Podcasts about b2b technology

Discover how to transform complex business relationships with Peter Bonney, CEO and founder of VendorFool, as he reveals the untapped opportunity in procurement technology. In this value-packed conversation, Peter shares his journey from 13 years in investment management to launching two successful SaaS startups that are revolutionizing how businesses engage with vendors. You'll learn how his platform eliminates repetitive, time-consuming questionnaires so sales teams can focus on their highest-value activities—solving customer problems. Peter candidly discusses his mid-career pivot at age 40, offering a refreshing perspective on embracing new challenges regardless of age. His powerful advice to "embrace failure" and "don't wait for perfection" provides a practical framework for entrepreneurs looking to accelerate growth. Whether you're considering a career transition or seeking to optimize your business processes in the age of AI, Peter's insights will help you play big faster by putting your ideas into action before they're "fully ready."

If you're finding it challenging to manage marketing tasks, teams, and leadership responsibilities, this episode of the FINITE Podcast is for you. In this episode, we delve into the crucial role of strategy with Juliette Aiken, CMO at Dotdigital.Juliette offers her perspective on what strategy really means, who should be responsible for it, why it often gets overlooked, and practical steps you can take to prioritise and develop an effective strategy.By the end of this episode, you'll have actionable advice on how to ensure strategy remains a focal point in your marketing efforts and how to foster strategic thinking within your team.

Salesforce.com is THE leader among their peers (11 straight years) in Customer Relationship Management solutions.   Phil Nanus leads Salesforce's Customer Success organization, a team of over 2000 employees.  He shared invaluable insights into how Salesforce is revolutionizing customer success through innovation, trust, and technology.  Here are my 3 key takeaways from our conversation: - **Embrace Technology for Customer Success:** Salesforce is leveraging AI to enhance customer experiences and improve sales; their collaboration with Gucci is a great example. The rise of AI and generative AI paves the way for more personalized and efficient customer interactions. - **Core Values Drive Success:** Salesforce's commitment to values such as trust, innovation, equality, and sustainability is foundational. Their one-one-one philanthropic model (donating 1% of time, products, and profits) and V2MOM document, ensure alignment and a clear vision across the organization. - **Passion and Lifelong Learning:** Phil's advice to university students is gold – find your passion and be a lifelong learner. Passion fuels opportunity, and embracing failure is crucial for growth and learning. Phil shared a number of practical applications on how you get to be “Technology Led and Customer Obsessed” on this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast. Phil Nanus is the Executive Vice President of Account Success within Salesforce's Customer Success organization. His team helps orchestrate the Salesforce customer experience and partners closely with Sales to create growth and value realization through strategic customer care. Since joining Salesforce in 2021, Phil has focused on customer health by working to optimize adoption, customer expertise, and technical health, at every stage of the customer lifecycle. He is passionate about helping customers build trust and maximize value from Salesforce products while enabling career growth and development for members of the Account Success team. Prior to Salesforce, Phil spent over 20 years in SaaS, Enterprise Software and management consulting (Accenture, Symantec, Infor, TSIA). Phil holds dual bachelor's degrees from the University of Central Florida. He currently lives in Florida with his wife and three children. Resources The Delighted Customers podcast website:https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/ Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/ The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Account Based Marketing is a popular approach for many large companies.But for smaller companies, Account Based Marketing can seem confusing or out of reach.But it doesn't have to be!On this episode, we have Mike Maynard, Managing Director of Napier B2B, a $7M PR and Marketing Agency for B2B Technology companies.Mike explains why startups and small companies should be using ABM and how it will enable them to compete in tough markets, particularly if they need to win business against larger companies.In this episode, you'll discover:What types of companies Account Based Marketing is forThe benefits of Account Based MarketingHow to identify the accounts you want to market toHow to start using Account Based MarketingYou can find Mike at Napier B2B and on LinkedIn.If you liked this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

In this riveting episode of the Sustainable Supply Chain Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Ferdi Reynolds, a principal at VC firm SuperSeed, about the transformative potential of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing and supply chains. Ferdi shared his insights on the immense opportunities that Industry 4.0 presents, not just for economic growth, but for sustainability and efficiency improvements across industries.We delved into the slow adoption rates of new technologies in traditional industries and discussed the staggering $15 trillion opportunity that lies in harnessing AI and other innovations to boost global GDP by 2030. Ferdi highlighted the crucial role of startups and investors in driving meaningful change, from enhancing resource efficiency to achieving significant energy savings in manufacturing processes.SuperSeed's approach to investing in early-stage B2B tech startups is particularly fascinating, focusing on companies that are not just technologically viable but also have a clear understanding of their market pull. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.Ferdi's optimism about Europe's role in this global shift, backed by its rich technical talent and advanced manufacturing capabilities, is both inspiring and a call to action. As we explore the cutting edge of Industry 4.0, it's clear that the journey towards more sustainable and efficient supply chains is not just a possibility, but a necessity.For those looking to make an impact or learn more about the exciting opportunities in Industry 4.0, this episode is an invaluable resource. Dive in to discover how innovation is shaping the future of our industries, one startup at a time. Or check out the video version of this podcast at https://youtu.be/BxagMv2jLJE. Support the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Krishna Kumar Christophe Kottelat Olivier Brusle Alicia Farag Joël VANDI Luis Olavarria Alvaro Aguilar And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!FinallyIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

In this episode of Pro AV Today, host Ben Thomas is joined by Mark Peterson from Shen, Milson & Wilke to dissect the intricate relationship between consumer preferences and B2B technologies. They focus on shifts in the consumer world that are progressively influencing the B2B technology landscape, particularly in the AV industry.Mark emphasizes the growing impact of consumer-driven e-commerce and service models on the B2B domain. He highlights the evolution from product-centric to service-oriented offerings, underlining the significance of added value services in B2B transactions. This shift indicates a move beyond traditional technology offerings, focusing instead on the overall customer experience and the added benefits accompanying products.The conversation then pivots to the role of technology in enhancing human experiences. Peterson points out the accelerated changes due to COVID-19, where technologies previously limited to personal use are now integral in professional settings. He remarks, "We've finally realized that our end users exist both in the home and in the office space," illustrating how the blending of personal and professional tech environments is shaping user expectations and product development in the B2B sector.In discussing the future trajectory of technology in business, Peterson touches upon the influence of consumer choice and market instability, noting, "Customers' values are changing, but it's (still) inconsistent behavior." This unpredictability necessitates a more flexible and responsive approach from B2B companies to meet the evolving demands of their clientele. The integration of consumer preferences into B2B strategies, especially in retail, shows a significant overlap between the two realms, where strategies like omni-channel marketing are becoming crucial.Tune in to the full episode for more!

Meet Adam Robinson, an incredible entrepreneur who built a $20 million company without spending a cent on marketing. Learn his secrets to creating engaging content, mastering LinkedIn, and documenting your entrepreneurial journey. Turn your ideas into reality and unlock your startup's potential with Adam's guidance.Key Takeaways:- Learn why traditional outreach strategies are no longer effective and discover innovative approaches for today's market.- Uncover the secrets to creating compelling video content that captivates your audience and drives engagement.- Find out how to establish a strong brand presence on LinkedIn and leverage it for business growth.- Get inspired by the billion-dollar challenge and learn how documenting your journey can lead to unprecedented success.- Gain insights into transforming your ideas into market-leading strategies with real-world examples and actionable advice.__Brought to you by Distribute—the page builder that even you Abuelita can use. __Find the full transcript at: http://www.distribute.so/podcasts/zero-to-20m-arr-with-no-marketing-adam-robinson-retention-com__Where to find Adam Robinson: • X: https://twitter.com/RetentionAdam• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/• Website: https://retention.com/• Email: adam@retention.com__Where to find Andy:• Newsletter: https://www.andysnewsletter.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amewborn/• X: https://twitter.com/andymewborn__In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Discussion on B2B Technology and LinkedIn URLs(02:30) Strategy for LinkedIn Lead Generation(05:00) Transition from DTC to B2B Focus(07:30) Content Creation and LinkedIn Strategy(10:00) Impact of Founder Brand and Social Media Presence(12:30) Challenges and Strategies in Content Creation(15:00) Exploring Different Social Media Platforms for Business Growth(17:30) Future Plans and Strategies for Content and Branding(20:00) Closing Thoughts and Plans for a Follow-up Discussion

26/10/23: How Talent Acquisition and Recruitment is Broken for B2Bs! -  Unless you know a raft of different people, you will need to employ someone in Talent Acquisition or the services of either a recruitment agency, LinkedIn or a consultant to help you.When it comes to sales and marketing in the B2B arena, I can safely say you're going to be in for a bumpy ride and quite possibly you'll lose your company – why – because in the main, you are being told a bunch of ‘huey' because very few, if any, know the necessary blend required to build an effective sales and marketing team – fact. If you think I'm talking nonsense, join me this Thursday at 11:00am (or watch on catch-up) to learn why Recruitment and Talent Acquisition are unable to fulfil the roles they purport to offer in today's cut-and-thrust of B2B Technology, SaaS and Services, sales and marketing.  

Sean Campbell is a revered figure in the B2B technology landscape, embodying a rich blend of expertise, mentorship, and a clear-eyed understanding of market dynamics. As the CEO and Founder of Cascade Insights, with over 17 years under his belt, Sean has been at the forefront in delivering strategic insights and actionable intelligence to a broad spectrum of players in the tech industry, ranging from budding startups to established tech giants. Our discourse delved into his conceptual framework of the "Age of Narrow," a term he coined to advocate for transparency and explicit communication of a company's competencies and constraints to the market, aimed at building a foundation of trust with prospective clients.A crucial part of our discussion circled around the notion of engendering trust through a candid representation of one's business capabilities. Sean eloquently stated, "I would say that what you will find if you embrace the age of Narrow... you're going to create trust. Because the one thing I believe people wonder about when they listen to or engage with any piece of content is they're wondering kind of what its limits are or what its boundaries are." His insights highlight the imperative of navigating the skepticism prevalent in today's marketing and sales communications.Sean's passion extends beyond the boardroom into the classroom, where he has mentored and educated business professionals. His teaching stint at Willamette University, coupled with his co-authored eBook on maximizing web resources, showcases his dedication to fostering a culture of continuous learning and actionable intelligence. He shares, "I ultimately want these people to excel in their own areas and domains, to be way better than anything I could ever hope to be." This nurturing perspective underscores his commitment to advancing a growth-oriented culture within and beyond his professional sphere.The episode is a treasure trove of Sean's accumulated wisdom on fostering a culture of transparency, the virtue of being an educator in the business realm, and strategically navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape. Sean's narrative underscores the importance of honest communication and educational leadership in cultivating trust and propelling forward in the B2B tech domain.

In this episode of the SalesStar Podcast, Jason Smith, Senior Sales Engineer at CallTrackingMetrics, (a digital platform that uses call tracking intelligence to inform contact center operations) joined us to talk about current trends in B2B tech sales; Key topics covered Biggest misunderstandings when it comes to technology sales Sales Ops and SalesTech processes that work well today The impact of generative AI to these functions

Doug Broad, Principal of Three Rings Inc., shares how his agency's hands-on media relations approach positively affects its employees and clients. Doug also discusses how analyst relations should go beyond simply getting in reports and explains some trends they are seeing in the VC space.

Mike Maynard, Managing Director of Napier, The Awareness to Opportunity Agency Delivering Results for B2B Technology Clients Napierb2b.com The Napier 4-Step Process Napier's unique four-step process is designed to optimise B2B tech PR and marketing campaigns. It takes the best research on effective ways to deliver great PR and marketing campaigns and distils it into four simple steps: DETERMINE, FOCUS, DELIVER and ENHANCE. Their 4-step process and marketing expertise helps our clients move prospects from awareness to opportunity more quickly, delivering measurable results that help them achieve their business goals.

In this episode, B2B International's Head of Growth, Nick Hague, is joined by LinkedIn's Kristen Johanson, to discuss how to build B2B technology brands that shine using key learnings from LinkedIn's 8th Annual Technology Buying Report, Brand to Buyer. Read the full Brand to Buyer report - https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/success/tech-buyer-research-report Learn more about the 95/5 rule discussed in today's episode - https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute/b2b-research/trends/95-5-rule

Matt Walde runs an inbound marketing agency called Brightlark. He focuses on B2B SaaS companies and tech. They're often challenged when it comes to growing and scaling their businesses. With Inbound marketing solutions from Brightlark, clients predictably attract, engage, and retain more of the right clients. Their clients see more leads, more customers, and a higher lifetime value from their user base. They've been in business over 16 years, and have helped over 400 companies grow online. They're a HubSpot certified agency, and a Google Premier Partner. He's also a UGURUS Elite member.

Friday, March 10th, 2023 - a moment in B2B Technology and Start-Up ecosystem history that many will never forget and hopefully provides a foundation for learning the risks and rewards of venture-backed, early-stage entrepreneurship.Todd Gardner founded SaaS Capital in 2007, the industry's first "recurring revenue credit facility".  Before names like Salesforce, Workday, and Snowflake were well-known names, Todd experienced the financial crisis of 2008 and experienced firsthand the impact of a systemic banking issue including the meltdown of his financial partners.Our goal for this episode of the podcast is to provide practical insights and advice that SaaS founders, CEOs, and CFOs can apply to decrease the risks associated with their financial related decisions and banking decisions.We started with the basic, summary facts surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB):December 31, 2022, SVB financial disclosure:  - $209 B in total assets - $175.4B in total depositsMarch 8th: SVB disclosed a $1.8B loss on the fire sale of $21B in long-term assetsMarch 8th - 10th: ~ $42B in deposit withdraws were made by SVB customersFriday, March 10th: SVB was declared insolvent and closed by U.S regulatorsSunday, March 12th: U.S. government including the FDIC, US Treasury, and Federal Reserve announced that all deposits (100%) would be backstopped - made good because SVB had more than enough assets to cover the outstanding liabilities, primarily customer deposits. Essentially the US government is managing the risk which is primarily a "time-based" issue versus a balance sheet issue.Todd next provided an industry backdrop that lead to the run on SVB. Due to the accelerated ramp of venture capital investing in 2020 - 2021, the deposits on hand at SVB doubles. As standard bank operating practice, SVB invested a significant portion of those deposits in long-term bonds and treasuries, which had a low return due to the low-interest rates of the moment.During the second half of 2022, interest rates began to increase dramatically, and the result was that the value of the long-term bonds decreased in value. Simultaneously many customers were moving their deposits at SVB into higher interest-rate instruments outside of SVB - forcing SVB to sell some long-term assets to support the decrease in deposits.Due to the above macroeconomic interest rate dynamics, coupled with the short-term issues created by a handful of Venture Capital firms quietly recommending their portfolio companies move their deposits out of SVB.We next discussed the "financial ecosystem" that has been the foundation that fueled the amazing growth of the technology industry which includes:  - Over half of the technology start-ups banked with SVB - Over half of Venture Capital firms in technology banked with SVB for Capital Call - Line of CreditHaving the primary source of assets and liabilities from the same industry ultimately becomes a material issue for SVB.The above is a backdrop to the insights and advice that Todd shared for how this experience can inform future financial and banking decisions by SaaS founders, CEOs, and CFOs which include:#1: Diversify banking relationships including checking, savings, and credit facilities                  - have at least 2 banks and/or treasury based money-market account#2: Understand the banking relationships that your payables and payroll firms use#3. Maintain fiscal discipline throughout the start-up journey to change the narrative from "cash runway" to ongoing operating profit as early as possibleIf you are interested in learning more about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and what it means to the financial strategy of SaaS CEOs and CFOs going forward, this conversation with Todd is a great listen.

On episode 18 of The Insiders podcast, hosts Richard Lane and Simon Hazeldine are joined by Jason Harvey (VP of Solution Sales EMEA at Zebra Technologies) to talk about the shift from product selling to solution selling, and why creating a culture of innovation is key to driving growth in the industrial technology market. Jason also discusses:The importance of wielding a 'be curious' attitudeUpskilling your salespeople for maximum successWhy losses are just as important as wins and how to come back strongerWhy it's crucial not to overwhelm your buyers, or your sellersListen now.

In this solo episode of Billion Dollar Tech, Brendan breaks down the highlights from his interview with Guy Tytunovich, founder of go to market security company Cheq.ai. Guy founded a unicorn company, and part of this discussion will focus on the unique challenges and considerations of this particular scenario.  Much of the advice is invaluable to all entrepreneurs including the best method of company-wide communication, recognizing a pain point and finding a solution (and not the other way around) and deciding the best time to launch.  Brendan discusses what makes a great leader and why Guy embodies that.  Quotes: “With Guy, I don't know him well, I only know him from this conversation. But it felt very authentic and very real. To me, it didn't feel like a guy who was pandering or just trying to sound good.” (8:29-8:40 | Brendan)  “You can't rest on what is.” (11:43-11:45 | Brendan) “You'd rather have a smaller piece of a bigger pie and a team that feels engaged, and that feels appreciated and that loves what you're doing rather than somebody who is just sort of phoning it in or sees you as another one of the things that they're working on.” (14:10-14:25 | Brendan) Connect with Brendan Dell: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell Instagram: @thebrendandellTikTok: @brendandell39 Buy a copy of Brendan's Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926 Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Billion Dollar Tech on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Use code Brendan30 for 30% off your annual membership with RiverSide.fm  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Joe McNeill, Chief Revenue Officer at Influ2, shares his experience setting up the right foundations to enable revenue teams to successfully collaborate to achieve revenue outcomes.

The content marketing in B2B is changing. But what will that look like? Evan Kirstel, Top B2B Technology Influencer, joined your host Bryan Kramer to discuss the future of content marketing in B2B, how recycling content is a major opportunity for content creators, and why community will be the key to your marketing strategy moving forward. --- More about Leadtail: https://www.leadtail.com Follow us on social! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Leadtail Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadtail Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadtail/

With Tara O'Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Omnipresent. This Week, Conor is joined by Tara O'Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Omnipresent. Tara has over 25 years of extensive experience in B2B Technology & Marketing. In this episode, Tara discusses how marketing can be as effective for B2B companies as for consumer, because at the end of the day, the purpose of both consumer and business marketing is to create an environment where a sale can occur. Tara believes B2B its understanding people's pain within a business and being more than just a provider of a solution, but also a partner. Tara is incredibly honest and doesn't hold back. You will hopefully learn a lot from this episode and get ready to laugh too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Mike Faherty Guest Bio: Mike is the CEO and Founder of ProSales Connection. He founded the business in 2009 to help B2B companies create sustainable growth. Mike started his career at Compaq Computer Corporation, then went on to lead sales teams at Hewlett Packard and Western Union. Today, Mike is focused on building the world's best sales and marketing agency for B2B Technology and EdTech companies. Mike loves to share his experience with growth-minded business leaders who are looking for a proven playbook to make their vision a reality.   Guest Links: www.prosalesconnection.com http://www.prosalesconnection.com/cmo-planner     About Salesology®: Conversations with Sales Leaders Download your free gift, The Salesology® Vault. The vault is packed full of free gifts from sales leaders, sales experts, marketing gurus and revenue generation experts.  Download your free gift, 81 Tools to Grow Your Sales & Your Business Faster, More Easily & More Profitably. Save hours of work tracking down the right prospecting and sales resources and/or digital tools that every business owner and salesperson needs. Watch the demo of the Salesology® Prospecting Method, A Simple, 3-Step Method That, On Average, Increases Qualified Appointments & Sales By 73%. If you are a business owner or sales manager with an under-performing sales team, let's talk. Click here to schedule a time. Please, subscribe to Salesology®: Conversations with Sales Leaders so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! To learn more about our previous guests, listen to past episodes, and get to know your host, go to https://podcast.gosalesology.com/ and connect on LinkedIn and follow us on Facebook and Twitter and checkout our website at http://www.gosalesology.com

Green Leads Michael Farrell, Green Leads   – The Sharkpreneur podcast with Seth Greene Episode 732 Michael Farrell Mike Farrell is the CEO of Green Leads, a company that provides their B2B Technology clients, from startup to enterprise, with meetings, lead generation, and content syndication. Mike has an incredible track record of building companies and growing pipelines and ultimately revenue. He has extensive experience selling into B2B and public sector markets, building sales development organizations as well as developing channel partnerships.   Mike has 30+ years of sales, marketing and business leadership experience. He led the growth of By Appointment Only (BAO) for 15 years as Chief Operating Officer. His style of positive leadership helped BAO establish the pay-forperformance appointment setting category, helping to scale technology and SaaS businesses across North America. Prior to BAO, Mike was SVP of Sales at PC Connection (NASDAQ: CNXN), where he led the transformation to a B2B sales model, doubling revenue to $1.4B in his tenure. At CompuCom Systems (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Office Depot) Mike was VP of Sales of Public Sector after its acquisition of CIC System where he was VP of Sales, Marketing & Professional Services for the national IT solutions provider. Earlier in his career he held numerous sales leadership positions at CIC and Copley Systems where he was the integration specialist folding in the acquisitions of two firms to create the national footprint.He holds a BS in Business Administration from Merrimack College.   He is a member of AA-ISP, past President of the Hopkinton HS Athletic Booster Association, and is on the Board of Bright Spirits Children's Foundation. He and his wife of 30+ years, Kathleen, live in Massachusetts and have four adult children.   Listen to this illuminating Sharkpreneur episode with Mike Farrell about his company, Green Leads. Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week's show: - How Green Leads is a B2B lead and appointment generation company. - Why need good content to bring in and generate new leads. - How opt-in leads are a big deal due to data privacy concerns. - How Green Leads can help your business reach a new audience. - Why big companies choose to hire Green Leads as one of their many vendors.   Connect with Michael: Guest Contact Info Twitter @greenleads Facebook facebook.com/greenleads LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/michaelfarrell24 Links Mentioned: GreenLeads.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The average tenure of a Vice President of Sales in the B2B Cloud industry is reported to be anywhere between 16 - 20 months, with 18 months being the median.Why is the tenure so short?  Is this really an issue considering the high growth rates of B2B Cloud companies?  How can we increase the tenure of the VP Sales?Amy Volas has a broad array of experiences in B2B Technology including roles as enterprise sales professional, recruiter, and sales leadership, and is well-positioned to opine on this critical topic.B2B Tech sales experiences a 30%+ attrition every year and this was before the trending topic of the Great Resignation!Missing the VP Sales hire is a seven-figure mistake, and there are basic steps that can be taken to reduce the probability of a poor fit hire.It starts first with clearly defining the "job" that needs to be done now, and not hiring for the future state 2-3 years down the road.  Identifying the "milestone" that you want the VP Sales to help you attain is a great first step.  Being real, by clearly defining the "work" that needs to be done NOW is critical to hiring the candidate who has the experience and skill sets to accomplish that goal, but may not be the right person to lead the efforts to the second or third milestone years down the road. In fact, in Amy's 20 years of experience, she has only seen one (1) VP Sales successfully scale from $1M to $1B+.Just because a VP Sales has been part of a company that scaled to $100M+, that does not necessarily translate to what is needed when a company is just beginning to scale from $1M to $5M.  By clearly defining what is needed in the next 12 months, you can develop the criteria, including specific experiences and skills sets, all captured within an associated scorecard for the VP Sales candidates.Being honest is a top recommendation that Amy says every CEO needs to bring into the VP Sales recruitment process.  At $1M ARR, let the candidate know that you are hiring a VP Sales to get to $10M ARR, and that this person may or may not be the VP Sales when the company is trying to scale from $20M to $50M.This honesty in the VP Sales recruitment process goes both ways, as a candidate who may be a great fit for scaling a company from $20M to $100M+ may not be a good fit for scaling a business from $1M to $10M.  An example, if a candidate wants to be a CRO, responsible for marketing, sales, and customer success for a company with less than $1M ARR, they may be a "poor fit" for this stage of the company.  It is imperative to be very careful and precise in this hyper-competitive market. Stepping back and clearly defining the top goals for the VP Sales candidate over the next 12 months is critical to minimizing the risk of over or under-hiring for this critical role.A key takeaway from this conversation - with a 18-month average tenure for a VP Sales in the B2B Cloud industry may be ok...as long as both the candidate and the hiring executive is honest and transparent about the role, the goals, and the commitment to providing an environment for growth...though it may not be in the top sales executive role. Amy also highlights the importance of "self-awareness".  No one can be great at every aspect of their role, and being able to admit when you need help and then be confident in asking for help.   All too often, assumptions between the CEO and VP Sales lead to a lack of credibility and/or trust. As a sales leader, being able to say this is where I need help, here is the result of me getting assistance and this is who I need help from (type of person/resource) and what it will cost.If you are hiring or interviewing for a VP Sales role in the B2B Tech industry, this conversation with Amy Volas is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Contact info:Mike Farrell Green Leads LLC 508-922-2507 Mike.Farrell@GreenLeads.com Website: https://Green-Leads.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfarrell24 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/greenleads Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenleads Bio:Mike Farrell is the CEO of Green Leads, a company that provides their B2B Technology clients, from startup to enterprise, with meetings, lead generation, and content syndication. Mike has an incredible track record of building companies and growing pipelines and ultimately revenue. He has extensive experience selling into B2B and public sector markets, building sales development organizations as well as developing channel partnerships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Benchmarks - a concept for only the most mature and advanced company or a foundational metrics component for any company seeking to make data-driven, metrics-informed decisions?Lauren Kelley is the founder and CEO of OPEX Engine,  a leader in capturing and publishing B2B Technology company benchmarks.  Lauren's background includes being the revenue leader for an early B2B platform leader, and prior to that as an economist for the US Department of Commerce.Immediately prior to recording this podcast, Bain and Company announced their acquisition of OPEX Engine, which goes a long way towards establishing the VALUE of B2B Cloud benchmarks.Lauren's vision has evolved over the 15-year history of OPEXEngine.  Initially, Lauren believed that the real value was in the "operating benchmarks" as they are so much harder to capture and see how your internal KPIs measure up.  Traditionally, operating executives would reach out to "known" contacts in the industry who had experience in similar companies.How are companies using benchmarks to inform their decision-making process?  The primary use of benchmarks tends to be on an annual basis, or as Lauren calls an informational "benchmark user" to help with the budget and planning process.  On the other end of the spectrum, the strategic "benchmark user" understands benchmarking is a management process and will use the benchmarks on a much more regular basis - similar to how they would use internal metrics and data to assist in the decision-making process.Strategic users of benchmarks will work closely with their business partners (operators) to dive into the next level to see why certain "top-level" metrics are out of line with industry benchmarks.  Benchmarking is not just to identify problems - it is to find efficiencies that may otherwise not be as easy to identify.  An example is that if your CAC Payback Period is significantly better than your cohort - it may suggest it's time to accelerate investment in customer acquisition.What are some of the key "operating benchmarks" that can be used, and how to be confident in the appropriateness of how the benchmarks align with your company's specific attributes? Lauren highlighted that first it takes time working with consistent metrics with consistent definitions across companies.  Having a third party who has a specialty in collecting, normalizing, and standardizing the data (benchmarks) collected and ensures a common definition, thus calculation of each metric is a critical component to the ultimate value of benchmarks.The CFO and finance organization is typically the primary "version of the truth" for internal metrics and thus the primary user of external benchmarks.  One of the values of using benchmarks is to counter "legacy knowledge" of certain metrics which has evolved.  An example here was the decrease in General and Administrative (G&A) expenses as a percentage of revenue over the last few years.One great best practice on using benchmarks was when a company CFO sends the annual budget to the board of directors.  Along with the budget, he would include the benchmarks for how similar companies benchmark on expense allocation between each department. This provides "context" for the budget and leads to much easier board approval on the budget, and leaves more time for more strategic discussions during the board meeting.Lauren is a true pioneer in benchmarking for the B2B Cloud industry and is a great listen for any finance or operating leader who is looking to enhance how they make better metrics informed, benchmark validated decisions.

Modern B2B Sales was significantly, and forever altered by COVID-19.  The trends are not new, but were definitely accelerated in 2020 and 2021.Joseph is a multi-time founder of B2B SaaS companies, and his experience, frustration and challenge with scaling the sales organization was the catalyst to founding a company, Uvaro, purpose built to train the modern B2B sales professional.As a trained engineer, Joseph wants to see the data that measures the variables that lead to the highest performing sales organization and sales professional.  The patterns Joseph  was able to identify within the top performing sales organizations, was easy to capture and the better news, not that hard to replicate.One of the key challenges Joseph sees is that corporations cannot continuously train new sales hires.  Thus the average ramp time can be 6, 8 even 12 months.  The impact, quota delivery is dramatically decreased in the first year of employment.  The resultant goal - how to train sales professionals not only continuously throughout the year, but even before they are hired in early career roles.Uvaro  teaches and trains students with little to no B2B tech sales experience.   Uvaro's median student have a median income of $28,000 coming into training (21st percentile) and exit the training program with on target earnings of $70K and greater (46th quartile).Less than 2% of colleges have a sales curriculum or a sales major.  Joseph highlights "prestige" as a factor in the lack of adoption and introduction of sales majors in college.  However, as the Cloud industry marches towards total revenue of $800B+, the industry will need 360,000 additional sales professionals to achieve that level.CEOs, whose success depends on finding and hiring sales professionals, should be motivated to encourage their local colleges and alma maters to introduce sales curriculum, even a sales major to produce more early career sales professionals.   What are the skills required for the modern B2B sales professional of the future?  One significant factor impacting these skills is the evolution of Product-Led Growth as a customer acquisition motion.  Joseph views this as a re-allocation of investments from marketing to product, and will not materially affect the need for sales professionals,  In fact, the average B2B SaaS companies has twice an many sales professionals as they do engineers, and this trend is not changing.In a PLG company, sales professionals will need to become an expert in the industry and the business process of their customers, with an increased focus on the business value your product enables.One additional aspect of the modern sales professional will be the ability to expand and retain existing customers in a recurring revenue model. The core skill required for this - the ability to build and maintain trust based relationships with their customers.Lastly, Joseph shared that grit and understanding how to leverage a system to your advantage are two key reasons why even classically trained engineers and other technical roles can be leveraged to build a successful sales career.Joseph is a great listen for anyone considering or just wants to learn about a career in B2B Technology sales.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Jeremy C. Park talks with David "Ledge" Ledgerwood, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Add1Zero, who shares what led him to start the company that provides lead-to-close sales execution for B2B tech-enabled services companies ready to leap from 6 to 7 digits of revenue. During the interview, David discusses their process and how they help companies scale, lessons learned from clients and during the pandemic, and helping founders never have to worry about cash flow again.Once a lead hits your CRM we take over until it's closed, passing the new client on to your onboaring and CX team. For you, it means better cashflow, money in the bank, and no larger payroll. All while gaining access to senior sales professionals who are happy to knowledge share.Our passion: Any founder we work with will never have to worry about cash flow again.Founders reach a point where they either operate or they sell. And we're here to support them.Revenue is king. Yes, we want to produce it with high integrity, but ultimately that's what makes a business work.Website:                https://add1zero.co/LinkedIn:               https://www.linkedin.com/company/add1zero/Email:                     ledge@add1zero.co

Conversion Copywriting for Business Growth, with Sarah L. Parker Sarah L. Parker is an experienced, results-driven copywriter. She joined host John Ray to discuss conversion copywriting, what makes it different than traditional copywriting, and why conversion copywriting is crucial to make a website effective and profitable. “Business Leaders Radio” is produced virtually from the Business […]

Jeff Leo Herrmann is our special guest from Youngstown Publishing Company.  He  is the CEO of The Youngstown Publishing Company and also the President of Madison, Michigan, and Market.  The YPC publishes The Business Journal, Brain Gain, and After Hours Youngstown. MMM is a boutique advisory firm. Herrmann has spent the last 25 years as both an operator and investor in digital media and marketing technology companies. Herrmann is a high-impact business leader with expertise in developing and executing multi-million dollar deals in technology, media, and analytical services. Jeff works in high-visibility, highly competitive markets of CPG, Retail, Healthcare, Media, SaaS, B2B Technology, and Advertising/Marketing Services.Jeff's passion lies in the design and development of strategies to leverage content, technology, and data to accelerate sales and realize extraordinary growth.Jeff earned an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Economics and Finance. He's also a proud graduate of THE Ohio State University. In addition to being a mobile marketing pioneer, you won't find a bigger content marketing zealot with an intense belief that brands are better off engaging their audiences with educational and entertaining content instead of blasting them with massive traditional advertising campaigns. This perspective is well informed after a 15-year career at The Nielsen Company spent in audience measurement and advertising effectiveness.As a Boomerang back to NE Ohio after 15 years split between Chicago and New York, and his time on the speaker circuit presenting in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Munich, and Milan, Jeff has an intense appreciation for work-life synergy and the power of virtual work environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflherrmann/https://businessjournaldaily.comhttps://madisontomarket.comLink to Brain Gain: https://open.spotify.com/show/1AeETgS485pU6kU9YNSPNU

Jeffrey Silverman is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Laconia Capital Group, a venture capital firm that invests in B2B startups at a seed-stage level. Laconia is sector agnostic, but they focus specifically on startups that are building technology to replace analog workflows. In this episode, Jeffrey talks about how he first stumbled into his venture fund and why he decided to invest exclusively in early-stage startups. He also provides insight into his process for determining which startups to invest in and compares the startup pitching process with going on a first date. Tune in to hear Jeffrey dish on what his day-to-day as managing partner at a VC firm is like. He shares his take on trends he sees taking off in the startup space in the future, and explains why being able to handle rejection is a crucial skill that can lead to great outcomes. You can reach Jeffrey at jeffrey@laconiacapitalgroup.com or find him on LinkedIn or Twitter - let him know you found him through the Startup Happy Hour podcast. And don’t forget to check out Laconia Capital Group at the link below! Laconia Capital Group: https://www.laconiacapitalgroup.com/ SUBSCRIBE to Startup Happy Hour to get episodes like this delivered to your device every Tuesday! WEBSITE: https://www.startuphappyhourpodcast.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/startuphappyhour/ CONNECT with Diana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianadchen/ TWEET at Diana: https://twitter.com/ddwchen

Gemma Milne talks with Jordan Jewell, leader of IDC’s Digital Commerce research practice, about the differences between customer expectations for B2B and B2C shoppers, how B2B sellers need different technology than B2C companies, which technologies are helping B2B companies be more resilient, and how to choose the right solutions for your business or industry. About Jordan JewellJordan Jewell is a Research Manager for IDC's Enterprise Applications and Digital Commerce team and leads IDC's Digital Commerce research practice. In this role, he leads research initiatives addressing both B2B and B2C digital commerce platforms, digital marketplaces, product information management, order management, and adjacent technologies that facilitate online commerce. Jordan joined IDC in 2015.Learn more:https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF004456 Topics of discussionMaturity of digital commerce adoption by B2B orgs (02:03)Impact of pandemic disruption on the B2B business environment (04:47)How the actual procurement process affects a B2B buyer’s expectations (10:56)The importance of ERP for B2B digital commerce (17:50)Keeping up with sales “channel explosion” (28:19)How B2B commerce will be transformed in the future (30:15) Sponsor linkLearn how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce can help you personalize customer engagement, increase employee productivity, and optimize operations. Request a live demo today:https://aka.ms/AA8ku82 Contact usEmail: connectedandready@microsoft.com Follow us on social mediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/msftdynamics365LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/microsoft-dynamicsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJGCg4rB3QSs8y_1FquelBQ

Garett McDonald is an entrepreneur, digital marketing enthusiast, and the founder of LeadFeed - an outbound marketing agency specializing in lead generation and LinkedIn outreach for B2B Technology companies. In this episode we cover 1) Garett's journey working for his family business and transitioning to starting his own business (LeadFeed Media) 2) His relationship with overcoming fear, uncertainty, and anxiety 3) Covering the basics that will have the biggest impact on your life: Nutrition, Sleeping right, Drinking Water, Exercising, Meditation.

Every company creates its own story and personality that presents to the world. Thus, our guest in today’s Expert Insight Interview is Margie Agin, and she will talk about brand storytelling and how a company can form its unique brand personality.

Chris Peat is the global head of digital marketing at BearingPoint.  He leads digital marketing, websites and social media channels across Europe and beyond, managing digital agencies and a nearshore team.  He's best when: coaching people and teams, developing digital marketing strategy, launching new websites and services, looking under the hood at data and giving insights, managing external agencies and most of all, looking at what opportunities tomorrow can bring. We discuss: B2B technology trends  How BearingPoint responded to COVID 19 Marketing a global consulting firm How digital marketing has changed  Global thought leadership  Managing agency relationships  Enjoy the chat.   

Nick Clark is the Managing Director of Nelson Bostok. After being with the business for over 20 years and MD for 7, there is very little he doesn't know about growing B2B technology brands. Toshiba has been a client for 30 years, Cannon for 18 years. We discuss: How they got over the tricky £4 and £5 million turnover barrier.  They introduced new business process, hired some amazing people, added an integrated offering which gave them the skills of account-based marketing, marketing automation, attribution, they also made some smart acquisitions. This is a masterclass in helping clients grow and achieving their own agency business goals in the process. They’re one of those agencies whose name keeps popping up from time to time but you don't know too much about. except that they’ve got some amazing clients and keep showing on the top B2B agencies list. they don’t shout about themselves a lot, they fly under the radar but continue to produce great work. Enjoy the chat.

Adrian Lambert  is the marketing director at Blackbird plc He has a deep experience of successfully running the marketing operations for public companies, PE-backed businesses and B2B SMEs. He is A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and implements highly effective, no-nonsense marketing plans that deliver to the bottom line.  He has grown multiple companies in the UK and international markets operating in the technology, software, manufacturing, entertainment and aerospace.    We discussed: How he got his start in marketing Career lessons from his time in aviation The growth of Blackbird PLC The impact of COVID 19 on the business Working with agencies  Successes and failures

Jeff Leo Herrmann is the CEO of The Youngstown Publishing Company and also the President of Madison, Michigan and Market. The YPC publishes The Business Journal, Brain Gain, and After Hours Youngstown. MMM is a boutique advisory firm.In this episode, we talk with Jeff about a career in digital media and marketing technology that took him around the globe, why he decided to return home to Ohio, and his work in trying to keep and recruit talent back to Youngstown. Herrmann has spent the last 25 years as both an operator and/or investor in digital media and marketing technology companies. Herrmann is a high-impact business leader with expertise in developing and executing multi-million dollar deals in technology, media and analytical services. Jeff works in high-visibility, highly competitive markets of CPG, Retail, Healthcare, Media, SaaS, B2B Technology, and Advertising/Marketing Services.Jeff's passion lies in the design and development of strategies to leverage content, technology and data to accelerate sales and realize extraordinary growth.Jeff earned an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Economics and Finance. He's also a proud graduate of THE Ohio State University.Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflherrmann/Follow Jeff on Twitter: @JeffLHerrmann 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Courtney Porcella, Marketing Director at coUrbanize.The interview takes a look at her past experiences with marketing and PR agencies for B2B Technology companies. Courtney then takes a deeper dive into her current role leading a marketing team at coUrbanize, a technology company that connects new real estate projects with the surrounding community. Highlights Courtney talks about her background where she studied marketing and worked in marketing for ten years with various B2B tech companies. Before transitioning to an in-house role at a technology company, Courtney talks about her four years working for marketing and PR agencies. Courtney breaks down some of the pros and cons between agency life and being an in-house marketer. Courtney discusses how she’s had a relatively linear career path, by serving the commercial real estate industry, and eventually ending up at coUrbanize. coUrbanize is the real estate startup where she is leading a marketing team-including lead generation, branding, and communications. coUrbanize is a tech company that focuses on connecting real estate companies with people - these are often cases where large real estate projects are a part of an area and getting community buy-in is critical to the overall success of a project. coUrbanize serves large real estate companies that are owning, maintaining, and developing buildings.  coUrbanize specifically works with people within the real estate company who are tasked with building projects. coUrbanize did a brand strategy exercise to get some insights around how they can better position their company. Courtney breaks down inbound versus outbound outreach and explains how content marketing helps them get customers. coUrbanize does a mixture of digital marketing content and also live in-person marketing. When coming on board at coUrbanize, Courtney was supplanting a marketing function that was relying mostly on junior talent and one of her major goals was to show immediate value to the board and senior management. One of Courtney’s biggest challenges early on was hitting the company’s Q4 number and she breaks down how she approached that goal. The organization’s 2020 goal is to become recognized experts by more people in the real estate industry.   Courtney’s reading a weekly newsletter called a very good copywriter that publishes micro-content.  She also follows companies and like-minded people on LinkedIn and Twitter. Key Points Courtney talks about the importance of brand and her focus early on “The reason why I wanted to do the brand work was because I think there's always an opportunity to assess your brand. Big brands typically do it, you know, every 6 to 12 months. When you're a smaller company, you don't have the cash flow to have a brand agency do it.” Sometimes small changes can have a large impact and Courtney talked about this concept as she states, “...our demo request page just needed some additional design quality. When you clicked to get a demo, it opened a new page. And even that experience felt a little bit disjointed. So a really easy thing...we spent about three hours redesigning our demo request page to increase the conversions because we were already getting a lot of people to land there.” Resources Courtney Porcella: LinkedIn Courtney Porcella: Twitter coUrbanize: Website

Tyler Lessard VP of Marketing at Video Marketing Platform Vidyard joins us in this episode of the SalesStar Podcast to share a few innovative ways in which sales teams can capitalize on videos to optimize their outreach! Topics Discussed in the Episode: The evolving martech/salestech landscape and how innovations in technology cannot change the basics of Marketing and Sales Biggest challenges facing client-facing teams like Sales today The need for more innovation in Sales to help stand out from the crowd Creative ways in which leading B2B / Technology companies have used Videos to enhance their prospecting efforts and outreach Top 5 Tips for Sales Reps shooting their first Video outreach!

Outbound calling; social media outreach and scheduling; PPC; SEO; trade shows, email campaigns - kinda sounds like the beginnings of a job listing for every marketers responsibility, doesn’t it?    While that may be true, it's also the foundation of understanding the relationship between these actions in generating demand for your product and building you brand. These channels all require strategy and optimization to work in harmony with one another. But when there are so many channels that can make or break your marketing efforts, where does one even start?   In this episode of AMP Up Your Digital Marketing, we meet Vivian Gomes, Head of Global Marketing and Sales for CSS Corp, a technology services firm. His insight tackles why creativity is the genesis of marketing, and why it’s so important to start at the top to satisfy some kind of curiosity of the targeted end user.

If you're the CEO or Founder of a B2B Technology business, how do you use marketing to help you scale?In this episode, join Ross Chapman, Marketing Director at Portswigger Web Security, as he talks through his no-nonsense advice to help you get value from marketing and scale.We cover;Outsourcing marketing v having it in-houseWhen it's the right time to hire your first marketer and at what levelWhat a CEO / Founder needs to talk about to excite a senior level marketer What your first 30 days should look like as the first senior marketer into a businessAnd so much more...Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen, Director at Market Recruitment - a recruitment agency that's obsessed with connecting ambitious B2B Tech companies in London with ROI focussed marketers to ignite growth and happiness

Evan has some great insights and commentary on the state of the cloud today and why we can expect to see a 'repatriation' in the coming years with regard to data ownership, residency and compliance. He also explains why his dad just wasn't satisfied with his answers when he asked Evan, "where is this cloud?" ...at least not until Evan just told him, "it's in New Jersey."

After 15 years at Fujitsu, rising to VP - Head of Global Offerings Marketing, David White shares his insights on how to plan and manage your career, so that you can achieve your goals. With the benefit of an executive coach at Fujitsu, it's fascinating to hear David talk about his experiences - distilling it into 4 steps that you can start to implement today. Whether you're just starting out in your career or desperate for that CMO job, there's something for everyone..Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen, Director at Market Recruitment - a recruitment agency that connects ambitious B2B Technology businesses with ROI focussed marketers.

Jill Pringle, CEO and Founder of Brand Symphony Marketing gives us a masterclass on how to scale a B2B service business with her 5 steps from her newly launched book - The Brand Symphony - we talk about many things. If you've got a small B2B service business and you're looking to scale, this is the episode for you. Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen, Director at Market Recruitment - a recruitment agency that connects B2B Technology businesses with marketers who can help them grow.

Tukan Das knows that if you are in a B2B technology company, it is nearly impossible to confidently identify which organizations will buy your product. While such a problem can be ameliorated through manual research, the process can be tedious and time-consuming. For this reason, he and his team at LeadSift have found a way to identify signals and collect data from public web spaces in order to help you determine which organizations are worth focusing your sales efforts on. Listen in to learn more. Das encourages you to visit www.LeadSift.com and request a demonstration oret a free report.

Cutting through the noise and getting someone's attention are key issues facing B2B marketers today. And that's why there's now a surge for marketers to use video in their content marketing efforts. So, it was great to catch up with Tom and Birdie of Contented Brothers to hear about how they've helped clients like SAP on their video marketing journey, and also listen to some great ideas for starting out.Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen of Market Recruitment - connecting B2B Technology firms with ROI focussed marketers to ignite growth and happiness.

Alex Embling, he is the CEO of Strategic-IC.  They are a global B2B Technology, Account-Based Marketing Agency and Platinum HubSpot & Drift Partner.  Their aim is to help support global B2B technology brands grow and nurture their sales and marketing pipelines by identifying accounts actively in-market for their products and services.  Alex comes to us with over 23 years of experience working with the likes of Hitachi, Acxiom, Honeywell and Bosch to name a few. 

With so many clients hiring people with industry knowledge, it was fascinating to speak to Jack Dyson, Global Head of Content Strategy at SAP Customer Experience who started in publishing with The Week and GQ, and transitioned through agencies to work for the one of the worlds largest B2B Technology companies. We talk about what makes great content marketing, skills, building teams and so much more. Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen of Market Recruitment.

This is a special episode as John is a Distinguished Researcher at TSIA -- an organization that works with Support Leaders in B2B Technology world. Listen to it to understand what Support Leaders are thinking, what are they doing well, where are they struggling (where they are going to spend money) etc. Must-listen episode! Key Insights Fun fact: TSIA used to be called SSPA — Services and Support Professional Association TSIA maintains a list of Business Challenges — Organizational structure: Swarming vs Tiered Structure, Metrics: What metrics should I be tracking / What's the average, Self-service / Knowledge-Management, Channel Mix: Introducing digital channels and moving away from phone/email & Customer Experience: How should we track it… how to set compensation structure. For SaaS vendors, most of the support questions are around how-do-I-something (vs legacy hardware vendors where most questions were around break/fix) Chatbots: 17% of members say they have a chatbot in place but most of those are pilots and not launched. 30% of these customers have built themselves (John doesn't recommend doing it) Workforce scheduling/assigning cases automatically is still being done manually/spreadsheets in B2B. Only 5% of members have a mobile-app for Support. Making support website HTML-5 is not good enough … most of support websites have rendering challenges on mobile phones/iPads. 92% customers start with google search and if support portal content is not indexed, customers won't come to the support site. More than 50% of vendors are google-indexed though. Legacy hardware vendors tend not to do google indexing though Support issues are going up 20% YoY… its hard for support organizations to grow in terms of people to match that demand so automation is a must Knowledge Management: 41% vendors responded that they could get 30% or more productivity gains if knowledge was being shared better. John is bullish about using RPA in Support. Customer success is not a department but a culture! Also, using Professional Services team to do Customer Success. Next-gen Support: Persistent, Personalized, Intelligent Recommendation for CEOs: Don't treat Support as just a cost-center. They have the most visibility and influence with Customers & they can share great information and insight with engineering and product to make products better and control churn. Support also feeds into QA and engg teams. Recommended books: Bad Blood/Theranos and Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook for Business Leaders

Susie Ramroop is an experienced mindset coach and speaker who has a track record of taking business leaders from good to great by focusing on what truly makes an impact. Having climbed the B2B marketing career ladder herself as a speaker, she authentically but truthfully tackles the trickier subject matters around impostor syndrome, why being you is enough and how to focus. Market Mentors is brought to you by Fiona Jensen, Director of Market Recruitment, an inbound recruitment agency that's obsessed with connecting ambitious B2b Technology businesses with ROI focussed marketers.

Spotlight on SiriusDecisions: The Future of B2B Technology by DMN One-on-One

Yoel Israel   Yoel Israel is founder of WadiDigital, a leading LinkedIn Ads and Lead Generation agency for B2B Technology companies. Yoel is a requested speaker for B2B branding and LinkedIn expertise. He is married, has 2 daughters and lives in Israel.   Our Marketing Blog & Testimonials My LinkedIn Ads Presentation at AdTech & ContentIsrael

We are excited to have Ryan Cox, Principal at Founders Grove Capital, a real estate investment and advisory firm dedicated to helping clients select and manage real estate investments that work for them. Ryan is responsible for helping clients select and manage real estate investments so they can build a more secure financial portfolio. Ryan hosts The Real Estate Innovators Podcast and he is a real faculty for drawing out some of the inside baseball elements of the real estate tech world. When he is not hosting his podcast, he is the CEO of Founders Grove Capital! Tune in as we talk about... Multifamily Real Estate Investor Real Estate Technology or PropTech Design in Commercial Real Estate Block Chain Platform and much more! Learn more about Ryan Cox on The Real Estate Innovators Podcast and Founders Grove Capital VO: You’re listening to Raising Your Antenna, with host Keith Zakheim. Keith: Welcome to Raising Your Antenna. And I’m your host, Keith Zakheim. Today, we have a guest, Ryan Cox that wears many hats. Being that this is a podcast, and many of you, like me are podcast addicts, let me give you Ryan’s podcast bona fides first. Ryan hosts a real estate innovators podcast, in which he interviews some of the bigger founders and influencers in the real estate tech/proptech market. I guess Ryan, one of the things we can kinda talk about is what we call this industry because I’m hearing a lot of names for it: proptech, real estate tech, other things. But anyway, Ryan’s podcast is a great listen. And he’s a real faculty for drawing out some of the inside baseball elements of the real estate tech world. That I think is great gold or father for investors and professionals in the real estate and the real estate technology space. So anyway, definitely give a listen. But, when he’s not hosting his podcast, Ryan is a CEO of Founders Grove Capital, where he himself is a super successful investor and advisor to investors. So Ryan, before we get going and kinda get into the nitty gritty of our conversation today, maybe give my audience some of your background, professional background. And also specifically, you know, why you do the podcast. You know, is that kind of a personal passion. And also, how it helps your business from a marketing perspective. So anyway, welcome aboard and, yeah, it’s to you. Ryan: Well, Keith. Thanks so much for having me on the show. Excited to talk about a little commercial real estate tech, a little about my business. So, my background is, you know, I really, primarily, my primary business is to focus on multi-family value-added opportunities. So, my core business is as real estate investor and working with investors to buy multi-family assets here in the state of Texas. The podcast, as you said, is developed, I guess, primarily, out of a passion and some curiosity. So, I found it to be, you know as an investor, a really great avenue on a weekly basis to really dig in to all of the, you know commercial real estate tech that is developing around us. And the podcast has given me an opportunity, you know, really, a calling card to knock on any door and talk to founders about their background and unique insight that they had in their background to lead them to found a commercial real estate tech company. And on the podcast, I’m really just able to, you know, dig in what their background is, what unique insight, talk about the solution, how it benefits and impacts their users. And then try to suss out, really, just their insights from their work, about how they see the overall real estate market and that changing, and the impact of commercial real estate tech. I think the big driver for before the podcast is, you know, number one is I’m an advocate for my investors. So, I feel like it’s a priority for me to really be able to have a broad view of all of the technology that is, really, just starting to make an impact. But, I believe in the next three to five years, would dramatically shift the way that a lot of business in real estate gets done. So, I wanna make sure that I’m not flat-footed and that I’m being an advocate for my investors and paying attention to all the real estate tech that is transforming how we do business. I think.. Keith: You know, I, you’ve, again, being a listener to I think your last two episodes. I think you do a great job of listening that kind of feedback, and getting really down to the founder’s course to both your entrepreneurial side as well as your passion. Specifically, of this CRE-tech space. So anyway, I enjoy and I encourage my listeners to download it, become a subscriber, and listen cause it’s really, it’s a great listen. So, let’s dive in and my first question Ryan is that you know, where in, when I say we, I mean you and me from the marketing side are in the super-exciting space of what we call CRE-tech/prop tech. But, there are tons of applications found in the market. So, if that big data applications and, or you know spaces service as a business, virtual marketplaces and leasing tenant focus platforms, private management, augmented reality, and others. Clearly, some are getting more ink than others in space as a service comes to mind. But, as an investor and an advisor, I’m curious in your perspective. What are the exciting areas, that maybe somewhat under the radar right now. So you know, trying to bring somebody into a no-tell where we work. Okay, no big deal. Lots of money’s going there. That’s just aping what everybody else is doing. But, what are the areas, you know, applications that you think have the potential for real disruption, will attract early adopters, and in the next few years, where should the savvy investor who really wants to be part of the space looking to allocate money? Ryan: Well, first of all, I think that there are a ton of really interesting across, you know, like you said teantt project management. There’s a really, really quite a few interesting, you know spaces to play in CRE-tech. I think, as I think about the next two or three is we’re just so early. Especially regards to adoptions, it seems to me like the folks that are focused on data and that could be a cross-spaces as service, virtual marketplaces, leasing tenant project management and that stuff. The folks that are taken a data first enabled to monetize that early, enabled to give users actual data to make decision for that real estate investors, for lets space users, you know building owners. It seems to me like those folks are probably to the best start because there’s a value they can charge users afforded data. But, the collection of that data also gives them flexibility as they grow out, you know, the solutions that are provided to end-users. Keith: Yeah, we see for example both in CRE and also this residential real estate is, you know, a lot of these companies are multi-generational families that abound, you know, especially in the big cities, right. So, they own a lot of the office space, they own a lot of residential real estate, and they’ve been making money in this space for a long time. And as a result, the little more buttoned-up conservative, unless, willing to be early adopters. And we found with our clients, is that the case to be made at least initially, is surely an economic play, right. So, this is how you gonna be more efficient and save money. But, you know, how, what do you see is being the most partner-compelling arguments to, you know, CRE-tech as CRE-owners in order to get them to kinda take that first leap of faith into some of these, you know, applications and areas. And it could be, you know, big data which is maybe, there is some would have, you know, an easier, a leap of faith from data, the argument for efficiency and economic savings probably easier than making, also, I realized much more quickly. But, how do you advise your clients, or what do you see your founders in terms of being able to, you know, circumvent or achieve some of those obstacles? Ryan:Well, I think that from a founder’s perspective, you know, I think the venture community has great channels into, you know, big, you know, big brokerage. I would just definitely in avenue to get widespread adoption across a numbered users and geographies. I think that a lot of the bug development companies have their own adventure arm that you know, co-investing with the venture firms or looking to, you know, incubate and grow their own, you know, own kind of tech. So i do think that there are great opportunities with the right venture partner or being able to sit with the right investment or development company to help kinda scale the platform out. So. Keith: So, how are you looking for money for for example. It's not just about the money, but the strategic value that these investors can bring in terms of opening up new channels and helping with initial adaption? Rayna: Absolutely, the faster to market in adaption. I think is what you see in the re-work examples. They are just trying to raise the biggest, the best and have amass the monopoly. I think that the fastest routes to market, the more channels that you have to be able to deploy the product, the better your chances for success. Keith: Yeah that’s a great segue to the next topic I want to discuss, which is basis of service. And companies like re-work, and notel raising money on previously unthinkable valuations. I have a 2-part question. So, clearly, there is some type of bubble forming, and this not the first tech-vertical or general investment vertical to experience a bubble and there’s a lot of money-chasing deals and we work in (notel) just based on evaluations are clearly benefiting from all that money that’s on the sidelines looking to invest in this space. So, it’s 2 questions. You know, it’s not new what we work in (notel) are dealing, right. So, we just been around for a long time. Yet, we are left behind in the dust. These newer companies are gobbling up market share and their valuations are significantly higher. So, what’s been the drivers of their growth versus what we’ve seen in the past? And the 2nd question, Ryan, which I know comes up everywhere. Which is, you know, we work in (notel) have experienced, any other companies by the way just keep referring to these two, but they’ve experienced this growth in a real estate environment in which the market is just fantastic and also experiencing above all, right. What’s that gonna look like when there is an inevitable downturn. That’s what real estate is historically, so it’s not gonna continue and values are not gonna continue to appreciate and as I understand their business model which is, you know, leasing up a lot of space and being able to upsell that to tenants. What happens when, you know, values go down and their existing tenants can go lock in space for much cheaper prices. So, 2-part question: drivers of growth versus the history of the space as well as what it’s all gonna look like during an inevitable downturn? Ryan: Yeah, those are good questions. I don’t think anybody can accurately predict. But just some thoughts. I think, you know, running we were.. Keith: The beauty of being a podcast, of being a prognosticator, is that they only remember when you’re right and when you’re wrong, no one cares. So, that’s, you know, we can say whatever we want. Be Nostradamus, right? Ryan: Right. Well, if we were on video, everybody would be able to see me in my wizard hat. Keith: (Laughs). Exactly. Ryan: My answer here. I mean, (Ryan), we were cause undertaking the company’s taken a name as an approach to spending, investing heavily on growth, in hopes that profits will follow. I think, in the most likely scenario, is that, the thing that’s been driving growth in valuations for these companies will ultimately will come to roost. You know, right now, we’re in a growth at all cost negative gross margins. I think that we workers gotten so big that we’re seeing a lot more access to their data and, you know, right now, their focused on growth in a winner take all mode similar to some other tech companies we’ve seen at Silicon Valley. You know something , the ultimate challenge, so that goal is that if you can grow to a large size and create a market monopoly. Then, over time, you’re able to, you know, raise prices because you’ve got some sort of walk-in with those customers. I think the challenge right now in the current environment is that there’s so much private capital out there and so many entrepreneurs willing to take on big dogs. It would be a re-work at this case but people with. I think you need value proposition in a co-working space. So, on a venture capital people chasing, I don’t see right now that there is a monopoly in place. And then those companies are public, so you know valuations that can be tricky. Just a tricky area when we talk about private money. So, the question will be if there is a downturn and we’re not in a profitable place and that money dries up. How do you sustain growth or shift on a dime with your users to a profitable model. Keith: Yeah, for sure. I do, you know, so you mention Amazon and Amazon first of the 15-year run and they probably are the exception to the rule in terms of being able to early on stake-out they wouldn’t call a monopolistic position but certainly, 800-pound gorilla type of corporation. But, if you look at ride-sharing. So, a company like Uber tried to do that but the market was so large. The problems of executions are great and the amount of so much money on the sidelines willing to go into that space. Left has been able to significantly cut into their business over last few years with no one inside there. It seems to me also, the spaces service industry. The various entry are really just raising the capital. I mean, I don’t know there’s much secret sauce in doing that except for being able to sustain the losses initially and go gobble up property. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out and what it all looks like in a number of years but I know everybody in our industry is watching that closely and that will be interesting as we go forward. Ryan: Yeah, totally great I think. I definitely think the spaces services creating a value for large enterprise and small businesses alike. It’ll be up to those organizations to find a profitable, sustainable, long-term business model, which is yet to be proven. So, I think that there will be some, I think that there’ll be winners, I think that there’ll be losers. I think that there’ll probable even a few that rise to the top and are able to sustain there long-term. Keith: Alright. Moving on. Entrepreneurs and startups and certainly marketing agencies, we love the buzzwords. Alright, so, you can raise money and you can throw out terms like artificial intelligence or augmented reality or blockchain or cryptocurrency and figure out how to present your business plan and I think companies or startups are hoping that investors will follow that with investment. So, blockchain is a bit, is a buzzword that is being thrown around, our industry, the CRE-tech industry. We do a lot of work and energy and I thought blockchain is a fantastic application of blockchain platforms with application in the energy markets because energy in general’s becoming a lot more distributed and decentralized and blockchain is a fantastic application for industries that are going in that direction. We’ve seen a number of companies over the last 6 to 12 months that come to us and claim to have some type of blockchain application real estate whether that’s for raising money, whether that’s because it can cut out some of the soft-cost involved in transactions, whether it’s because of blockchain application will make shrink the timeline for these transactions. There’s a number of reasons why blockchain could be a good application in the real estate industry. Curious what your thoughts are as to what those applications are? Are you seeings things that right now are more substance and hype? Do you think at this point just more hype and people throwing around the word? What’s your take on all that? Ryan: I think there’s a lot of hype, I mean, blockchain is really just a lot of copies of a gigantic cell spreadsheet. So, I think that there’s some interesting possibilities for blockchain. Clearly, to the number of hands that have touched a transaction to potentially cut out intermediaries. I think that there are some regulatory things that need to happen as those boundaries get pushed. I think that it’s a move in the right direction but whether it’s blockchain, artificial intelligence, a machine learning, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that are tackling that technology and trying to integrate it into their business and or their philosophy. When you talk to the technologist about where we are with those technologies and what they’re capable of doing, there’s somewhat of a sentiment that, yeah, the baseline is there but today they don’t function as they’re being promised or advertised as. So, I think that is commercial real estate technology is playing catch up to a lot of technology innovations from, maybe the past 15-20 years and that started to really grow inside of commercial real estate maybe in the past 5-6 years. I think that this group of entrepreneurs is in the right place and on pace or the slightly behind fintech or other spaces where they’re trying to develop the technology to truly make an impact. Keith: Yeah, we’ve spoken with a few companies recently who feel that blockchain and cryptocurrency solution will enable owners and CRE owners to have opportunities for liquidity and to bring in partners or investors in a way that they can’t with the current financial and legal infrastructure in real estate. So, that’s what, from what I understand from these companies, they think they can be deploying those solutions relatively quickly. It’s a proof in a pudding. Ryan: Yeah, I mean. Title company, all kinds of things, potentially make an impact or just we’re not there today. I think, we’ve got smart entrepreneurs that are working on solutions and are really trying to develop that technology to make it viable. And, where we are today versus where we’ll be in 5 years, is one of the reasons I have a podcast or I’m on this show, talking to you about it because I’m very interested in watching those developments and understanding how people are leveraging the technology and using that technology to change the way we work, live, play.. Keith: Yeah, so let’s talk about play. Another great segue, is Ryan, you’re a great host. So, when you’re the guest, you can do my work for me. That’s perfect. I wanna talk about apps and platforms and features that companies now are offering to enhance the tenant experience. It seems like a very millennial thing. So, in my company, we’re always kind of our executive team is always discussing. Alright, so, how do we make millennials happy, keep them productive, make sure that we’re able to retain them? And, I started my business 15 years ago, I wasn’t really having that conversation. It was more around, let’s just create professional development opportunities, make sure paying them fairly, and treating them with respect. But now, they want things that are gonna enhance their social experience, logistical experience. Work is now just not about work but it’s responsibility of companies and now it seems like maybe a building owner’s as well to provide a home-like experience or social experience, cultural experiences within the 4 walls of the workplace. Companies like Comfy, I've seen HQO, Office App, Equium. Again, they’re going out there and trying to convince owners and landowners that their responsibilities transcend just a physically-built environment. What’s been your experience in speaking either with your clients or with founders about the receptivity towards this? Who’re gonna be the early adapters? Is this just kind of like a fad right now but, we’re gonna eventually go back into haywork is work? What do you think on that? Ryan: I think that broader society is just moving towards more experiences whether that’s the bloomers who are moving out of houses then looking for less kind of ownership responsibilities to give them opportunities to travel, to go and do, to hop on an RV and go across America. Keith: I’ve got a 19-year old so we’re having these discussions which give me a little me more grey hair than I had prior. Ryan: (Laughs) And you know the 19-year olds in the same boat. How do I create more experiences, driven by a very different and very visual world with Instagram, Facebook, Social. It’s a ‘hey, what experiences are you having?’ And I think cause it’s less driven by the material. When I think about the specific applications that are going after a different experience in a work environment. I again think it comes back down to the channel. I think that the broad offering, well I guess, the appeal to many users will be more applicable if it serves out more as an amenity that people are able to choose from a la carte or a part of a package. Kinda like a TV dinner. Say ‘Hey, wanna be able to have access to all of these different applications to be able to create this experience in our work environment.’ I think that somebody’s applications are very niche. And so, if they’re not paying attention to the channel or how they’re partnering with other applications to create that experience could potentially be an uphill battle. But, yeah, I mean I think that experience-driven is what is driving re-work or notel or the other kind of space as a service. I think that when IBM is taking re-work space, it’s a very clear communication to the market that experience is valued and IBM’s one of all those technology companies out there so, it’s not just the startups, the millennials that are focused on creating that experience for their employees. Keith: Yeah, that’s a really good point. So, a lot of our listeners are themselves founders and entrepreneurs. I thought maybe, we’d just end, Ryan, with just your observations of the common denominators between the companies and founders that succeed, those that don’t. That really can be anything from leadership skills to how to manage money, to operations, to figuring out audience, marketing. Whatever the case, but I got a thought that your advice would be compelling to the people listening. Ryan: Yeah, I think that those with a good product and user experience. I think about some fintech apps, like Robinhood. When Robinhood comes to mind, it’s like very easy to use, it’s very visually appealing. So, I think that applications that are focused on great user-experience. I think that have some sort of data or value that they’re able to charge customers from Day 1 increase sustainable profitability. And I think that just have really low overhead, low volume kinda revenue targets to keep them accountable to grow. I think that they’re gonna have, those that start with that business model will have early adapters that are potentially more forgiving of the product, that are able to receive feedback, to really shape the product, to listen to customers’ demands and pay attention to their roadmap in a unique way that keeps them from over-building or steering the roadmap in a direction that is actually not a demand or want on their customer base. Which is, back to my earlier talk, was those that are due to a really good job of aggregating and creating actionable data, will be able to build off that data in a meaningful way, and create a roadmap that is really impactful for their users. Keith: That makes sense and I think for every founder and businessman and entrepreneur, what Churchill always said to his people, ‘Keep buggering on KBO.’ Just gotta stick with it, right? And, there’s gonna be lots of ups and downs and challenges. But, if you believe in your vision and you believe in your product and believe in your ability to execute, then you gotta keep going. Certainly, until the bank account says zero. So, with that Ryan, I think we’ll end there. Was there anything else that you wanted to add or tell our listeners? Ryan: I guess the one thing I would add is I am co-hosting a commercial real estate tech event in Austin on October 25th. We’ve got a great panel of tech founders that includes Michael Mandel with ComStak, Arie with WiredScore, Ryan Turner with Refinery, and Doug Shenkman with Tenax. As well as a panel of venture capitalists from Fifth Wall, Navitas, and Metaprop. So, it would be a great event downtown Austin with food and drinks and some great founders and venture capitalists to give you much of the same conversation about the state of the world of CRE Tech and the state of the market, and what’s coming up. Keith: And I will be there. So, if that’s, if you wanna scream that from the rooftops as well, enables you to add one more person to the event, feel free. Maybe, if you tell enough people, my mom will come as well, if I’m gonna be there. But, Ryan: We’d love to have your mom. Keith: It’s an exciting event, I will be there. I’m gonna be travelling from New York to Austin for it. And, goodluck with that. I guess, I’ll see you there, Ryan. So, thank you for being our guest today. And just again, for our listeners, Raising Your Antenna is a podcast dedicated to bringing on venture capitalists and founders who are transforming B2B technology spaces including today’s CRE (Commercial Real Estate) technology. Antenna Group which is the primary sponsor of Raising Your Antenna, is a digital marketing and public relations firm which services companies from startups all the way to Fortune 100 companies that are in the B2B technology space. So Ryan, thanks again and look forward to seeing you in Austin. Ryan: We all look forward to it. Thanks, Keith! Keith: And another episode of Raising Your Antenna is in the books. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and look forward to connecting again next week. Raising Your Antenna is a weekly podcast hosted by yours truly, Keith Zakheim, that features the movers and shakers, and key influencers of the B2B technology industry. Our guests are leading revolutions and disruptions in the mobility, clean energy, healthcare, and real estate technology industries. Raising Your Antenna’s brought to you by Antenna Group, a full-service digital marketing and public relations agency that focuses on the B2B technology industry. Please be in touch with me on Twitter (@czakheim) with any feedback about this podcast. And check out Antenna Group at www.antennagroup.com if your organization is looking for really smart and good-looking marketing and public relations partner.

Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi joins features editor Danielle Antosz to talk about CMI's recent B2B Technology Content Marketing benchmark report, as well as how to create engaging content.The post Joe Pulizzi on Creating Engaging Content & The Latest B2B Technology Content Trends #MarketingNerds appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Recruiting participants for B2B Technology Solutions Market Research Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart of Cascade Insights discuss qualitative, in-depth research: Human Intelligence - interviewing 100 people for expert opinions All research requires some type of sampling; people who can articulate and have experience with the subject matter, and provide a clear level of perspective  

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the monitoring of new technology introduction in a B2B environment. We focus on B2B environments, i.e. on projects where a new technological solution is implemented (and often jointly developed) with a client being either a company or an organization. In such a situation, where a supplier and its client agree to implement a new technology, both are exposed to a risk. The management of these risks can be handled through a couple of approaches: control or trust. The management literature has put a lot of attention on these two modes that play an important role because they drive the quality of the relationship between partners. We will explore their respective roles and build a methodology to monitor them along the life of a buyer-supplier relationship aiming at implementing new technology.