Predictable B2B Success

Are you ready to stand apart from the competition and become a true Thought Leader? "B2B decision makers indicate that thought leadership is a very important tool in their ability to determine the value of potential vendor or partner whom they want to work with. So it's got that bottom line impact." Ben Laws is the Executive Vice President, and Deputy US Lead for Business Marketing at Edelman, a global communications firm. He has extensive experience in shaping an organization's story, developing creative and thought leadership platforms, and leading integrated communications and marketing programs. Ben Laws wanted to prove the hard ROI for thought leadership. He spoke to marketers and decision-makers, who said that thought leadership is essential for determining the value of a potential vendor. Through his conversations, Ben realized the importance of building relationships and understanding the realities of the audience. He emphasized the need for creativity and the value of storytelling for gaining attention. He also emphasized the need for thought leadership to reflect the company's culture and values. Ultimately, Ben concluded that the best way to create successful thought leadership content is to listen to and engage with the intended audience. In this episode, you will learn the following: Why do B2B marketers seem to discount the value of creativityHow can creativity speak to the buying processProving the hard ROI of thought leadership activityUtilizing creativity to capture and engage audiencesExploring the importance of brand values, mission, and purpose in thought leadership.How thought leadership impacts the bottom-line by winning businessWhy and how to invest in thought leadership consistentlyAnd much, much more...

Discover the power of storytelling and become memorable and magnetic to win the sale with your unique emotional hook! "People buy emotionally and back it up with logic. You're not telling a story. People forget numbers. But when you tell a story, you become memorable and magnetic, and then they start to go, okay, now we see the solution to our problems." - John Livesay. John Livesay is an incredible keynote speaker and the author of "Better Selling Through Storytelling" and "The Sale is in the Tail." He is an expert in crafting compelling stories to win new business and motivate sales teams. John Livesay worked at Conde Nast, selling advertising to prominent clients like Lexus. When it came time to pitch their products, he realized whoever told the best story would get the sale. So he tapped into his advertising background and crafted clear, concise, and compelling stories. As a result, John was hired to speak at Lexus's sales meetings and teach their teams how to tell stories to sell more. Through this, he discovered that people buy emotionally and back it up with logic. John's stories gave him an edge, and he was able to help an architecture firm win a billion-dollar airport renovation. By putting the customer at the center of the story and focusing on conveying the emotion behind it, John helps us discover the power of storytelling. In this episode, you will learn the following: How John discovered that people buy with emotion and then back it up with logicShould storytelling be the number one skill that leaders should developHow to recognize and create stories in a businessHow storytelling can be used to win salesHow to tell stories with your four structures of storiesThe mistakes to avoid when presentingHow to craft a story that tugs at heartstringsHow to create a playlist of stories for different buyer personasHow to turn case studies into case stories to win business pitchesAnd much, much more.

Discover how product-led growth can help you supercharge your business and unlock new levels of success! You will learn how to use product-led growth to supercharge your business and achieve higher levels of success. "Successful people are not afraid to be uncomfortable at times, so never be afraid to be the dumb person in the room and ask for help early and often." Nick Lumsden is the co-founder and CTO of Tenacity Cloud, which helps businesses avoid technical debt and wasted cloud spending. He has over 20 years of experience in software engineering, technology, and business leadership. Nick Lumsden was an engineer in the healthcare data analytics space and was inspired by how cloud-based services and product-led growth were level playing fields for startups. However, he discovered more was needed to break away from assumptions and understand what the user needed and went about living in their shoes.  Nick learned about product-led growth, how it put the power in the customer's hands, and how to make the experience as frictionless as possible. He learned to eliminate his biases and be humble and inquisitive in conversations. He was motivated by the potential to deliver continuous value and create a positive organizational culture. Through his journey of self-education, he learned the importance of being uncomfortable, asking for help, and building relationships. In this episode, you will learn the following: How to help business leaders get out of their - "I can solve it myself" mindsetHow can businesses use cloud-based services to optimize their spendingHow can businesses create product-led growth instead of sales-led growthWhat strategies can companies use to build a culture of innovationWhy should leaders in the tech space embrace a product-led growth strategyHow to persuade potential customers by creating a powerful experienceNick's insights on building out a product-led growth flywheelHow culture and narratives impact flywheel growthAnd much, much more ...

"Collabradabra: Unlock the Magic of Profitable Growth with Authentic, Optimistic Relationships." "The best way to profitable growth is through having collaborative relationships with clients externally and collaborative cultures internally - it starts with the deliberate intention to collaborate." Peter Anthony is an author, speaker, and master of professional communication. He is an expert in collaboration and has run workshops for thousands across twelve countries over the past 20 years, consulting with Fortune 500 companies to help them achieve smarter outcomes from effective relationships. Early in his career, Peter had the chance to benefit from world-class sales training from IBM. Despite the training, he realized that the approach to selling as taught to him wasn't working, but the more he built relationships, the more successful he became. After working for IBM and advertising agencies, he began consulting and realized that collaboration was the key to successful business outcomes. He used observations from his work to codify collaboration and has taught it for 18 years. Peter believes collaboration is the best way to achieve profitable relationships and growth. He also believes that empathy and trust are vital to building successful relationships. In this episode, you will learn the following: What makes for profitable sales growthWhy the approach that most businesses take to solve revenue problems won't workHow does collaboration lead to profitable growthWhat is unique about building relationships through empathy and trustHow can stories be used to create successful pitchesHow to develop a customer centric cultureWhy collaborative conversations are more important than ever for leaders.How to collaborate effectively to sellAnd much, much more.

When Park Howell, a veteran marketer, noticed traditional advertising was no longer effective, he embarked on a journey to unpack Hollywood movies to uncover the power of storytelling and create an algorithm for brands to hack through the noise and connect with their audiences. This endeavor leads to a significant paradigm shift. "Our jobs as sales, marketing, B2B executives, whatever, is to make that fiction become a reality. Show them what a brighter tomorrow is going to look like. And then when they buy into it, then you deliver on that, effectively making your customer, the audience, part of your story." - Park Howell. Park Howell is an internationally renowned speaker, consultant, coach, and author known as the world's most industrious storyteller. With 35+ years of brand creation experience, Park has grown purpose-driven brands by as much as 600% and is the founder of Business, The Business of Story, a proven platform based on his 10-step story cycle system. Park Howell was frustrated with the digital world and sought an answer to how to compete in the noisy digital age. He found his answer in the art of storytelling and developed a ten-step story cycle system to help business leaders hack through the noise and engage their audiences. His work has enabled brands to grow by dialing in their brand story, proving that storytelling is an effective way to drive growth in business. In this episode, you will learn the following: The power and importance of storytelling in today's worldThe two story truthsNarrative intuition - what is it, and how do we develop itExplore the intersection of culture, storytelling, and scaling a businessThe need for businesses to shift their narrative focus away from themselves and toward their customersUsing the ABT (Agreement, But, Therefore) narrative framework to create compelling stories.ROI of storytelling using the ABT frameworkAnd much, much more ...

Discover how building a strategic narrative can revolutionize your category creation process and grow your business! You will learn to use strategic narrative building to transform your category creation process and expand your business. "It's not the smartest or the quickest that survive, but those who are most responsive and able to change." - Andrew Davies. Andrew Davies is the Chief Marketing Officer at Paddle, a payments infrastructure for SaaS businesses. He has extensive experience building out leading go-to-market strategies, building an unignorable brand, and winning customers at scale. Andrew Davies is a risk-taker who loves working with intelligent people and building high-performing teams. He believes that when scaling a business, having a team that works well together and understands the game's rules is more important than having the smartest individuals. Through his journey, Andrew learned about using strategic narratives and category creation, which involves having a differentiated point of view, creating a mini-category, and having patience with the process. He experienced this first-hand when working with a private equity firm, forming a narrative from disparate businesses and creating a mini-category of content intelligence. Andrew's experience taught him that the best stories are ones that customers can communicate within their organization. In this episode, you will learn the following: Why does it seem like everyone is pursuing category creation? Is it worth it?Why businesses need to understand there are multiple routes to growthDoes growth boil down to one smart individualThe benefits of leading a category: Learn what it takes to become an industry leader from a company that has experienced success in the marketCrafting a compelling narrative: Discover how to craft a unique and compelling story that will resonate with customers, employees, and investors alikeThe power of patience: Understand why patience is critical when creating a successful category and how to effectively communicate it down multiple levelsHow culture and narrative play a role as a company scales and or acquires businessesAnd much, much more...

Discover the secret to shortening the sales cycle and easily growing your business! "It is okay to disqualify. However, it is better to get them out quicker than spend a waste a bunch of time trying to get them to close or worse yet, actually closing them and then having a headache that you can't get rid of." - Kevin Snow. Kevin Snow is the founder and CEO of Time On Target, an Army veteran, entrepreneur, sales expert, and technology gate. He has helped businesses close over $150,000,000 in new business by leveraging existing relationships and better communicating their products' differentiating benefits. Kevin Snow is a Captain in the Minnesota National Guard and worked for a networking organization with over 50 chapters and 1500 members. When other regions asked him to teach them how to launch groups, Kevin founded Time on Target so he could take money for his services.  After returning from deployment in Kuwait, Kevin realized he needed to create a scalable business and began consulting on process development and automation for businesses. He also trained businesses to shorten the sales cycle and drive growth quickly. Kevin's superpower as an introvert was that he asked excellent questions and strategized processes, enabling businesses to move clients from not knowing them to being their best customers. His closure mindset also allowed him to disqualify prospects while providing a fallback position. This made Kevin the go-to person for entrepreneurs to learn. In this episode, you will learn the following: Why we should stop going for the close but go for the closure insteadHow to close 80% of your sales in 1 meetingHow to evolve sales conversations for an educated buyerHow to use automation to accelerate the sales cycleHow Kevin Snow transformed his job into a scalable businessStrategies for moving clients from not knowing you to being your best customerThe benefits of disqualifying prospects and networking with competitorsAnd much, much more...

When Oscar Trimboli's VP suggests he could "change the world" if he could "code the way he listens," he embarks on a journey to become a masterful listener, discovering the powerful interplay between the speaker's 125 words per minute, the listener's 400 words per minute and the speaker's 900 words per minute of thinking - and the compelling central conflict between hearing and taking action. You will learn five actionable listening steps to understand and drive revenue growth. "If you could code the way you listen, you could change the world." - Oscar Trimboli. Oscar Trimboli is an author, keynote speaker, and host of the Apple Award-winning podcast Deep Listening. He is passionate about using the gift of listening to bring positive change in homes, workplaces, and cultures worldwide. Oscar Trimboli was in a boardroom in April 2008 with 18 people, discussing budget setting. When his Vice President, Tracy, said she needed to "see him immediately after the meeting," Oscar thought he was about to be fired. Instead, he was given a 32% increase in his budget revenue line. Tracy said, "If you could code the way you listen, you could change the world." This made Oscar realize that he wasn't listening to the conversation, and began to be conscious about how he and others listened.  As a result, he learned the importance of listening to understand and drive revenue growth. Through his research and experience, Oscar understands the power of listening and its effects on quality, meetings, customer relationships, and profitability. In this episode, you will learn the following: The listening problem that occurs quite frequently in a B2B sales contextUncovering the power of listening to increase quality, reduce meeting length, and sustain customer relationshipsExploring the five listening levels and how to adjust them to fit the situation and relationshipsThe four villans of listeningThe three numbers that you need to know to transform how you listenDiscovering how to process the emotions of both yourself and others in workplace conversationsHow to notice how people speak and not just what they sayHow to listen to what is unsaidAnd much much more ...

With the courage to reach out to his mentor, Dan Portik shares how he embarked on a journey of reinvention, discovering the power of prospecting and closing sales to achieve his goal of writing a bestselling book and creating a movie about his mentor. In simple steps, you will learn how to create an automated sales funnel to maximize your business growth. "I can't stress enough that hard work and elbow grease never fails. The numbers never fail if you do it properly." Dan Portik is a best-selling author, founder, and owner of BvS Film Productions and co-author of "Your Funnel" with Tom Hopkins. He has sold millions of dollars in advertising and video production services and is an expert in sales and marketing. Dan Portik was a successful business owner, having operated an advertising agency for almost 20 years. After the financial disruption of 2009, Dan reinvented his business as more of an online approach and eventually found success in video production. Through Tom Hopkins' sales techniques, Dan learned how to close sales of up to $20,000 without ever talking to the customer. Seeing an opportunity, he reached out to Tom, and they wrote a book together that became a bestseller. With Tom's retirement on the horizon, Dan seized the opportunity to write his life story and make a movie. Through hard work and perseverance, Dan created the movie, which is now available for viewing. Dan's takeaway was that even people of Tom's caliber are approachable, In this episode, you will learn the following: Why unpersonalized automated messages don't help businesses and customers in most instancesHow to leverage sales techniques and automated messaging to get customers without ever talking to them.The power of videos and thumbnails in sales and marketing.Why video in emails and messages work betterUsing AI to create content quickly and effectively.How Dan got to create a documentary on Tom HopkinsCharacteristics of outreach that workCharacteristics of sales that Dan learned from Tom HopkinsAnd much, much more ...

In this podcast episode, Vin Turk, a computer engineering expert, uses his technical know-how to create a revolutionary platform for marketers to connect with the right business professionals and drive compelling outcomes, despite the complexity of the ever-evolving marketing technology landscape. You will learn how to create an effective lead-nurturing program that drives conversions to overcome lead-nurturing challenges. "Let's build a better mousetrap, let's take them to the finish line, leveraging their content, already knowing who they want to connect with, and we'll handle everything else. So it's like a burden off of their shoulders." Vin Turk is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Madison Logic, a global ABM platform that empowers sales and marketing teams to convert their best accounts faster. With over 15 years of experience in digital media platforms, Vin is an expert in business community processes and disaster recovery solutions. He is also an advisor to several internet startups in New York City. Vin Turk worked with many technology brands producing content and collecting business card information from prospective accounts. He decided to develop a better platform to take them to the finish line and simplify the process for marketers. This led him to form Madison Logic, and he soon realized the complexity of marketing technology. He understood the need to simplify how tools connected and to focus on data points that drove improvement and outcomes. With the help of teams in his organization and the right tools, Vin Turk shifted to an account-based marketing mindset, prioritized data points, and measured revenue and pipeline to bring teams together and reach success. In this episode, you will learn the following: Why setting the right expectations is important when it comes to leveraging content to fuel your pipelineHow to set the right metrics and engagement outcomesHow to build efficiency in your systems and content production and content marketingWhy content curation is a problem for most companiesLeveraging data to drive improved outcomes in marketingThe shift from lead-centric to account-based marketingAligning marketing objectives and metrics with revenue and pipelineAnd much, much more ...