Conquer Local Podcast

Monthly recurring revenue is the holy grail of every business.  Sam Jacobs, the Founder of Revenue Collective, joins George this week to compare notes on monthly recurring revenue and the effectiveness. Sam explains how not only does a product need to have market fit but that the product has to be ready and deliver value beyond a testing environment. He goes on to decode the notion that sales comes first, when in actuality it should start with product, then customer success, moving to marketing and demand generation, and then finally onto sales. Artificial intelligence is coming, what does that mean for our beloved SDR? George and Sam explore the importance of the human connection when it comes to sales.  Sam founded the Revenue Collective in 2016 and in a few short years and it has sky rocketed to over 600 members. The Revenue Collective is an exclusive membership for growth operators dedicated to providing support, assistance, education, and career growth to their members. He helps commercial operators change the trajectory of their careers. They are a global organization with official chapters in New York, London, Denver, Toronto, Boston, Indianapolis, and Amsterdam and more chapters coming online in the next few months and years. For the past 15 years, Sam has helped companies scale from just north of $0 in revenue to just shy of $300M. During that time, he's developed deep operational expertise with particular emphasis on go-to-market strategy and execution mainly with SaaS and recurring revenue businesses. Sam has been a commercial operator at GLG, Livestream/Vimeo, The Muse, and Behavox. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Digging deep on inside sales, life as a Business Development Representative.  We continue our new segment, Inside Sales! We are excited to have the opportunity to speak with a couple BDRs to gain their perspective. Todd Roberts, Director of Sales, and Myron Kindrachuk, Senior Business Development, join us on the podcast to share what it's like to be on the sales floor day-to-day. We talk through the proper way in motivating a sales team and as a leader, which sometimes means going above and beyond the standard. Negativity spreads like a virus in sales culture, Todd explains how to deal with it and why it's necessary to cut it out.  Myron Kindrachuk, has been working in B2B sales for 10 years. He is experienced in Business Development with a demonstrated history of success in the Software As A Service industry. Skilled in negotiating sales, cold calling, sales operations and sales management. Myron has been with Vendasta for more than 4 years, he specializes in developing long-term relationships with clients by providing the solutions to maximize ROI. Myron has and always will be consultative selling by helping clients make the right decisions for their organizations and developing a long term partnership.  Todd Roberts is the Director of Sales at Vendasta and leads a solution-focused and professional team on the Vendasta sales floor. He motivates by example and proves to partners that recurring revenue in local sales and marketing is not only possible, but essential. Before he began wowing potential partners into signing up for the Vendasta platform, some of his many skills included master bartending - just like Tom Cruise, except taller and better looking. Smiling with bugs in his teeth, and travel the world on his Harley every chance he gets. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Building a winning sales playbook is no easy endeavour, but we have you covered. This week's guest is an expert at building them. Matt Sunshine is a Managing Partner at the Center for Sales Strategy, a sales performance consulting company that helps sales organizations attract, retain, and develop the highest performing sales people. Matt's extensive background in the broadcaster space brings a fresh feel to the Conquer Local Podcast. Matt walks us through how to build a winning sales playbook with a three step process, he shares his tried and tested three key elements for hiring a sales team, and he shares what is happening in the broadcasting space and explains the why they are getting into the digital marketing stack now.  Matt’s areas of expertise include growing sales organizations, finding and developing sales superstars, sales process, lead generation, inbound marketing, and digital marketing, and he is a featured writer for one of the top sales blogs in America and a regular contributor to leading business blogs and magazines such as Inc., Sales and Marketing Management, Sales Hacker, and Entrepreneur. In 2012, Matt developed and launched LeadG2, an Inbound Marketing company that helps businesses establish thought leadership and lower lead costs. LeadG2 has earned the premier Hubspot recognition as a platinum Certified Partner and is the largest inbound marketing company serving the media industry in the world today. He is also the author of “Getting Prospects to Raise Their Hand” and Forbes magazine lists Matt as one of the 20 Speakers You Shouldn't Miss The Opportunity To See. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Winners do things losers don't want to do, the life as a Sales Development Representative. We have a new segment starting on the Conquer Local Podcast—Inside Sales. Glen Bowie, Manager of Agency Growth, and Michael Patola, Agency Growth Specialist at Vendasta, join us to divulge what it's like to work in today's sales landscape. We often discuss sales strategies from an executive level and we sometimes miss out on the nitty gritty details from the people who are on the floor crushing it day in and day out. We discuss the importance of culture, motivating your team within, organizing your thoughts, and why strategically planning your day will set-up you up for success. Glen Bowie leads an insightful sales team with an emphasis on identifying problems and providing solutions to prospects.  He develops sales strategies to expand Vendasta's customer base and trains and motivates his team to achieve sales targets and revenue goals. Michael Patola is an accomplished sales and marketing consultant who has helped build and refine sales development techniques. He works with organizations to understand their goals and help them retain and grow digital revenue. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

The most important detail of the customer experience is building trust, we must start on day 1. We are kicking off Season 3 with Jim Tracy, President and Founder of EZlocal. Jim manages a sales force that's spread all over the United States, and they continue to grow. He explains what the first thing he teaches his sales force, trust. We have to listen to our customers, if we're not listening to our customers, if we're not paying attention to them, if we're not communicating with them, they will leave. A simple question during the initial welcome call can solve it. Jim sheds light on his unique compensation model for his sales teams and how that leads into their customer service and success. Jim is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago, Jim served as senior vice president of National Translink Corporation and, over a span of 10 years, worked with thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to grow their businesses and reach more customers. Over the years Jim had witnessed countless small businesses going out of business as a result of heightened competition from big corporations and online retailers. This led to the inspiration in creating America's Best Companies. Jim strives to bring the issues of the small business owner to the forefront, while leading a dedicated and professional staff working to make a difference for the small business community. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Voice search is our future, are you ready? Listings data and voice search are starting to become hand-in-hand. Brooke Henderson, Senior Director of Strategic Partnership Growth at Yext, is our amazing guest this week. Brooke and George take a deep dive into the listing sources ecosystem. It's happening people, the future is voice search. Brooke explains the value of having the capability and the know how to incorporate voice search into listings data.  Set it and forget it is a thing of the past, especially when it comes to listings. Various listing companies are all working with one another to compare their data. Find out was Uber how stays current. Brooke grew up in small business, her experience running sales organizations, selling radio advertising, and co-founding a small digital agency has been the driving force behind her success in developing turnkey reseller strategies in the world of digital marketing since 2012. The demand to have the best marketing strategies for their small business clients are the sole focus of her partners, and her passion is to give them the strategies and resources to execute, drive revenue, and decrease client attrition with digital knowledge management. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Is your presentation different every time? Why? If you have something that's working, why would you change it every time? Our extraordinary host, George Leith, walks us through the importance of having a talk track. They can also be called a value propositions. In this episode we're going to discuss writing talk tracks and building compelling value propositions. Talk tracks get a bad rap of being a way to keep a salesperson in a box.  A talk track isn't an "insert name here" and run through a presentation like a robot. The purpose of a talk track is to identify problems and then work on writing a talk track on how your product or services solves those problems. By finding a sense of urgency or finding things that are critical for various reasons, you can start thinking about that when writing talk track. George is a thoroughly experienced, educational, and inspirational sales and marketing keynote speaker who can enlighten your company or professional association on best practices for transforming sales and utilizing social media’s innovative concepts to align your digital media marketing with current trends and prepare it for the unpredictable times ahead. As a sales transformation keynote speaker, author and guest university lecturer, he has a unique ability to demystify concepts and inspire businesses and professionals to understand and truly embrace the potential that digital transformation has for many business objectives including sales, business development, and marketing for B2B, non-profit organizations, as well as government institutions. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Regardless of what your sales strategy is, you need to have some type of post-sales retention strategy. Tune in to learn the 4 Keys to Retention. Matt Tennison, VP of Business Development and Partners with Boostability, joins George this week to discuss retention. Matt gave such an insightful presentation at Conquer Local that we had to have him on the podcast to share it with our listeners. He walks us through the four keys to retention; Product Knowledge, Post Sales Engagement, Sales Training, and Product Sales Support. Matt and George dig deep into each key to retention, and provide examples and best practices. Matt has over 20 years of experience in the marketing and advertising field and over 15 years of experience in high-level business development and partner relations. Over his career, Matt has worked for large advertising publications and national agencies, where he achieved great success in advertising sales, business development, and sales management. Prior to joining Boostability in 2011, Matt ran an advertising agency for eight years, where he became very familiar with both traditional marketing methods and digital marketing techniques. He has an intimate understanding of the small business marketplace and an expertise in forging high-performing partner relationships. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Whether it's a gym membership, food box subscription, subscription software, or a media subscription, the subscription economy is here and is taking over.   There is no one besides Patrick Campbell, Co-Founder and CEO of ProfitWell, that can discuss subscriptions as eloquently as he does. Patrick joins us this week to dig deep into what a subscription based price model looks like. The beauty of the subscription model is for the first time in history, there is now a revenue model where how we make money is baked directly into the relationship with the customer. How to price a subscription model is focused on two major pillars of growth, how it's priced and the cost per customer as well as retaining those customers. Patrick Campbell is the Co-Founder and CEO of ProfitWell, the industry standard software for helping companies like Atlassian, Autodesk, Meetup, and Lyft with their monetization (through Price Intelligently) and retention strategies. ProfitWell also provides a turnkey solution that powers the subscription financial metrics for over eight thousand subscription companies (it’s free and plugs right into your billing system). Prior to ProfitWell Patrick led Strategic Initiatives for Boston based Gemvara and was an Economist at Google and the US Intelligence community. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Methodologies for sales team structure, hiring salespeople, compensation, and more.   Butch Langlois, a fellow Canadian, joins the Conquer Local Podcast this week. Butch is the President of North America at Vend, he has an accounting background which transited him into being an esteemed sales leader. Butch sheds some light on the Toronto Revenue Collective, what it is, why it exists, and how it's beneficial to all sales leaders. Butch and George explore best practices when a company starts expanding their sales team and hiring remote employees. Butch explains why he hires his salespeople in groups and how he has been successful doing so.  Vend is the cloud based retail point of sale and inventory management system running in more than 25,000 stores around the world. Butch leads strategy and operations for Vends largest region, including managing North American headquarters in Toronto. He’s also the Chairman and Founding Member of the Toronto Revenue Collective, an organization designed to support the professional development of revenue leaders at high growth companies and facilitate the sharing of best practices. An accountant by trade, before Vend, Butch was the CFO for the internet division at Rogers Communication, a publicly traded Canadian telecom company with more than 25,000 employees. Prior to Rogers, his decades of experience in high growth startups includes senior roles at companies like comparative shopping site BuyBuddy.com, e-commerce platform Truition, interactive travel mapping platform PlanetEye and real estate listing platform Zoocasa. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij