Podcasts about social business engine

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

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Are the customer conversations your marketing and sales teams are having producing results? If not, it's possible they are making a simple mistake that is costing conversions. The good news is that it's a simple step you can take to improve the results. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Erik Peterson, Chief Executive Officer at Corporate Visions. He's the man responsible for spearheading the company’s vision and strategy. Erik has delivered consulting engagements, keynotes, and messaging skills workshops to more than 10,000 marketing and sales executives in over 13 countries, and Corporate Visions teams have done messaging work in 56 countries around the world. In this episode, Erik takes us behind the Marketing and Sales world’s theories to uncover the research-backed truth of what makes for effective customer conversations, landing pages, and more. You won’t want to miss it. Are Your Marketing And Sales Theories Founded In Reality? There are many theories floating around the marketing and sales worlds that sound right and have even been accepted as conventional wisdom. Your team probably approaches sales based on some of them now. But are they truly effective? How can you know? Erik’s company has dedicated itself to discovering the truth about the practices that are effective in customer conversations. They do so by funding university-level research that is able to confirm or deny many of the supposed best-practices. One of the more recent studies they spearheaded is “The State of Conversation Report: One Little Word, One Big Difference.” It looks at the issue of we-messaging VS you-messaging in marketing and sales materials. It's a question that is particularly relevant because 47% of companies that participated in the study reported that they predominantly use we-phrasing while 40% reported using you phrasing. With such an even divide, it’s important to know which is more effective. Could such a small difference in wording make any difference at all? Erik’s team discovered that there is a huge difference between the two. Listen to hear their findings and to receive Erik’s advice about how you can effectively implement their findings in your customer conversations. Could A Simple Change To Your Content Make A High Leverage Difference? As the title of the “One Little Word, One Big Difference” report implies, a very slight change in the right area makes a marked difference in messaging effectiveness. Here is how the research played out. The study sent a cold email to 1200 people who were considered “unsuspecting prospects.” The email was sent to two groups with the only difference between them being that one message exclusively used you-phrasing (speaking directly to the prospect about their need for the solution) and the other used we-phrasing (speaking more about the skill and experience of the company providing the solution). The results were remarkable. Those who received the you-phrased messaging reported feeling 21% more responsible for solving the problem addressed in the email. Erik says that you-phrasing effectively transfers ownership of the problem to the one reading the message. As a result, those respondents said they felt 13% more likely to take action to remedy the problem and almost double digits said they were inclined to believe that solving the problem presented in the email would be important to their future success. The conclusion of the study is simple and clear: You-phrasing in marketing and sales messages is a more effective way to get prospects to question their status quo and choose to raise the problem to the top of their agenda. And don’t miss this key insight: The potential impact of you-phrasing in customer conversations helps both brands and individual marketers or salespeople. Action Step: Take A Close Look At Your Existing Customer Conversations Erik has a simple piece of advice for B2B organizations and individual marketers and salespeople: Stop and assess what you’ve been doing with your messaging to this point. In your existing emails, landing pages, blog posts, videos, marketing content, and sales copy, how often are you using the word “we” rather than the word “you?” If you find that “we” is more the norm in your materials - a simple change could work wonders. The power behind you-phrasing is simple: it forces you to get into the customer’s world - which is where every marketer and sales professional wants to be in the first place. Knowing how they think, the problems they face, and how they will hear your messages can make your customer conversations more appealing and more effective. Featured on This Episode Erik’s company: Corporate Visions Erik on LinkedIn Erik on Twitter BOOK:  Conversations that Win the Complex Sale BOOK: The Three Value Conversations Outline of This Episode [0:54] The background of Erik’s company, Corporate Visions - working his way up [2:42] The integration of messaging, marketing, and sales - the power of words [6:53] Two different stories about the kind of copy that works best in various situations [22:47] Bernie’s summary and Erik’s final observations Resources & People Mentioned Join Bernie for the live webinar: www.Vengreso.com/events One Little Word, One Big Difference - The Corporate Visions report Robert Cialdini Dr. Nick Lee of Warwick Business School The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   Do you have a dedicated team that is providing content for sales enablement within your organization? In the modern marketing world companies that don’t build a vault of sales resources are essentially expecting their sales team to produce results without the proper tools. You can find out how to build a vault of content that will accelerate your sales team’s results by listening to Bernie’s conversation with Viveka von Rosen. You probably know Viveka. She is widely recognized in modern marketing circles. In addition to being one of Bernie’s 3 co-founders at Vengreso where she has the role of Chief Visibility Officer, Viv is an international keynote speaker, a Forbes Top 20 Most Influential Personal Branding expert, and a published author of 2 books and 2 courses on Lynda.com. On this episode, Bernie and Viveka outline exactly what content for sales enablement is, why it’s vital to the modern marketing function, and the results that can be expected by putting together a great vault of content that enables your sales team to influence buyers at every stage of their buying journey. How Content Marketing Differs from Sales Enablement Content marketing should be a practice you’re very familiar with. It’s the ongoing act of publishing and sharing valuable content that helps potential buyers become educated about how to overcome the pain or problems they need to address. Content marketing builds visibility for a company, serves to attract and retain an audience, and influences that audience in their buying decisions. Sales enablement takes content marketing a step further, providing the sales team with content they need in order to engage in conversations with potential buyers, address needs in specific ways, and answer questions that arise throughout the buyer’s journey. Viveka outlines how content marketing and content for sales enablement work hand in hand, so be sure you listen to the entire episode. Content For Sales Enablement Is About Equipping Your Sales Team Effectively Your sales team will be much more effective if they have the right tools to do their job. That means they need to have a wealth of resources they can provide to buyers at the various stages of the buyer’s journey. We’re talking about content pieces designed to answer specific questions, demonstrate effectiveness or application, or address particular needs a buyer might have. This content, provided to your sales team, is what we are referring to when we say “content for sales enablement.” Viveka points out that sales enablement content needs to be organized in a “vault” of sorts that sales teams can draw from on an “as needed” basis. They use it to engage with their prospects by providing resources that help make informed buying decisions. In the modern sales environment, sales enablement content is not an option if you want to empower your sales team to close more deals because buyers are hungry for this content. Listen to this episode to learn how to establish your own sales enablement content vault and to hear examples of companies that have done it right. 7 Steps To The Buyer’s Journey When It Comes To Sales Enablement Content Most sales professionals have heard the traditional 3-step description of the Buyer’s Journey. Viveka expands that to 7 steps when she discusses content for sales enablement because the additional steps define different types of content the sales enablement team can create. Here are Viv’s 7 steps to the buyer’s journey: Create Awareness Generate Interest Instigation/Disruption Consideration Purchase Satisfaction Repurchase/Upsell/Refer Can you see how the creative team behind sales enablement efforts can focus on the creation of content in each of these categories, catalogue them according to where they fit in the buyer’s journey, and make them available to the sales team? And, can you see how providing vaulted access to content organized this way is a powerful way to equip your sales team with relevant content they can use to start and continue sales conversations with their prospects? Listen to this episode of The Modern Marketing Engine podcast to hear Bernie and Viveka outline the types of content that fit in each category and highlight best-practices, . Never Think Of The Buyer’s Journey As Linear. It’s A Circle As Viveka explained her expanded 7-step buyer’s journey, she was careful to point out that though she’s speaking in terms of “steps,” marketers and sales professionals should never think of the buyer’s journey in linear terms. By that, she means that it always loops around and starts over, therefore it’s better to think of it as a circular journey. Practically, that means you should never close a deal and walk away as if your work is complete. You’ve got to continuethe process again with that customer to earn referrals and repeat purchases. Not only will you generate more leads and make more sales, but you’ll also reinforce the value and service you’ve already provided to existing customers, solidifying the relationship for the long haul. Check out below some of the companies mentioned by Viveka and Bernie who embody this approach to the circular customer journey using content for sales enablement strategies. Featured on This Episode Viveka on Twitter: @linkedexpert Viveka on LinkedIn: @LinkedInExpert Outline of This Episode [2:39] Why talk about sales enablement on a marketing podcast? [5:11] How content for sales enablement is different than content marketing [7:40] What is vaulted content and how does it differ from “gated” content? [9:40] The new 7 step buyer’s journey: a scheme for useful organization of content [16:20] Examples of content for sales enablement across these 7 stages [26:53] Why this process is more like a wheel or web than a series of steps Resources & People Mentioned www.Vengreso.com/content-for-sales - get the infographic Bernie mentioned Poopuori Squatty Potty Uber AirBnB The Thanksgiving Dinner approach to content marketing Hubspot - Hubspot Academy OneMob Zoom LinkedIn State of Sales Report The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Every organization needs to increase lead generation. This episode highlights an incredibly creative way one B2B company increased lead generation. What did they use? An ink and paper coloring book for compliance professionals. Bernie’s guest is Sean Freidlin. Sean is currently Senior Product Marketing Manager at Hanzo. But, when this episode was recorded, Sean was Director of Proposition Marketing at SAI Global- the company whose content marketing campaign is highlighted in this conversation. In his role with SAI Global, Sean was instrumental in many key campaigns. He spearheaded the creation of "Compliance Officer Day", "Corporate Compliance and Culture Cards," AND….the subject of this episode, "The Compliance Coloring Book." You heard that right…The Compliance Coloring Book! In this episode, Sean explains how the idea to create a coloring book for chief compliance officers was born, why it was such a big hit, and how it became a great lead generation tool. You’ll be inspired by this modern marketing approach. It combines a little old school marketing with a digital approach. The end result was a very successful lead gen marketing campaign. Good Lead Generation Depends On Targeting The Right Need Content marketing aims to provide valuable resources that a target market can use to solve problems. The team at SAI Global understood that their target market - Chief Compliance Officers - deal with an immense level of stress day to day. What could they do to help increase quality of life by reducing stress for those individuals? One of their surveys provided the answer: When asked what they do to relieve stress, many of their respondents said they liked to draw or color. That got the team thinking… should they create an adult coloring book around the topic of compliance? This conversation reveals why they decided it was a good idea, what they did to make it happen, the unexpected response they got as a result. You’ll love the ROI. The Right Marketing Mix Generated Leads That Were Unexpected Since the SAI Global team was providing a piece of content for their audience that was hard-copy rather than digital, they weren’t sure if digital means of marketing would be effective. But they discovered that the right mix drove the campaign far beyond what they expected. They used a combination of email that included drip campaigns and social media promotions. In particular, LinkedIn pulse articles performed very well. To their surprise, word of mouth and social out-performed everything else. They received 500 requests for the coloring book within the first week. And though they targeted the U.S. market, there was great international interest. Within 2 months they received requests for the coloring book from 61 different countries. The outcome? The Compliance Coloring Book generated a tremendous number of leads at a very low cost. At only $2 per lead, even with printing and shipping, anyone would call it “successful.” You can hear the entire story on this episode. A Lead Gen Tool That Brought New Life To A Difficult Topic Even though the Compliance Coloring Book was a great tool for generating leads, there was a negative side. Some voiced concerns that the coloring book made the issue of compliance seem too light-hearted. Sean and Bernie feel that sort of response was a good sign. It indicates that they stirred up conversation and created buzz in a way that drew attention to compliance, rather than detract from it. The positive feedback made it clear that the coloring book was helpful to compliance departments. It enabled them to educate about compliance in new ways that made the stodgy, boring stereotype less of a barrier to those in the student role. Unexpected Results: Parent/Child Relationships Were Strengthened The SAI Global team began their campaign based on the premise that a coloring book would be a quality of life tool. Stress-relief through the use of the book was a primary intention. But there was another life-improvement benefit that came from the coloring book. Many compliance professionals completed the pages in the coloring book with their children. This sparked conversations about what the parent actually did at work. Children were able to see the importance of what mommy or daddy did all day. Parents were able to share an important part of their lives with their children. In the end, the SAI Global team achieved their end-goal - quality of life improvement for the Chief Compliance Officer - in a way they never anticipated along with lead generation. Listen to this podcast conversation to hear the entire story. Featured on This Episode Hanzo - Where Sean is currently serving as Senior Product Manager SAI Global Get your own copy of the 1st and 2nd coloring books Try the interactive coloring book experience here Sean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanfreidlin/ Outline of This Episode [0:41] Shawn’s expertise regarding compliance as lead generation [3:28] Factors behind why Shawn combined old-school and new marketing approaches [9:01] Why a compliance coloring book for compliance education? [12:10] Modern marketing tactics used to get the book into the hands of the right people [17:21] Feedback and response: unexpected input and outcomes [24:24] Key lessons and takeaways: Zig when others zag and discover how to be sticky [26:58] How the sales team is using the coloring book resource Resources & People Mentioned Episode 228 with Paul Johns The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

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

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Sales data is one of the most valuable ways to determine what is working and what isn’t in a company. One of the most overlooked pieces of data from the sales process is data surrounding deals that are lost. But as you might guess, there can be a significant amount of fear on the part of salespeople when it comes to sharing the details of why they lost a sale. What can be done to attain honest sales data for the sake of improvement? Bernie’s guest on this episode of The Social Business Engine is Bill Sexton, Vice President of Sales Operations at Systemax. Bill will be presenting a session at the upcoming Frost & Sullivan STAR event on the topic of leveraging win/loss data. On this episode, Bernie and Bill discuss how to best capture and leverage your sales team’s wins and losses so that you can use the insights you discover to make business-critical decisions and give you an edge against your competition. The conversation includes advice for getting your marketing and sales teams aligned and how to get the sales team to cooperate, especially when it comes to providing insights into why a deal was lost. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at http://Frost.com/Vengreso and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings. Why Is Sales Data So Important To Have And So Powerful To Use? Win/loss data is one of the most powerful pieces of data to use. It enables your team to make strategically informed decisions based on the data, about how to improve your process and close more deals. You can use it to accelerate sales and bring valuable insights to the product, marketing, and supply chain teams. Data about sales wins provides insight into where the company is doing well. Those insights enable you to build best-practices into team training as well as pipelines and processes. Data from your sales losses obviously reveals areas where the team needs to improve. But understand, loss data is not analyzed merely for the sake of fixing blame. More importantly, it's used to fix problems, find gaps in your process, improve client communication, develop better resources, refine sales process, and even improve your products and services. Once you find the gaps, you're able to fill them effectively with the right solutions. Win/Loss Sales Data Is Reliant On Salespeople Reporting It. How Can We Get It? The reporting of data about why a deal was won or lost is one of the aspects of the sales cycle that is most reliant on honest reporting of what happened in the process. At this point, that reporting still has to be done by human beings. Bernie asked Bill for the best methods of obtaining win/loss data when the people who need to share it may be afraid to do so. Bill shared some great advice. First, bake win/loss reporting into the sales process. His recommendation is to require a drop-down type option within the quote/order process of your company. It should only have two options: A win - which results in an order being placed, or a loss - which requires multiple choice explanation as to why the deal was lost. But there are situations where it’s not possible to bake the win/loss data into the process - such as when sales are made off-site by 3rd party vendors. In that case, Bill suggests the implementation of a mature pipeline management process that includes drop-down options with the opportunity to explain the details of each situation. Follow-up can be done through a regular cadence of reviews, once a month for example. The purpose of the follow-ups is to look into the reasons behind the larger losses in more detail. Sometimes You Need To Celebrate A Sales Loss It sounds counterintuitive to celebrate a loss, but Bill says there are great things that come from doing so. First of all, celebrating losses in a way that enables the team to improve demonstrates that there are no punitive measures applied to those who share loss data. You can even champion those who honestly share and hold them up as examples to the rest of the team. This encourages everyone to become part of the solution, which makes future losses fewer and farther between. Good analyzation of loss data also enables the team to gain strong insights from customers, salespeople, and customer service reps that can be delivered to the teams that need them: the solutions team, service team, product team, etc. This enables adjustments to be made to enable better performance in the future. Some of the things that you can gain from inspecting sales losses are... Understanding if you are priced correctly Are you providing the right product solution in the first place? Do additional products or services need to be created? Are there issues with damaged products, delivery times, etc.? These give you a very clear picture of the biggest problems in your pipeline so you can make adjustments that have the largest impact. Evaluating A Pattern Of Sales Wins Can Help You Implement New Things Bill puts a significant focus on the evaluation of sales losses since they reveal so many helpful things, but he also encourages a thorough look at sales wins. When you do, you’re able to answer some important questions... Are the solutions you're providing for your customers working or not? Are sales strategies being leveraged correctly? If so, are they driving sales as expected? Can your successes be used as examples in coaching and training? And more… Be sure you take the time to listen to this insightful conversation. Bill shares many practical ways sales organizations can use the data behind sales wins and losses to improve systems, move the company forward, and close more sales in the future. Featured on This Episode Connect with Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-sexton-b3564219 Outline of This Episode [1:40] Bill’s role as VP of Sales Operations at Systemax [2:56] Why it’s important to get the win/loss data from your sales team [4:30] The best ways to capture accurate data: bake it into the sales process [9:22] What types of insight can you glean from wins and losses [11:55] What win/loss data can tell you about weak links in the sales process [14:12] How knowledge of the wins helps the organization [15:55] What kind of collaboration is needed to make use of win/loss data? [24:34] Don’t be afraid to ask for transparency from your team Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at http://Frost.com/Vengreso and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

    Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There is a unique perspective required when it comes to creating effective sales training for women. There is a tremendous benefit to such training being created by women and for women. To discuss the topic it was only natural for Bernie to invite Cynthia Barnes, Founder and CEO of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals to be his guest on this episode of The Social Business Engine Podcast. Cynthia has been recognized as one of the most influential women in sales. She is a former top 1% saleswoman and founded the NAWSP in 2016, which is the only organization in the US dedicated to helping women sales professionals reach the top 1% and Dance on the Glass Ceiling™. In this episode, you’ll hear more from Cynthia on what it means to “dance on the glass ceiling.” As you listen, you’ll also be inspired by hearing how the reality of gender discrimination in sales motivated her to launch an organization devoted to advancing women in their sales careers. Cynthia is an engaging and motivating speaker, so take the time to listen. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at http://Frost.com/Vengreso and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings. Cynthia’s Experience Motivated Her To Provide Sales Training For Women It’s both inspiring and refreshing to hear a person so enthused and committed to their profession as Cynthia is. In her own words, she’s been selling since Girl Scout Cookies were $1.50 per box. Through sales, she discovered that she loved being in control of her own income and ability to rise through her personal effort and diligence. She has learned how to use her own experience of overcoming gender discrimination to help women who aspire to achieve success in the sales profession. Her example is a large part of what makes her the outstanding leader of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals. Cynthia’s main goal is to level the playing field. That means providing women the sales training needed to be in the top 1% of sales professionals right alongside the outstanding men in the profession. Listen to this episode to hear Cynthia’s explanation of what needs to be included in sales training that is specific to women, how sales training for women empowers them to succeed, and how the NAWSP can help make it all happen. An Inspiring Goal: Women Can Dance On The Glass Ceiling We’ve all heard the phrase that women need to “break through the glass ceiling.” While it’s understood by most people that the phrase refers to the unseen career barrier many women experience based on their gender, Cynthia finds that there is a better, more women-centric way to address the issue. Her approach is simple: acknowledge that the ceiling is there and strive to overcome it - and encourage it with language that resonates with women. Rather than using language that is aggressive or violent, such as “breaking” the glass ceiling, she likes to talk about “dancing on” the glass ceiling. It’s imagery that communicates powerfully to women that they can not only overcome the barriers that exist but that they can do so in uniquely womanly ways. Sales Training For Women Means Helping Where Women Are Not As Strong Cynthia is not one to say that women and men are the same in every way. In fact, she’s well-known for admitting that women in sales tend to have particular areas where they are not as strong. In her mind, sales training for women has to address these realities head-on. She says one of the first areas to be addressed is the issue of confidence. Women tend to discount their product or service for the sake of getting the sale. But Cynthia says it’s not at all necessary. The sales training NAWSP provides teaches women how to deal with price objections and other pressures in ways that increase and enhance their confidence - which in turn allows them to close more sales at standard pricing levels. According to Cynthia, a second area where women need help is in dealing with the tendency toward perfectionism. She cites the example of women sales professionals being hesitant to actually make sales calls until they have their sales script down pat. But she’s learned that they shouldn’t wait for mastery of the script. Instead, women should write down their script, word-for-word, and use it as needed - even reading it if necessary. This enables them to overcome the perfectionistic tendency that often holds them back. The Best Outcome Is For the NAWSP To Become Obsolete The National Association of Women Sales Professionals has many goals: A national conference in October of 2019 100,000 members over the next 5 years But those are not the biggest and boldest of the organization’s goals. Cynthia wants to see the NAWSP be so effective that it becomes obsolete. She wants its emphasis of leveling the playing field for women to become so well received and embraced, and its sales training for women to be so effective, that women no longer need an advocacy organization like the NAWSP. Cynthia’s inspiring approach of turning adversity into opportunity is opening doors for women in sales across the country. Listen to this episode to be inspired, to find out more about the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, and to learn how you can connect with this amazing organization and its founder, Cynthia Barnes. Featured on This Episode Connect with Cynthia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiabarnes/ Follow Cynthia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cynthiambarnes Cynthia’s organization: https://nawsp.org/ Outline of This Episode [2:22] From meetup groups to an official organization [7:10] Why it’s time to transform sales training (for men and women) [11:34] Strategies in NAWSP’s training to strengthen women in sales [14:50] Trends Cynthia sees happening for women both young and more experienced [18:50] The future of the NAWSP: 100,000 members, 15 cities, and becoming obsolete [21:43] Bernie’s summary and Cynthia’s final comments Resources & People Mentioned Saleshacker’s list of Top Women in Sales Eastman Kodak This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan’s STAR event for Sales leaders taking place February 11-13, 2019 in Lake Tahoe, NV. Register for the event at http://Frost.com/Vengreso and use the discount code MARIO at registration for a $250.00 savings. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Have you developed a video strategy as part of your content marketing? It’s an incredibly powerful way to gain exposure for you and your organization. On this episode of The Social Business Engine Podcast, Bernie’s guest is Nathan Veer, Senior Product Specialist at Brightcove shares a simple, yet powerful 3 step plan to develop a video strategy that gets results. Nathan knows how effective this 3 step plan can be because he’s implemented it himself. He also sees Brightcove customers having great success using it as well. Nathan knows what he’s talking about when it comes to developing a video strategy that gets results. You’ll also hear Nathan share inspiring examples of everyday brands you’ve never heard of – not the mega corporations – who apply this simple method to succeed with their video strategy. This episode is sponsored by Brightcove. Get your audiences hooked on beautiful video experiences that engage, educate and convert. Learn more at http://Brightcove.com Video Strategy Step #1 - Do You Know What To Talk About? When producing video content specifically to get the attention of prospects, or even to connect with those who are interested in your industry, you need to be able to talk about things they care about. If you don’t, you’ll never even get them to click the “play” button. Nathan suggests a number of resources you can draw from to find content ideas that attract engagement. Have you attended an industry event lately? Why not create a video covering your takeaways or tagging the new connections you made there? Your company’s FAQ page is a gold mine of video content ideas. You could make a video about every topic on the page and know they are things on your prospect’s minds. Have a conversation with your customer service reps. What issues are they dealing with repeatedly? Those are great subjects for a video. Don’t forget about your sales team. What objections and hurdles do they face most often? Create amazing pre-sales resources by addressing them on video.. Step #2 - What Is Video Is Good At? When you ask this question, you’re trying to assess whether or not the topics your have in mind will be effective in video form. The reason is simple, not every topic is created equal. Nathan uses a great illustration to make his point. Imagine that you’re looking at two vehicles, both of them have 800 horsepower engines. But one is a Ferrari and the other is a tractor. The Ferrari won’t pull farm equipment very well, just like the tractor won’t win any races. They each have their unique uses. Using that analogy, video is like the racetrack. Not all ideas are going to be able to zoom down the video track effectively because the topics don’t lend themselves to video well. What kinds of ideas work best for video? Complex concepts: Video enables complex things to be broken down simply in a short amount of time by using visual, verbal, and text-based content all at the same time. Personal appeals: Video connects you to prospects in a more personal way than print, graphics, or even audio. Facial expressions and tone of voice are powerfully communicated in video. Emotional topics: Video allows marketers to deliver stories powerfully. Never underestimate the power of a good story - like client successes, case-studies, and lessons-learned. Do the ideas you’re considering for your video strategy land in one of these 3 areas? If not, you may want to communicate the idea using a different medium. If so, video may be the perfect tool for communicating them. Step #3 - Where Should Your Video Live? At first, it seems obvious that videos can live in a variety of places. YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram Stories, and more. But Nathan points out that the “where” question is key to knowing exactly what kind of video you should produce. Will your video be the flagship video on your website home page? Then it needs to be professionally produced with the best audio and lighting since it represents your brand and mission. Will the video be distributed primarily on Facebook? If so, it won’t need as much attention paid to production value and can be more casual. Will the video be sent via email? You can be more personal and “natural” since you’re speaking one to one. Listen to hear Nathan explain each of these 3 steps to creating a great video strategy to enhance your marketing efforts. Your Video Strategy Takes Form Based On Your Answers To All Three Questions As you apply Nathan’s 3 questions to your video ideas, you come up with the ideal use case for your topic. This enables you to hit your exact target prospect, with the topics they are most interested in, via the channels where they are most likely to interact with the video. To further prove how powerful this simple video strategy is, Nathan shares a handful of stories of Brightcove clients who have put the process to work. Some of the specific examples he shares resulted in companies experiencing… Support tickets dropping dramatically and increased SEO (listen to learn how) A 60% shorter sales cycle (It’s true.) Improved training of team members and resolution of role-related challenges How might these 3 questions help you to develop an effective content marketing video strategy? Listen to learn how to answer Nathan’s 3 questions so you can use the answers to create videos that reach out to your prospects, position you as an expert in your industry, and increase sales. Featured on This Episode https://Brightcove.com Nathan’s article about defining your video strategy: https://www.brightcove.com/en/blog/2018/08/define-your-video-strategy-3-simple-steps-1 Nathan Veer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nveer Nathan on Twitter: https://Twitter.com/nveer Outline of This Episode [0:43] The experience and background of Bernie’s guest, Nathan Veer [2:25] Bernie’s reasons for having Nathan on the podcast [3:21] 3 questions to help you determine a great video strategy [3:57] Why the last thing people want to hear from you is about your product [6:29] When you know what video does well, you’ll know if your ideas will be good videos [11:37] Where is your video going to live? It will determine the kind of video you create [14:23] Tying all 3 questions together will define the use case [18:16] Success stories from those who have followed this strategy Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Brightcove. Get your audiences hooked on beautiful video experiences that engage, educate and convert. Learn more at http://Brightcove.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr. Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business EngineApple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts   There are many ways to apply artificial intelligence in content marketing. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Social Business Engine is an expert when it comes to the intersection of content marketing and the application of AI to it. Paul Roetzer is the CEO of PR 20/20, author of “The Marketing Performance Blueprint,” and the creator of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. When asked why he launched MAII Paul says it was…’to translate the buzz around AI into real-world knowledge and actionable insights for marketers, so that it’s approachable and tactical.” Paul regularly translates the concepts behind AI-related technologies into terms marketers can understand. He does this to help them know why AI matters and how to use it (or not) in day-to-day marketing. On this episode, Bernie and Paul discuss practical ways to get started with AI, specifically in content marketing. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Join Vengreso at STAR, February 11-13, 2019 to mix and mingle with forward thinking sales executives and thought leaders. We're extending a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. For full details visit: frost.com/vengreso and use discount code MARIO at registration. Those Who Embrace Content Marketing AI Now Will Be At An Advantage Recent studies show that only 18% of companies have figured out how to use AI to the point that they are scaling it in their operations. That means that no matter what area of marketing you work in, or what level of knowledge you have about AI, you are NOT behind the curve. There are still amazing opportunities on the horizon for marketers who are willing to learn and embrace artificial intelligence. Those marketing professionals and the companies they work for will have a distinct competitive advantage in days to come. In this conversation Paul provides a number of helpful use-cases for AI at this stage in the game, demonstrating how it can be used to simplify workflows, offload repetitive tasks to save time and money, and even enhance the strategic parts of what we do as marketers. You won’t want to miss what he shares. It’s very easy to understand and makes perfect sense for marketers of all stripes. The 2 Main Reasons Marketers Should Be Using Artificial Intelligence If you are interested in using artificial intelligence to enhance your marketing efforts, where should you begin? Paul says there are two primary models you should consider to determine how to use AI in your content marketing. The first model is surrounding problems that are time intensive or data intensive for easy wins when it comes to applying AI as a possible solution in your content marketing strategy. The second model is what Paul refers to as a use-case model. AI is built to do narrowly defined tasks, so look at daily marketing activities such as reporting, editing and analytics, then discern the benefit you'd receive if those things were done automatically. In both cases, look for ways you can drive efficiency or increase revenue by doing things better. AI is often best used to enable cost reduction or revenue generation. How The Average Marketer Can Get Started With AI If you are eager to get artificial intelligence into your content marketing mix, you first need to look at repetitive, manual tasks in your marketing workflow. It doesn’t matter your area of specialty. Make a list of use-cases, identify which ones could be intelligently automated, then start looking for a solution. Check the MAII website for possible solution providers (see the link below). Next, look at ways you can get more out of your existing data. Most companies have tons of data from CRMs, Google Analytics, and more that sits on servers doing nothing. AI can help you utilize that data to gain greater insights, predict outcomes, determine smarter strategies, and more. Finally, look at the core technologies that are already a part of your marketing tech stack. How are those providers using AI? Do they have AI features as part of their solution that you are not implementing? Perhaps they have ideas about how you can better use their solution coupled with AI from another source? Don’t miss this great conversation. Paul concludes by addressing how AI is going to impact marketing careers in both the short-term and long-term. You’ll want to hear what he has to say about that. Featured on This Episode Paul Roetzer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer Paul on Twitter: https://Twitter.com/PaulRoetzer PR 20/20: https://www.pr2020.com/ The Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/events/marketing-artificial-intelligence-conference-2019 The Marketing AI Institute: https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/ Paul’s book: The Marketing Performance Blueprint: http://a.co/d/3YsKwak Outline of This Episode [2:39] The current status of how AI is impacting the marketing world [6:37] AI is biased by the data and how it is trained. That means we have to be careful [8:30] Models marketers can use to harness the power of AI [12:34] Guidance for getting started with AI in your marketing workflow [16:14] The vision behind the Marketing AI Institute [20:47] Trends regarding the kinds of marketers who are embracing AI [22:03] What impact will AI have on marketing as a career? Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Join Vengreso at STAR, February 11-13, 2019 to mix and mingle with forward thinking sales executives and thought leaders. We're extending a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. For full details visit: frost.com/vengreso and use discount code MARIO at registration. Conversica: https://www.conversica.com/ SBE episode with Victor Belfor: https://vengreso.com/blog/victor-belfor-modern-marketer The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr IBMs Watson goes on Jeopardy: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibm-watson-the-inside-story-of-how-the-jeopardy-winning-supercomputer-was-born-and-what-it-wants-to-do-next/ BOOK: Automate This: http://a.co/d/7pULneT Ai.google: https://ai.google/ Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts The concept of people serving their industry as “thought leaders” is fairly new, but in the digital world, it’s a vital one for B2B leaders to understand and leverage. On this episode of Social Business Engine, Bernie’s guest is Xenia Muntean, CEO of Planable. Xenia is an entrepreneur and an emerging thought leader on the topic of digital marketing. She’s been featured in Forbes as one of the Top 100 Forbes Women Entrepreneurs, and has spoken at Cannes Lions. On this episode, Xenia shares her journey from digital marketing agency owner to technology platform entrepreneur. You’ll also hear Xenia explain the business challenge that she’s passionate about solving and how her team is enabling companies to empower their top employees to be effective representatives of the brand - and most importantly, be seen as trusted thought leaders who amplify the message and mission of their companies.   The Development Of Thought Leaders Is Vital For B2B Brands B2C brands have long used influencers to promote and communicate their messages. Celebrity endorsements and spokespeople are great examples we all understand. But B2B brands have had a much harder time using personalities to influence others regarding their brand. Xenia points out that the advent of digital media makes that a problem of the past, brands just need to figure out how to use the available tools to do what their B2C counterparts have long done effectively. Her conviction is that brands can leverage their top employees as thought leaders in their industry by effectively equipping them to speak for the brand in a way that is consistent with the brand message and voice. She recommends brands look for senior employees who already have significant experience in the industry and who already share things about what the company is doing. Couple those employees with social media experts and you have a winning combination. Listen to hear how Xenia recommends brands start their own form of influencer marketing - including practical ways to create relevant, powerful content for them to share, on this episode.   How To Encourage Busy Team Members To Become Brand Thought Leaders   High-level employees became high-level because they are serious about the work they do and they get results. That means their schedules are appropriately filled with high-level activities. Given that fact, asking them to become an integral part of a thought leadership initiative could feel like “just another thing” for them to cram into their hectic schedules. What’s the solution? Xenia says that the first step to creating an all-star team of influencers for your brand is to notice who is already showing a proclivity toward this kind of social sharing. Those are the employees who already see the value, so enlist them as part of your pioneering thought leadership team. As you get started with those people and see success from what they are doing, use their stories to encourage others to get on board. Bernie says it’s like bowling pins - when you hit the pin that is front and center, it starts the chain-reaction that takes the rest of the pins down. In this situation, as you enlist the natural influencers within your team who are already doing great work, you’ll soon see others who respect them eager to join the cause. Xenia explains how to gather your team, how to assess the digital tools you’ll need to effectively work as a team, and much more, so be sure you listen.   Every Brand Needs Guardrails For Its Social Media Voice And Image   For many brands, the idea of employees communicating via social media on behalf of the company is a scary proposition. What if they say something off-message? What if their style or personality reflects poorly on the company? Aren’t you putting the company’s image and reputation at risk with this kind of strategy? Xenia Mutean insists that the pros outweigh the cons by a large margin. One of the main reasons is that studies have shown that employees are by far the greatest source of influence a brand has. Wisely guiding employees to take advantage of that fact on behalf of the brand only makes sense provided they have the right tools to make it easy. In this episode, Xenia explains how brands can enlist and empower employees to be trusted thought leaders who represent the brand accurately on social media channels. An important aspect of how that is accomplished is through the guardrails the company’s leadership establishes around the sharing of content. Be sure to listen, Xenia walks a wise line between being too restrictive and not restrictive enough, so don’t miss out on the insights that she shares.   Featured on This Episode Xenia Mutean on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/xeniamuntean/ Xenia on Twitter:https://twitter.com/xeniamuntean The company Xenia leads: http://Planable.io Outline of This Episode [2:05] The interesting background and motivation Xenia has around this topic [3:42] Why thought leadership is vital for brands in the B2B space [6:20] Influencers and thought leaders in your company need appropriate content to share [10:00] What’s the best way to enlist employees to become brand thought leaders? [11:42] What tools and technology makes sense for this kind of collaboration? [14:21] The training involved in building out this influencer content team [15:48] Are there guardrails brand leaders should establish for employees? [20:32] How should the results of these influencer programs be measured? [26:39] Why this approach is a win-win-win for the business, their team, and their customers Resources & People Mentioned The Edelman Trust Barometer Report: https://cms.edelman.com/sites/default/files/2018-01/2018%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report.pdf America Online: http://aol.com AOL’s Digital Prophet - Shingy - http://www.shingy.com/ Get our Digital Selling Benchmark Report - http://DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Account based marketing has been around for a while now, but doing it in a highly personalized way is not something you hear addressed often. But if you can personalize your marketing you can greatly strengthen customer relationships and grow your footprint in the account. On this episode, Bernie speaks with Paul Johns, CMO at SAI Global, a leader in the delivery of integrated risk management solutions for enterprise customers across the globe, about how they help their customer win through highly personalized account based marketing. Paul is a senior marketing executive with a track record of driving marketing strategy that has a measurable impact on ACV – average contract value. On this episode, they discuss how a highly personalized account based marketing strategy using microsites can help customers win more while driving more business with those customers - who Paul refers to as the “perpetual prospect.” There are many insightful takeaways shared, so don’t miss this podcast conversation.     Do You Know The Path To The Number You Need To Hit?   Every marketer or sales professional is eager to hit their numbers, but many don’t know what it takes to actually do it. Paul Johns points out that three things need to be considered when determining an effective strategy for hitting sales numbers. And he makes the point that it needs to be done collaboratively between sales and marketing. First - understand your product’s capabilities today and over the next year. Next - salespeople need to know where they should go hunting for the best prospects. Finally, marketing must validate that those targets really ARE the best places to go in order to generate the best returns. Listen to this episode to learn more of the specifics.   Highly Personalized Marketing Plans Must Include Effective Cross-Selling   Are you familiar with the term “microsite?” It’s a term Paul uses to describe online “rooms” that contain content designed for specific clients that educate them toward an informed buying decision. His company creates these sites co-branded with the customer directly addressing the customer’s goals. Finally, their team connects these microsites with the technology that enables them to track customer interest and movements. All of this helps both new and existing customers learn to trust them but also opens the door to ongoing cross-sell opportunities. It enables them to land customers then expand the services they offer that customer, indefinitely. Paul calls it the "perpetual prospect" concept. It’s a bit of a challenging concept to understand without hearing Paul explain it, so be sure you listen to this episode.     Stop Selling And Become Passionate About Helping Customers Win   Your customers are looking for solutions to their problems and you may have the exact solution they need. But there are often so many layers of management or leadership between you and the decision maker that you can’t make any headway. That’s why you need to build the kind of relationship with contacts within those businesses that empower them to be your sales advocate within their own company. Work together with them to publish content in a co-branded microsite that addresses their company’s needs and help them get it distributed within their company. This will demonstrate your solution across departments, allowing various managers and decision-makers to see how your solution could benefit them as well. Listen to hear more of how Paul’s team does it.   Modern Marketing MUST Incorporate Beautiful Storytelling And Emotion   Somehow we marketers and sales professionals forget the tremendous impact emotion plays in buying decisions. We step into the office and suddenly approach everything through data, scale, and analytics. Those are not bad things, but alone they are not enough. Whether the prospects you’re pursuing are CIOs, CEOs, or middle managers, there is a human element involved in the buying decisions they make on behalf of their companies - and it includes emotion. What can you do to tap into and address the emotional aspects of how your customers make their buying decisions? Paul suggests that you need to learn to be provocative, bold, and gutsy in the way you market - then once you’ve tapped into the emotional motivations behind the buying decisions, be able to communicate that you are looking to help your customers win. It’s easier said than done, but Paul has a wealth of insight about how you can shift your marketing messages toward the kind of storytelling that resonates with buyers. Be sure to listen.     Featured on This Episode   Paul Johns on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulanthonyjohns/ Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulJ0hns SAI Global: https://www.saiglobal.com/   Outline of This Episode   [2:08] What it means to do highly personalized account based marketing [4:20] Determining who the exact targets are for marketing and how to hunt them [6:04] Techniques to make account based marketing MORE personalized [8:22] What is the perpetual prospect and why does it make a difference? [9:35] The advantages of building microsites that are collaborative in nature [11:42] One to one marketing through personalization - and how to do it to scale [15:08] What personalized account based marketing can look like month to month [18:19] Why we don’t sell anymore - and what we are doing instead [22:59] What is the role of storytelling in account based selling [32:10] One of the original approaches Paul uses to find cutting edge marketers   Resources & People Mentioned   http://Salesforce.com Cirrus Insight: https://www.cirrusinsight.com/ Journey Sales: https://journeysales.com/ Get the FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment: http://www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr   Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine   https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Modern marketers have what seems like an ever-changing and highly demanding role in today’s B2B world. There are big challenges to address - including ABS (Account Based Selling), the role of analytics, and application of AI. For this episode, Bernie invited Victor Belfor SVP of Channel Sales and Business Development at Conversica to describe what he’s seeing in his interaction with CMOs and marketers across a variety of industries. From his seat as a business development exec at a marketing tech company, Victor is exposed to marketers across many companies. That means he’s got a strong read on the pulse of the modern marketer. Victor calls it like he sees it and offers suggestions you can use, on this episode. This episode is brought to you by CONVERSICA: AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. You can find out more at http://Conversica.com Today’s CMOs Have The Most Integrated Role In The Company It’s not easy being the Chief Marketing Officer at a company today. That’s because digital channels have blurred the lines between marketing and sales. Modern marketers are tasked with producing results for multiple stakeholders within the organization, which requires additional expertise. They also have to integrate with product marketing, tie directly into sales, and adapt to ABS (account based selling), and more. Top all this off with the reality of reporting directly to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or the CEO in many cases and you see why it’s a tall order for anyone. Victor Belfor says the role demands a person who is willing to embrace the new mindset of modern marketing along with the toolsets and apply different tech stacks to produce the results the company needs. But more than anything, the CMO MUST have the passion drive and grit to be a marketing evangelist who can shape company culture to embrace and support the new role that marketing plays in the digital economy. Join Bernie and Victor as they discuss how marketing professionals can adapt to their ever-expanding role, on this episode of Social Business Engine. How To Cope With Marketing Difficulties Caused By Increasing Analytics Better analytics is undoubtedly a good thing. Every business needs to know the data behind what is working and what is not working. But the ever-growing tech stack is producing challenges too. How do you take flows from all the tech stack solutions and interrelate them to produce a coherent marketing plan that is data-driven? How can marketers measure what really matters to the business? That’s an important thing to nail down, but it’s not the only challenge. There’s also the plethora of channels from which leads are coming in - events, webinars, social media, field marketing, PPC, SEO, and even from employees. How do you run cohort analysis and how do you track attribution from all these unique sources? How do you track costs? A good tech stack can start chipping away at it, but it also requires consistent effort to change company culture to embrace marketing’s expanded strategic role in the organization. In this podcast conversation, you’ll hear Victor share what he’s seeing marketing leaders do to address these challenges. Can AI Solve The Problems of Modern Marketing? AI has grabbed a lot of attention - and you might be tempted to say that AI is - at least in part - what is putting the pressure on modern marketers. But Victor is convinced that AI is not the cause of the marketing chasm. He says the problem when it comes to AI is that while many are interested in experimenting with AI, they are leary either because they don’t know how to use it properly or are feeling threatened by it. They want to experiment but are not completely certain if the outcomes of using AI will be better than what they are currently doing. Hearing this, Bernie asked if marketing leaders should be doing experimental, low-risk AI trials to become familiar with its benefits. But Victor says dipping your toes into the water of AI may not be the best way to get started. Why? Because with AI, the larger your dataset or time of use, the better your results will be, which in turn will give you a better idea of how AI can benefit your marketing efforts. You simply can’t accomplish that with a short-duration test, or a small dataset. You can hear what Victor recommends instead, on this episode. 3 Specific Use Cases For AI Implementation For Marketing Victor says there are three primary areas where AI can benefit the modern marketing approach… #1 - Analytics - AI allows you to build models, predict what your best customers will look like, and analyze your pipeline to anticipate what deals are most likely to close - and all this is done without human bias or false assumptions. #2 - Recommendations - AI can suggest topics for sales conversations by analyzing a variety of data sources (social media, email, CRM contacts, etc.) to help you move prospects toward sales conversations. #3 - Conversational AI - AI-powered bots can reach out to prospects, start conversations, and get as much as 20 times the ROI a human can, and can do it at scale because unless humans, AI conversationalists never call in sick. These are just some of the ways AI can address the needs of the modern marketer and you’ll hear Victor expand on them in this podcast conversation. Tune in. Share it with a friend. Featured on This Episode www.Conversica.com Victor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorbelfor/ Victor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vbelfor VictorB (at) Conversica.com Outline of This Episode [0:43] The insights Victor has to share about the challenges marketers face today [5:04] Two culprits that make analytics a difficult thing for marketers to handle [8:34] What is the role of AI for the modern marketer? [15:26] Use Cases where AI may be best used for modern marketing [23:56] How conversational AI can be scaled beyond any human marketing attempts [27:18] Why the marketer is the most integrated role in the modern company Resources & People Mentioned This episode is brought to you by CONVERSICA: AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. You can find out more at http://Conversica.com Einstein: https://einstein.ai/ Recent Episode with Basile Senesi of Fundbox: https://vengreso.com/blog/fundbox-ai-human-great-customer-experience-basile-senesi The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts In the age of social media, friendships have taken on an entirely different look than years previous. Take a step further and you can easily see that building friendships via digital drives business growth as well. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Social Business Engine is Jon Ferrara, founder and CEO of Nimble. Jon has a long history of building relationships, building friendships, building companies, and driving business results. He’s the perfect person to talk to about how we can drive business through genuine friendships in the age of social media. On this episode Jon shares how he engages on social media to connect, engage, educate, inspire, help, and be his authentic self with everyone he encounters. Jon explains how his approach to using social media wins friends, influences people, and wins lots of business too.     Why Salespeople Should Be Using Social Media For Prospecting Imagine the interactions and engagements that are going on in your industry or niche as a river. There are many conversations, people, and companies that contribute to the activity that makes up the river and the majority of them these days are happening on social media. You don’t want to be among the people sitting on the bank watching everything happen without you. You need to jump into the river and start swimming. Jon Ferrara says that when salespeople become willing to dive into the river and start swimming - which means authentically engaging, investing time, building relationships, being helpful - they will discover a whole new world of prospects and business that traditional sales models simply can’t access. Listen to hear the practical things Jon does to be fully engaged in the social media river on this episode.   In The Age Of Social Media, One Platform Is Not Enough For Driving Business For business and professional relationships, LinkedIn is the platform of choice for most professionals. For personal interactions, it’s often Facebook or Instagram that is the go-to social media tool. Jon has discovered that salespeople need to be engaged in all forms of interaction - professional, personal, etc. in order to come across as a "real" person. It’s by showing your personality, and discovering commonalities and building personal trust that people often begin to trust you. Every relationship takes time, and Jon is willing to put in the time required to walk the relational path with people online. He encourages today’s salespeople to be willing to do the same. Utilize every social media platform you can reasonably keep up with so that you can connect with prospects on many different levels. You can only drive business when people feel comfortable with YOU first.     Service Is The New Selling, So Stop Trying To Get A Lead Right Now There are many ways salespeople could approach the use of social media for prospecting - and Jon has seen the best and worst practices. Bernie asked him to share some of the worst things he’s seen and he was quick to respond. First, don’t talk about yourself or your products. Really, don’t. You need to be a presence on social media who is genuinely interested in helping, that’s it. As people notice your helpfulness and expertise, they’ll check you out in ways they feel comfortable with. Many of those people will become prospects, you just need to give it time. Keep this in mind: People don’t buy great products, they buy a better version of themselves. So pitching your product the first chance you get is never a good play, ESPECIALLY on social media. The people you’re trying to sell need to first see your genuine concern for them - that you WANT them to become that better version of themselves that they are striving for. When they see you are able to help them get there, they will be open to talking with you about the stuff you’re selling. Featured on This Episode Jon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvferrara/ https://www.nimble.com/ - use the code “Jon40” to get 40% off!   Outline of This Episode [2:15] Why you should be using social to prospect [4:55] What if your prospects are not on social media? [7:51] Which social channels should salespeople be using? [10:02] How to identify influencers to reshare and build your brand with a hashtag [14:30] How Jon’s use of social builds his personal brand and his company’s brand [22:29] Things you should NOT be doing on social media   Resources & People Mentioned Jon’s first appearance on Social Business Engine from 2015 Bernie’s book: Marketing 2.0 Tiffani Bova: http://www.tiffanibova.com/ Zig Ziglar: https://www.ziglar.com/ BOOK: How To Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671027034 http://digitalsellingbenchmarkreport.com - Get your free report! The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr   Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts A great customer experience is at the heart of customer loyalty and support - and we all want OUR customers to have that "Wow!" experience. As technology improves there are more and more ways to deliver experiences customers remember and tell others about... even in industries as long-standing and conservative as lending. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Social Business Engine is Basile Senesi, head of sales and support at Fundbox. As you listen, you’ll hear how Fundbox has taken an innovative approach to providing a solution to a long-standing need in most businesses – access to credit. They do it with both data automation AND the human touch. It’s a winning combination and you’ll hear all the details from Basile on this episode. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at http://conversica.com The Lending Business Hasn’t Changed Much Over The Years, Until Now If you’ve ever completed a loan application - personally or for business purposes - you know there are a great many points of data collected about you and your financial situation. The problem is that the lending industry hasn’t evolved much since the 1950s, which means there is a great deal of data about your financial situation that loan applications simply can’t capture. Bernie’s guest, Basile Senesi highlights how Fundbox challenges traditional underwriting standards by looking carefully at the new sources of info available rather than just credit history and collateral. They do it through AI integration with accounting software, bank accounts, and more. Harnessing the power of AI enables Fundbox to serve clients who may have previously been “unqualified” for funding and provide a tailored customer experience that is nothing short of “great.” Find out more from this podcast conversation. Getting Into The Middle Of A Business Owner’s Workflow Much of what businesses need when it comes to cash flow is determined by their daily workflow and procedures. But the evaluation of risk associated with small business lending doesn’t typically take workflow and operational patterns into account at all. That’s why Fundbox is so unique. Through the smart use of AI, the company is able to get into the middle of a customer’s day to day workflow to discover data points about the WAY that customer does their business that will support modern lending decisions. But there's more AI can do besides help you get qualified for funding. Imagine what it would be like for your customers to have such a great experience with your company - because the solution you provide is a perfect fit for their needs - that they become an enthusiastic ambassador for your company. AI can make it a reality. Listen to learn how Fundbox is making it happen, and use their experience to stir up ideas for how you can use AI to enhance the customer experience you are delivering. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, the sales assistant that engages every lead, 24/7/365, and never calls in sick. The Real Power of AI Comes By Pairing It With The Human Touch Much of the noise you hear about the coming AI revolution in business has to do with the fear that machine learning and artificial intelligence will replace jobs now done by humans. Basile says that while that may be a concern in some sectors, he believes that the smart integration of AI alongside the human characteristic of intuition is a winning combination that will always be of benefit. In this podcast, you’ll hear Basile describe how that approach works for Fundbox as they provide financing solutions for small business. They are not only able to better analyze credit risks using this AI/Human partnership, they are also able to create better solutions for their customers, equip their team members to use human intuition more effectively because of the data AI provides, and provide a customer experience that is tailor-made to each situation. It’s amazing how well it works, be sure you listen. AI Is Here To Stay: Learn How To Use It To Enhance What You Do Best In his closing comments, Basile points out how the growth and development of AI is not going to slow down. His suggestion: Rather than fear the advent of AI, those of us in the business world need to learn how to harness its power to our advantage, to make our human interactions even better because of the efficiency and insight AI can provide. AI enables us to make better decisions - in Basile’s case, in terms of credit risks and customer needs. AI helps us understand customer needs better so we can create solutions to move their businesses forward. AI empowers product development, marketing, and customer support in deeper, more meaningful ways - especially when coupled with the human touch. Overall, AI makes for great customer experiences, which will fuel success in any industry. Featured on This Episode Fundbox: https://fundbox.com/ Connect with Basile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basilesenesi/ Conversica AI Sales Assistant Outline of This Episode [1:51] Small business funding: Fundbox does it in a unique way [2:43] The innovative way Fundbox has approached the lending industry for small business [7:16] Leveraging AI to give Fundbox a competitive edge [13:35] Using the AI available to fuel marketing and product design [20:30] Lessons learned from using AI for marketing and workflow enhancement [23:20] Bernie’s summary of this episode [27:24] AI is here to stay, so use it as a tool to enhance what you do best Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for marketing and sales that fosters real conversations to discover the most qualified sales opportunities. Learn more at http://conversica.com Gusto - online HR services: https://gusto.com/ Quickbooks - accounting software: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/ Freshbooks - accounting software: https://www.freshbooks.com/ Eventbrite - event management platform: https://www.eventbrite.com/ Conversica - AI Platform: https://www.conversica.com/ Cortera - Business Credit Reports: https://www.cortera.com/ Wells Fargo - https://www.wellsfargo.com/ Citibank - https://online.citi.com/US/login.do Experian - https://www.experian.com/ TransUnion - https://www.transunion.com/ Pardot - Marketing Automation: https://www.pardot.com/ Sales Navigator - Sales Software: https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

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

 Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Content Marketing is something you hear a lot about these days - but what about content for sales? Nobody is denying that content marketing is effective for brand awareness and trust building, but B2B sales conversations require more than just awareness. This episode features Bernie Borges, host of the Social Business Engine podcast recording a solo episode as he prepared to travel to the 8th annual Content Marketing World conference where he is speaking again. In this episode he explains why companies should be thinking not just about content marketing but also about content for sales. He shares convincing statistics that demonstrate how a more intentional focus on content for sales could make a tremendous difference in helping salespeople create more conversations with their desired audience. You won’t want to miss this one!   What Are The Most Popular Ways Marketing Sets The Stage For Sales? A recent Content Marketing Institute study reveals the most popular types of content that marketing departments are producing. They are… Social media posts - 94% (not really content, but the promotion of the content) Case studies - 73% Pre-produced videos - 72% E-books & white papers - 71% Infographics - 65% Photos/images - 56% These are the things that are getting attention and building brand awareness, but they only matter if they are driving profitability and sales opportunities. Find out how content for sales takes up the baton after marketing has done its job in building brand awareness and top of the funnel leads, on this episode.   Content Marketing VS Content For Sales - Do You Know The Difference? Profitable customer action is the end goal of content marketing. But as we all know, the content marketing approach is a “slow game,” one that builds top-of-mind presence for brands and establishes a basis for trust with buyers over the long haul. To accomplish this, content marketing has to be done via an omni-channel approach (multiple channels of distribution) and is done on a “one to many” basis. Content for sales is also aimed at obtaining profitable customer actions but has a significantly different approach. Content for sales is used to create or sustain sales conversations, which are not carried out through a one to many approach like content marketing. Sales conversations happen on a one to one basis - one in which the content being used is leveraged in a more personal and powerful way by salespeople. With such a marked difference, it’s important to understand the most effective ways to approach content for sales, which you’ll hear as you listen to this episode.   What Is The Role of Content In Helping Sales Pros Improve Quota Achievement? Recent studies show that 94% of buyers consume several pieces of content from the company they wind up buying from. Think that through - if your buyers are doing their research via content you provide them, isn’t it vital that your company HAS valuable and informative content in order to move their buying decision along? What types of content should you be creating for salespeople to use to create conversations? There’s no study that definitively shows what works best, but Bernie shares from his experience with clients, podcast guests, and conversations at conferences that these are some of the best forms that content for sales can take: Internal podcasts Case studies Use case examples Competitive intelligence Research reports Calculators Technical papers Industry-specific papers Inspirational content to attract conversations Third party content Personalized video You can hear Bernie explain each of these and how he sees B2B salespeople use them effectively, on this episode.   The Powerful Edge You Can Give Your Sales Team Via Content For Sales As Bernie wraps up this episode he highlights some important principles for producing effective content for sales… #1 - Content for sales should be vaulted! Your sales team needs to know they have exclusive content their buyers are unable to find anyplace else. That way they can present the content as an expert consultant and in a controlled environment during their sales conversations. #2 - Content for sales should map to the buyer’s journey and be specific to the buyer’s persona. It cannot be a “one size fits all” approach. #3 - Assessment is vital. There are ways to effectively track content for sales by using UTMs to ensure each piece of content is unique to each individual. Use content libraries and distribution platforms internally then measure the contribution the content is making to the sales pipeline by using marketing automation technology. Bernie explains each of these steps in detail on this episode and how a content for sales approach can help salespeople have more conversations with qualified buyers, which is an important step on the journey to achieving quota. Outline of This Episode [2:38] Do you know the difference between content marketing and content for sales? [8:30] Overcoming the “Glass Building” syndrome [11:06] The most popular type of content that comes from B2B marketing [12:23] The type of content we should make useful as “Content For Sales” [16:29] Why content for sales should be vaulted content [18:52] The simple concept of how to gauge the effectiveness of content for sales [20:07] How YOU can be a guest on the Social Business Engine podcast Resources & People Mentioned The Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report Viveka Von Rosen - Chief Visibility Officer at Vengreso CSO Insights Buyer Preferences Study The Content Marketing Institute DemandGen Report 2018 Content Preferences Survey McKinsey Study About Marketing and Sales Content Marketing Institute Study About Most Popular Forms of Content Episode 220 with Henry Menke of Balluff Episode 204: How Content For Sales Creates More Sales Pipeline OneMob Previous episode with David Meerman Scott: The New Rules For Marketing The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are many conversion optimization services for your website out there and all of them are based on analytics. In the realm of analytics, there are free and amazingly powerful platforms available, like Google Analytics. With so many low-cost ways to access the data you need to do conversion optimization, is there any advantage to paying for a service that enables you to do it better? On this episode, Bernie chats with Clare Carr, Vice President of Marketing at Parse.ly, Inc. If you’re wondering what Parse.ly is, it’s not food related, despite the name. Rather, Parse.ly is an analytics platform that does a lot more than the free options. In this conversation, Clare explains exactly what their platform analyzes and demonstrates how companies use their comprehensive data to measure the performance of their content, conversions, and shares three examples. Metrics Matter For More Than Just Conversions In this conversation, Clare Carr mentions that while every sales organization should rightly be focused on conversions, there is a lot more to analyze than visit to lead conversion or whether people buy your product or service or not. She points out that marketing teams gain a competitive advantage by knowing which of the many content pieces they are publishing are getting the REAL attention of those who find it. You can track those metrics in an elementary way in your Google Analytics dashboard - if you can find it - but all it will tell you is the time spent on each page by a visitor. But you need to know if they are really consuming the content, or if they have left the browser window open while they are actually doing something else and not consuming the content. In this week’s episode, Clare explains how Parse.ly measures true engagement through what they call “heartbeat” assessments of web page actions. Don’t miss it! Content Analytics Enable You To Create More Of What’s Working Imagine that your marketing team has invested weeks in the creation of a number of content pieces aimed at your target market. You’ve done your keyword research. You’re confident about them. They all seem like good bets when it comes to drawing attention and engaging readers. But are they? How will you know? It’s important to have a specific, tangible way to evaluate content pieces, and whether or not they are achieving your goals. Clare Carr explains not only why this kind of analytics assessment is important, but also how it can be done in a way that gives you more data than typical platforms provide. It’s all on this episode of Social Business Engine. The Right Measurements Of Engagement Enable You To Ask The Right Questions If you don’t have accurate data concerning the messaging you’re sending into your target market you’ll never know if what you’re doing is effective. And even once you know what’s effective, you need to know the right questions to ask that will enable you to know WHY it is effective - so that you can produce more of that same type of content. On this episode, Clare Carr explains how to get the right data about your content and conversions so that you are able to ask the right questions. It’s the only way to truly know what’s happening with your marketing, content, and conversions and thus, the only way to refine your campaigns based on data instead of hunches. A Free Tool To Know The Inside Data of What’s Getting Attention Online With over 1 Billion people online, it’s hard to track what the important topics being discussed worldwide really are. Powerhouse Google has a platform that enables them to make use of search and social data, but the rest of us don’t have access to that type of information - until now. In this podcast, Clare Carr introduces Parse.ly’s newest analytics tool - Currents. It’s the world’s first public view of what those 1 billion people who are online care about. You can use attention trends to uncover the content that matters and is being talked about to better aim your marketing and content curation efforts to attract the audience you want to attract. In this conversation, Clare reveals how you can become a beta user of this exciting new tool and have access to it for free. Featured on This Episode Website: https://www.parse.ly Connect with Clare on Linkedin Reach out to Clare on Twitter: @ClareOndrey Current: https://currents.parsely.com/ https://www.parse.ly/resources/data-studies/referrer-dashboard/ Outline of This Episode [1:52] Parse.ly’s powerful analytics platform for evaluating content [2:55] Metrics are important for more than conversions [5:16] What does it mean to measure attention and why is attention valuable? [11:10] Use cases to show how to do website analytics in a more powerful way [19:27] The power of the Parse.ly “Currents” tool Resources & People Mentioned www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com - Get your free report Google Analytics Strategy Plus Hello Fresh Slate.com Flipboard The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts On this episode, Bernie speaks with Sandy Abraham, Head of Global Marketing & Brand Management at Forcam. Forcam provides shop floor management systems to manufacturers that enables them to increase productivity by 20% in less than 12 months. They are an industry leader that has worked with Mercedes Benz and other high profile manufacturing companies. Sandy has led her marketing team in new directions by becoming a strategic contributor to the business. Her focus? Direct customer engagement and profitable partner events. It's a novel approach for a marketing leader but has proven to be extremely effective. It's one you’ll want to be sure you learn from. Listen now!   Marketing Can Be Evaluated by Conversion Rate, Revenue, and Number of Leads Is there a revenue-based way of evaluating a marketing team? Sandy Abraham not only believes there are ways to do it, she feels it’s the best way to evaluate marketing effectiveness. In this conversation, you’ll hear how Sandy has led her marketing team into uncharted territory by focusing on direct interaction with customers in order to gain a marketing edge. From sit-down meetings with the customer-operators of their systems to partnering with others in her industry to create effective demonstrations at industry events, Sandy’s approach has tried things unheard of for a marketing team. But more importantly, her efforts have been proven to increase her company’s revenue.   Marketing Power Tip: Focus On Direct Customer Engagement It’s not typically the marketing department’s job to engage directly with customers. Most organizations leave that task to customer support, account managers or the sales team. But Sandy saw an untapped opportunity for her marketing team through direct customer engagement, so she stepped into what has become a very successful approach. In this conversation, you’ll hear how Sandy has trained her marketing team to connect with customers in non-threatening ways in order to gather use-case stories, assess the true benefits and problems customers have with their systems, and provide data and intel to her company department-wide. This has enabled her to refine the company’s messaging, build greater trust with customers, and add to the bottom line revenue of the business in tangible ways. Building Strategic Marketing Relationships Through Industry Events Every industry has its high profile events. Sadly, some of them can be boring, low return activities that are not truly beneficial to those who participate. Rather than bemoan the unexciting nature of her industry’s events, Sandy chose to leverage them to serve her marketing goals. She reached out to companies in her industry who provided complementary services or technologies to her own and formed what she refers to as “affiliate” partnerships for the event. Together, she and her affiliate partners demonstrated the effectiveness of her software solutions in hands-on, practical ways that brought both company’s solutions to life. In many cases, Sandy created an opportunity so appealing that her affiliate partners were willing to pay for the entire thing. You can hear Sandy describe her approach and learn how you can do the same thing, on this episode.     Featured on This Episode Sandy Abraham on LinkedIn Forcam Outline of This Episode [1:46] What is Forcam doing and what is Sandy’s role? [2:40] Why marketing should be integral to the organization? [4:23] Sandy’s approach to making marketing strategic [6:02] Marketing can build trust with customers like nobody else can [12:01] How Sandy has leverages affiliate marketing relationships in her industry [15:40] Those who are passionate about marketing need to take things to the next level [22:23] Tools used by the marketing department that generate revenue Resources & People Mentioned The Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine T

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts The Sales and Distribution channels of any business are always in flux simply because there are constantly new things to learn and apply on the fly. What would it be like if management could speak directly to the sales team in an engaging way on an ongoing basis - to provide updated, relevant resources in real-time? On this episode, Bernie is joined by Henry Menke, Product Marketing Director at Balluff, Inc. The Balluff team was trying to solve a very specific problem regarding the sales team’s awareness of specific educational topics relevant to the products the company provides, so they decided to try an internal podcast. Henry explains how he and his team rolled out a private podcast channel by thinking of their sales team as they would a customer. It enables them to deliver content that helps team members stay up to date on topics ranging from product information to competitive intel. Their podcast channel has proven to be a valuable way to keep team members connected and up to date. Henry shares the specifics of how they do and the impact it has, on this episode.   Having Trouble Providing Vital New Intel To Your Sales Team? There’s a crucial question every business leadership team needs to answer: How do you effectively keep your sales team up to date? There are product developments, new messaging approaches, and updates to sales presentations that everyone on the team needs to know. What’s the answer? More meetings? Conference calls? Why not try a solution that makes it easy for your team to use the educational materials and updates you provide when it is most convenient for them? That’s exactly what the Balluff team did - by creating a private podcast. Yes, podcasting is typically a public medium but there’s no reason your company can’t use the same technology and approach to content distribution inside a private channel. Doing so will help you increase your team’s awareness and skill in up to date, powerful ways. In this episode, you’ll hear all the details of how Henry and his team do it week to week - from podcasting gear to episode format, so be sure you listen.     Why A Private Podcast Can Communicate To Your Team Like Nothing Else One of the things common to many B2B salespeople is that they spend a lot of time in the car, driving from appointment to appointment. An internal podcast enables you to take advantage of that “windshield time” to better equip and empower your sales team. Imagine a team member listening to the latest sales presentation or product update as they are driving to their next appointment. They’ll be ready to provide the most relevant, up to date insights to their prospect and have increased confidence in doing so. But when you take it a step further to feature success stories from their peers and testimonials, you'll generate enthusiasm around the content as well.   How Past Podcast Episodes Can Be Valuable Training Tools For The Sales Team Most podcasts produced these days become lost in the Internet flood, drowned out by loads of other content. But a private podcast doesn’t have to fall prey to that same dynamic. That’s because past episodes are easily searchable via internal company channels, which makes them a valuable resource that anyone on the team can use to address specific needs, at any time. In this conversation, Henry Menke explains how the Balluff team has seen their salespeople use their podcast content as an on-demand resource library, how they’ve intentionally created their episode notes to enable easy search via keywords, and how they encourage interaction and consumption internally. It’s a brilliant idea that more companies should consider. You’ll hear all the details on this episode.     Featured on This Episode Henry Menke on LinkedIn Balluff on LinkedIn https://www.balluff.com   Outline of This Episode [1:56] What does Balluff do? B2B industrial solutions for automation equipment [3:50] Why a podcast seemed like a good idea to solve a specific sales team problem [6:06] Doing what it takes to create a private podcast (vaulted content) [9:11] Formatting the episodes to fit the needs of the sales team [10:34] A sample of the internal podcast the Balluff team creates [12:18] How archived episodes serve the sales team as an ongoing resource [15:26] Leveraging the podcast as an awareness generator [21:29] The importance of collaborating with sales management to increase listeners   Resources & People Mentioned The Automation Insights Blog www.PodBean.com The Digital Selling Benchmark Report - www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr   Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts The digital transformation we’ve experienced in the past few years has enabled every organization or entrepreneur to legitimately vie for a place of authority in their industry through content marketing. A vital part of every content marketing approach, and an area most of us don’t think enough about, is the organization of those pieces of content on the “home base” of the organization - our website. On this episode of Social Business Engine, Bernie speaks with Gaetano Nino DiNardi, Vice President of Marketing for Sales Hacker. He explains why doing a content audit periodically is an absolute must if you want your website to not only be discovered in search engines but also deliver a helpful experience and effective customer journey to site visitors. Content audits aren’t glamorous or trendy to talk about, but they are powerfully important. On this episode, you’ll learn the why and how of a content audit. Gaetano delivers insights that will benefit even the most experienced digital marketer. A Content Audit Can Tell You What Content Is Working and What Is Not Working The great content your organization is creating is meant to accomplish something, isn’t it? Your goal may be to establish and build authority, answer customer questions, or set the stage for a sales conversation. How do you know if those things are actually happening? The best way to find out is to perform a content audit on your website. It takes a concerted effort but it’s the only way you can know the facts regarding your content marketing and sales support results. In this episode, Gaetano Nino DiNardi explains what a content audit is and how the practice can help you evaluate your content, refine your approach, and become more effective with your content marketing efforts. There’s no better way to evaluate and improve your content strategy than with a comprehensive content audit. Gaetano explains how to do it, on this episode. A Content Audit Can Be Challenging. Here Are 4 Ways To Approach It In this conversation, Gaetano mentions 8 challenges to performing a content audit - things like large libraries of content to be evaluated, quantitative and qualitative analysis needs, and simply knowing how to determine what is worth evaluating in the first place. Gaetano suggests you approach your content audit through 4 areas of focus: keyword optimization, content types, content topics, and the stage of the customer journey each particular content piece is meant to serve. This approach will enable you to locate and address the most important areas of your website that impact the customer journey, but more importantly will give you clear insights into what you’re doing well and what you are not doing well - so your team can strategically improve your content marketing efforts. How Often Should You Do A Content Audit, And How Long Is It Going To Take? Gaetano’s experience as a content and SEO specialist leads him to suggest that any website that's been in existence for at least one year needs to have a content audit performed - and time and care should be taken to do it thoroughly so the effort is not wasted. If your website is 100 to 200 pages in size, you can expect around 40 hours to be required for an adequate audit. 1000 pages? 70 to 80 hours. If your site contains 3000 to 5000 pages or more, you can expect to spend over 100 hours, even using automated means of spidering and assessing your content. But Gaetano says you should not let the time factor dissuade you from starting. The benefits that come from an effective content audit will make the time spent well worth the effort. The Vital Role of the Sales Team in Content Audits It’s not uncommon for an organization's content strategy to be devised through marketing department brainstorming sessions. That’s OK, but only if there is real-world input from the sales team. The front line sales reps in your company should be asked about the actual pains and problems customers and prospects are facing. That information enables an accurate assessment of whether the team is creating content to address those problems. If so - great. How can your existing content be improved or complemented to enhance the customer journey or increase its placement in organic search? If not, you’ve discovered holes in your content strategy that need to be filled, and you know exactly where to start. Do you see the importance of a content audit to your overall sales goals? It’s the exercise that enables your organization to focus its content efforts on the topics that will attract the right people to your website and truly help the sales team serve more customers. Featured on This Episode Sales Hacker Website www.OfficialGaetano.com - Gaetano’s personal website Gaetano on LinkedIn Gaetano on Twitter: @Gaetano_NYC Outline of This Episode [2:11] What IS Sales Hacker? [3:53] What is a content audit and why is it important? [4:40] How to start a content audit for your website [7:49] The challenges associated with doing a content audit [10:10] Evaluating content by type, topic, keywords, and customer journey [15:58] How often should a content audit be done? [17:08] To what extent should the sales team be involved in a content audit? [19:20] How long does a typical content audit take to complete? Resources & People Mentioned The FREE Digital Selling Benchmark Assessment Report - www.DigitalSellingBenchmarkReport.com BLOG POST: 9 Problems With Content Audits and How to Solve Them Screaming Frog - SEO spidering tool to use for a content audit Google Analytics Google Search Console The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine

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

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

On this episode of AMPlify, we pull from the archives of our sister podcast, AMPUP Your Digital Marketing. Host Glenn Gaudet sat down with Bernie Borges. Bernie is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Vengreso having previously been the CEO at Find and Covert. He also currently hosts the Social Business Engine podcast. In their discussion, Glenn and Bernie explore the ups and downs of employee advocacy and ways to make it easy for employees to share their stories to help promote your company.

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts One of the most difficult things for any company to do quickly is to effectively hire a large team - and thanks to digital transformation, social recruiting is a viable way to do it at scale. On this episode Bernie invited a duo to join him to discuss the issue - Bill Quirk, Strategic Account Manager at Work4 Labs and Robert Constantine, Director of Digital and Social Media Marketing at iQor. You’ll hear how iQor, a global Business Process Outsourcing company with a need to staff up quickly for work in call centers and customer care centers around the globe has partnered with Work4Labs to source talent at scale using Facebook Lead Ads. You’ll hear about the method they are using and the impressive results they’re experiencing by applying digital marketing best practices to talent recruiting. And if recruiting employees isn’t your responsibility, you’ll still want to listen because you’ll hear relevant ideas that you may be able to apply to your overall digital strategy. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville! Facebook is a Gold Mine For Companies Needing to Recruit At Scale Over 2 billion people currently use Facebook across the globe (2018). That’s a massive group of people hanging out in the same place online. And they are digitally savvy people - so it makes sense for companies to tap into that amazing talent pool to find and nurture leads for the purpose of recruiting. The iQor team needed to find better ways to fill positions in their global call centers, so they turned to the Work4Labs team for help. What they learned is that Facebook Lead Ads enable them to apply a digital marketing approach of lead - nurture - convert to their social recruiting, with great success. What you’ll hear on this episode is an amazing case study that demonstrates how digital transformation is changing the way companies do business in a variety of areas, not just in sales and marketing. You’ll glean many insights from this conversation that you can apply across the board in your digital strategy, not just in the area of recruiting, so be sure you take the time to listen. How iQor and Work4Labs Pioneered A Social Recruiting Approach The approach the Work4Labs team applied to the iQor recruiting process was truly a first-of-its-kind strategy. The advent of Facebook Lead Ads in 2015 is what made it possible to effectively target talent with specific skill sets and characteristics. Using the platform they can even create “look-alike” audiences that enables their ads to have even greater reach. This strategy has become a core approach the Work4Labs team uses with dozens of their clients, to great effect. You can hear the results iQor got from this targeted way of finding employee leads, how they’ve nurtured relationships with those potential employees, and how those social relationships have converted to new hires at scale, on this episode of Social Business Engine. Social Recruiting Finds Exclusive Candidates (Those Not Looking For A Job) As the Work4Leads team got started with their social recruiting strategy they discovered a very surprising and delightful reality about their approach - they were connecting with and nurturing relationships with qualified people who weren’t actually looking for jobs. That means up to 70% of the candidates that finally interviewed for the positions they were seeking to fill were not being courted by other companies at all. The approach has been so successful that Facebook is now the #2 source for applicants for iQor, behind employee referrals. Another great benefit of using Facebook Lead Ads to generate recruiting leads is that iQor’s cost per candidate wound up being very low - from $1 to $3 per lead. It made the ability to find qualified candidates in record time amazingly affordable and even more effective than traditional approaches. Digital transformation has made recruiting at scale a reality. But more importantly, this social recruiting case study featuring Work4Labs and iQor demonstrates how companies who are willing to boldly use the tools at their disposal can increase their effectiveness and become pioneers in their industry. Featured on This Episode Bill Quirk on LinkedIn Robert Constantine on LinkedIn iQor Work4Labs Work4Labs iQor case study Outline of This Episode [2:56] How Work4Labs and iQor are partnering to recruit using Facebook [6:10] How Facebook is a gold mine for recruiters [8:40] Lead Ads made hiring for iQor’s call center a faster process [12:50] Amazing results have come from this pioneering approach [17:12] New steps into the Facebook Marketplace jobs section (a new opportunity) [25:03] Working hard to get performance data on hires - adding it to new lead generation Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville! Facebook Lead Ads Facebook Marketplace Hubspot The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play By now you’ve surely heard about GDPR. It’s the Global Data Protection Regulation - and it impacts all businesses that sell globally and store information about individual consumers. The ramifications of this regulation are complex and it’s not entirely clear to everyday marketers what some of the requirements mean, so Bernie asked Juliette Rizkallah, Chief Marketing Officer of SailPoint Technologies to shed light on this topic on this episode. In addition to her role as CMO at Sailpoint, Juliette is a recognized identity and security expert, a Forbes Technology Council contributing writer, and a popular, sought-out speaker. On this episode, Juliette brings clarity to the GDPR topic for marketers struggling to understand it. Juliette has both a technical and pragmatic understanding of how GDPR affects the marketing organization. You’ll want to listen to this episode in its entirety to understand how GDPR affects you and what you need to do to be in compliance - because not being in compliance can be very costly. This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. What’s the Cost of Non-Compliance With GDPR? It’s easy to scoff at new regulations, especially measures as confusing as GDPR, but it’s not worth the risk to remain non-compliant. Any company found to be in violation of GDPR can be fined up to $20 million Euros or 4% of total revenues for the company - whichever is highest. That is an unprecedented penalty that puts a powerful set of teeth into the legislation. But GDPR is also sweeping in its scope. As Juliette says, “In the case of GDPR… it’s whatever a consumer decides that a corporation should be doing about their data, including their right to be forgotten. Because of that, it makes it very complex for companies to try to figure out how to manage compliance for it.” Juliette’s insights are practical and helpful, based on her understanding of the regulation. Be sure to listen in order to understand what your company needs to do to become and remain compliant. Your First GDPR Compliance Step: Take Inventory of Customer Data During this episode, Juliette and Bernie both admit that companies based in the United States have historically been sloppy when it comes to the oversight of consumer data. But because of GDPR, those days are over. Companies that do not carefully manage and protect the personal data of citizens of the European Union can experience devastating losses if consumers complain and they are found to be in non-compliance. Juliette says that the first step to becoming compliant is to take an inventory of all consumer data within your organization. You need to know where it is kept, where it came from, determine what protections you need to have around that data, develop a data management system, and develop a plan for the eventuality that you are asked to remove all information about specific individuals. GDPR Gives Consumers The Right To Be Forgotten By Companies As with any new regulation, GDPR contains verbiage that begs for clarification. For example, one of the provisions of the law is that consumers have the right to request that every bit of their personal data be removed from a company’s dataset, even if they have previously opted into that company’s communication channels. And the burden of proof that such actions have been complied with is on the vendor/company asked to delete the data. That presents a problem: How can a company keep an accurate record that they’ve deleted all information about a particular consumer if all information about that consumer is supposed to be removed from their system? It’s a problem that will undoubtedly be ironed out over time, but until then marketing executives and legal departments are scrambling to protect their companies. What Consumer Data Can Companies Provide To Vendors Under GDPR? It's probably clear to you by now that GDPR is not only far-reaching, it is also very difficult to apply with confidence. Juliette demonstrates this by pointing out that companies that work with vendors on behalf of their customers must, at times, share their customer data with those vendors. How is it going to be made clear exactly what data is being shared, by whom, and for what purposes? Will marketers and vendors need codified contracts in order to ensure consumer data is protected adequately? Will individual customers need to opt-in to the sharing required between the company and their vendor? Juliette has a number of very practical ideas about where to begin to assess your company's ability to comply with GDPR. Listen to this episode and share it with your Chief Marketing Officer. Your company needs to know this information. Featured on This Episode Juliette Rizkallah on LinkedIn Juliette on Twitter: @JulietteSultan Sailpoint Technologies Forbes Technology Council Contributor Outline of This Episode [2:52] Who is Juliette and Sailpoint technologies? [3:40] What is GDPR (Global Data Protection Regulation)? [6:14] How do European-based rules like this impact U.S companies? [8:07] Anyone who collects consumer information is in the crosshairs of GDPR [11:20] Juliette’s tips for where marketers should start to stay in compliance [19:56] How will marketing departments change because of GDPR? [24:09] Bernie’s summary of the issues discussed [29:09] Customer data shared with Vendors has to be codified in contracts Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by Frost & Sullivan. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville! GDPR European Portal The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

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

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Technological advances are providing more and more opportunities for sales organizations to enhance sales and on this episode, Rachel Stuve, Sr. Business Analytics Manager at NICE Nexidia explains one of the ways it's happening. Nexidia Analytics enables brands to unlock the untapped value inside the massive amounts of unstructured audio they possess – mostly phone conversations between customers and sales agents. By utilizing their analytics technology, they are able to better understand what’s really being said by their customers, what products are really selling and not selling, and most importantly, why. As a result, the brand can identify opportunities to cross-sell, upsell, and increase operational efficiency and new business opportunities. If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you hear the real-world examples Rachel shares about how their analytics is enhancing sales for real customers. The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap. How Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics Can Enhance Your Sales For years companies have been answering customer service calls, inbound sales calls, and conducting surveys to discover how prospects and customers actually feel about their products. But until now the findings have been entirely dependent on what the employee on the phone line understood the customer to mean. No more. NICE Nexidia has developed a technology - Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics - that can analyze the actual sounds of the language contained in recorded phone calls and related data, interpret it accurately, and convert it into searchable data. Can you imagine the sales implications of that kind of data? Listen to this episode to hear Rachel Stuve describe actual customer experiences that demonstrate how this data analytics is being used to enhance sales in amazing ways. Demonstrating The Effectiveness Of Nexidia’s Solution What’s the best way to experience the effectiveness of a technology solution that promises to increase and enhance your company’s sales process? How about a “proof of concept” demonstration using your own data? Rachel Stuve explains how NICE Nexidia uses the unstructured data of prospective customers to demonstrate how powerfully their analytics service is, and how the use of that data can increase sales conversions by 50%. Listen to hear the entire story and to understand how this technology enables brands to get a 360 view of their customer’s buying journey. Taking The Human Interpretation Of Data Out Of The Sales Equation It is all too common for misperceptions to happen in customer-facing sales interactions. We humans don’t always hear what we think we hear and we don’t always notice the deeper issues behind the words customers or prospects say to us. The result is that sales conversations, surveys, and customer service calls wind up with conclusions about customers that are not always accurate. The shining strength of the NICE Nexidia technology is that it interprets audio sales conversations. The detailed things customers and prospects actually say can be analyzed in ways that enable real issues and objections to be identified and effectively addressed. The Nexidia system supplies sales prompts to salespeople from the data it has analyzed, enabling them to inject deeply relevant responses into the sales conversation, oftentimes resulting in as much as a 4X increase in effectiveness. Rachel shares more details about how the system works and explains why it’s so effective, on this episode. Understand The Customer Journey To Provide a 50% Increase In Conversions What impact would it have on your sales team’s conversations if you were able to pull together data from every angle of a customer’s buying journey? If you take the time to consider the question on even an elementary level you’ll understand that data of that kind would give you an incredible sales advantage. You’d be able to speak to your prospects in ways that take into account everything they’ve experienced in their sales journey and speak directly to them, where they are in their relationship with your brand. NICE Nexidia enables that 360-degree view of the customer’s buying journey to be yours through their Neuro Phonetic Speech Analytics platform. Bernie’s guest on this episode, Rachel Stuve explains how the system works, provides two real-life use cases to demonstrate how powerfully it enhances sales, and reveals how you can make profitable use of the unstructured data that’s been sitting in your computer servers for years to increase sales conversions. Don’t miss this episode Featured on This Episode www.NICE.com/analytics Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn Outline of This Episode [0:30] Bernie’s overview of what you’ll learn on this episode. [2:40] What does NICE Nexidia do? Rachel’s role at the company [5:49] The core technology behind what NICE Nexidia is able to do [8:46] What Nexidia analytics provides to customers: a proof of concept approach [11:48] How sales departments are supported by the analytics provided [14:24] A real life customer use case: using analytics to get a 4X gain on revenue in 1 year [18:15] A 360 degree understanding of the customer’s journey [25:42] Structuring unstructured data to make it useful and powerful Resources & People Mentioned The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Making powerful emotional connections through digital marketing at scale is possible, and you'll hear how it's happening in this conversation between host Bernie Borges and his guest, Aaron Masih, Chief Operating Officer at Persado. Aaron describes how marketers can use machine learning and AI to make an emotional connection with customers, and thereby understand exactly how to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. The concept of emotional intelligence has received widespread attention since the publication of Daniel Goleman’s highly acclaimed book, “Emotional Intelligence,” and the concept is of particular interest to marketers because the needs and pains marketers hope to address are discovered by connecting with consumers on an emotional level. Making that kind of connection was easier when buying decisions were most commonly made face to face, but with the advent of the digital world, everything has changed. When the right kind of emotional connection happens, purchases happen, customer loyalty increases, and repeat purchases are a natural result. Find out how AI is able to make all the difference, on this episode. The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap. Customer Loyalty Is On The Decline. Marketing AI Solves The Problem Now that more consumers make their buying decisions through purely digital means, brands have gone digital as well - and the barrage of messages buyers receive is overwhelming. This presents significant problems for marketers: It’s more difficult than ever for brands to differentiate and stand out from the noise It’s more difficult to engage in emotionally intelligent conversations with buyers Customer loyalty in this context becomes a tremendous challenge Aaron Masih says that while digital technology has created the problems marketers face, digital technology also provides the solution. Through machine learning systems like the Persado team has created, customer responses to marketing messages can be assessed over time, enabling the messaging to be refined according to the emotional language buyers respond to - or not. This level of personalization makes it possible to connect emotionally with buyers, at scale - and increase profitability through more closed transactions. Be sure to listen to this episode to hear Aaron’s description of how this amazing technology works. When Marketers Understand A Customer’s Emotional Triggers, Amazing Things Happen For as long as marketing and sales training has been in existence, we’ve been taught that understanding the buyer is a fundamental premise to increased sales. Current data shows it’s still true. When marketers are able to tailor a conversation to a specific customer, that person makes 2.4 times more purchases annually and is 6 times more likely to purchase from the brand even when competing brands are on sale. But here’s the rub: The online experience happens at a much larger scale than the in-person marketing and sales experiences of the past. How can marketers understand the emotions of their potential customers at that kind of scale and distance? Aaron Masih points out that it’s too big of a problem for humans to solve, which is why many marketers are turning to machine intelligence for the solution. In this fascinating conversation, Aaron explains how AI (also referred to as augmented intelligence in this context) can gather and analyze marketing and sales data to enable a better understanding of the emotional context in which buyers are making their purchase decisions. This empowers marketers to create content using the right emotionally intelligent language that will motivate action from their buyers. It's an approach that not only increases sales but meets the true needs of the customer at the same time, while strengthening brand loyalty. What Are The Primary Emotional Triggers Your Audience Responds To? The most successful brands are those that effectively use emotionally intelligent language to make an emotional connection with their customers. In the modern, large-scale digital consumer landscape, machine learning such as Persado that Aaron describes on this episode is what makes it possible. The deeper analysis possible through the use of augmented intelligence provides a true understanding of the effectiveness of emotional appeals, both across broad groups and in individual cases and enables marketers to custom-tailor their messages in powerful ways. It’s going beyond traditional best-practices applied to good sales copy to assess the true impact it’s having and improve its effectiveness. AI Empowered Marketing Actually Creates More Human Connections With Customers Augmented intelligence is proving to be the key to effective digital marketing. It empowers people - marketers, managers, copywriters - to do their work with greater effectiveness through emotionally intelligent language the data shows will be beneficial and effective when used to engage with specific customers. This technology-augmented approach also enables marketers to understand the right ways to connect with customers throughout the stages of their buying journey - including the right platforms to use in order to make those connections. When the consumer is receiving this kind of relevant, emotionally intelligent messaging, they feel understood and appreciated, and are more likely to become loyal customers as a result. Be sure to listen to this episode. The insights Aaron Masih shares will get you thinking more deeply about how your marketing can and should be making an emotional connection with your buyers, and how you can accomplish it through the use of artificial intelligence in your martech stack. Featured on This Episode Aaron Masih on LinkedIn Aaron on Twitter: @Aaronxperience Persado Outline of This Episode [1:51] Aaron’s role at Persado - and the strengths of the Persado approach [2:43] Customer loyalty: What’s causing it to decline? [4:23] The impact of marketers understanding the emotion of their customers [12:35] How marketers can use insights from AI to create targeted content at scale [17:27] Is AI-empowered marketing being received well in the marketing world? [22:41] Bernie’s summary: Marketing with emotionally intelligent language Resources & People Mentioned The Social Business Journal Volume 11 is a case study in Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way. This case study is available for download without a form to complete – it’s ungated - just click to open the PDF in your browser at www.Vengreso.com/sap The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Marketing organizations in the current business environment have a number of challenges before them due to advances in technology and the cultural shifts that are happening because of them. To build a 21st century marketing organization it’s important to look carefully at these challenges to determine how to best structure marketing teams to deliver the most effective results. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Betsy Rohtbart, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Vonage. On this episode, Betsy shares the lessons she’s learned about building a modern marketing team - through her experience both on the agency side and on the brand side. Her insights can be applied by any marketing leader in any industry who is tasked with building and evolving a marketing team that needs both digital and offline marketing skills, so you can be sure, you will hear practical, real-world advice from what Betsy shares. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount Do You Have The Right Structure In Your Marketing Organization? When it comes to structuring your marketing organization in the most effective way, there are many pieces to the puzzle. The first is getting clear about what the team is trying to achieve and work backward from there, building the capabilities in your team through training and hiring the expertise you need to accomplish that goal. As you do, be aware that the result is that your marketing department won’t look like the marketing department of any other organization because it will be customized to meet the needs of your customers. When it comes to hiring the expertise you need, Betsy says the illustration that makes the most sense to her is to think of your marketing team like a game of Tetris. Your marketing organization will have a variety of expertise “gaps” that need to be filled but don't expect a one-size-fits-all candidate to appear on your radar. Some people are pure generalists. Some are pure specialists. A good marketing department needs both, a mix that fills in all the gaps and is able to remain flexible as technologies and marketing approaches change. What is More Important When Hiring, Business Acumen or “Fit” on The Team? Betsy says that the modern marketing organization must be fully immersed in the company’s goals but also able to frame those goals to agency partners so they can be successful in delivering for clients. So business acumen is critical in that situation. Marketing leaders need to go into every relationship with the attitude that everyone they work with is just as much working for the company as they are, even when those people are outside agencies. And when it comes to finding the agencies or individuals that will do the best job Betsy says she would rather hire someone who is the right culture fit even if they are not as technically qualified as another candidate. Many times, the technical skills needed for a role can be taught to people who don’t possess them, but the characteristics that make for a good culture fit cannot be taught. For that reason, culture fit is more important. The Dos and Don’ts of Building A Great Marketing Organization There is a tremendous amount of detail that goes into building a truly great marketing organization in the modern world. Toward the end of this conversation, Betsy shared her own list of dos and don’ts about how to build a great marketing organization. It is clearly a necessity for marketing organizations to stay up on how the latest analytics tools work - but knowing how to use analytics tools doesn’t mean your team will be good analysts. Ultimately there is a level of finesse that has to be learned - and it is learned by observation over time. Marketing leaders need to be aware that at the end of the day you have to evaluate what you did as a team, admit mistakes that were made, and make changes that bring improvement. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Work to create an independent, problem-solving attitude in team members by encouraging them to escalate things to you AS problems arise rather than after things are already out of control. That way you’re not solving problems for them, but teaching them how to solve problems themselves. Work to build a team that works together like a healthy family. As the team grows, managers may need to break teams down into smaller groups to maintain connection and synergy. Managers should keep themselves accountable for understanding the needs of the team and for leading by example. Demonstrate best-practices but also demonstrate how to own your mistakes, learn from them, and grow as a result. You can meet Betsy Rohtbart, Vice President Digital Marketing at Vonage at the Frost & Sullivan 19th Annual Marketing Impact MindXchange event, July 16-18 in Nashville, TN where she is speaking on this topic. Featured on This Episode Connect with Betsy on LinkedIn Betsy on Twitter: @BetsyMRohtbart Vonage Vonage on Twitter: @Vonage Outline of This Episode [0:40] Bernie’s introduction to Betsy Rohtbart, guest on this episode - her role at the company. [3:22] What does the 21st Century marketing department look like? [6:37] The role business acumen plays in the modern marketing department [8:36] What is the role of “fit” in the modern marketing organization? [11:06] How can marketing organizations stay current? [15:29] Management dos and don’ts for building a great marketing organization [21:27] The importance of managers being willing to take blame for their mistakes Resources & People Mentioned BOOK: Good to Great by Jim Collins Adobe Analytics Core Metrics Google Analytics Alan Masarek, CEO of Vongage The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play For some time now Bernie has been talking about the growing importance of learning how to use Artificial Intelligence for marketing. While we still have a lot to learn, AI has finally developed to a point that it can be used effectively, at scale, to reach more customers in personalized ways. Bernie’s guest on this episode is Andrew Malcolm, Chief Marketing Officer at Evernote. Andrew tells how he and his team are doing exactly that and explains why their approach has enabled Evernote to evolve into a technology-driven marketing organization. Toward the end of the conversation, Andrew wraps up with best practices that can be applied to your organization. Anyone interested in the future of marketing tech needs to hear this real-life application of AI to marketing. Vengreso is proud to be a partner with Frost & Sullivan on the 19th annual Marketing Executive MindXchange event: Marketing Impact 2025. We’ll be moderating a Think Tank discussion focused on Creating a Consistent Omni-Channel Customer Journey. Join us at Marketing Impact 2025 July 16 – 18, 2018 in Nashville, TN to mix and mingle with forward thinking marketing executives and thought leaders. As an event partner, we’re excited to extend a $250 savings to all Vengreso subscribers. Simply visit: www.frost.com/mar and use discount code VENGRESO at registration. Believe It Or Not, AI CAN Be Used To Market In A Personalized Way It’s a strange way to say it, but Andrew Malcolm describes the approach the Evernote team takes in integrating AI into their marketing systems as being “creatively analytic.” They use big data, machine learning, and AI to connect to just the right person at just the right time - and it’s through that approach that they are able to do something paradoxical - deliver personal marketing using a machine. It’s an insightful approach that is enabling them to market effectively for 2 cents per user, per year. Did you get that? Their approach is a demonstration of powerful, personalized marketing that is scalable and effective. In this conversation Andrew outlines how to establish a system of AI-powered marketing through determining what TYPE of message is best to deliver to your customers first (based on geography, device type, time of day, their setting, and the type of content they are already interacting with) and then use the probabilities you discover to deliver the right content with a touch of human creativity. Andrew and his team have spent the time to work out an incredible system for Evernote and what he shares on this episode can help you blaze the same trail in your marketing department, so be sure you listen. Modularizing Content To Fit The Needs Of A Customer Bernie’s curiosity about the use of AI and machine learning in Evernote's marketing strategy led him to ask Andrew a question about how the Evernote team is making content that is personalized, yet relevant to a wide variety of users. Andrew’s answer reveals a powerful insight into the very structure of content itself. He says that all content is made up of a series of components that remain the same, but may be rearranged or selectively chosen or left out. What is included or not depends on individual customer scenarios. Humans can’t make the kinds of determinations to make it happen, but machines (otherwise known as algorithms, not true physical devices) can based on thousands of data points. The right content can be selected from a repository of available content and displayed for a user in a way that fits them, in seconds rather than hours. But before taking that step, the system needs to key in on the moments in a customer's experience that matter the most in order to know WHEN to deliver the content at the most opportune time. Andrew explains that the important thing is not that you need to know exactly WHAT to say to a customer, it’s that you know exactly WHEN to say it. That’s why the Evernote team spends lots of time doing what they call, “moment testing” rather than copy testing. Find out how Evernote’s marketing department uses moment testing, a content cache, and AI to send users the right messaging at exactly the right time - on this episode. The Tools You Need To Use Artificial Intelligence For Marketing As you begin thinking about using artificial intelligence in your marketing systems, you’re naturally going to wonder what tools you will need. Andrew warns that at this point in the development of AI, tools that say they contain everything you need to automate your marketing effectively are making claims they can’t always back up, so you should be wary. He advises that you keep it simple. The first thing you need is not a piece of software, but clean data. The tools you wind up using will only be as good as the data you provide to them, so you need to make sure that you’re getting accurate data that represents your customer’s experience well. Beyond that, you’ll need a content management system, an analytics tool, a campaign management tool, and some sort of data repository. Listen to this episode to hear Andrew’s explanation of how these basic tools have been combined at Evernote to create an automated marketing system that provides personalized, customer-specific content to their marketing team so that a final, human touch of creativity and customization can be added. How To Get Started Using Artificial Intelligence For Marketing As you consider using AI as part of your marketing systems, don’t be overwhelmed. There are low risk ways to get started, because you’re not experimenting with critical aspects of your marketing mix. Andrew gives an example of this sort of experiment using the homepage of a website. By making use of geotargeting you can offer a different, culturally attractive version of your website to visitors depending on what part of the world they are viewing from. And how do you know what content to provide to users from different parts of the world? By the data you’ve been able to collect through your own software or services. Andrew explains it all in this conversation and it’s not as complicated as it sounds. The integration of AI into marketing is becoming a reality right before our eyes. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to put your marketing approach on the cutting edge, reach customers in a more personalized way, and do so faster and more economically than you ever have before. You can meet Andrew Malcolm, Chief Marketing Officer at Evernote at the Frost & Sullivan 19th Annual Marketing Impact MindXchange event, July 16 - 18 in Nashville, TN where he is speaking on this topic. Featured on This Episode Andrew on LinkedIn Andrew on Twitter: @EverMalc Evernote The Evernote Blog Outline of This Episode [0:31] Chief Marketing Officer at Evernote, .Andrew Malcolm [2:29] The easiest way to turn your ideas into actions: Evernote - and Andrew’s role at Evernote [3:30] Creatively Analytic Marketing: The new approach using technology [5:20] Personalizing content using machine learning and AI [7:05] Modularizing content to make the experience easier and still customized [9:40] What channels are at your disposal? How can you use them to deliver your messages? [12:38] Technology needed: clean data, the type of targeting, the right systems [15:04] Approaches that are working - and those that are not working [17:03] Tips for the listener who is just getting started doing using AI for marketing [19:23] Categories of tools to consider for AI in marketing [25:20] The difficult dynamics of building a team that is able to do marketing using Artificial Intelligence Resources & People Mentioned Tableau The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above. This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine  

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

Subscribe to Selling With Social Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play I love stories about sales professionals stretching their sales leadership legs by leaving the corporate world and carving out their own path. That’s why this interview with Steve Benson, founder and CEO of Badger Maps, is so great. Steve had years of experience in sales that allowed him to create an app that saves field salespeople time, energy, and resources. On this episode of #SellingWithSocial, he shares ways to improve your skills as a sales leader and craft a better hiring process. Get to know Steve and the secrets behind Badger Maps’ success on this insightful and entertaining podcast. #1: Outline Your Sales Leadership Best Practices in a Playbook Steve knew he needed a way to increase his sales team’s performance and efficiency. Each one of his employees had stellar talent, but there were gaps in communication between team members. That’s when he came up with the idea to create a sales leadership best practices playbook. At weekly meetings Steve had a team member share their best skill, talent, or method of doing great work. These skills were documented in a physical playbook that assisted Steve in training new members by being able to map training a skill to a resource. He explained it best by saying, “Everyone can be better at their specialty within field sales. Leaders should be a coach and help their team accomplish greater success within their areas of expertise”. Make sure you listen to this conversation, your team will thank you. #2: Dig Into Metrics to Identify Holes in Your Sales Funnel Metrics analysis at Badger Maps goes beyond weekly cadence discussions. Steve uses metrics to pinpoint exactly where team members are struggling within their sales funnel. His goal from a sales leadership position is this: encourage success by identifying weaknesses and assisting team members in strengthening those areas. However, Steve warns sales leaders to not pick apart metrics too often, because they are not the only way to measure success. This method of improving your sales leadership skills is best understood by hearing this episode, so don’t miss it. #3: Look For These Characteristics When Searching for New Top Talent There are 4 main characteristics to consider when hiring for new team members: stellar communication, likable personalities, strong wills, and an eye for detail. After measuring these characteristics, Steve suggests that sales leaders ask themselves, “Would I buy from this person?” The answer to that question will give you the answer as to whether or not you should hire the applicant. Steve and I also discuss why having a strong social media presence (both for individual employees and companies) is so critical. Just as interviewers examine an applicant’s online profiles, an applicant does the same for the company. They’re looking to see if the culture will be a good fit, what type of leaders exist within the company, etc. For all the best tips on hiring be sure to give this episode your full attention. #4: Don’t Fall Into the Trap of Hiring Biases The sales industry is unfortunately known for (falsely) believing that an applicant’s educational background, prior sales knowledge, and previous industry experience are factors that indicate future success. Steve and I don’t subscribe to that mindset. Some of the best talent each of us have hired have come from outside the industry entirely. Not only do these biases squash employee diversity, they also prevent you from even considering people who may be great salespeople if given the chance. Avoid educational, experience and industry biases in order to expand your hiring horizons and recruit the very best talent for your company. All of this and more is explained in full detail on this episode - don’t miss it. Outline of This Episode [1:14] Steve Bense, CEO of Badger Maps, is my guest for this episode of Selling With Social [6:05] Why Steve created a sales leadership best practices playbook [15:40] Key metrics used at Badger Maps to identify sales funnel gaps [21:52] Look for these characteristics when searching for new top talent [33:00] Don’t fall into the trap of hiring biases Resources Mentioned Steve on Twitter: @SteveBenson BadgerMaps on Twitter: @BadgerMaps Like BadgerMaps on Facebook: @BadgerMaps Connect with Steve on LinkedIn Badger Maps on YouTube Badger Maps website Close.io tool Glassdoor job search tool Ep. 68 “10 Steps to Launching a Digital Selling Program, with Brynne Tillman” Ep. 188 of Social Business Engine, “How Conversational AI Provides Marketing and Sales a Competitive Edge” Mention this podcast episode to receive 2 months free of the Badger Maps program! Steve’s all-time favorite movie, “Dances With Wolves” Social Business Engine Podcast - Bernie Borges Connect with Mario! www.vengreso.com On Facebook On Twitter On YouTube On LinkedIn Subscribe to Selling With Social Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Bernie's guest for this episode of Social Business Engine is Tammy Boyd, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for Neuro International. Bernie invited her on this episode because she is actively building her personal brand to elevate her company’s corporate brand. Tammy saw that her company was not embracing digital and social marketing strategies but she was determined to make an impact in her industry through her own personal brand. This conversation is full of insights that walk you through the evolution of her personal brand and how she learned the importance of serving other industry leaders through expert knowledge sharing. Tammy is leveraging her personal brand to bring heightened recognition to Neuro International and her story is an inspiring one that you don’t want to miss. Check it out! Why a Lack of Corporate Digital Marketing Inspired Tammy to Build her Personal Brand Florida-based Neuro International is a post-acute provider for brain or spinal injury patients. Like many companies in the healthcare industry, NI’s executives have not yet embraced digital marketing strategies for corporate brand elevation. In this episode, Tammy explains that because she’s a competitive person, she wanted to seek out areas where competitors weren’t succeeding and move NI into those sectors. She discovered digital marketing and personal branding while attending a national conference as an exhibitor. She noticed that throughout the conference the organizers were tracking the top 20 social influencers via Twitter and thought to herself, “I could learn how to do this and earn a place on that list!” By the end of the conference, she accomplished that goal and fell in love with communicating messages through social media. From there she attended workshops, studied voraciously, and was determined to build a rock solid personal brand in order to add value to her industry and company. Her journey is understood best by listening to this episode, don’t miss it. How Neuro International’s Corporate Brand is Enhanced Through Tammy’s Personal Brand After Tammy began her personal branding journey she was met with great appreciation and “ecstatic reactions” at Neuro International. Although NI’s executives hadn’t yet started the corporate brand journey, the company saw a monumental increase in national recognition as an industry leader because of Tammy’s personal brand. She calls it: The Golden Halo Effect, and explains that her CEO was in awe of her calculated risk-taking. During this conversation, Tammy explains how her role allows her to spread messages effectively while still allowing clinicians to provide top-notch patient care and connect with their peers in the industry. Neuro International has discovered open doors to new opportunities, innovative networking experiences, and enhanced credibility all because of the work Tammy has done through her personal brand. It’s clear that Tammy did not set out to build her personal brand for recognition, but rather because of an intense desire to improve her company’s brand as well as to have a positive impact on the industry as a whole. Her determination will inspire you - listen now! Tenacity is Essential for Digital Marketing Success The biggest takeaway from Bernie’s conversation with Tammy is her tenacity as she has sought personal and corporate brand excellence. For marketers seeking to build a personal or corporate brand, this episode is full of insights that you can’t afford to miss. Learn from Tammy’s personal branding journey on her quest to elevate Neuro International’s corporate brand, and enjoy an inspiring conversation on this episode of Social Business Engine. Featured on This Episode Follow Tammy on Twitter: @tamiami813 Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn Follow Neuro International on Twitter: @HeadInjuryRehab Like Neuro International on Facebook: @NeuroInternational Connect with Neuro International on LinkedIn Neuro International website Outline of This Episode [0:30] Bernie introduces his guest for this episode, Tammy Boyd, VP of Business Development and Marketing for Neuro International [4:30] The evolution of Tammy’s personal branding journey [9:10] Bernie shares Tammy’s recent accolades in digital marketing [12:30] The impact Tammy’s personal brand has had on her company [16:33] The power behind having a woman in her role as VP of Business Development & Marketing [18:52] Bernie summarizes his conversation with Tammy Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play

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

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play On this episode of Social Business Engine you’re going to meet Cathy McPhillips, Vice President of Marketing at the Content Marketing Institute. CMI has successfully positioned itself as the premier resource for marketers who want to learn about content marketing. Cathy reveals a key metric in their marketing that enables the company to convert by a factor of 10 on their most coveted offering, the annual Content Marketing World conference. Bernie has spoken at the event 7 times and it ranks as one of his favorite weeks out of the year. You’ll want to check it out. Cathy is in a unique position at CMI because she is able to filter all of the company’s marketing strategy for CMW through her own lens as a marketer. In most scenarios, applying a personal lens to marketing is a bad idea. In Cathy’s case, however, she IS representative of the target audience for CMW. Her career experiences and expertise in content marketing make for a fantastic conversation. Be sure to listen. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. Why Marketing to Marketers is What the Content Marketing Institute Does Best CMI creates resources for marketers that are the benchmark standard for anything relating to content marketing. They are the top cited resource for companies across the globe and they strive to connect to CMOs through a variety of different strategies. Cathy and her team realize the challenges that CMI faces when trying to market to people who do content marketing for a living. A CMO’s schedule is stretched more thinly than ever before and individuals have limited time to check email, watch a webinar, or listen to a podcast. The team at the Content Marketing Institute understands their audience and their concerns fully, and having that understanding allows them to create world-renowned resources. You don’t want to miss hearing Cathy tell Bernie about the latest and greatest strategies CMI has up its sleeve. How CMI Identifies Who Are 10x More Likely to Attend Content Marketing World Content Marketing World is CMI’s greatest event every calendar year. What started as a simple conference with 600 attendees has grown into a massive gathering of content marketing professionals. The event covers the entire content marketing process, from content creation to analytics and measuring ROI. It’s the largest event of its kind on the planet and attracts professionals from across the world. Cathy expects over 6,000 attendees for the 2018 conference in September, and the event shows no signs of slowing down. How does Cathy know just how many people to expect, even before registrations are submitted? She explains to Bernie that people who take 3 or more actions within the CMI website (i.e. subscribing to an email, watching a webinar, etc.), are 10x more likely to attend the CMW event in person. By using an omnichannel marketing approach CMI is able to put content in front of people in a variety of ways and then capture their attention and convert it into registration dollars. Cathy shares insider secrets relevant to Content Marketing World 2018 that you don't want to miss. Be sure to listen. An Old School Idea That Has Secured Over 27,000 Qualified Subscribers for the Content Marketing Institute The Content Marketing Institute also uses metrics and data analysis for business practices outside of the CMW sector. In an interesting turn of the conversation, Bernie and Cathy discuss how the CMI team publishes a quarterly, printed magazine entitled Chief Content Officer. This magazine is yet another example of CMI’s fantastic omnichannel marketing approach. Cathy knows that it’s simultaneously harder and easier to market to professional content marketers. That’s why she and her team aren’t afraid to pursue every avenue of content delivery. Even though some may argue print is outdated, the CCO publication has resulted in over 27,000 qualified subscribers for CMI. In other words, it has built an amazingly robust audience database of people that are intimately engaged with the best materials CMI releases every quarter. When professional marketers disconnect from technology, they’re still connected to CMI and content marketing through the CCO magazine. It brings the brand to life and is an ingenious way of sharing the latest information on the content marketing industry. Featured on This Episode Connect with Cathy on Linkedin Follow Cathy on Twitter: @CMcPhillips Read Cathy’s bio on the CMI website The Content Marketing Institute website The Content Marketing World event website Like Content Marketing Institute on Facebook Follow the CMI on Twitter: @CMIContent Outline of This Episode [0:31] Bernie introduces his guest for this episode, Cathy McPhillips, VP of Marketing at CMI [2:42] Cathy shares the background story behind the CMI [4:33] The CMI’s annual event is Content Marketing World - how exactly is it marketed? [9:59] An old-school idea that secured 27,000 qualified subscribers for CMI [14:55] Why marketing to marketers is what CMI does best [17:59] Cathy reveals insights into Content Marketing World 2018 [21:21] How Cathy organizes all of her VP of Marketing tasks to promote CMW [23:11] Bernie’s summary of his conversation with Cathy Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP, our sponsor for this episode. It’s available for download, ungated here. CMI’s quarterly printed magazine, “Chief Content Officer” Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play On this episode, you’re going to meet Duncan Wardle. Duncan spent 30 years at arguably the best-known brand in the world - Disney. In his last role he was a global executive in charge of something most companies don’t even identify as a function in the business. That function is innovation. As Vice President of Innovation & Creativity it was his job to invent new ways to generate revenue.   We think of innovation as something that companies DO, but in reality, it’s the people in those companies who innovate. The problem is most people aren’t given the time OR the tools to innovate. After 30 years in a global corporate brand, Duncan has started his own company - ID8&INNOV8 - where he travels the globe helping companies – many of which are household brand names – overcome the challenges associated with innovating. Duncan shares 4 tools that foster creativity and enable companies to innovate. Start with your end user’s greatest need List the rules of your challenge as quickly as you can Take one rule and ask “What if this rule didn't exist?” Imagine a world where that rule isn’t in effect These tools are applicable whether your company is B2C, B2B, or non-profit because they are universal principles. 4 Barriers To Creativity And Innovation In Most Organizations One of the most interesting things Duncan revealed during this conversation is that very few people say that they have their best ideas while they are at work. That means there’s a disconnect in the way companies are trying to encourage their team members to innovate - because they try to make it happen while the team is at work without addressing the reasons creativity is hampered. What is it about being at work that blocks creativity? Duncan says there are four common barriers to creativity and innovation in most organizations: A lack of time. Policies, procedures, processes, and more keep employees busy, not allowing much time for creativity Companies tend to have no common definition of creativity or innovation, so those working together have a hard time rowing in the same direction Companies tend to be risk averse instead of risk courageous, which causes them to miss the opportunity to be customer-centric Ideas tend to get stuck or killed as they move through the organization toward implementation Do you see any of these present in your workplace? The answer is not to get out of the office but to learn new ways of approaching the innovation process. Why We Need Design Thinking Tools To Help Us Innovate and Create Every human being is creative in some way, but we all struggle to believe it. That’s because from a very young age we’ve been told that there is a special group of people who are creative - and we’re likely not among them. Besides that, we’ve each built our own areas of experience and expertise. The strengths that come with expertise are predicated on the attainment of knowledge, facts, and certainty upon which we base our decisions and observations. That locks us into patterns and styles of thinking that are diametrically opposed to creativity. Design thinking tools enable us to turn problems or challenges into games that magically switch the brain to “What if?” mode rather than “It won’t work” mode. Duncan believes this kind of approach can help businesses and sales organizations discover new ways of serving customers. How To Use The Words “Yes, and” To Get Creativity And Innovation Going Many companies or teams organize “brainstorming” sessions to enable people to work toward innovative solutions together. The problem is that the work environment fosters a “stressed brain” condition that prohibits creativity. Duncan says there are a handful of design thinking tools that can be used to move the team out of that state. One of his favorites is this: Anytime a person raises an objection, someone on the team should respond with the phrase, “Yes, and…” That kind of response opens the door to possibilities rather than leaving the objection as a hard and fast obstacle that can’t be overcome. As a bonus outcome, using this approach causes most teams to experience the success as a team effort rather than the result of one person’s contribution. Duncan says this is an example of how being playful enables the brain to relax - which causes creativity to increase. Learn more about how to spark creativity and innovation in your company by listening to this conversation with Duncan Wardle. How Design Thinking Tools Can Be Applied Specifically To A B2B Context All through this conversation, Duncan insists that design thinking tools apply to a B2B context as well as any other. Bernie wanted to hear Duncan’s specific reasons behind that assertion and his answer was simple but powerful. He pointed out that many sales organizations or businesses have never physically gotten out of their controlled, comfortable environment to get into the shoes of their customer. That puts them at a disadvantage immediately because they don’t truly know their customer’s needs or their experience with the product or service they offer. Duncan says that if companies are unwilling to take that critical step, they may innovate but what they come up with won’t be relevant to their customers. Featured on This Episode Duncan Wardle’s Website and Company - ID8&INNOV8 Duncan on LinkedIn Duncan on Twitter: @DuncanJWardle Outline of This Episode [2:31] How Duncan became the director of Innovation and Creativity for Disney [7:44] Why we need tools to help us learn to innovate and create [16:02] How does a company go through the process of innovating toward reinvention? [19:06] Why do the best ideas not typically come to us at work? [23:15] The power of bringing in a naive expert [29:09] How design thinking and creativity can work in the B2B context Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Stanley / Black & Decker Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play We all want to have a full sales pipeline to fuel the success of our business. Toward that end, Bernie is doing something a little different on this episode. He recorded a conversation between himself and his co-founder and CEO of Vengreso, Mario Martinez Jr. The two of them speak about the “why” and the “how” of a strategy they are implementing at Vengreso that you might consider at your company. The "content for sales" method they are going to reveal is producing great results. In this conversation, you’ll hear all about those results as well as what they refer to as “the zit” - the area where they need the most improvement and are putting in a lot of effort to address. Bernie and Mario are being transparent with you about their approach to digital sales because they believe that their candor about these issues will provide great take-aways for your business. Don’t miss out on these “real world” scenarios being worked out in the Vengreso digital sales pipeline right now. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study titled, “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way.” You’ll learn how SAP sales reps fill their sales pipeline with deals that are 560% larger on average when using social selling techniques. Download the case study without a form to fill out. It’s ungated. One Of The Most Powerful Ways To Fill The Sales Funnel Is Through Content Content marketing is not a new concept, but most sales organizations don’t understand how to leverage content to fill their sales pipeline. The right content shared in the right ways, and utilized by the sales team to address buyer questions and needs is a powerful way to generate leads. In this conversation Bernie and Mario share how their content strategy has enabled Vengreso to reach a level of success unheard of in its short history - 43% website traffic from organic search and 12 Million People Reached Via Social Media. How have they done it? Through a carefully constructed and implemented content for sales approach. Find out how you can fill your sales pipeline using this same strategy, on this episode of Social Business Engine. If Your Content Strategy Isn’t Mapped To Your Buyers, It Will Miss The Mark “How are your salespeople currently using your content?” The most common answer Bernie receives when he asks that question is, “They’re not.” The reason that answer is so common is that the content has not been developed under a plan that identifies how the salespeople can use that content to connect with their buyers. It’s also not been implemented with a tool that enables them to share it easily. Most importantly, the strategy doesn’t take into account how the content being created maps to the people they are trying to sell to. And finally, in most cases, the sales leadership of the company was not involved in planning the content to be shared. That’s a recipe for frustration and in this episode Bernie and Mario walk through how they’ve avoided those pitfalls and are seeing amazing results. Could You Use 700 to 1200 Inbound Help Requests Every Single Month? 43% website traffic from organic search and 12 million people reached through social media sounds impressive, but if it’s not converting into real sales leads in the pipeline it doesn’t really matter. That’s why Bernie and Mario felt it was important to share exactly how those impressive numbers have translated into filling their sales pipeline. The Vengreso team is now receiving 700 to 1200 inbound requests every single month. It’s almost too much to handle but it’s evidence that a systematic approach that creates strategic content for sales and utilizes it effectively in a variety of ways will increase sale leads exponentially. To improve their ability to handle the volume of inbound leads Vengreso will soon be implementing a digital assistant from Conversica. You may remember meeting Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica, on episode 188. After learning about Conversica’s powerful AI capabilities to implement a digital assistant to follow up on high volumes of leads, Vengreso decided to partner with Conversica both as a technology partner and as a client. Learn all about the Vengreso pillar and cluster approach to content creation and publication, and learn how to implement this model to fill up your sales pipeline, on this episode. Outline of This Episode [0:31] Bernie’s overview of this episode: an approach to digital sales Vengreso is trying right now [3:12] Vengreso’s collective realization: content needed to be created for the sales team [7:01] Setting up a pillar and cluster strategy using the Vengreso site as a case study [12:30] How this content for sales approach fuels sales enablement [14:12] Traffic - social - engagement: how all 3 are working together to grow from 1000 monthly visitors to 15,000 per month [19:27] How to implement this approach within a corporate model [23:02] The sales pipeline impact these approaches are having on the sales pipeline [26:38] The problem: too much volume creates an inability to convert leads Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Mario on LinkedIn Mario on Twitter: @M_3Jr www.Vengreso.com Conversica - Vengreso’s new sales tech partner Social Business Episode about Conversica - 188 Selling With Social Episode 57 - Erroin Martin, Vice President of Sales from Conversica Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” Everyone Social Gagalamp In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.    

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play Social sales is becoming a common sales approach in more and more types of businesses. Bernie’s guest on this episode demonstrates how true that is by revealing how social selling is being implemented in a very traditional business - banking. Jason Schober is the Social Media Campaign Manager at US Bank. He’s not only tasked with the creation of B2B social sales training programs and their implementation, he also oversees and makes adjustments as the team progresses in their actual sales duties. On this episode of Social Business Engine, Jason and Bernie chat about how the implementation of his programs has required both a culture shift and a process shift - and why one without the other won’t work. He shares how his teams are improving in both areas as well as the places they still need to improve. These lessons-learned from the field are something you'll want to hear and apply to your own social sales program. As Businesses Grow, Sales Relationships Must Grow Also The aim of every business is growth, which requires that processes, procedures, and roles become more clearly defined and complex over time. In this conversation, Jason Schober points out how sales professionals (relationship bankers in his context) must become skilled at navigating the ever-changing but vital network of relationships within the companies they are hoping to secure as customers. In this conversation, Jason highlights how the US Bank team is using social selling to establish, nurture, and open the door to those customer relationships, how they train their relationship bankers to use social effectively for those purposes, and how they’ve managed the culture shift necessary to make it all possible. Intentional Social Sales Training To Fuel Sales Success It’s one thing to tell a sales team that they need to be using social media to establish relationships, but it’s quite another for them to implement that directive effectively. Jason Schober and the US Bank team knew their relationship bankers would need training around how to use LinkedIn for prospecting and how to identify triggers that enable them to initiate conversations. What did they do? They created a program that teaches their bankers those skills. Jason says intentional social sales training enables their relationship bankers to do a number of important things: #1 - They are able to begin relationships they can build over time. #2 - It establishes them as thought leaders and experts in their field and local community. #3 - They learn to network with the centers of influence in their community on a regular basis Learning the nuances of their particular communities and creating trust and identifying next best actions with those individuals are keys to the US Bank strategy and great insights into what makes up effective social selling training. What can you take from Jason’s lessons-learned to apply to your social sales programs? The Power of Culture In Building An Enterprise Social Selling Program Social selling at US Bank is used to accomplish many things. Among the most important is the establishment of US Bank and its representatives as the most trusted choice among clients and partners so that future customers view them as a trusted resource as well. One novel approach toward that goal is in the use of AI to identify next best actions based on how their customers are using US Bank services currently. Social selling comes into play by training the US Bank relationship managers how to use the data to open the doors to conversations, address needs they see and provide recommended solutions.   Jason points out the importance of leveraging technology in combination with good old-fashioned relationships to create a win-win scenario, and how social selling is an integral part of the formula. Featured on This Episode Jason’s profile on LinkedIn Jason on Twitter: @JSchobes US Bank Small Business Outline of This Episode [0:30] Bernie’s introduction of Jason Shober, Social Media Campaign Manager of US Bank [4:01] Jason’s explanation of B2B Business Lines within his organization [5:58] Comparing sales roles in the banking industry to traditional sales roles [8:08] The social sales program at US Bank [10:21] Best practices discovered by the US Bank social selling team [14:01] The importance of culture in social selling programs [17:58] Keeping the sales team engaged and executing consistently [23:10] Transparency among sales teams with marketing activities and best practices Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Social Media Marketing World DreamForce Einstein AI LinkedIn Sales Navigator 5 part series with SAP Centrica Business Solutions - Karen Avites was on episode 185 Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.    

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play On this episode Social Business Engine podcast host Bernie Borges summarizes key take aways from recent episodes featuring digital sales and marketing practitioners at Adobe, Conversica, Oracle, Verizon and SAP. It’s undeniable that digital sales and marketing are here to stay. Any company that is going to be a competitor in the B2B environment has to provide its sales and marketing teams the digital tools and training needed in order to be successful. The Social Business Engine Podcast is the one resource where you can hear in-the-trenches examples of how companies large and small are creating their own digital transformation in marketing and sales. In this episode Bernie Borges, CMO of Vengreso and your host explains why digital transformation in sales, marketing, and customer facing functions of companies are so important to him. On this episode Bernie highlights his takeaways from recent episodes that demonstrate the focus of the Social Business Engine podcast and why you will continue to learn from it. This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study: Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way and learn how SAP sales reps have deals that are 560% larger on average using social selling techniques. This case study is available for download without a form to fill – just click to open the PDF in your browser at https://Vengreso.com/sap Spotlighting Those With Digital Sales Transformation Stories To Tell Many sales and marketing related podcasts feature authors or sales coaches who help individuals increase their sales skills to advance their careers. Those podcasts are great and very needed - but it’s not the focus of the Social Business Engine podcast. SBE’s host, Bernie Borges is excited to highlight those in leadership or management positions who have digital transformation stories in the trenches to inspire you in your own digital transformation journey. In every episode, Bernie speaks with practitioners who are capitalizing on the digital and social-media-driven nature of society to increase their company’s ability to engage their employees, prospects and customers more effectively. In this episode, you’ll hear how Adobe is infusing social media into every aspect of its business, how Conversica is using AI-power sales assistants to fuel sales, and more. After you listen to this episode you’ll understand why Bernie is so passionate about focusing the Social Business Engine podcast on the world of B2B sales and marketing digital transformation. Digital Sales Enablement: Infusing Social Media Into All Aspects of Business Episode 153 of Social Business Engine introduced listeners to Adobe’s Head of Social Business Enablement, Lauren Friedman. Her goal at Adobe is to infuse social media into all aspects of what Adobe does as a company. In the episode, Bernie highlights how Lauren and the team at Adobe are helping employees use social media to achieve their business objectives. This includes training courses such as Social Selling, Social for Product Management, Social for Talent Acquisition, etc. Her team also leads the Employee Advocacy program at Adobe where they work to enable all employees to effectively use social media personally and professionally. That last point is one that most companies are not doing very well to date. But it’s a mindset and strategy that is becoming more and more vital for B2B digital sales as we move into the future. Listen as Bernie explains why the topic is so relevant and why sales and marketing leaders must learn from examples like Adobe’s in order to empower their own sales teams. The SBE Podcast Introduced You To How Conversational AI Can Amplify Digital Sales Episode 188 of The Social Business Engine Podcast features Bernie’s a conversation with Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica. Conversica is doing some incredible things in the digital sales ecosystem through AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the form of digital sales assistants. Their AI-powered sales assistants become part of sales and marketing teams. These assistants can automatically contact and engage prospects via email at scale using natural language conversation until the prospect either turns into a willing sales conversation, or opts out. Episodes 197 through 201 feature SAP’s impressive global social selling strategy. There is much to admire about their digital transformation story. Among many achievements, SAP is succeeding at aligning marketing and sales in support of their global social selling program. They’ve trained 12,000 sales reps across the globe. The results are truly impressive with reps creating sales opportunities that are more than 5x the size of deals of those not created through social selling. Also impressive is the innovative approach SAP has taken to measuring results. Catch episode 201 to hear all about these innovative techniques. As the Social Business Engine podcast has move through the milestone of 200 published episodes, Bernie wants you to know that he is committed to delivering inspirational examples of digital transformation in the trenches. We can’t predict if there will be another 200 episodes to this podcast show. We can however commit to staying true to the mission of helping you learn from digital sales and marketing practitioners in the trenches. If you’re not subscribed to SBE, subscribe through iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Subscribe here to get our weekly updates delivered each episode to your inbox.. Outline of This Episode [1:03] The direction and purpose of the Social Business Engine podcast [3:42] A quick recap of the most recent episodes highlighting SAP [5:37] 5 episodes that highlight the focus of the SBE podcast [25:06] A final request from Bernie: Would you rate and review the podcast? Resources & People Mentioned This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study: Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way and learn how SAP sales reps have deals that are 560% larger on average using social selling techniques. This case study is available for download without a form to fill – just click to open the PDF in your browser at https://Vengreso.com/sap. Episode 153: Integrating Social Media Across the Enterprise at Adobe Adobe Episode 188: How Conversational AI Provides Marketing and Sales a Competitive Edge Conversica Episode 194: Harnessing Propensity to Buy Data to Create Sales Ready Conversations Oracle Episode 185: A Top-Down Approach to Employee Engagement on Social Media Centrica Business Solutions Episode 201: How SAP Is Innovating in Social Selling ROI Measurement SAP Get Your Social Selling Index Score The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.   Download Social Business Journal Volume 11 - The case study where SAP tells all about their secrets to social selling success…Not a secret anymore. Their global enterprise software sales team is achieving billions in sales pipeline. Download the ungated case study – no form to fill out – just click to open the case study in your browser – go to https://Vengreso.com/sap and learn the secrets to sales success at SAP through social selling strategies.  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play What is the real ROI of social selling in a global company like SAP? With social selling still being relatively new, it’s hard to tell because there are few baseline standards to compare against. But the SAP team is creating innovative ways to measure social selling. The theme of this fifth and final episode of this UpClose series is how SAP is measuring Social Selling ROI. You’ll hear from Kirsten Boileau - Global Head of Regional Engagement & Social Selling Michael Labate - Head of Program Development & Operations for Social Selling, and Arif Johari (AJ) - Global Head of Communication and, Social Selling for SAP. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. SAPs 3 Pronged Approach To Assessing Social Selling ROI So far, it’s been difficult to measure the direct ROI of social selling in most companies. The data and knowledge of how to assess social selling efforts simply haven't existed. But at SAP, that's no longer the case. They have determined 3 key indicators that enable them to assess the effort sales teams are making in social selling. First, is the SSI or Social Selling Index provided through LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It enables the leaders to assess the levels of activity salespeople are engaging in on social. Second is the issue of attribution, an attempt at assessing how the salespeople are attributing their lead generation and pipeline activity to their social behaviors. And finally, SAPs leadership is considering the value metrics behind the sales pipeline and revenue, things such as conversion rates, acceleration rates, and run rates. Combined, this 3 pronged approach to measuring the ROI of social selling gives SAP a clearer picture of what's happening. Be sure you listen to hear how SAP is setting the standard for the measurement of social selling ROI. Social Selling Behaviors Are The Key To Assessing Social Selling ROI Because the way B2B buyers make purchase decsions has changed - and much of that change revolves around social media or digital activity - the way sales success is measured has to change as well. Rather than assessing numbers of calls and appointments made, criteria have to be determined to show what's happening via the connections made through social. Companies need to know whether sellers are achieving better or worse numbers when social selling behaviors are involved. SAP is on the cutting edge of assessing social selling ROI. The company's leadership teams are trying to understand the issue of causation between social sales behaviors and sales success, not just correlations between the two. Listen to learn more of how SAPs team is assessing the impact of social behaviors on deal size, win/close rates, and lost and discontinued leads. An Effective Internal Communication Strategy Keeps SAPs Social Selling Success Rolling In any sales program, success stories need to be told - especially to those key stakeholders who have a vested interest in the sales program. These might be Executives, Sales Trainers & Program Managers, or the Trainees themselves. When the training efforts and sales approaches being used are shown to be successful, everyone is motivated to be a part of the program because they can see that it's working. The SAP team's internal communication strategy includes bi-monthly calls between departments where those featured in the company’s social selling success stories are publically rewarded and recognized, and where data is shared to show how sales are increasing as a result of social selling. Good communication about the ROI of the social selling program keeps SAPs marketing and sales teams moving forward with confidence and motivation. A New Approach To Measurement Using Social Selling Key Indices Now that social selling has been around for a few years, successful companies need to discover better ways to measure its effectiveness. This will enable the leadership to train social selling behaviors that are proven to really work. The SAP sales teams have created their own ways of measuring social selling success through using indexes as a comparison for sales performance. These Social Selling Key Indices give salespeople an idea of how they perform compared to the indexes in categories like sales conversions, speed to close, average deal size, and more. Those who are found to be underperforming those indexes are provided additional training and support. The sellers who are overperforming the indexes are asked to share what they are doing so others can learn, grow, and become more successful. Learn more about SAPs innovative Social Selling Indices approach, on this episode. Featured on This Episode SAP Kirsten Boileau on Twitter: @kirstenboileau Kirsten Boileau on LinkedIn Michael Labate on Twitter: @michealnlabate Michael Labate on LinkedIn Arif Johari on Twitter: @arifjohariali Arif Johari on LinkedIn Outline of This Episode [1:00] The means SAP uses to measure ROI of social selling [5:24] Reassessing the things to evaluate to get a good view of ROI on social selling [7:21] Measuring social selling efforts on a deeper level [12:40] The communication strategy for sharing the success stories internally [17:41] A specific approach to measurement at SAP in 2018 [23:36] The future outlook for social selling and digital sales transformation Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” (there’s no form fill required) LinkedIn Sales Navigator The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine   SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise.  

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

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play The global team at SAP has proven to be successful at social selling, and the sales and marketing alignment they’ve achieved is one of the main reasons why. To highlight how SAP aligns sales and marketing company-wide, Bernie is joined on this episode by Dr. Marcell Vollmer, Chief Digital Officer of SAP Ariba - Niels Hoogkamer, Sr., Field Marketing Manager at Concur, an SAP Company - Matthew Iacoviello, Head of Sales Technology & Support for SAP - and Phil Lurie, Vice President of Sales Technology for SAP. Each of these sales leaders speaks from their unique perspective about why sales and marketing alignment is vital for social selling success and how this mindset shift has been such a significant success factor for their marketing and sales teams to be effective at social selling. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. Why Sales and Marketing Alignment Is Vitally Important at SAP Traditionally, sales and marketing have had very different roles, but the advent of social media has blurred the line between the two. Marketing is doing more of the work sales used to do, and through social selling, the sales department is doing some of the work marketing used to do. That means the marketing and sales organizations have to be very closely aligned, providing the same messages to prospects and customers and working together to move sales conversations into the pipeline seamlessly. In this podcast episode , the SAP team shares how they are successfully making that alignment happen. These sales leaders have also discovered that the technology pieces involved in the marketing and sales process need to be synced so that the alignment of marketing and sales is smooth. This enables the sales team to focus on sales conversations and customer needs. Attention to these details has made sales and marketing alignment an area of strength for SAP. Hear more of how SAP works to keep the two aligned, on this episode of Social Business Engine. SAP’s Cultural Shift to Support Social Selling and Customer Resourcing There is a very definite mindset shift required to move from a traditional sales approach to the adoption of social selling. Part of that shift is realizing it’s not an either/or decision, it’s a both/and commitment. The SAP team has worked overtime to educate and enable their sales and marketing teams to make the transition successfully. Some of the things that have been done to help their team make this mindset shift include: Demonstrating how social is simply a new way of interacting with potential customers, as the phone and email have been Showcasing the sales successes coming from social selling activities Proving to salespeople that their sales results will improve by utilizing social selling practices In this episode, the SAP team shares many additional steps they’ve taken to encourage this mindset shift - including social platform and best-practices training, social media interaction skills, and cross-pollination of sales approaches through SAP’s “Sales Academy.” The Future of Work: The Sales Role is Evolving in Tech Companies Like SAP Though many of us can remember life before smartphones, they are an example of how our culture has shifted. Digital is here to stay. Changes of this nature impact the way we do things, including how companies go about evaluating and selecting enterprise software. Today, many aspects of the buyer’s journey are completely different than in years past. Examples are the ways people comparison-shop, search for product, and make final lists of suppliers before they even consider talking with a sales person. It’s no wonder the role of B2B sales must evolve to engage the modern buyer effectively. SAP has made the switch, utilizing the platforms and technologies that have come to the forefront of the sales process, yet maintaining the personal touch that always has to be present in any successful sales interaction. SAP is an excellent example of a company that’s effectively aligning marketing and sales for social selling success. You can hear how they are doing it, on this episode. Featured on This Episode www.SAP.com Dr. Marcell Vollmer on Twitter: @mvollmer1 Dr. Marcell Vollmer on LinkedIn Neils Hoogkamer on LinkedIn Matthew Iacoviello on Twitter: @miacoviello Matthew Iacoviello on LinkedIn Phil Lurie on LinkedIn Phil Lurie on Twitter: @PMLurie Outline of This Episode [0:48] How does SAP see sales and marketing alignment as being so important? [9:09] What other departments at SAP should be aligned with social selling. [12:48] How the SAP team makes the cultural shift that increases social selling and resources customers [25:46] The future of work: How the role of sales is evolving in tech companies like SAP Resources & People Mentioned Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here. Episode 1: Social Selling Impact: Why Managers Encourage Social Selling at SAP Episode 2: Social Selling Best Practices at SAP LinkedIn Sales Navigator Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise.  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Even the most seasoned technology sales professionals need to develop social selling best practices - but they can take years to develop. That's what makes conversations like this one so powerful. In this episode, Bernie Borges explores the best practices of some of SAP’s most seasoned and successful sales professionals. You'll hear social selling tips from Account Executive Alex Hunter, Gaston Edreira, Business Development Specialist of SAP Hybris, Neil Howarth, also of SAP Hybris, Digital Sales Demand Manager Georgia Rita, and Phil Lurie, VP of Sales Technology. The tips and success stories these SAP team members share demonstrate what is possible when good social selling practices are consistently applied. Be sure to listen all the way to the end to hear some of their most encouraging social selling successes. Social Selling Best Practices Depend on Quality More Than Quantity One of the most practical aspects of the conversations featured on this episode is that Bernie asked each of the participants to share their favorite social selling best practices. As they did, a constant theme that rose to the surface was the power of meaningful social engagement, not the amount of content shared on social media. Their stories illustrate how significant it can be to a future sales opportunity for a sales professional to pay attention to the real needs of those they're trying to reach and make themselves an asset. This example is one of the outstanding tips these five members of the SAP team share on this episode. Their experience along with the success they have attained demonstrates that the SAP approach to social selling is a model any B2B brand can follow. The More Relevant And The More Personal, The Better The Connection When it comes to applying the very best practices in social selling, it begins with a mindset that understands the goal is not, first of all, to secure a sales conversation with a buyer. The first level goal is much more personal than that. The SAP sales team understands that there are real people behind each transaction, individuals who have particular interests, desires, and needs. That perspective is key to being able to truly add value to the person through social by discovering those needs and making an effort to be helpful. It's that kind of genuine interest that sets the stage for the SAP salesperson to propose business solutions to the prospect down the road. The more relevant and the more personal the salesperson can be in attempts to connect with the prospects they want to meet, the more attention they can get. Learn more insights like this from these outstanding sales professionals from the SAP team, on this podcast episode. Consistency, Relevance, Value: The Trinity Of Social Selling Best Practices Much of what makes the SAP global sales team successful when it comes to social selling is their implementation of these three principles: consistency, relevance, and value. Let's look at each of those in turn. Consistently sharing great content in the social feeds of a prospect gives that person time to become familiar with the salesperson and the expertise they possess. When that content is relevant to the prospect, it demonstrates that the salesperson has taken the time to learn about them and to take an interest in the things they are concerned about. That sets the salesperson up to add valuein ways that matter to the prospect. This triune way of approaching social selling has proven to be a hallmark of the SAP team’s success. You can hear these three principles expressed over and over by the five participants in this conversation, in a variety of ways. Take the time to listen and learn. The insights shared on this episode have many anecdotes to back them up - you can learn the principles and see the proof all in one episode. Featured on This Episode SAP Alex Hunter on LinkedIn Gaston Edreira on LinkedIn Neil Howarth on LinkedIn Georgia Rita on LinkedIn Phil Lurie on LinkedIn Outline of This Episode [0:48] The top two best-practices in social selling from Alex Hunter [3:02] Gaston Edreira’s best-practices for social selling [5:19] The best practices for social selling Neil Howarth likes most [7:00] Social selling best practices from Georgia Rita [7:45] The first things SAP teaches new social sellers on the team [8:59] Social allows you to find out information and be a resource first [10:52] LinkedIn engagement over time: a powerful social selling best practice [12:42] Watch for needs prospects have that you can help to meet [15:06] The biggest lessons-learned in using social selling strategies Resources & People Mentioned Ep 1 in this series: Social Selling Impact! Why Managers Should Encourage Social Selling LinkedIn Sales Navigator Google Alerts The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play  

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play The sales world is changing, and social selling is becoming a powerful tool in today's sales toolbox. This episode of Social Business Engine introduces a multi-part series of podcast episodes we have entitled “Up Close: Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way: Best Practices that Win Customers.” This series of interviews will bring you the insights from some of SAPs most successful leaders and brightest minds. In this episode, you’ll learn about the role managers play in encouraging social selling among their teams. Featured in this episode are  insights from Marc Havercroft, COO/VP of SAP Success Factors - Enrico Palumbo, HR Director and Member of the Management Board of SAP Switzerland - Shailendra Kumar, Vice President, Chief Evangelist - and Phil Lurie, VP Sales Technology, SAP. Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series - Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated in the resources below. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to engage with customers more effectively. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise. Selling Behaviors Must Change Because Customers Don’t Buy Like They Used To The digital age has created many benefits for the consumer, like providing the ability to research and even try out products before they ever talk to a salesperson. That means the traditional approach to sales doesn't work in quite the way it used to. Social selling is the answer to these changes because it enables salespeople to become a trusted resource to potential buyers long before the buyer is willing to make a personal connection with them. Sales organizations must shift their mindset to implement social selling as a consistent practice. This episode draws out the best practices of leaders from SAP regarding how they train their teams in social selling, how they keep the momentum going after the training, and how they empower and equip them to engage in ways that are genuinely beneficial to potential customers. Social Selling Requires A Cultural Shift: Here’s How SAP is Making That Shift This episode highlights four different leaders from the SAP team and their responses to some questions relating to social selling. When asked how they are helping their teams make the shift from analog thinking to digital thinking, these were the points they shared: Mark Havercroft says he encourages his team to look at the world around them from the perspective of the individuals they want to serve as customers. They need to observe how people engage with the digital world around them and even use their personal consumer journey in the digital world to reflect on what they can do to become a resource to others. The goal is for the salesperson to become part of a network of trusted advisors in advance of the transaction, via social media. Enrico Palumbo explains that he begins the cultural shift the first day of training with new team members. He helps them understand how the things they post and recommend on social media are a reflection of the company. He desires to help them fine-tune their messaging and sharing practices to improve their personal brand and promote the company in a positive light. Shailendra Kumar encourages his team members to spend more time on social media, getting used to the platforms and practices so that they can directly communicate with buyers. He says that little things like paying attention to birthdays help his salespeople connect with clients in an informal way that creates a mindset shift in the client and the team member. Phil Lurie views the final goal of social selling to be the same that it has always been in sales - to become a trusted advisor to future customers. But social offers a distinct advantage: it enables his team to use social media to listen to the things potential customers are concerned about so that they can then position their personal brand as an expert who can answer their concerns. They do that through sharing articles and resources relating to those areas of concern. He says that when team members can learn how to combine effective social listening with helpful resources and messaging, they have found a winning combination. Even Though Digital Selling is a New, Level Playing Field, Don’t Forget Purpose Matters One of the most important concepts shared on this episode centers around the reality that digital selling is a new and level playing field for everyone. So everyone has the opportunity to shape their position and message on social media to meet the needs of their particular market. But the end goal is not just to sell products; it's to help the buyer make a decision that achieves the outcome they're looking for. Keeping that in mind enables the salesperson to become the expert resource customers are looking for. Make sure to set aside some time to listen to this episode. It is filled with great insights from some of the best leaders in modern sales. Featured on This Episode Michael Labate on LinkedIn Marc Havercroft on LinkedIn Enrico Palumbo on LinkedIn Shailendra Kumar on LinkedIn Phil Lurie on LinkedIn Outline of This Episode [0:12] Bernie’s introduction to this series of interviews, sponsored by SAP [1:43] Why Social Selling is so important for the team at SAP [4:15] Mark Havercroft: Sales professionals need to view their own consumer journey in the digital world [5:47] What the SAP team hears back from customers about their social sales journey [7:17] Enrico Palumbo: Making new team members ambassadors of SAP - in real life and on social [10:45] The goal in digital sales is the same as it has always been in sales [13:27] Transforming mindsets via the “digital dancefloor” approach [19:20] Some of the best ways to maintain momentum after social selling training [25:30] Mentoring and reverse mentoring approaches to help the shift happen Resources & People Mentioned Grab your copy of “Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way” The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, priding itself on helping you streamline your processes, giving you the ability to use live data to predict customer trends. SAP has embraced social selling to enable its global sales team to more effectively engage with customers. This podcast series and companion case study explains how SAP is scaling social selling across the enterprise.

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Every brand strategy is about gaining attention for the company, but it has to be done in a way that does more than simply talk about what the company is doing. It’s got to engage with real people over issues they truly care about. In other words, it needs to have a relational element to it. That’s exactly what Merck is doing with their highly effective approach. On this episode, Bernie talks with John Graham, Social & Digital Strategy Lead: Global Talent Acquisition at Merck. You’ll hear how Merck, the global pharmaceutical giant is empowering employees to build their personal brands as part of Merck’s strategy to attract talent. The employees provide the "real life" component of what Merck is sharing on social which naturally attracts like-minded, competent candidates to the open positions available. Learn more on this episode. A Whole-Person Approach Dictates the Brand Strategy of Pharma Giant, Merck It's very common for large companies to hone in on the qualifications and experience of job candidates when trying to fill open positions. But John Graham says even though that is a very important part of the equation, it is still only one part. To neglect the rest of the things that make a person a great fit for the company culture as well as the specific job description is missing things that are vital to company culture and health. In this conversation, John describes how the brand strategy Merck is using centers around the human elements of what it means to be an enthusiastic and integral part of a team. They not only want the talent they are pursuing to see them as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, they also want them to feel that Merck is a great place to belong. You will hear John's description of how a Pharma giant is applying its brand strategy through an employee branding approach, on this episode of Social Business Engine. The Search for Talent Has Shifted to Social. Does Your Brand Strategy Reflect It? John has found that his role of locating and recruiting global talent for Merck has required a different sort of approach than corporations typically take. He's come to the realization that the search for talent has shifted to social media. Under his leadership, Merck is making the pivot that enables them to make the most of that trend. In this conversation, you’ll hear details of the amazing and unusual content strategy Merck has implemented. It uses the stories of their own employees as content pieces that engage with and attract outstanding, talented people to the company. Rather than a cold, "about us page" these stories expose candidates to the culture, values, and purpose of the company in powerful ways. As John is fond of saying, they’re not fighting the war for talent, they’re fighting the war for attention - and Merck’s new brand strategy is securing both. It's a very insightful approach to social media that few corporations the size of Merck understand, much less know how to implement. John's insights will be valuable to your company, so please take the time to listen. The New ROI: Relationships On Investment ROI, as it has traditionally been understood, is about the amount of return that comes from the time, energy, and money invested in a particular approach. John says the same approach holds true in the content marketing strategy Merck is implementing, but it's a different ROI. What he is measuring doesn't have to do with dollars and cents, it has to do with relationships. For John, ROI = relationships on investment. In this episode, you will hear how the Merck team spent over a year planning out and testing their employer brand strategy to highlight open positions, why they decided to use employee stories, and how the team has learned to track engagement from the first social media post all the way to the final interview and hire. As companies like Merck lead the way with this kind of strategy, the talent acquisition landscape is changing for the better. You won’t want to miss this episode.   Featured on This Episode John Graham on LinkedIn John on Twitter @InstaGraham1906 John on Instagram @InstaGraham1906 Merck on Facebook Merck Pharmaceuticals Career Page Merck’s Beyond the Job Description Outline of This Episode [1:54] Who is John Graham? His role with Merck over social and recruiting [3:46] The demand every company has for good talent and how Merck is approaching it [5:42] A content strategy to “sell” jobs - what it looks like at Merck [8:50] The challenges of a content strategy implemented across the globe [13:09] Sourcing stories from employees to include in corporate content strategy [16:11] The new ROI: Relationships On Investment [18:34] Trends seen in the campaign: from first share to final hire [20:36] How John sees the program shifting as it moves forward: snackable & visual [29:15] The importance of testing the content marketing strategy prior to launching the employer brand strategy Resources & People Mentioned LinkedIn Elevate In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play   This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies.

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Every business, large or small could use brand advocates - those customers who trumpet the businesses praise and express their delightful experiences with the company to others. But it’s also vital that a company’s leadership learn to nurture that same attitude among its employees. The benefits of building that kind of culture among a working team can be incredible. On this episode of Social Business Engine Bernie chats with Andy Malinoski, Manager of Corporation Communications and Government Relations at Frontier Communications. He shares how Frontier Communications, a U.S. provider of residential and commercial broadband, video voice, wireless internet data access and bundled service offerings, is empowering employees to be brand ambassadors in the face of 4 unique types of business challenges. Employees can be the best advocates your brand has if you help them do it The value of an ecstatic customer can’t be underestimated. Those are the people who make the business because they happily tell their family and friends about the great experience and feeling they have from dealing with the company. Take that thought and apply it to the interaction customers have with front-line employees of the company and you can easily see why those team members need to be brand advocates par excellence. What are you doing to help your customer facing employees deal with customer issues and complaints effectively and in a way that delights your customers in spite of the problem? On this episode, Andy Malinoski describes how the Frontier Communications team is equipped with the information needed to answer customer questions, head off problems before they escalate, and disseminate answers to common questions via social media - all for the sake of creating the happy, loyal customers every business wants and needs. You can learn some valuable approaches to fostering an advocate mindset in your team members by hearing what he has to share. Operational hiccups are a great opportunity for employee brand advocates to calm the waters Many times when things go wrong with a company’s services or systems, the biggest problem both customers and the business in question have is communication. Here’s the reality: Customers are usually OK with temporary glitches or outages in service because they know technology is not foolproof. But they need to know what’s going on in order to maintain that calm demeanor. In this conversation, Bernie and his guest, andy Malinoski of Frontier communications discuss some of the ways the leadership at Frontier has worked to engage employees as part of the response team to system outages or issues. The company has dedicated employees who provide social media content for everyone to use to inform their customers, clear the air, and help everyone rest easy. Think about what the Frontier team does in light of your industry. What can your company do to engage employees as brand advocates? As you listen to the ways Frontier has done it you’ll probably come up with ideas of your own. Do you struggle finding and recruiting top talent? Enlisting employees can be a powerful approach When it comes to building an all-star team of employees, from the C-suite all the way to the entry-level position, it’s powerful to remember that high quality people usually run with high quality people. That means equipping your employees to be recruiters on your behalf can enable you to find the people you’re looking for, faster. This conversation with Andy Malinoski highlights the approach the Frontier Communications team takes to recruiting, particularly as it relates to making existing team members advocates for the company as they relate to those in their networks. Andy explains how all-star teams can be built by making connections through existing employees, so be sure you take the time to listen, learn, and apply what the Frontier team has modeled so well.   Featured on This Episode Andy on LinkedIn Andy on Twitter Frontier Communications Outline of This Episode [1:59] Andy’s role is to favorably connect those in media, politics, etc. with his company [3:54] Operational challenges that impact customers are a great opportunity for employee advocacy [6:50] Systems the Frontier team uses to communicate to employees about issues needing social media advocacy [9:50] Partnerships with other companies to empower customers to be more successful and effective [13:19] Creating the tools employees need to educate themselves to meet customer needs and truly be advocates [16:38] How and what Frontier is curating for employees to share as brand advocates [18:35] Recruiting challenges and how employee advocacy helps find quality people Resources & People Mentioned In Social Business Journal Volume 10, Lithium’s SVP of Marketing Dayle Hall, drops a ton of wisdom around the top 5 most influential topics in B2B marketing. The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.facebook.com/bernie.borges https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play   *************************** This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies.

Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play The typical MQL (marketing qualified lead) approach to measuring KPIs is fading out. What’s the new approach that’s replacing it? An account-based approach that considered the data that shows people’s propensity to buy. On this episode, Bernie chats with Diana Eadington Reed, Director of the North America Small & Medium Business (SMB) marketing team for Oracle Cloud. Her team helps high-growth small and medium-sized companies leverage their infrastructure to innovate faster, get to market first, meet customer expectations, and keep costs in line with revenue. Diana has a front-row seat to the changes that propensity to buy data is enabling in the marketing world. Her lessons-learned, which she shares on this episode, are valuable for any marketing professional to learn from for themselves. Not all traffic sources are created equal. Therefore not all marketing-qualified leads are created equal Every business is eager for its marketing department to do its job well - by supplying what we call “marketing qualified leads” (MQL). Diana says that several years ago the sales world would typically look at the volume of MQLs that marketing provided to the sales department as a primary metric of how the marketing department was doing. But that’s all changed. Diana says her team has come to realize that not all leads are created equal and therefore not all marketing qualified leads are created equal. Some leads are likely coming to you via your website. Those are people who are expressing a greater interest in your solutions and are therefore of greater value as prospects for the sales team. But you may also receive leads through a download of one of your whitepapers from a 3rd party website (for example). Those are qualified leads, to be sure, but are not as ready to buy as the previous example. In this conversation Diana explains how her team is transitioning from the typical MQL model to a more account-based model based on people’s propensity to buy. It’s a fascinating pivot and a very helpful conversation. Be sure you listen. Is your marketing team differentiating between core leads and non-core leads? If not, you could be missing some of the most valuable leads The new approach Diana and the marketing team at Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure Solutions are taking is learning that there’s a big difference between what they call a “core lead” and a “non-core lead.” She says their focus now is to try to increase the volume of core leads because they’ve been proven to be bigger contributors to their business success. It’s not that they abandon the non-core leads - they still need to keep the sales funnel full - but they have discovered that there are only a limited number of prospects in their market at any given time who truly ready for a sales conversation. Diana says it's helpful to think of the approach they are taking along the lines of the 80/20 rule. In a best-case scenario, they believe they can drive 20% of their leads through “core” activity and 80% of their leads through the more broad-scale sources. This is just one example of the insights marketing receives by looking at the propensity to buy data now available to marketers. Diana’s experience in this new approach is valuable for anyone in marketing in sales, so do what you can to make time for this episode. How the Oracle team uses intent to buy data to target and retarget their ideal customers The advances in data-based technology over the past few years has opened all kinds of doors for marketers that simply didn’t exist even 5 years ago. Marketing professionals can now access intent-based data - also known as predictive data - that enables them to identify certain keyword-based behaviors of people online. Through that data, they can look at the digital behavior of their target market and match themselves with the behaviors that parallel the solutions they are offering. It goes even further, companies can now use their customer profile, or even company lists that they want to get to know and engage with to identify whether there are people within those lists who are showing digital activity, based on their keyword search behavior, that matches their solution. From that, the marketing department can serve more relevant campaigns to them or do digital retargeting to try to reach those individuals. Fascinating. And compelling. Take the time to learn how Diana’s team is making it happen - and about the results they are getting. Salespeople are not interested in MQLs. They want to establish an account. Marketing can now work hand in hand with sales by harnessing propensity to buy data Diana Eadington Reed says that if you talk to any salesperson, they are not interested in selling a product to an MQL (marketing qualified lead). They're interested to own an account. So, if they want to win 10 new accounts in the coming half or the fiscal year, they're going to be looking at it from an account perspective, not at the MQL perspective. That means if marketing pivots to an account-based strategy (as she’s suggesting through the use of propensity to buy data), it requires marketing to align itself with sales in order to understand who's on that target account list for the year or the upcoming quarter - and who are the most important accounts that sales wants to open the door to. That's how marketing can work hand-in-hand with sales to build engagement and open that door for a conversation with the sales organization. As you can see, simply by the nature of this propensity to buy model, marketing is better aligned with sales, which drives a more effective and streamlined process. Near the end of this conversation, Diana gives a real-life example of a vendor who helped the Oracle team put together a successful campaign that proves the power of these intent to buy strategies. Listen to what Diana has to share. It is the future of marketing and sales - and the alignment that has to happen to be truly successful.   Featured on This Episode Diana Eadington Reed on LinkedIn Diana on Twitter Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Solutions Outline of This Episode [0:31] Who is Diana Eadington Reed? [2:53] Diana’s role at Oracle: to drive demand for Oracle’s cloud-based solutions [4:19] The success Diana has been experiencing with traditional inbound marketing [9:21] How the Oracle marketing team came to consider “propensity to buy” data [14:37] Adapting this new propensity to buy data model to a high volume environment [17:10] The technologies that enable this intent to buy approach [19:43] How these new technologies help align sales and marketing on a human level [22:04] A campaign example that has been a huge success [24:45] Diana’s thoughts about the future of this new account-based strategy [34:25] Bernie’s biggest takeaway from this episode: propensity to buy data is a powerful way to discover leads that are truly ready for a sales conversation - and the biggest winner is the customer Resources & People Mentioned Register for Frost and Sullivan’s upcoming Sales Team Alpine Retreat Episode 193 with Barbara Giamanco Bernie’s episode with Scott Brinker MRP Prolytics The Selling With Social Podcast with Mario Martinez, Jr. Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.facebook.com/bernie.borges https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine Subscribe to Social Business Engine Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play This episode was sponsored by Frost and Sullivan

If you don’t know Barbara Giacomo, she is CEO of Social Centered Selling and globally recognized as a sales leader. She’s the co-author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media. Barb is a popular keynote speaker, sales and social media strategist and she is also the host of the popular Razor's Edge podcast, which you’ll hear more about it in this episode. Barb is consistently a Top 25 Influential Leader in Sales, a Top 25 Sales Influencer on Twitter, one of the Top Sales World’s Top 50 Sales and Marketing Influencers and she’s recognized as one of the world's Top 65 Women Business Influencers alongside leaders like Arianna Huffington, Sheryl Sandberg, and Melinda Gates. That’s pretty impressive! Join Bernie and Barbara for a great conversation about how to better align marketing and sales within your organization. In sales, if you are not evolving, you are dying. ~ Barbara Giamanco Social media was just starting to develop when Barbara Giamanco retired from Microsoft to start her own business. From that day until today she’s had a passion for people and a passion for technology. Combine that with her love of sales and marketing and you’ll understand why she began experimenting with the early social media tools. At that time they were clunky - Facebook didn’t exist yet and blogs were typically terrible, but the very next year, Barbara joined LinkedIn and began to feel like there would be more transformation of sales and marketing ahead. She’s come to see that with the rapid pace of changing technologies, if you’re not evolving, you’re dying. Barbara is one of those individuals who gets sales and marketing but also gets the technology side of things. This conversation is an amazing look at some of the ways sales and marketing can become better aligned, for the success of individuals, the benefit of customers, and the profitability of companies. Companies that are embracing technology are light years ahead when it comes to marketing and sales alignment. But don’t make the mistake of depending only on the tech In the world we live in today, we have marketing technology at our disposal that enables more potential for alignment between marketing and sales than ever before. Barbara Giamanco says that technology is so much more advanced than it used to be, creating the foundation for a strong sales and marketing strategy. But she’s also aware that sometimes there's an over-reliance on technology to solve the entire problem of misalignment between the sales department and the marketing department. Not all challenges related to sales and marketing, and certainly not everything having to do with the alignment of those two can be solved by technology alone. It's obviously got to be there but there are other things that are important to make the alignment work. In this conversation, Barbara and Bernie discuss how the C-suite can bring about a greater alignment between marketing and sales, and how a more intentional focus on customer experience can turn the tide. Don’t miss it. CEOs and C-suite Leaders: If you are not fully behind the alignment of marketing and sales, your team's efforts will be seriously compromised Oftentimes the sales and marketing departments begin to gain some traction but discover that the CEO or other C-suite leaders have not fully bought into the initiative, they really aren’t driving it as they need to be. In that situation, maybe you'll get somewhere, maybe you won't. But the fact of the matter is this: Sales and marketing alignment starts at the top with a focus on delivering on customer experience. In the end, that means better alignment throughout all the departments not just sales and marketing. If you are C-suite leader in your company, Barbara and Bernie discuss issues directly related to the role you play in not only aligning marketing and sales for greater productivity but also building a healthier, more vibrant culture that will drive the company forward long term. Don’t miss this great conversation. Sponsor: Lithium Technologies helps brands navigate the sometimes overwhelming world of social media marketing and management, social customer service, online communities and social analytics. A leader in the space, they're guiding brands to build trust with their clients while delivering top-notch customer experiences. Dayle leads the charge at Lithium Technologies on all strategic marketing initiatives. Featured on This Episode Social Centered Selling - Barbara’s company Barbara Giamanco - Barbara’s personal website Barbara’s book: The New Handshake: Selling Meets Social Media Barbara on LinkedIn Barbara on Twitter Barbara on Facebook Barbara on Google + The Razor’s Edge Podcast - Barbara’s great show Episode with Gavriella Schuster Episode with Lindsay Zwart Selling with Social Podcast, with Mario Martinez, Jr. Outline of This Episode [0:31] Barbara Giamco, CEO of Social Centered Selling, Bernie’s guest on this show [2:21] How Barbara actively works within the ongoing transformation of sales [10:26] What is the role of the C-suite in enabling marketing and sales to align? [12:09] Content is vital to sales, which is one reason marketing has to be at the table [20:32] How advances in technology provide an opportunity about how to help sales professionals improve their sales skills [26:50] Bernie’s summary of the conversation: Key takeaways [31:30] Barbara’s final advice about how to view the customer experience - and how sales and marketing working together can make it happen Resources & People Mentioned Microsoft www.Vengreso.com Connect With Bernie and Social Business Engine https://www.facebook.com/socialbusinessengine/ https://www.facebook.com/bernie.borges https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://twitter.com/sbengine There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the Listen Now button at the top of this page… Or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through iTunes orStitcher. This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies. This episode is sponsored by Lithium Technologies.

The Journey to Social Media Innovation and Influence with Mike Stelzner This episode is an intriguing conversation about social media innovation - what it is and what it takes to truly do it in an increasingly crowded social media space - with none other than Mike Stelzner. If you don’t know Mike Stelzner, he’s a big name in the social media industry. Mike is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner which is the world’s largest social media marketing resource. The website publishes rich, how-to articles daily and has reached more than 60 million people globally. More than 450,000 people are subscribed to Social Media Examiner’s email list. One of the SME resources many people know and love is their Social Media Marketing Industry report. It’s published annually and is the longest-running study on how marketers use social media that exists. The Social Media Examiner team also puts on Social Media Marketing World, an annual conference which is now in its 6th year. Bernie has had the honor of speaking at the last 3 SMMW conferences and is speaking again at SMMW 2018. In this episode, you’ll get all the details about how you can attend - February 28 through March 2nd, 2018 - in San Diego, CA. And, speaking of social media innovation, Mike is going to describe his newest innovative social media venture - an episodic, real-life video documentary called “The Journey.”   The ongoing power of social video can’t be ignored. Here is Mike Stelzner’s take on how to make the most of it Being a selling or marketing professional, you’ve got to be aware that video has taken on a life of its own in 2017. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook - now even LinkedIn is getting in on the act of providing on-demand video tools for users. What does that mean for you as a marketer? You’ve got to learn how to effectively use these incredible new tools that are available. In this conversation, Mike Stelzner describes how “edutainment” in the form of video can be one of the most innovative and effective ways to use social media. He’s doing it himself by producing a “reality” video series he’s titled “The Journey” and is seeing amazing watch numbers increase right before his eyes. Find out exactly what Mike’s doing, how he’s doing it, and why he’s doing it - and how his example can serve as a template for becoming more innovative in your social media marketing efforts, on this episode of Social Business Engine. Social Media Innovation differentiates you in an increasingly crowded market. Here is how Mike Stelzner is staying on the cutting edge Mike’s new video show, “The Journey” is a chronicle of his entrepreneurial path. It walks through the real-life, daily issues he faces as a business owner and leader of the amazing team at Social Media Examiner. From hiring and firing contractors, working through strategy and vision, to planning amazing events like Social Media Marketing World, the show documents what it’s really like to lead a successful business. In his conversation with Bernie on this episode, Mike highlights why he thought the show would be a good way to market SME as a company via social media and explains why marketers need to begin adopting the new video tools available while there’s still time to be on the cutting edge. Mike’s a great example of a person who takes risks for the sake of leading the industry forward. After hearing this conversation (and seeing his new show) you’ll agree, so be sure you listen - and check out “The Journey.”

What is a Media Property and why should your brand build one. Bernie Borges founded Convert and Social Business Engine. He shares why it's no longer good enough to just have a blog and what brands need to do right now.  See the show notes.