Podcasts about helping sells radio

Sarah E. Brown is a B2B tech marketing leader, author, startup mentor, and ecosystem builder with more than a decade of experience scaling SaaS companies through customer-centric marketing. She specializes in leading high-performing teams that meet and exceed OKRs while fostering an environment where people feel supported and empowered to do their best work. Sarah created and executed the marketing strategies for three self-funded B2B SaaS startups that were each rapidly acquired that same year. In 2016, she was also named to Amity's “Customer Success A-List” and included in Search Engine Journal's list of 100 Amazing Women Marketers to Follow on Twitter. She launched and cohosted ServiceRocket's popular Helping Sells Radio podcast, which made the iTunes “New and Notable” and “What's Hot” lists in the Technology category in 2016. In May 2015, May 2016, and again in April 2017, Sarah received the Top 100 Customer Success Influencer Award from MindTouch. In July 2017, she was named a Top 75 SaaS Influencer by Tenfold.  In August 2017, she was named Top 40 Customer Success Influencer by Tenfold. In September 2017, she was named a Top 200 Content Experience Strategist 2017 by MindTouch. In March 2018, she was named Top 100 Customer Success Strategist 2018 by MindTouch. In February 2021, named a 2021 Techstars “All-Star” Mentor. In June 2022, named a 2022 40 Under 40 Business Leader by the Colorado LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce. Her latest book, Lead Upwards: How Startup Joiners Can Impact New Ventures, Build Amazing Careers, and Inspire Great Teams, gives you insights into how to prepare for, earn, and succeed in an executive role at a startup company. Sarah connects with Lou on Thrive LouD With Lou Diamond. ***CONNECT WITH LOU DIAMOND & THRIVE LOUD***  

In this episode of Helping Sells Radio, I am sharing a recording of a webinar I facilitated about how software company CxOs should think about using customer education as a way to grow. I call it the Customer Education Growth Framework. The framework makes the process of developing customer training predictable. You just follow the steps. And when you do, you will know what goals to pursue, and what metrics to monitor on your way to growth. More about ServiceRocket:Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocketOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

Jared Orr is senior customer success manager at Electric and founder and host of the Founders & Mentors podcast. We know each other from being connected on Twitter and Linkedin. We finally met IRL on Helping Sells Radio to discuss customer success, his podcast, and going all in on his career. Side bar: I say we met IRL. It was on video. But I still say that is IRL. Only an analog native would think meeting on a video is not "in real life." It is real life to me. More about Jared: On Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaredorr10On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredsorr/Founders & Mentors Podcast: https://foundersmentors.com/More about ServiceRocket:Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocketOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

In this episode of Helping Sells Radio, we share a recording of a webinar we did about how software company customer education teams should build annual plans and learn to forecast instead of asking for a budget. Forecasting is a critical capability to learn, especially as your company prepares for possible IPO. Forecasting is a way to create your plan and then go after your plan. A budget is a license to spend. You don't want to be a spender. You want to be a forecaster. You gotta get good at this. And just to add, I did an episode with Debbie Smith who runs Smartsheet University, which is an excellent companion episode. So if you haven't listened to Debbie's episode go get it. Episode 327. She runs customer education as a P&L. She has to plan and forecast.Be like Debbie. More about ServiceRocket:Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocketOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

Debbie Smith is the senior manager of Smartsheet University and vice president of the Customer Education Management Association (CEdMA) and joins us on Helping Sells Radio to talk about helping customers beyond the product. This all started on a Linkedin post, which talked about how software companies should consider building the school that teaches the skill in its domain. Software companies can help people (customers and potential customers and just anyone) learn the skills necessary to perform the job its software is designed to help. And even credential people in that job. It's a big idea. Debbie is doing something incredible. Instead of creating the school from scratch, she partnered with the biggest "school" in project management; the Project Management Institute to teach project management skills and help PMI certified professional maintain their PMI certification. Not only is Debbie building trust between PMI members and Smartsheet, she is helping PMI members further their skills and careers. What a conversation. More about Debbie:Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiecareysmith/Smartsheet University - https://smartu.smartsheet.com/Customer Education Slack Channel - https://customered.slack.comCEdMA - https://www.cedma.org/leadershipThat Linkedin post that got this all started - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6871136448339423232/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6871136448339423232%2C6871807844467953664)&replyUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6871136448339423232%2C6871815549513420800)More about ServiceRocket:Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocketOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

Steve Harper is the author of The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for Life & Business and creator of Ripple Central, a services consultancy that helps harness the power of human connection to transform your team, your career, and your life. Steve had me on his podcast, The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper, and now he's on Helping Sells Radio. We talked about his Ripple Effect, listening for opportunities for starting ripples with customers, and how he came up with this useful concept for building meaningful relationships. More about Steve: About Steve and Ripple Central: https://ripplecentral.com/biopress/His book: https://www.amazon.com/Ripple-Effect-Maximizing-Relationships-Business/dp/097686651X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1642559779&sr=8-1His podcast episode with me:More about ServiceRocket:Visit ServiceRocket.com: https://www.servicerocket.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/servicerocket/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/servicerocketOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRocket/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servicerocket/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

I heard about this book, The Expansion Sale: Four Must Win Conversations to Keep and Grow Your Customers, from Nick Mehta the CEO of Gainsight. Nick had tweeted about it when it came out in early 2020. It piqued my interested and when I read the description, I knew I had to read it. And there it sat. On my wish list for 18 months before I read it. When I finished, I knew that Helping Sells Radio nation needed to learn more about this book. On this episode, I talked to Tim Riesterer, chief strategy officer at Corporate Visions and co-author of The Expansion Sale. We all live in a world in which 70-80% of our revenue comes from existing customers. We should learn to spend more time and energy retaining and growing this revenue and The Expansion Sale is the way to learn that skill.More about Tim:His company, Corporate Visions: https://corporatevisions.comThe book: https://www.amazon.com/Expansion-Sale-Must-Win-Conversations-Customers-ebook/dp/B083FBFQ6M/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+expansion+sale&qid=1637363620&sr=8-1On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-riesterer/ Subscribe at helpingsells.substack.com

Steve and Bill engage in an enlightening conversation about selling and what it takes to be really good at it. Bill Cushard has an incredible podcast called "Helping Sells Radio". Steve has been a fan of for a long time. To learn more about Bill: https://www.billcushard.com/ To learn more about his Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/helping-sells-radio/id1080713333

Anthony Blatner is a tech founder, ex-IBMer, and the founder of Speedwork Social, a top LinkedIn advertising agency. After watching a lot of companies with great products or services fail because of ineffective marketing, Anthony started Speedwork Social to help those businesses unlock their B2B marketing potential and achieve explosive growth.He says everything we want to hear on Helping Sells Radio. We talked about:how marketing should lead with value not a conversion to a sale, though you do need a solid call-to-actionwhat he thinks is the best form of educational content that works on Linkedinthe minimum customer lifetime value you need to be successful on Linkedin. More about Anthony:His company, Speedwork Social: https://speedworksocial.com/On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyblatner/ Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Three-time Helping Sells Radio guest Donna Weber is back with her new book, Onboarding matters: How successful companies transform new customers into loyal customers. You know that expression, "an ounce of prevention is worth if pound of cure?" Well, that's what onboarding is; a proactive prevention prescription for customer success. Whatever your downstream customer problem, chances are you can follow the flow upstream to a solution of improved onboarding. Donna calls it orchestrated onboarding. More about Donna:Her book: Onboarding Matters: https://www.amazon.com/Onboarding-Matters-Successful-Companies-Transform-ebook/dp/B091BH8SZ1Her website: http://www.donnaweber.comOn Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/donnaweberDonna was on episode 109 and episode 38. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Here's a lesson in customer education. Coinbase is hiring a director of content to "Make Coinbase *the* place to go to learn about crypto in a way that is easy to understand and approachable."Two observations:Coinbase aims to "create a market" of crypto investors, Wall Street analysts, journalists, policy makers and regulators in order to grow the entire pie......AND build trust. Creating a market is the ultimate goal of customer education......which is outlined in the Customer Education Growth Framework. More here: https://lnkd.in/gX8hz8bCoinbase is aiming to be the "Go-To" in the #cryptocurrency space. Something Theresa Lina describes in her book "Be the Go-To." I get to meet Theresa on Helping Sells Radio and discuss her book. Though we've had to reschedule because of me.Assignment: Fill in the rest of this sentence that Coinbase put in their job description for this role: "Make ___(your software company name)______________ *the* place to go to learn about __________(your market category)____________" in a way that is easy to understand and approachable."By the way......here is a link to that job description: https://lnkd.in/giGxcf7 Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

This is Rav Dhaliwal's second appearance on Helping Sells Radio. See Episode 208. Rav is an investor and venture partner at Crane Venture Partners. He previously led customer success organizations at Slack, Zendesk, and Yammer, and before that support at Salesforce and IBM. We talked about his latest article, "The missing piece of software sales" in which he makes the case that the way we create and service software products has changed, but the way we sell it has stayed the same. And it's holding us back. The missing piece of software sales is a business model innovation that Rav says more software companies need to embrace. More about Rav: His article: The missing piece of software salesOn LinkedinCrane Venture Partners Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Emilia D’Anzica is the managing partner & CEO at Growth Molecules, which helps companies grow with strategic programs, scalable systems, and enabling teams to lead customers down the path of proven value. Emilia is also a co-board member with me on the Customer Success Leadership Network (CSLN). This is Emilia’s fourth appearance on Helping Sells Radio (episodes 15, 48, 79) We talked about high touch versus low touch customers success, how she helps her clients think though these engagement implementation issues, and at the end Emilia had some great advice about sorting through issues and decisions by writing them down. Great advice.  More about Emilia: Her company: Growth MoleculesThat articles we talked about: 3 Building Blocks for a Successful Customer ExperienceOn Linkedin Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Mathew Sweezey is the director of market strategy at Salesforce and author of The context marketing revolution: How to motivate buyers in the age of infinite media. We talked about a changing world of marketing and how Mathew is proposing a new definition of marketing based on the shift from a limited media environment to one of infinite media. He calls this new world "the context marketing revolution" and to quote from the book: "Today helping people achieve their immediate goals is the only way to break through the noise and motivate consumers to act.” That is very Helping Sells Radio. And now you know why we had Mathew on the show.  More about Mathew: His bookOn TwitterOn Linkedin Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Dave Duke is the chief customer officer and co-founder at MetaCX, Host of the Revenue Revolutionaries podcast and two-time Helping Sells Radio guest (Ep 95). Mathew Sweezey is the director of market strategy at Salesforce and author of the Harvard Business Review Press book, The Context Marketing Revolution.  We talked to Dave and Mathew about a new ebook they collaborated on called, The new north star: experience is the method, outcomes are the goal. In it, the research suggests a new model and strategy for moving an organization from an experience-focused orientation to an outcomes-focused view point.  More about Dave and Mathew: Dave Duke on LinkedinMathew Sweezey on LinkedinLink to the ebook Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash In this episode, we're celebrating some milestones from CELab! First, we are celebrating two amazing years of working out loud. We kicked off our very first episode, “Getting Started with Customer Education” on November 11th, 2018. Like many of you who have found yourselves here – in this field and listening to this podcast – we dove in head first and in – understanding isn’t necessarily where you have to begin Bill Cushard, the host of Helping Sells Radio, has said – most podcasts don't make it past episode 11. Thanks to an amazing community – we’ve hit our 50th episode! (more…)

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash In this episode, we’re celebrating some milestones from CELab! First, we are celebrating two amazing years of working out loud. We kicked off our very first episode, "Getting Started with Customer Education" on November 11th, 2018. Like many of you who have found yourselves here - in this field and listening to this podcast - we dove in head first and in - understanding isn't necessarily where you have to begin Bill Cushard, the host of Helping Sells Radio, has said - most podcasts don’t make it past episode 11. Thanks to an amazing community - we've hit our 50th episode! In this time, we've spoken to so many greats from the world of Customer Education including leaders, CEOs, fellow practitioners, and more. We’re also happy to have explored many hypotheses and hope that we've debunked many myths and misconceptions that - even for such a young field. We also share some thoughts on where we’ve been and where we’re going next year. And we’ll have some fun along the way. With this episode we also have a call to action to our listeners! We really appreciate your support over the past few years and will continue to provide you with quality content from the front lines of Customer Education. If you’ve been listening to us and enjoy what we have to offer, we have a couple of things to ask you that would really help us grow: Spread the word! Share your favorite episode or a link to our site, customer.education, on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sign the manifesto - our Customer Education Manifesto is live on customer.education and we would love to have more people sign! We have well over 70 co-signers already and would love to reach 100 by the end of the year!Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We know we have many listeners who may not have taken the time to leave a review yet. If you enjoy our show and want to help expose it to others, nothing helps more than a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Thanks again and please feel free contact us with ideas, requests, or more!

Paul Reeves is a founding member and a governing council member of the customer success leadership network (CSLN). He has also built and led numerous customer success functions at software companies like ShotSpotter, TokBox, Zendrive, and Badgeville. And oh-by-the-way, co-founded Betterworks. I guess you could say he knows customer success. Inspired by the book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, Paul and I talked about how we might apply principles in this book with customers.  You might ask, “How can we get our customer success managers to apply the progress principle with customers?” After all, customers buy our software to do some job or solve some problem or achieve some outcomes. Sometimes solving that problem is far off in the future. It’s hard to visualize. It’s daunting.  If we could help our customers break that long term goal into small wins that lead to that long term outcome, we could keep them motivated and proactively help them march towards that long term end state.  One very practical thing Paul talked about was a custom object he built in Salesforce to log and report on theses “small wins.” Each time a customer success manager helped a customer achieve a small win, she would log it in Salesforce on that custom object.  Over time, he could track those wins and link them with customer success and other outcomes you might want to measure (renewals, expansions, etc).  The point was to figure out and help customers articulate what they would consider a win (or multiple wins), help them achieve each win over time, and then log those wins when they happen. If you do this, not only do you help customers march towards their ultimate goal, but you really get to know your customers well, because this level of help requires building a relationship.  This is what Helping Sells Radio is all about: Applying the progress principle to customer success.  I love it.  Learn more about Paul:Paul on LinkedinThe book we talked about: The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at WorkTeresa Amabile’s TED Talk on the progress principle Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

What is the value of a certification program? Faez Ahmed, senior director, training & certification at ServiceNow and member of the customer education management association Europe (CEdMA), has a create answer. He says, ultimately, the market will determine the value of your certification program.  The question is, “Can a software company create that market of ‘buyers’ who will derive value from the certification program?” As Faez describes, the answer to this question has three parts: First, from the customer education team’s perspective, it comes down to good certification design and building a quality certification that make people want to earn it.  Second, from the perspective of the company buying the software, it needs to continuously enable its workforce to develop new skills and capabilities…just to stay competitive.  Third, companies need to recruit and hire new people with the right skills and capabilities in all of the various software technologies it uses to run the business. Think about this, two job candidates with the same skills and experience. The candidate with certifications has an edge.  This begins a virtuous cycle.  Product certification programs create a market of people who can use your software, so companies can hire those people, so that companies can buy your software. Sounds like a win-win. More about Faez: On LinkedinThe CEdMA Technical Training Manager certification program we talked about Subscribe to Helping Sells Radio on your favorite podcast app. Just search “Helping Sells Radio” on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher or  Overcast. It’s show up, and you can tap ’subscribe.' Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Many enterprise software companies face the question, “Should we create a certification program?” To answer this question properly, a company needs to understand it’s customers well. Kevin Streater, VP of ForgeRock University at ForgeRock, joins Helping Sells Radio to help us sort this out.  Kevin is also a member of the British Computer Society Chartered Institute for IT and a member of the Customer Education Management Association Europe (CEdMA) and prior to ForgeRock, spent numerous years running education services at SunMicrosystems. Kevin is eminently qualified to discuss the topic of building valuable software certification programs.  Back to the question, “Should we create a certification program?” There are two main things to consider: Will customers be proud to display the certification?  Is the certification resume worthy? If you are not prepared to to have customers answer yes to those two questions, you might not want to create a certification program.  Certification programs require vision, planning, and a long term commitment. You are not just helping people learn and use your software. You are creating a mechanism for someone to advance their careers, which is a meaningful endeavor to say the least.  If your goal is to help people learn and use your software, there is little need for a certification program. High quality customer training will do the trick.  If your goal is to create a market of people who will buy your software wherever in their careers they go, then you likely should create a certification program.  Learn more about Kevin: On LinkedinForgeRock UniversityCEdMA Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

If there is one thing I know about leadership and working and career is that when you interact with the CEO, or anyone on the c-suite, you need to minimize your time and maximize your impact. More practically speaking, you need to be the one who says, “I gotta run.” And then walk away.  “Well that seems counter-intuitive,” you say. “How can I maximize my impact, when I spend the least amount of time possible with the CEO?”  Easy.  The shorter your interactions, the more interactions you will have.  “What?!” That’s right.  Think of every interaction you have in the office. There is always one person who you see coming down the hall, and you want to avoid them. Mostly because you have someplace to be and this person will talk your ear off.  CEOs have even shorter attention-spans and much less tolerance for the details about how difficult your last customer escalation was. You do not want the CEO to see YOU coming down the hall and think, “Oh no. Here comes Bill to tell me how hard it is to get the product team to prioritize feature requests from his customers. How am I going to get out of this?”  This is tough love people. Don’t be that person.  I asked Nils Vinje, author of the new book, 30 Day Leadership Playbook: Your Guide To Becoming The Leader You Have Always Wanted To Be, about how we can stay out of the details when we talk to execs.  Nils had an answer: Framework thinking. Nils has been on Helping Sells Radio four times now (Ep 5, Ep 84, Ep 121 (at the Gain Pulse conference), and this one.  Our main problem when we speak to CEOs is that we spend time on details. CEOs don’t want details unless they specifically ask. They won’t ask. And it’s hard for us NOT to provide details because that’s our life.  We have to speak to the CEO, convey useful information, without giving details.  When the CEO asks, “How’s customer success going?” You should say, “The renewal ownership in customer success is going well. We already have 3 new expansion opportunities.”  You want to say, “I am meeting with Sally (VP of sales) next Thursday. No, wait….on Friday. She had to reschedule our meeting from Monday. But we’re planning to talk about transitioning the renewal process from sales to customer success. I don’t know how this is going to work. I don’t think customer success should own the renewal. We should be advocates for customers not sales people. You can’t advocate for customers and sell to them. Customers won’t trust us. I’ve been doing customer success since before it was called customer success, and I’ve never seen it work. I mean…maybe it can, and I am open to it. So that’s what Sally and I are going to talk about.” It goes on and on and then you make the CEO cut you off so she can move on with their life.  The CEO likes you.  The CEO thinks you are productive. And professional. But the CEO wants you to figure all those details out. The CEO wants you to not base your opinion on what happened in the past, but see the possibility of what we can create going forward. It’s called innovation for a reason.  And most importantly, the CEO wants you to say in 20 words, what you want to say in 200.  According to Nils, you can do that with framework thinking….and it is part of his leadership pillar number 3: leading with communications. This was the most important part of our discussion. Framework thinking.  Framework thinking.  That is me…talking to myself.  More about NilsNils Vinje is the founder and CEO of 30DayLeadership.com. He is a 4-time Helping Sells Radio guest, Customer Success expert, leadership coach, consultant, speaker, and author. Nils inspires people everywhere to become the leader they have always wanted to be. To order a copy of Nils' book: 30 Day Leadership Playbook: Your Guide To Becoming The Leader You Have Always Wanted To Be, please visit 30dayleadership.com. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

The world has changed dramatically since mid-March. One thing that has not changed is that you have customers to help. How do you help customers in a COVID-19 world? Keri Keeling, Global head, customer success innovation & Intelligence at VMWare and member with me on the board of the Customer Success Leadership Network, joins Helping Sells Radio to help us figure this out.   Keri reminds us that some of our customers may need us now more than ever. Some customers might even be killing it because the demand for their products is going up. We should help these customers and offer them something of more value that can help them even further. Other customers might not be doing so well. What can we do to help these customers? We might not be in a position to help, but if we can, we should think about how we can help customers with extended renewals, change billing cycles to make it easier to pay, provide extensions, downgrade plans to address only what customers actually need for now. Let’s be creative here. Our customers will remember. As we figure out how to help these customers in different ways, let’s agree to this. Don’t just call to check-in. That’s a Keri pet peeve, and she wants us to stop doing that. Call with a purpose. Our customers don’t have time for a check-in. More about Keri: On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerikeeling/Recap of the Customer Success Leadership Network (CSLN) Helpline session: https://customersuccessnetwork.com/talking-to-customers-during-covid-19-starts-with-empathy-and-segmentation/Full article on servicing customers in a COVID-19 world: https://customersuccessnetwork.com/servicing-customers-in-todays-climate/The Sandler Training webinar on services customers in a COVID-19 world: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5445494471016829967 Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Imagine if your sales calls were more like planning sessions. Imagine if you could work on a buying plan and a project plan with your prospect.  Mutually.  Together.  What if you did this, and your prospect was so bought in, because they helped create the plan, that they did at least as much as you did to get the deal through? This is all possible with the Mutual Action Plan (MAP). Tom Williams, co-founder and CEO of Dealpoint, joins Helping Sells Radio to talk about Mutual Action Plans and how they will help you help your prospects buy. And buy an offering you know you can deliver. After all, you worked on the plan together.  Learn more: That SalesHacker article about mutual action plans: https://www.saleshacker.com/mutual-action-plans/The Dealpoint.io blog describing mutual action plans and the template: https://www.dealpoint.io/map/Tom Williams on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdgwilliams/ Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Welcome to a special episode of Helping Sells Radio. Actually, It’s an experiment. The experiment is a series of episodes we’re going to call a Podstorm. Hat tip to Christopher Lochhead for “inventing” the term podstorm and giving us the idea to try it. In this podstorm Megan Macaluso, VP of customer success and operations at ESG is BACK. And we are going to continue with our theme of ranting about work...and this episode: “Things That Drive Us Nuts at Work, But We Still Do Anyway. Except That We Blame Others for Doing It. Because Of Course We Don’t Do These Things. Other People Do.”In this episode we talk about asking for a budget versus planning and forecasting. In their book, “Simple numbers, straight talk, big profits: 4 keys to unlock your business potential,”  Greg Crabtree and Beverly Blair Harzog write, “A budget is a license to spend; a forecast is your roadmap to profitability.” Saying that you don’t need a budget, you need a business model and a forecast you are willing to act on.Reading that was a mind-blown moment for me. I wrote about it on Linkedin.Megan and I hash it out.The books we mentioned: Simple numbers, straight talk, big profits: 4 keys to unlock your business potentialHow to be a fierce competitor: What winning companies and great managers do in tough times Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

This is a special episode of Helping Sells Radio. Actually, It’s an experiment. The experiment is a series of episodes we’re going to call a Podstorm. Hat tip to Christopher Lochhead for “inventing” the term podstorm and giving us the idea to try it.  Our first podstorm is with Megan Macaluso, VP of customer success and operations at ESG. The name of this episode is called: “Things That Drive Us Nuts at Work, But We Still Do Anyway. Except That We Blame Others for Doing It. Because Of Course We Don’t Do These Things. Other People Do.” On this episode, we talk about:Contact hoardingAdoption is a fool’s errandDeath By synergyBasically, Megan and I just recorded what would otherwise be a normal phone call between us. Enjoy.Here is a link to Kerry Bondine’s Journey Mapping Workshop that Megan attended: https://kerrybodine.com/customer-journeys/bootcamp/ Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

As Jason Bradshaw describes in his book, It’s all about CEX! The Essential Guide to Customer and Employee Experience, in 1994 customer service was the differentiator. In the early 2000s it was engagement. Today is all about customer experience management. Sounds good.  Here’s the problem.  Customer experience is one of those terms that sounds good, everyone knows it’s important, but no one really knows how to define it. It’s too vague.In his book, Jason gives us an excellent framework for measuring customer experience that I understand. And that I can use to design a strategy that I could execute.  Maybe CX is not so vague after all.  A framework for measuring customer experienceHere’s what I learned from Jason about customer experience. You can measure it with three things:  Success: You have to deliver on your promise. If your customer ordered something, the delivery needs to happen on time. If a customer requests to turn on the new module in your software, the new model has to be turned on. You have to deliver. Simple. Of course no company is perfect. Even Amazon deliveries get delayed on occasion. But most of us trust that when we order something on Amazon, it turns up. Effort/Ease: Working with you has to be easy. Navigating your website, signing up, attending QBRs, paying your invoice, etc. Whatever it is, it needs to be as easy for the customer as possible. Think of your QBRs? What much work to you give your customers to get ready for your QBRs? Do you make your customer pull data and create slides? Some people do. Ugh.  Human connection: Make a personal connection with people. Small companies might not be able to compete with the big companies on scale and technology and automation and recommendation engines, but, as Jason describes, small companies can differentiate themselves on human connection.  From my experience as a customer, this works. I’ve shifted much of my purchasing to small, local businesses and re-engaged with running stores and ski shops and the neighborhood cafe. Jason said to me the local ski shop might not be able to compete with the massive sports retailer on price or automation, but they can call you in the fall and say, “Bill, I remember last year you saying you were developing a sore spot on your right foot…let’s get your boots adjusted before the snow falls.”I have received that call from the running store, “You must be running out of trail butter, Bill. I can send you some if you like.” Human connection built in to your business modelIf I may make a connection to another business concept: The Business Model Canvas. Do you work for a software company that has a high touch relationship with customers or is it low touch? It might be both. It also might be intentional.  On the business model canvas, there is a box called “customer relationship.” This section of the canvas is about what type of relationship do you want to have with your customers? You could decide, quite deliberately, to have a “high touch” relationship with customers. This is fine. It is more costly to deliver than a low touch, “Go to our help center” if you want help approach.  But you can do it. Zappos chose that model. You can design that high touch customer relationship into your business model and, in Jason’s words, differentiate yourself on the human connection. More about JasonJason wants to give you two free chapters of his book. It’s a great book. And I learned a lot reading it and discussing it with him. Go to his website here and get your two free chapters: jasonsbradshaw.com/thankyouDo you know who else likes Jason’s book? Jeanne Bliss (Ep 76). She’s been on Helping Sells Radio. She also gave Jason an excellent endorsement about his book: It’s simple: customer experience matters now, more than ever, and in this book, Jason will help you accelerate improvements. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

I work in technology. You might say I work on the forefront of some. But I must admit, when I hear someone lead a conversation with the statement, “We need an AI strategy,” my spidey-senses start to fire. Danger. Danger. Danger.  I don’t just mean AI. The statement could be any of the following… We need a machine learning strategy. We need a big data strategy. Let’s hire a data scientist. We need podcast strategy. When you hear someone in your company talking like this, you can sound like the trillion dollar coach, Bill Campbell, by asking the group, “What problem (opportunity) are we trying to solve?” This very exchange is why I wanted to have Neil Sahota on Helping Sells Radio. I wanted Neil to save us from the insane conversations we’re having about all the different strategies these so-called visionaries are telling us we need.  Neil Sahota is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisor, Faculty at UC Irvine, and author of the book, Own the AI revolution: Unlock your artificial intelligence strategy to disrupt your competition. Even Neil says, in the subtitle of his book, that we need an AI strategy.  Spidey-senses.  So I asked him about that. “Why did you put that phrase in your subtitle?" He answered with a story about a head of a major law firm who’s asks himself about artificial intelligence, "I know we should be doing something with AI. What is it?” Neil helps this person reframe the question. Most people think in terms of problem first, then leaping to finding a solution.  Neil says we need to insert “opportunity” between those two.  Problem > opportunity > solution.  He asked a simple question: “What keeps you up at night?”  The manager answers, “Talent. We are struggling finding the right lawyers to hire who fit us and are effective in court. We are losing too many court cases and our employee turnover is way too high. I wish we could be better at hiring.”  Problem 1: Ineffective hiring Problem 2: Low business results (losing too many court cases) Opportunity 1: Improve employee retention with better hiring Opportunity 2: Improve win rate in court. Get new clients.  Neil goes on to explain to the manager that he can solve both problems and take advantage of these opportunities with AI. “Did you know AI can solve this today? With AI, we can build profiles of your candidates based on 56 phsychological traits and tell us which candidates are a good match for what you are looking for?” “We can do that?” says the manager. Now we can talk about AI as a solution, but only because we started with the problem and then got specific about possible opportunities.  Neil helped us get there.  More about Neil and his bookNeil was kind enough to create a special page on his website for you, Helping Sells Radio Listeners.  If you want to learn about AI, without the distractions of the hype, Neil’s book is for you. Check out his website here > https://www.neilsahota.com/helpingsells/ Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Sales is changing. 90% of people won’t pick up a cold call and 53% prefer researching online. This doesn’t make things easy on the sales executive who is trying to help prospects make improvements in their businesses. How are sales execs supposed to communicate with prospects if no one is picking up the phone?  Matt Barnett, CEO of Bonjoro, says asynchronous video is the answer. He created his company to help sales people communicate authentically with prospects. It seems to be working. According to SalesLoft, sales teams that use video have 20% higher close rates AND 30% higher deal sizes. When I began talking to Matt, I was skeptical. Isn’t video hard? Don’t we need heavy software? Isn’t there editing involved? And what about audio quality? Not everyone is comfortable on video. How is this going to work?  These were all the questions I had for Matt. I must admit. He turned me around. It’s an asynchronous world. We don’t just call someone out of the blue, have them answer, “hello,” and have an 18 minute conversation….like we used to.  We send messages and wait for a reply.  We schedule times to do video calls.  Everything is pre-arranged.  So why not used this trend in the sales process.  Matt turned me around with this scenario.  Imagine the sales executive who wants to get home a bit early to be with his family and friends for an evening BBQ in the backyard. It could be you. You want to beat the traffic home, but you still have a few sales follow-ups to make.  You decide to leave the office a bit early and get home.  When you get home, you help your family set up for the BBQ before your friends arrive, then sit down in the back yard and send a few follow-up videos.  “Hi Lauren, it’s John here. I just got home a bit early today to set up for a BBQ, and I thought of you. Have you reviewed the proposal? I’m asking because there’s a tricky part in section two. And I want to make sure you understand that we can be flexible on that. After you look that over, let’s schedule a time to talk it over. If we get that part right, your ROI will be very clear. Let’s schedule that call on Tuesday.” Send. That takes just a few minutes.  The sales exec [you] can send four or five videos like that, even while the kids are throwing balls at each other in the background.  It’s real life.  It’s personal. It’s professional. It shows caring in the sales process.  And best of all, as Matt describes, “It’s not about editing. It’s about being yourself and letting people know you’re there to help. And then asking them to take the next step in the process.” Sales and marketing are becoming so automated that we might be losing the relationship aspect.  Video changes that.  They have a principle at Bonjoro: Automate processes, not relationships. Anyone who listens to Helping Sells Radio can relate to that.  More about Matt: This is the blog that got the conversation going: https://www.bonjoro.com/blog/post/why-video-is-sales-secret-sauceHere’s how you can automate process, but not relationship. The video funnel playbook:  https://www.bonjoro.com/videofunnelplaybook Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

As Sam Horodezky so eloquently puts it: if you ask people if they would except anything less than the best user experience design, most people would probably say “No! I won’t.” But few of those same people are willing to do what is necessary to create the best user experience design. And that is how we started this episode.  Loyal listeners of Helping Sells Radio know that I am not a designer. Far from it. I don’t understand it, and I could not recognize it if I saw it.  Basically, I am not really interested in it, so I don’t put the time in to learn about it.  It’s not my thing.  But when I had a chance to interview Sam Horodezky, founder of Strathearn Design, I jumped at the chance. Here’s why.  He specializes in B2B UX design. This is a B2B podcast. I know just enough about UX design to know that if a product is designed well, it can help customers be more successful with it. The language on his website talks about helping customers achieve better UX outcomes. That last reason is really the only reason I needed to want to talk to Sam about UX design.  I enjoyed our discussion and learned a lot. This is my reflection on four things I learned from Sam. Be intentional We talked a lot about intention: to make design decisions for specific reasons, and then live with those decisions. I asked Sam about products that have certain parts that are designed well and certain parts that are not designed well.  Most products have this.  We can all think of some.  I ask if good designers make those decisions intentionally, even making bad designs on purpose because they want to focus on one part of the product to make that part great.  He said that he mostly sees companies NOT being intentional. That it’s more likely the designers (the teams) didn’t even think about it [making those bad designs].  It is terrifying to think about. But it also makes sense. We can’t think of everything. Unless we are intentional.  Sam’s advice is to be more intentional about design decisions.  Make trade-offs Being intentional brings us to a related topic: trade-offs.  No one has the resources to do everything. Even Apple…..which everyone knows prioritizes design….failed to make iTunes great software. iTunes is famously not good (yes, it’s an opinion), yet Apple's hardware products are famously well-designed.  Neither Sam or I were in the room at Apple when these decisions were made, but you can assume even Apple (with all the resources you could image) made trade-offs.  Focus on personas How do you make those trade-offs and be intentional about it? In B2B software, it’s understanding personas.  Here’s an example of two personas. Persona 1: Expense report submitter Modern expense report software is awesome for a person, like me, who submits expense reports. I get a receipt at the airport coffee bar and before I put my wallet away, I capture the receipt in the app on my phone and the app does the rest. Captures the amount, the vendor, the category, the date, and even guesses the description text with incredible accuracy.  I love it.  But that’s all this app does.  What does our accounting manager think of using it? It probably sucks for them. They have to log into another system and somehow get my expense data in the ERP in order to process it.  Let’s flip the script.  Persona 2: Expense report processor Our ERP has an expense module. We turned it on. We saved money because we don’t have to pay for this mobile expense app, which is nice. But more importantly, the expense module is tightly integrated with the ERP, making life easy for the accounting manager to process expense reports.  The ERP expense module sucks for me.  Now, instead of taking a photo of a receipt and moving on with my life, I now have to do a lot of downloading, saving to PDF, renaming files, uploading receipts one at a time, typing in amounts, vendor names, dates, reasons for the expense, set the category, etc, etc, etc. Ugh. Five minutes a month becomes two hours a month.  Our finance manager is happy.  Which persona should you design for?  The expense submitter or the expense processor?  What I learned?  There is no right answer except to say, take personas seriously.  Sometimes good documentation (or training) is better than improving the design If you take personas seriously, you realize different personas have different needs and expectations.  Administrators of software are perfectly happy with many ways software is designed, as long as there is descent documentation or training. If you explain how to use your software well, some personas will be happy. So part of the user experience is how you help someone use the software as designed.  This is important because in B2B, software imposes a new way of working. No matter how good the software is, it is still different from how people work today.  People don’t like change. But you can minimize the resistance by providing good documentation. This can often be a better solution than redesigning the interface.  Faster and less expensive to implement as well.  Still not a designer, but... I have a much better appreciate for the discipline of design. There is a process. There is a methodology. It can be learned. I’m glad I talked to Sam. I hope after listening, you are too.  More about Sam His website: https://www.strathearn-design.com/On Twitter: http://twitter.com/strdesign Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Maybe I am spoiling the end, but I can’t help myself. Michael Pollack, co-founder of Intricately, tells a story about how his team…using the data his product helps customers collect and used, helped his customer see a new opportunity, develop a new offering, and take to market.    This is not even necessarily what his product helps customers do. His team went above and beyond the strict purpose of the product to help his customer achieve an outcome larger than their relationship required.    There could not be a better manifestation of Helping Sells Radio. It takes Heidi Gardner’s (Ep 110). “Smart Collaboration” concept to the next level.    It’s called customer success, not our success, for a reason.    Learn more about Michael: His Website: https://www.intricately.com/ On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpollack/ Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Do you have a community built around your product and services? Do you want to build one? If so, this is the podcast episode for you. And Jono Bacon, author of People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams, will help you avoid the mistakes that many other software companies make when building communities. The most notable mistake is building a community because it will benefit the company. That’s not exactly Helping Sells Radio approved, is it?    We do things that benefit customers. Jono wants to help you build a community that benefits your customers…and whatever broader audience you want to serve.    When you build a community…you have to provide value. Give people a reasons to discover your community, come back to your community, and help others stay in your community.    Only then will your community thrive.   Only then will you gain some benefit.    Learn more about Jono: The Book: https://www.jonobacon.com/books/ Book Bonuses: https://twitter.com/jonobacon/status/1220083019458977798 Jono’s Website: https://www.jonobacon.com/ Jono's podcast: https://www.jonobacon.com/conversations/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonobacon Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

I never would have thought we’d do a show based on inspiration from a "renegade minister, a handyman turned political activist and naturalist, and an innovative educator and early feminist voice.” But we did. Thanks to John Jantsch, author of the new book, "The Self-Relient Entrepreneur: 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business.”   Although this book was written for entrepreneurs, who John traditionally serves, the lessons in this book apply to anyone. We talked about that, too. Because in his book John writes, “You can experience a spirit of self-reliance and independence no matter your profession or job title.” This is what we learned from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. You know, those American transcendentalists.   Learn more about John: The Book: https://ducttapemarketing.com/the-self-reliant-entrepreneur/ John’s Website: https://ducttapemarketing.com/   Special thank you to Todd Hockenberry, author of “The Inbound Organization” and Helping Sells Radio guest (Ep. 136), for introducing us to David.    Link to Todd’s episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/136-todd-hockenberry-everybody-wants-to-grow-but-no/id1080713333?i=1000442760492 Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

I know what you’re thinking. I thought the same thing. “I work for an enterprise software company. We don’t have fans.” If it’s true that you don’t have fans, it’s because you haven’t created any fans. HubSpot has fans. Atlassian has fans. And to prove the point that any business can have fans, Hagerty Classic Car Insurance has one million subscribers to it’s YouTube channel.    David Meerman Scott, author of Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans, told us the story about how Hagerty Classic Car Insurance needed to figure out a better way to sell. The Hagerty CEO told David, "We specifically went out to create fans. That’s how we drive our business.”   Creating fans was a deliberate business model. It’s working for Hagerty. It’s working for HubSpot. It can work for you.    Learn more about David: David’s book: https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/books/fanocracy Special thank you to Todd Hockenberry, author of “The Inbound Organization” and Helping Sells Radio guest (Ep. 136), for introducing us to David.    Link to Todd’s episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/136-todd-hockenberry-everybody-wants-to-grow-but-no/id1080713333?i=1000442760492 Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

If you have listened to at least a few of the lat 30 episodes of Helping Sells Radio, you probably noticed I cite the invoicing processes as a step in the customer experience that is largely ignored by the chief customer officer because “that’s a finance thing.” And that there aren’t that many accounts receivable managers who think about the customer experience. That’s not really their job. Who could blame ‘em. Collections is kind of important, wouldn’t you say? But a bad invoicing process can negatively affect the customer experience.    In this episode, I speak with Tim Teeter, VP of Business Development at Yaypay, and accounts receivable management tool that thinks of itself as a customer satisfaction tool. We talk about helping customers use software versus helping them do their jobs better, the negative impact of a poor invoicing process, and how we can sell outcomes instead of features.    To learn more about Tim connect with him on LinkedIn and visit Yaypay.com.  Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

First there was direct touch customer success. Assign a smart CSM to help a smart customer. That's the first motion of customer success. Then there was tech touch. That is the second motion of customer success. Omid Razavi joins Helping Sells Radio to introduce the third motion of customer success: product success. Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Tiffani Bova, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller "GROWTH IQ: Get Smarter about the Choices That Will Make Or Break Your Business" joins Helping Sells Radio to help us understand how customer experience is core to having a strong growth IQ. A positive customer experience is core to all other growth strategies. Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Travis Marsh is co-author of "Reinventing Scale-Ups: Radical Ideas for Growing Companies." Guess what we talked about? Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Join Kristen Hayer, the host of Strikedeck Radio & Bill Cushard, host of Helping Sells Radio as they team up for one night at Service Rocket, Palo Alto for a LIVE podcast!

It was a Kristen Hayer's idea. That we should bring our podcasts together and do a live, joint podcast at a customer success meetup. Well, we did it. And we recorded it. Here it is. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

I was just following the Agile Australia conference hashtag (#agileaus) on Twitter when Sandy's name came up. When I read about her conference talk is saw words like self-organizing teams. OK. I know that one. That's what scrum teams do well. But then I saw the term self-selection. Self-selection? Does than mean I can put myself on my team at work I want? Mostly, yes, according to Sandy Mamoli. And Sandy knows about self-selection. She wrote the book on it, "Creating Great Teams: How Self-Selection Lets People Excel." Obviously, I had to get her on the show to talk about it. Sandy Mamoli is an Agile coach and founder of Nomad8, a small but perfectly formed Agile consultancy in Auckland, New Zealand. She's a former Olympian, a geek, a gadget junkie, international keynote speaker. She has a masters degree in artificial intelligence and knows quite a lot about Agile. As you can tell from the interview, I didn't know anything. This interview truly was about me asking Sandy a bunch of questions to learn how self-selection is creating organizations of the future.  Learn more about Sandy:  About her session at Agile Australia: http://agileaustralia.com.au/2019/speakers/sandy-mamoli/ Her company, Nomad8: https://nomad8.com Her slides on Holacracy: https://nomad8.com/articles/holacracy-slides/ Sandy actually implemented this stuff: https://www.slideshare.net/smamol/how-i-tried-holacracy-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale-151317408 A more detailed write up on Holacracy: https://nomad8.com/uploads/pdf/Holocracy_How_I_survived_to_Tell_The_Tale_article.pdf     We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Harry Maziar may not be a technology professional as you and I would describe it. I don't care. He knows more about helpful selling than I'll ever know, which is why I wanted to talk to him on Helping Sells Radio. After a successful career in sales, then running sales, then as president, then as chairman of a publicly traded NYSE company, Harry wrote a book called, Story Selling: Sage Advice and Common Sense About Sales and Success. The book is full of memorable and useful advice, like "I must do something" will always solve more problems than "something must be done" and "self discipline is the original do-it-yourself job." After you read Harry's book, you can't help but call a customer and try to be helpful.  Learn more about Harry: Get his book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071GB716T/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Fresh off the plane from the CS100 Summit in Sundance, Utah, Carlos Quezada, head of customer success at Aruba talks about how he had the instinct to build a customer success team with a data person first. "I wanted to know what I was looking at before implementing solutions." Carlos used data to understand the customer based, so he could segment customers, and design the right solution for each. There are major lessons here for how to build customer success at scale with a very small team.  Learn more about Carlos:  On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cquezada/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Join Kristen Hayer, the CEO & Founder of The Success League and Bill Cushard, Director of Marketing at Service Rocket as they give a preview about their LIVE podcast on the 25th of Sept, 2019! For more details and to sign up, click below: https://bit.ly/2kz2IB3

Fresh off the plane from the CS100 Summit in Sundance, Utah, Cole Sanders, senior customer success manager at ClientSuccess, joins Helping Sells Radio to talk about what it's like being a customer success manager for customer success managers. Imagine that. You are serving customers who are doing the same job as you. No pressure, right?   Learn more about Cole:  On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-sanders-40a72912/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

OK, so maybe agile and digital transformations are not specifically about helping sells. On the other hand, if our organizations and teams are not agile, don't respond to customer needs quickly, and are unable to adapt in uncertain times, we may not have any customers to help anyway. This is why I wanted to talk to Pamela Meyer, author of Pamela Meyer, author of Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective Leaders, Teams, and Organizations. She says the majority of executives say that agility is a critical organizational capability. That's you. The irony is that most organizations aren't agile. They aren't doing it. If they are doing it, it's coming from a mindset that isn't agile. That's a hard pill to swallow. Leaders know they have to be more agile, responsive, and nimble. But there is still a belief that agility is risky. "What if we make bad decisions?" This is the wrong mindset because actually agility is about minimizing risk while delivering value faster to customers. We talk to Pamela about how organizations can shift their collective mindsets and become more agile.  Learn more about Pamela: Pamela's Website: https://pamela-meyer.com/ Her Book: https://www.amazon.com/Agility-Shift-Creating-Effective-Organizations/dp/1629560707/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431653481&sr=8-1&keywords=the+agility+shift The Agility Shift Inventory: https://pamela-meyer.com/agility-shift-inventory/ On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelameyerphd/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Scott Brown, author of (C)lean Messaging: A framework to help startup founders talk to humans, didn't actually turn acorns into gold. He was trying to explain to me how to apply one of the principles from his book. The key to being remembered is to combine a message with a picture and a story. One of the stories in the book is of a company that applied this principle and came up with, "We turn acorns into gold." It makes sense when you read it. To help me understand this principle even more, Scott turned the podcast around and starting interviewing me to help me create my own (C)lean Message. And this exercise is proof that knowing something is next to worthless. Applying it....that's an entirely different story. If you want more help, understanding what this (C)lean Messaging is all about....listen to the episode and wrap your head around this: Scott's (C)lean Messaging Framework, looks and operates like a business model canvas, but for crafting your message.  Learn more about Scott: His website: https://scottbrown.co/ The book: https://www.amazon.com/lean-Messaging-framework-startup-founders-ebook/dp/B07KGKMGJ1 On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sc0ttbr0wn/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbrown   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

I have two questions for you? First, if you wanted your customers to love you, what would you do? Would you call them more? Improve your service? Introduce them to others? Second, if you wanted your employees to love you what would you do? Get to know them at a personal level? Promote them? Pay them more? Help them advance in their career? In this episode of Helping Sells Radio, I talked to Steve Farber about his new book,  Love is Just Damn Good Business: Do What You Love, In The Service of People, Who Love What You Do. Your first reaction might be a little like mine, "Customer love? Really?" Until you think about the questions above. That changes things. Those questions take a touchy feely topic and provides a way to think about operationalizing love as a business process. Steve shares several stories that demonstrating how much a business can improve results using love as a discipline.  Learn more about Steve:  His Website: https://www.stevefarber.com The Book: https://www.stevefarber.com/books/love-is-just-damn-good-business/ On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Becky Flint, co-founder and CEO of Dragonboat.io, joins Nice Work to talk about how to bring strategy and execution together in the product development lifecycle using a process called Responsive Portfolio Program Management (Responsive PPM). Dragonboat has a tight integration with Jira, and if Jira represents the execution cycle, Dragonboat represents the strategic cycle. We dive deep into Responsive PPM and how it can help product teams deal with the onslaught of competing priorities that they deal with every day... and keep their sanity. Learn more about Becky and Dragonboat.io:  Dragonboat website: https://dragonboat.io/ Her presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CzE5pAjPnIz1WrNjk9uW06ufkcq4fc-PzZtcfHI2Oao/edit#slide=id.p On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckyflint/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Product demos are broken. They are either a 60 minute feature dump or completely ignore the buyer's needs. We've all been on demos like that. Some of us might have even delivered demos like that. Well, not us. Other people. What makes all of this worse is that most companies hold their demos hostage behind a form, leaving potential buys to ask themselves, "Do I give them my email address and phone number so they can hound me for 2 months so I can see a 60 minute feature dump?" Customer wish they could just do a little self-demoing. They want to learn. And they want to learn on their own terms. Why don't we help them do that. Greg Dickinson, founder and CEO of Omedym, helps us understand how we can help our customers buy with self-demos. Free the demo and help your buyers at the same time.  Learn more about Greg: His company Omedym: https://www.omedym.com/ On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregdickinson/   We write about all of our podcasts! Check out the full posts and learn what we learn from our guests at helpingsells.com.  Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “Helping Sells Radio" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Follow us on Social Media: ServiceRocket YouTube Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram Bill Cushard Twitter Linkedin Instagram Tell us what you think of Helping Sells Radio We'd love it if you'd: Write a review where ever you get your podcasts. Tweet us using the hashtag #HelpingSells. Comment below. Thank you for listening to the show. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

In this episode we talk with Bill Cushard – Host of “Helping Sells Radio” and Director of Marketing at ServiceRocket – for our first ever CELab interview! How do you help your customer buy from you?  A lot of times we don’t help our customers … we just try to sell to them.  In this episode, Bill explains how helping your customers, particularly through education, really sells.  We talk about Agile approaches to Marketing – and that includes using Agile Sprints to develop Educational content, building your 5-year roadmap for education, and much, much more! Bill Cushard