Conquer Local Podcast

Customers travel through a series of steps—whether they know it or not—before they purchase at a local business. This is known as the customer journey.We welcome Ahsen Mohammad to the Conquer Local podcast this week to talk about the Customer Journey. Ahsen took the concept and built his marketing agency around it, Customer Maps, and only serves five customers. Instead of stretching out to bring more and more clients on, he prefers to go all-in with his clients and become a part of their team. For customers, the journey they undergo is not something they often think about, as they are just looking for an outlet to fulfill their buying needs. For local businesses, the customer journey is the difference between a sale and a consumer buying products/services from a local competitor.Ahsen has extensive experience of working for multiple global brands. He started his career with European Fashion brands. Ambition to work for multinational made him moved to global sports giant brand Adidas. He took up the role of Project Lead Re-Launch Reebok as a fitness initiator and authenticator. With a healthy challenge ahead, he undertook this role to innovate and introduce fresh ideas in every aspect of business and co-develop a marketing, digital marketing & retail strategy to sharpen the position of Reebok & Adidas Sport Performance.

The way we hire has changed, what does onboarding a remote workforce look like in today's landscape?Conquer Local heads to Denmark to bring you Tricia Score. Tricia is the Sales & Customer Engagement Team Leads at Microsoft; she shares what her experience has been as she has already onboarded three salespeople remotely. Tricia puts the emphasis on remembering human interaction, making the connection to establish trust, and keep the lines open for communication. Now is the time to connect with others and find a mentor, 50% of people have a mentor but 75% of people think it is crucially important.With more than 15 years in sales leadership and strategy, Tricia Score has a proven record in global and market expansion initiatives with a focus on high-growth results. In her past roles, Tricia has been specializing in establishing and enabling teams for success and driving sales results through sales excellence in her sales teams. Tricia recently joined Microsoft in early 2020, and before her role at Microsoft, Tricia worked in multiple sales leadership roles focused on sales operations, strategy, and enablement roles across Africa, Europe, and the US. Tricia holds an MBA from Marymount University.Join the Conquer Local Community to connect with other Conquerors, and to stay up to date with all that is Conquer Local.

Franchise Selling must ultimately be around building trust with your customer base before getting started.We welcome Joe Mohay, CRO & Co-Founder of Integrated Digital Strategies (IDS), on the podcast this week, and he is here to talk Franchise Selling. Joe shares what he has learned in his career regarding building trust with customers, "Businesses that go above and beyond are the ones who will succeed." He breaks it down into three sections, treat customers like family, prove to them you are trustworthy from advocacy from other customers, and be a raving fan for your customers.Since the company was founded in 2012, Joe and the rest of the IDS team have worked closely with franchise organizations as a trusted franchise digital marketing partner. Their integrated approach to digital marketing focuses on franchise brands, local franchisees, and franchise development teams. This led to a stellar reputation in the franchise community and a Top-Tier Ranking by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2018 and 2019. Using his 20 years of digital marketing experience, Joe manages the company's revenue growth, sales and marketing strategies, nurturing of professional relationships, and delivering a solid ROI for their 55+ franchise brands.

Developing a Buyer Persona, learning the dos and don'ts, and why it's essential to understand the mindset of small business owners.Stu Richards, CEO of Bredin, is our guest this week on the Conquer Local Podcast. Stu is a frequent speaker on marketing to small and medium businesses in North America. Bredin works with some of the largest brands and companies that are trying to appeal to SMBs. Stu explains by doing topic research around the buyer persona, and it allows us to understand better where to invest the marketing dollars and how to spend it accurately. This would include hiring, purchase intent, and brand intention. Stu also sheds light on buyer actions, it is vital to have an eye-catching website, but it is critical to have the right things on it.

Developing a brand identity for your agency is one of the best ways to take your brand to the next level.Master Sales Series this week brings you the importance of having a robust brand identity. Strong brands are all around us. In our modern, digitized world, people are seeing an alarming number of brands everywhere they turn. Remember that study done in 2007 about people being exposed to 5,000 advertisements a day? Well that number has increased with the surge in mobile smart devices, increased social media usage from all demographics, brand placements, and everything you might see in day-to-day life. Companies and people leverage their brands to connect with customers and clients. With a strong brand, it is easier for your audience to get to know you.

You have to admire startup founders. Creating. building, developing, and growing a SaaS Startup is not an easy feat. SaaS Startup founders put everything on the line to drive forward with their dream of solving a problem, building a unicorn, or even employing 500 people. Jordan McFarlen, Business Incubator Manager at Cultiavtor powered by Conexus, in our guest this week. He is currently working with key stakeholders, community members, and most importantly entrepreneurs to build out the strategy and design for a community hub, which inspires innovation and entrepreneurship. Jordan is the first to admit - because he sees it first hand - there are going to be struggles with developing SaaS solution. It starts with the educational piece and solving a problem. If there is no problem to be solved, the need to pivot is essential. 

Where are you going to be after the inevitable bounce? Will you Be the Hero? We are taking a different angle for this Master Sales Series episode. George brings to light what it means to be the hero during this time of crisis. Conquer Local's core purpose has always been to drive local economies by providing knowledge to our listeners. We support local businesses, and during challenging times like these, we’re committed to that now more than ever. We’re here to help our listeners clients through these challenging times. You may be facing staff shortages, remote work, and an evolving marketplace where changing customer habits are hurting your bottom line. We want to Protect Local.  Join our Community.

In its simplest form, Product-Led Growth leans on product experience in order to grow a customer base. In the traditional acquisition model, marketers focus on attracting potential customers through inbound tactics like paid ads. Once a prospect shows interest and are vetted as a qualified lead, they become a market qualified lead and are sent to the salespeople. Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a strategy that puts the product right before the customer to lead the customer experience! Anna Tavares, Director of Strategy at Vendasta, explains how PLG is defined, and the reason you should be implementing into your business strategy. The concept of PLG is not new. You probably already know and use it all the time. Synonyms for PLG include ‘freemium’, ‘try-before-you-buy’, ‘SaaS 2.0’ and ‘free trial’. Anna explains even more on this episode of the Conquer Local Podcast. As Vendasta’s Director of Strategy, Anna is responsible for developing, managing, and assisting the implementation of projects that support Vendasta’s vision, as well as its short and long-term growth plans. She is responsible for initiatives that drive partner engagement and growth through product-led growth strategies, while at the same time fostering a culture of cross-functional team collaboration. Besides being a strategy nerd, Anna is passionate about female empowerment, gender equality and new yoga moves.

The bar has never been lower to start a business by going Direct to Customer, but that doesn't change what the pillars of business are. Direct to Customer brands leverage their true purpose, technology, data, content, and speed to market in astonishing ways. Now, you can too. Brace for impact. Mitch Joel, Founder of Six Pixels Group, is our guest this week. He is one of the amazing speakers at the Conquer Local 2020 Conference in beautiful Montreal. Big and small business need to take it next level by going Direct to the Customer Customer. What do billion dollar companies like Kylie Cosmetics and Dollar Shave Club know that Starbucks and Walmart did not?  Mitch explains why these startups quickly disrupted industries that took their competitors decades to decode. This new breed of Direct to Consumer brands has changed the dynamics of business today,  What are these companies doing that is so disruptive? Mitch gives us the goods on what you need to know today about the power of direct to consumer brands, and how to build one and/or how to act like one (whether you are in B2C or B2B). Mitch believes that the fundamental traditional Four P's of Marketing - Product, Price, Place, Promotion - are still relevant in today's digital realm. Do you agree? Mitch Joel is Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on commerce and innovation (although he prefers the title, "Media Hacker"). Prior to Six Pixels Group, Mitch spent close to two decades building, running and (eventually) selling his business. He was President of Mirum – a global digital marketing agency operating in 25 countries with close to 3000 employees. Mirum is owned by WPP. Mitch has been named one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly prestigious Top 40 Under 40.

A powerful Elevator Pitch can be magnetic. If it’s engaging enough, you can sell anything – whether it’s a product to a client, an idea to an investor, or convincing an employer that you’re the right fit. We held a live Elevator Pitch competition at Vendast'a headquarters. Our astonishing host, George Leith, was one of three on the panel of judges. We bring you the eight elevator pitches from the competitors, and George provides feedback on each. Who do you think will win? The objective of an elevator pitch isn’t to close a deal, but to convince someone that you have something worthwhile to offer! George's career in sales and marketing spans more than three decades. He has spoken to tens of thousands of people across the world at conferences and through seminars, helping businesses to overcome their difficulties and transform them into digital sales and marketing experts.