employee teams from Reddit, Patreon, BeatBox, and more cross pesky to-dos off their lists every day. Learn more at https://getoveralls.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=pozcast Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com TAKEAWAYS: 1. Global Benefits Require Local Listening There is no universal benefits playbook. What matters to an employee in Bangalore — where the daily commute can be a two-hour ordeal — is fundamentally different from what matters to someone in Austin or Cork. Companies with global teams need to engage local employees to understand what's actually meaningful, rather than exporting the US benefits model everywhere. 2. Transportation Is an Underrated Global Benefit In cities like Bangalore and Manila, commuter benefits can have a more meaningful daily impact than gym memberships or wellness stipends. Dave's team is actively exploring cab subsidies and transportation allowances as targeted benefits for teams in markets where commuting is genuinely burdensome. 3. Mental Health Benefits Only Work If Confidentiality Is Real and Communicated On-demand therapy platforms drive adoption when employees genuinely believe their sessions are private. People leaders need to actively and repeatedly communicate that they have zero access to individual usage data — because the fear that HR is watching is a real barrier to utilization, even for platforms that are genuinely confidential. 4. Aggregate Mental Health Data Is a Strategic Signal Even without individual visibility, the top themes surfaced by a mental health platform — stress, burnout, anxiety — give people leaders actionable intelligence about where the organization needs to go deeper. That's qualitative data that should be feeding benefits strategy and manager training. 5. What Candidates Care About Depends on Where They Are in Life Junior employees ask about food and gym benefits. Senior employees want to know about 401(k) match and parental leave. But across every level and every geography, candidates are asking to see the benefits package — and those conversations are happening on par with base salary discussions. 6. Elder Care Is the Next Major Benefits Frontier — and It's Personal for Dave Dave went through the elder care journey for both parents with nothing from his employer to help navigate it. That experience led him to advise an elder care platform and made him one of the most vocal advocates for this benefit category. His message: companies that don't build something here in the next few years will lose the sandwich generation employees who need it most. 7. The Elderly Population Is About to Eclipse the Child Population in the US The demographic shift is imminent. The sandwich generation — employees simultaneously raising children and caring for aging parents — is about to become the dominant workforce cohort. People leaders who are not designing benefits for this reality are already behind. 8. Concierge Benefits Address the Real Cost of Being Away The most relatable benefit Dave wishes he had: someone to handle real-life logistics when you're traveling for work. A fallen tree, a lawn that needs cutting, a home emergency — the mental load of worrying about what's happening at home while you're on the road is a real productivity drain that concierge services can address. 9. HR Needs a Purposeful AI Design — Not a Default One Dave's key insight from Transform 2026: the most important AI conversation in HR isn't about what AI can do — it's about what you want it to do. Mapping capabilities and making deliberate decisions about where AI takes over and where human judgment is protected is the strategic work that separates thoughtful people organizations from reactive ones. CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Introduction Adam welcomes Dave Hanrahan from SolarWinds, fresh off a panel session, and sets up a conversation about global people leadership and benefits. 02:00 – Meet SolarWinds & Dave's Role Dave describes SolarWinds — a B2B IT observability platform — and his role as SVP of People, including joining two weeks before an acquisition and managing a team spanning six countries. 04:30 – Managing a Global Workforce Up Close Why Dave prioritizes getting out to international offices in person, and what you can only understand about site culture when you're actually there. 07:00 – How Benefits Work Around the World A rarely discussed topic: how benefits are structured differently by country, why one-size-fits-all doesn't work globally, and what SolarWinds is learning about meeting employees where they are in each market. 10:00 – Transportation Benefits in Bangalore & Manila The standout benefit conversation: why commuter subsidies matter more than gym memberships for teams in some of the world's most congested cities — and how SolarWinds is working with local teams to figure out the right solution. 13:00 – Mental Health Benefits & the Confidentiality Challenge How SolarWinds approaches global on-demand therapy benefits, why anonymity is the key to adoption, and what aggregate data from the platform tells Dave as a people leader about workforce stress trends. 16:30 – How Benefits Are Priced & Structured A practical breakdown: per-employee session allotments, how utilization is tracked, when the company raises session limits, and how group sessions expand access across the organization. 19:00 – What Candidates Actually Ask About in Total Comp Dave's generational breakdown: junior employees ask about food and gym benefits; senior employees go straight to 401(k) match and parental leave. And across the board, every candidate asks to see the benefits flyer. 22:00 – The Elder Care Gap — Dave's Personal Story Dave's most personal moment in the episode: going through elder care for both parents with zero company support, becoming an advisor to an elder care benefits platform, and why he believes this is the next major benefits frontier. 26:00 – The Sandwich Generation Is Here The data point that stops the conversation: the US elderly population is about to eclipse the child population. Dave and Adam get real about what that means for employees caught in the middle — raising kids while caring for aging parents. 29:30 – Concierge Benefits & the Value of Peace of Mind What Dave wishes he had as an employee traveling for work: concierge services that handle real-life logistics — the lawn, the fallen tree, the home emergency — so employees can focus on the job. 32:00 – Mapping AI to HR: What to Automate, What to Protect Dave's aha moment from Transform 2026: the importance of purposefully mapping which HR functions should become agentic versus where human judgment — on hiring, promotions, compensation, feedback — must be retained. 35:00 – Keeping the Human at the Center Dave's words of optimism: at this conference, HR leaders are pushing back on the narrative that AI should replace human judgment. The energy at Transform is about keeping people at the heart of the most important decisions.

Help! ChatGPT pikt mijn baan in! Dat is de titel van de podcast die Rutger Steenbergen en Bouke Vlierhuis opnamen tijdens Content Conference 2024 van Frankwatching. De titel is wellicht wat hijgerig, maar onterecht is de angst niet. Want, betoogt Bouke: "Laat je je als tekstschrijver nog steeds per woord en uur betalen, dan ben je f*cked. ChatGPT kan namelijk ook heel aardig woorden achter elkaar plakken." Beluister deze aflevering van de podcast en ontdek: Waarom ChatGPT helemaal niet zo effectief is.Wat je wel, en vooral niet moet doen als je toekomstproof wilt schrijven.Welke prompts Bouke zelf het meest gebruikt (en waarom) Ook vertelt Bouke waarom het zo belangrijk is om regelmatig je werkzaamheden tegen het licht te houden. Want de dingen waarmee je nu nog waarde levert, kunnen zomaar overgenomen worden door chatbots. Opvallende uitspraken tijdens deze podcast "Je moet je als copywriter niet willen identificeren met de inefficiënties van je vak." "Beng je proces in kaart en automatiseer de taken die het vaakst terugkomen. Daar zit de grootste winst." "Jij bent een mens en ChatGPT niet. Dus waarschijnlijk kun jij ook wel een paar dingen die de software niet kan." Over Bouke Vlierhuis Bouke Vlierhuis is een ervaren contentmarketeer, copywriter en trainer. Hij adviseert ambitieuze B2B IT-bedrijven over contentmarketing en de inzet van AI. Verder geeft hij trainingen en workshops over zijn vakgebied. En brengt hij dichtbundels uit.  

Bryan will discuss how we can communicate to customers as people, rather than as data points and introduce a more genuine approach to communication and the vital role customer intelligence plays in this paradigm. In his acclaimed book. There is no B2B: It's Human to Human H2H, Bryan writes passionately about the need for marketers to return to simplicity and empathy. His message is simple: Marketers should drop the marketing speak and adopt a more genuine language. His presentation promises to be evocative and interesting.Check out upcoming DigiMarCon Digital Marketing, Media, and Advertising Conferences & Exhibitions Worldwide at https://digimarcon.com/events/

Bryan will discuss how we can communicate to customers as people, rather than as data points, and introduce a more genuine approach to communication and the vital role customer intelligence plays in this paradigm. In his acclaimed book. There is no B2B: It's Human to Human H2H, Bryan writes passionately about the need for marketers to return to simplicity and empathy. His message is simple: Marketers should drop the marketing speak and adopt a more genuine language. His presentation promises to be evocative and interesting.

Episode 20- We speak with Liudmila Kiseleva CEO at Rampiq a Digital Marketing Agency for B2B/B2C SaaS and IT Businesses.  Liudmila talks about her journey over the last 17 Years in the Marketing space and how data driven analytics are critical to Marketing and Sales success in the B2B SaaS Space. She highlights how defining outcomes through data analytics vs. traditional Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) vs. Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) models that hold both Sales and Marketing at a standstill in many SaaS businesses.  Learn how RampIQ's approach is winning accolades and results with their data driven approach to better marketing spend analysis, quantifiable results and better business outcomes related to sales and marketing investments.  About RampIQ:Rampiq is a high-performing digital marketing agency focused on mining meaningful data insights, and applying these insights to maximizing online marketing investment. From detailed research and promotion strategy planning to meticulous execution, Rampiq is a dream team of online marketers ready to drive online campaign success, at scale. The Rampiq team is made up of over 20 uber-talented digital marketing consultants specializing in PPC, SEO, content marketing, and analytics.Industry-wise, Rampiq puts a special focus on B2B IT & SaaS businesses, helping them reach alignment between their sales and marketing teams and drive revenue growth. Learn More:Website: https://rampiq.agency/ 

Christopher Uthe is the Director of Product Management at Ocelot, where he champions scalable day-to-day organizational changes to transform it to a product-driven company. He's been working in the education market since 2006, both for an educational institution and for companies that sell education. Chris started his first business at the age of 16. In this episode, Chris explains how pricing works in institutions of higher education as he discusses the factors that make pricing difficult in that field.   Why you have to check out today's podcast: Find out how to find value if you can't get a good and apt pricing metric Understand how pricing in higher educational institutions work, as well as the thing that makes it difficult Discover why higher education should be more focused on B2C pricing than on B2B   “It's so hard to bundle and discount correctly, that most of the time, that's not being done right.” – Chris Uthe   Topics Covered: 01:28 – The story behind Chris' interest in pricing 02:15 – Pricing and purchasing decisions in higher education 04:37 – What institutions of higher education value: The thing that makes pricing in higher education difficult 08:18 – U.S. News and World Report as a metric: The intrinsic value of one's degree and/or university 11:15 – In B2C vs. in B2B pricing: Where should institutions of higher education be? 14:17 – Talking about RFPs: How it leads us to lose sight of the possibility of a better and smarter solution 19:42 – Chris' pricing advice for the listeners 21:45 – Connect with Chris Uthe   Key Takeaways: “It's so difficult to come at these purchasing decisions, saying, ‘Okay, we have to do only what's best for the student here,' because you've got so many competing priorities that are sort of odd for the market.” – Chris Uthe “Some would tell you that they don't care. There are a sad few that would tell you they might care a little bit about profit because they do have to pay the bills, still. Not all of them are living on generous endowments, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it. They care about, hopefully, students' success at the end of the day. They want to talk to you about placement rate. They want to talk to you about probably job acceptance rate. They want to talk to you about average salary coming out of school.” – Chris Uthe “Some of the value – the unspoken value – of your degree or just going to an institution comes from all the doors that it opens for having it on your resume.” – Chris Uthe “It almost always starts with a very altruistic need, which I think is amazing in higher ed, because our students aren't getting the help they need at the right time, for instance, or these students aren't able to log into the learning management system and do something meaningful at the right time or they don't know how to do it, they can't get it done. It starts very altruistic, which is one of my favorite parts of higher education, because it does usually come back to making the student more successful.” – Chris Uthe   People / Resources Mentioned: Ocelot: https://www.ocelotbot.com/ CARES Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/748   Connect with Chris Uthe: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisuthe/ Email: uthe@ocelotbot.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

Are executive coaches worth it? What does the process of working with an executive coach looks like? When should you get one? How can you find a good fit for you and your career growth needs? I've asked all of these questions to Kelly in our discussion of her experience of working with an executive coach for her professional growth and development. Kelly has spent her career in B2B IT and technology marketing roles and currently serves as director of marketing for a test and measurement company. She is naturally curious, strives to lead with empathy first, and believes in Wildcard Leadership—a theory that adding something radically atypical can bring new levels of innovation and creativity. Kelly lives in the tiny but lively state of Rhode Island with her husband, Dave, son, Jake (8), daughter, Brooke (6), and goofy Bernedoodle named Jerry. She loves to connect with new people - send her a message on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyjsantos/ Sign up to our newsletter: https://www.stereotypebreakers.com/newsletter Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsYzP5nt6Y2YpR0SZesxyAaOv9tGYwZoZ Let us know if you have any ideas/comments by tagging us in your post on social media! ✨

In today's episode with Anna Cleary, a leader in Growth & Digital Marketing at Software AG, you will learn:1. Mindful tactics to effectively increase your customers' brand awareness and decision-making2. How to end the war between marketing and sales and transform them into a winning team3. The key to succeed and thrive in the new era to come: a cookieless worldAbout AnnaAnna is an energetic marketing executive with 20+ years international experience in marketing management and inside sales management in the B2B IT industry. Her areas of expertise include growth and digital marketing and sales and marketing alignment, among others. Prior to her current role as Global Growth & Digital Marketing Program Director at Software AG, Anna successfully led global, cross-functional and virtual teams in mature companies with large product portfolios as well as young companies with a singular product focus. She supports business growth by designing, producing and implementing innovative marketing programs that generate measurable demand, truly inspired by the opportunities the digital age creates. In her spare time, Anna enjoys sports like swimming and cycling to keep her mind and body fit.About Software AGSoftware AG set out to become the software pioneers of a truly connected world, with the mission of empowering its customers to become a truly connected enterprise. With its industry-leading product portfolio in Integration & API Management, IoT & Analytics and Business Transformation, Software AG creates a fluid flow of data between people, departments, systems and devices. This way, they help their customers free data from silos so that it is shareable, useable and powerful. Founded in 1969, Software AG today has nearly 5,000 employees in 70 countries, dedicated to integrating and connecting everything, so more than 10,000 companies can instantly see, decide, act and thrive. About the host SammySammy is Managing Partner and founder of SAWOO.  SAWOO helps companies with Social Marketing and Lead Generation to leverage the power of LinkedIn in a sustainable way. No spam, no bots but building real Human 2 Human connections between you and your B2B buyers. Shownotes AnnaFind Anna on LinkedIn(https://www.linkedin.com/in/annacleary1/)Anna's company Software AG(https://www.softwareag.com/en_corporate.html)Anna's favorite business book: Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed(https://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Thinking-People-Mistakes-But/dp/1591848229)Ian's favorite business leader: Brian Thomas, International News Anchor at Deutsche Welle(https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianthomas8/)

Special thanks to Gary Busey for his amazing introduction, to Pamela Muldoon for her sultry voice, and to JK Kalinowski for his design chops. Welcome to a very special 300th episode of This Old Marketing. Big shout out to the sponsor of this episode, Parse.ly, who stepped up and supported this show when no one else would. How does this show work? Joe and Robert are going to take your questions - and we've assembled 10 of the finest and best questions -  yeah, pretty much the ones we felt like answering.  Some of them came through audio...and some of them came through our hashtag on Twitter...but all of them we assume came with love and affection.  For those ten people who submitted questions: we'll be reaching out after the show to find out how to get you your prizes. As we mentioned, we're giving away a copy of Killing Marketing (either in print or in Kindle version) AND $50 in $TILT Coin. We've separated the questions into two basic categories: industry trends and questions about us and the show. INDUSTRY QUESTIONS SEGMENT QUESTION #1 Our first question comes in two parts... The first part is via the Twitter Hashtag and it's from Dennis Shiao. On this show for the last 300 episodes, you've advised us forever to not build our content house on rented land.  With Web 3.0 now facing us - is it possible that the entire concept of rented land goes away? The second part comes from email - and is from José Delameilleure. I am a free lance content writer from Belgium. I work in the niche of B2B IT, and usually in even deeper niches like Identity and Access Management, IoT, Artificial Intelligence,... In these niches, we are usually forced to use 'rented land' like LinkedIn to get our messages out. What can we do to claim our own piece of land and attract visitors to it?  QUESTION #2 Our next question also comes via the Twitter Hashtag and is from Jared Opfer. What business had the biggest miss in the last 12 months?  Who has the biggest opportunity in the next 12 months? QUESTION #3 Our next question is from our friend Bernie Borges through the Contact Form on our Website. I'm looking for examples of blockchain solutions for B2B and I don't see them. All the talk about brands planning their NFTs are B2C brands like Disney and Starbucks. What can B2B brands like HubSpot, Oracle and CMI do on the blockchain? Should they mint social tokens? Etc. What's your take? QUESTION 4 The next question comes from Eddie Naranjo via the contact form on the site. The question is given the current transition from Web 2 to Web 3 - which business model and tilt would you use to bootstrap a new business for a person who loves Wordpress design, content marketing, affiliate marketing and is really curious about crypto, NFTs and a way to tokenize products or services. QUESTION 5 Our next question is the last in our industry space from Yen Yee  who asked this question via the hashtag on Twitter. What is the current content marketing technology stack at CMI Content, The Content Advisory and The Tilt? ------------ This week's sponsor: Parse.ly Is your content team still split between creative types and numbers people?   How many people on your team actually use Google Analytics every day?   Parse.ly is a content analytics platform built to make it easy for your writers, creators, and marketers to become data driven.   Make it easy for your team to understand what content drives conversions. Make it easy for them to see what's working—and do more of that. Make it easy to prove the impact content has on your business, every day.   In one study, a forty person content team only had eight people using Google Analytics frequently. In other words, they weren't data driven.   Then they switched to Parse.ly. Now, 33 out of 40 people are using Parse.ly to drive results for their business. It's just that much easier. They're no longer split between creative types and numbers people—they're both.   If you're ready to start understanding the true value of your content and get out in front of your competition. Get a free content analysis from a Parse.ly product specialist by visiting: parse.ly/joe. ------------ QUESTION 6 Our question number six comes from Annie Schiffmann and it's our first audio question. How has the show evolved over 300 episodes.  If I looked at episode 99, 199 and 299 how would you say the show has evolved? QUESTION 7 The Next question is from Esben Johansen and comes via the Twitter Hashtag. If you could add one thing to your fantastic book Killing Marketing what would it be? QUESTION 8 The next question is from John Morgan and comes via the Email Contact Form. Of all the trends that you've covered over the last 8 years, which has been the most surprising, and what has lasted that you didn't think would last? QUESTION 9 Is another audio question - and it comes from our friend Ian Truscott. What is your favorite cocktail? QUESTION 10 Our last question comes from Rebecca and is through the Email Contact Us Form. As you look out to the future of Content Marketing and Content Creators - what do you guys think you'll be talking about on your 400th episode? Thanks to all our wonderful listeners for making this possible. We love you. --------- Liked this show? SUBSCRIBE to this podcast on Spotify, Apple, Google and more. Catch past episodes and show notes at ThisOldMarketing.site.

Cameron Avery is an experienced CEO with global channel management experience and extensive industry expertise in B2B IT software and services. Born and raised in Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. Cameron currently leads Elastic Digital, a well-recognized creative agency for channel marketing and management for big tech companies. Elastic Digital aim is to gain a competitive advantage to help solve their most complex challenges.

James Kernan interviews Hartland Ross from eBridge Marketing Solutions. Hartland has been working in the sales and marketing of IT services and SaaS firms since 1999. He is well recognized and regarded in the IT services industry and to date has worked with hundreds of firms providing opportunities for business growth through M&A, marketing strategy and by providing industry advice, recommendations and introductions. With over 20 years of business development experience and having worked with technology firms since 2001, Hartland is a sought after conference speaker and authority who is often interviewed and quoted in industry related case studies and articles. eBridge Marketing Solutions focuses on working with B2B IT service firms looking for alternative growth strategies to complement existing efforts. We focus on both organic (digital marketing) as well as M&A options for those in the following industries: Web hosting, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, MSPs, Data Centers and IT Security companies. Links: http://www.thehostbroker.com/ https://www.ebridgemarketingsolutions.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartlandross/ ----- Sponsor Note: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of legacy solutions? Modernize your cybersecurity and data protection with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. It’s a single solution that combines backup, anti-malware, and endpoint protection management. As an MSP, you can easily improve clients’ security posture, eliminate complexity, and generate more recurring revenue. Learn more about Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud at Acronis.com. :-)  

Our guest on Morning T™ with Tracy V. Allen is Maryann Cruz, Business Strategist & Coach, Co-Founder of C3 Collaborative, Co-Host of CT Creative Collaborative. Maryann will be revealing her transition into entrepreneurship as a consultant and now the owner of a brick and mortar co-working space. She will discuss what motivated her to make the move and what she envisions the space to be for creative entrepreneurs. ____________ GUEST BIO: As a Business Strategist & Coach, Maryann helps Creatives and passionate entrepreneurs scale their business by gaining clarity and momentum through action. She does this through workshops, group coaching, and one-on-one coaching. As Co-Founder of C3 Collaborative, she and her husband are on a mission of creating a vibrant community for creatives: • to increase productivity • enhance collaborations, and • diversify their revenue streams Maryann has 20+ years of experience in business operations in roles such as Strategic Project Lead, Accounting & Human Resources Manager, and B2B IT, Specialist, only to name a few. ______________ CONTACT US: Want to be a guest on the show? Go here: www.tvacon.com/morning-t-show-guest Watch the interview here: (YouTube) www.youtube.com/c/TracyAllen1 (Facebook) Tracy V. Allen Listen to the Podcast here: anchor.fm/morning-t #EntrepreneurSuccessStories #Maryann Cruz #BusinessStrategist #BusinessCoach #Author #MorningT #RiseToSuccess #SuccessStories C3Collaborative #Business #Entrepreneur #TracyVAllen #CreativeCollaborations #MorningShow #FacebookLive #YouTubeLive --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-tracy-v-allen-show/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-tracy-v-allen-show/support

Historically, the B2B IT industry has been a little behind the times in terms of networking and brand marketing. Industry events — like Ingram Micro’s ONE event — have provided great networking opportunities for IT professionals. Even so, there are myriad chances outside of conferences to connect with peers and prospects. In this episode of B2B Tech Talk, guest host James Carbary founder and CEO of Sweet Fish Media catches up with Jason Carriere, the IT channel sales leader at LinkedIn. From the Ingram Micro ONE event, the two discuss how IT pros can leverage the power of LinkedIn’s platform to build awareness and convert leads. Are you able to easily track & analyze the reach of your organic LinkedIn content? If not, you may want to check out a tool we've been using here at Sweet Fish: SHIELD Use the promo code B2BGROWTH for a 25% Discount Follow us on Twitter @IngramTechSol #B2BTechTalk Sponsored by Cisco. Listen to this episode and more like it by subscribing to B2B Tech Talk on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Or, tune in on our website.

IT-branschen står inför ett stort generationsskifte och mycket kompetens som ska förmedlas vidare. Kommunikation har aldrig varit lättare än idag och det måste vi utnyttja i vår föränderliga värld. Samarbete är viktigt och underlättas om vi har lättare att förstå varandra. Idag ska vi prata ledarskap och vikten av samarbete. Givetvis ur IT-branschens perspektiv! Välkommen till Techradar – Din portal och ledstjärna inom IT och tech, där vi pratar djupt och brett med härligt surr och mycket skratt. Det här är framtidens podcast 2.0 – Nu kör vi! Dagens fantastiska gäster Annika R Malmberg är föreläsare och författare med mer än 30 års erfarenhet av att jobba med och studera relationer och ledarskap.  Johanna Månsson är marknadsassistent på B2B IT-partner, hon lockades av IT-branschens höga tempo och bredden i rollen.

#001 - In this episode, your host, Diogène Ntirandekura, shares his personal story and why he has decided to start a podcast on business management and information technology consulting. You will learn about his personal background and how he got to start a career in consulting.You will learn the following: access to higher education in Belgium competitiveness of the consulting industrythe importance of having a mentor in your careerwhat I love in B2B IT consultingmy 2 big reasons for starting the Consulting Lifestyle podcastResources:www.consultinglifestyle.fmlinkedin.com/in/diogenentirandekurawww.erphappy.com

Historically, the B2B IT industry has been a little behind the times in terms of networking and brand marketing. Industry events — like Ingram Micro’s ONE event — have provided great networking opportunities for IT professionals. Even so, there are myriad chances outside of conferences to connect with peers and prospects. In this episode of B2B Tech Talk, guest host James Carbary (founder and CEO of Sweet Fish Media) catches up with Jason Carriere, the IT channel sales leader at LinkedIn. From the Ingram Micro ONE event, the two discuss how IT pros can leverage the power of LinkedIn’s platform to build awareness and convert leads. Follow us on Twitter @IngramTechSol #B2BTechTalk Sponsored by Cisco. Listen to this episode and more like it by subscribing to B2B Tech Talk on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Or, tune in on our website.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Sarah McIntyre, Founder of BRIGHT Inbound. After spending 15 years in B2B IT marketing Sarah founded Bright Inbound to help companies create marketing that works for their business, and create a flexible work environment for raising a family + continuing to work. She has a unique blend of content marketing strategy and tactical campaign execution skills, plus 20 years experience with both big corporate marketing teams and start-ups.   Show Links https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahjmcintyre/

The name of the game in this episode is food service, an area that’s not well talked about yet it dwarfs retail space. Think about it, lunch spots, schools, universities, and prisons all use the foodservice channels to feed people and this channel has its own challenges. That’s where Stephanie Lind comes in. Stephanie Lind has a good understanding of the food system and I like to say I do too so we get into some really complex discussions about supply chain in the foodservice industry. So you will learn a ton about the complex world of foodservice and I hope this interview helps you discover this whole new world right under your nose. About Stephanie Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Elohi Strategic Advisors Stephanie Lind is the Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of Elohi Strategic Advisors, a firm she founded in early 2015.  She works closely with emerging natural and sustainable food and beverage companies as well as their venture capital and private equity investors. Elohi acts as a full service commercialization engine and provides holistic Go-To-Market strategies, outsourced sales execution, robust product innovation road maps and B2B marketing services. Prior to returning to Elohi Strategic Advisors in January 2019, Stephanie lead the global sales initiatives for Impossible Foods which included sales strategy for all channels (foodservice, industrial and retail), sales operations, B2B marketing and product innovation.  She has over 25 years of experience across Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain working for Fortune 500 companies including PepsiCo, Sysco, McDonald’s supply chain partner Havi Logistics as well as smaller, privately owned businesses including those started by her parents. Stephanie earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University and her MBA in Marketing from DePaul University. She is a member of the National Small Business Association (NSBA) Leadership Council, Women’s Presidents Organization, the Plant-Based Food Association and acts as a mentor for the Big Idea Ventures accelerator.  Outside of work, Stephanie and her husband enjoy spending time with their three dogs and four cats, exploring their new community in Half Moon Bay, California and volunteering. Sponsor We’re excited to be partnering with Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS}, the leading food tech event bringing together leaders across the food and cooking ecosystems. Now in its fifth year, #SKS2019 is *the* conference shaping the future of food, technology, and the kitchen. Well-known leaders within the food tech industry will all be speaking on engaging topics such as food robots, alternative protein, and connected kitchen devices such as smart refrigerators. Trust us, you’ll want to be there. Use code FOODJOB15 to get a 15% discount on tickets and I’ll see you there on October 7-8 at in Seattle. Just go to smartkitchensummit.com to register. For easy access, just click on our link for this episode’s show notes. Show Notes What are the cultural differences between Chicago and the Bay Area?: There’s a surge of new brands in the Chicago area. There are a ton of big food companies in that area. For the Bay Area, you have the money. Good Food Business Accelerator I teach emerging sustainable brands how to navigate the world of food service What is food service?: Commercial and Non-commercial. Basically those that choose to feed people and those that need to feed people We have a bootcamp that funnels our clients through the food service channel Hidden Cost: Distance, Freight Charges, Booking trucks, lack of data Does food service price lower?: It depends What would you tell a new person who wants to distribute their product?: You have to make your product in your backyard. Not only literally, but also figuratively (as in local). Have B2B marketing, especially in the ingredient end. The consumer isn’t walking in expecting your brand. For restaurants: Does it increase traffic? Does it increase the check? Does it decrease labor/waste costs? How do you market B2B?: It’s not sexy. A lot of B2C marketers hate food service marketing. Does my website answer the questions? Can I sample the product in the industry? For chefs, they use Instagram and that might be an angle for B2B. There are a ton more foodservice institutions than retail institutions The steps it took to get to where you are today: I graduated in college during the recession and started with being a truck driver for Pepsico. Then worked as a supervisor at a distribution center Nabisco Mass Drug Club Convenience (ALDI, for example) Went back to pepsico Laid off, then went back to Distribution Elohi – Cherokee word for Earth or Mother Earth How was working at Impossible Foods?: Money doesn’t solve every problem, but it gets you there faster They are great for PR and excellent In communicating their brand. Strategy: going towards innovative chefs Blitzscaling Food service is very unforgiving. Build slowly and cater to the customers you have. If you run out, you’re screwed Any advice for anyone in sales?: You have to listen. And you have to approach them to help them solve their problem. What type of food trends are exciting you?: Food is medicine ZOLA – Cannibis industry How do you focus without the hype? (Cannibis industry): Keep your emotions out of it, and think of the what-if scenario planning. If big companies move, you’ll go from fad to trend What about plant- based meat?: iternations will focus more on fat or less processed. PDCAAS What in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The marriage between science and innovation, marketing, sales, etc. I’d love to understand the science. Favorite Kitchen Item: Bunn Single Serve Coffee. I also like Mugs The ritual of coffee Do you have a favorite meal?: A meal at home. Do you have any advice for anyone in the industry?: Get as much cross-functional training as you can. If you want to start your own business, it’s really hard and will take a long time. Sometimes you have to fail to learn something How do you reflect being fired?: You have to learn from it. The higher you go in an organization, the bigger the risk it is to be fired because there’s bigger risk. If you see someone let go at a senior level, you never know what’s happening in an organization. Also, there is a difference between organization versus background. The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Find Stephanie on LinkedIn or her email here: Stephanie@elohi.us

Carrie Simpson, founder at Managed Sales Pros, Everywhere Managed, and THC Results (Las Vegas, Nevada and Winnipeg, Manitoba) put herself into the cold-calling business two decades ago as a stay-at-home mom—by cold-calling companies to sell her services as a cold-caller, winning contracts with major companies, hiring and training other stay-at-home moms to cold call part time, and developing a scalable strategic process for outbound B2B IT sales calls and appointment setting.   Churn is a given in cold-calling. Critical to Carrie's success is not that she figured out how to eliminate cold-caller turnover, but because she figured out how to minimize the effect of churn. In this interview, she emphasizes several strategic decisions her company made to build traction, optimize cold call effectiveness, and generate demand: Avoiding diversification and maintaining an exclusive marketing strategy: cold-calling for a single product type: managed services Laser-targeting and qualifying her clients' potential customers Knowing her customers' products, their clients triggers Utilizing “pay for performance” in order to maintain control of database data that can be leveraged for vertical market development Tracking trends and marketplace changes that create risks and opportunities   Carrie can be reached on her company's website at managedsalespros.com or by email at: Hello@managedsalespros.com. Mention Carrie's name, and your message will be routed to her.

Leverage Social Media for B2B Sales with Evan Kirstel 98% of top sales people say #socialselling is 'extremely critical'​ to the closing of deals, and 47% acquired a new client by #leadgeneration on Twitter! As a top B2B IT influencer with 125K Twitter followers Evan can help massively grow your online audience and leverage social media as a B2B sales networking, lead generation and thought leadership tool. He has been named on the top 20 most mentioned and RTs by Both CIOs and CMOs on Twitter in 2016. Member of influencer programs at Huawei, Pitney Bowes, IBM, ANA, DellEMC and others. With 20+ years of sales, alliances & Biz Dev experience in the telecom and IT arena, Evan brings a unique perspective on opportunities in the Unified Communications & Collaboration segment, including deep knowledge of social, mobile, and the voice/video/web collaboration market and cloud technology. He has a solid understanding of emerging Cloud & mobile technology and market convergence dynamics, along with a strong track record in selling and marketing disruptive technology to enterprise and service providers. His social media “Klout"​ score is 80 (Catching up with Barak Obama, who has a 99) In 2016 Evan has been ranked according to Onalytica :(http://www.onalytica.com) #1 influencer in Unified Communications, #6 Influencer in IoT, #5 influencer in Cloud. Contact Evan: Web: www.evankirstel.com Twitter: @evankirstel Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evankirstel/ Contact Avrohom: web: http://asktheceo.biz email: avrohomg@asktheceo.biz Twitter: @avrohomg Instagram: @avrohomg Phone: +1 (845) 418-5340 Phone: +972-72-224-4449 Avrohom is a Cybersecurity advisor who specializes in security solutions for Telecom Providers and Contact Centers in Global Organizations. He comes from a 20+ year career in Telecom, where he helped businesses around the world install and maintain their communication systems and contact centers. He is a Top-ranked global IoT expert by Postscapes.com, followed worldwide on Twitter, and a frequent speaker on using technology to accelerate revenue growth. Avrohom is also the founder of #AskTheCEO, an online technology thought leadership community, whose mission is to create an online platform where people can go to learn about the latest in technology, without a sales pitch, jargon, or call to action. Listen to him share the latest technology trends, tools, and best practices, on #AskTheCEO — broadcasted on YouTube, with all shows available on iTunes and Sound Cloud.

Growing revenue is a top priority for most B2B IT solutions providers. New customer acquisition is one way of accomplishing this, but we all know that winning new accounts in today’s hyper competitive IT market is really hard. So what else can drive this growth? The simple answer is: taking better care of existing customers. I know it sounds obvious, but the reality is, very few IT solutions providers have client management resources that are focused on growing existing relationships and do a good job The post 5 Not-to-be Missed Opportunities for Growing Customer Revenues appeared first on ZINFI.