Predictable B2B Success

In this episode, Karl Yaacoub shares insights from his journey in discovering the art of creating value for businesses, only to uncover the compelling central conflict between serving shareholders and customers. "It is an iterative process, it takes a lot of trial and error because every market is different, every company, every industry is different. And so like with any product you're introducing to the market there has to be some kind of market testing, some kind of pivoting involved in order to hit that sweet spot that you're happy with." - Karl Yaacoub Karl Yaacoub is an investment and value creation professional with over 11 years of experience in investment banking and private equity. He is the author of the book - The Game of Value Creation and specializes in using a proven, calculated, and tactical approach to benefit from strategies that work for big players in any industry. Karl Yaacoub was determined to gain a deeper understanding of how to use value creation strategies to lead, drive growth, and scale. Through his exploration, he discovered that the key to success was to assess the needs of the business, from protection to optimization, and to find the right enablers to satisfy them. He also learned the importance of developing the right attitudes and skill sets for the stakeholders, so that they could rise to the challenge that comes with a growing business. Karl Yaacoub now knows that value creation is a continuous, iterative process and that the right systems, governance, strategy, and leadership are the keys to unlocking long-term success. In this episode, you will learn the following: What is value creation and 360-degree value creationHow can businesses extract value over and above their day-to-day operations?How can we learn from the world of active investors who acquire companies that offer substantial opportunities for value creation and then turn them into success stories by using a proven calculated and tactical approachWhat are the value creation enablers needed to satisfy the needs of a businessHow can organizations ensure the right leadership development programs to prepare for the futureAnd much much more...

Tommy Yionoulis, a visionary entrepreneur and SaaS founder, takes on the daunting challenge of salvaging the crumbling Quiznos franchise by transforming their paper-based audit process into an automated system, uncovering the key to preventing million-dollar mistakes. You will learn how to use operations management strategies to gain powerful insights and accelerate your business growth. "I'm a vision guy. I'm not a detailed guy. I am forced to be a detailed guy just so we can keep moving the ball forward. I think my biggest personal strength, and I don't think I developed this, I think it's a personality type thing, is like, I look at, oh, I got to get to the top of Mount Everest, and I look at it as not, oh my gosh, how are we ever going to the top of Mount Everest." Tommy Yionoulis is a former stand-up comic and SaaS founder who has extensive experience helping businesses become more efficient and profitable through process accountability and data. He is the founder and Managing Director of Ops Analytica, an operations management platform that focuses on managing and measuring daily team activities for large multi-unit businesses. Tommy Yionoulis was working at Quiznos and discovered that they were doing paper audits of their over 5000 locations. With no way to enter the data into excel, he built an online form connected to an Excel sheet to capture the data. After leaving Quiznos, he was recruited to use his knowledge of operations management strategies to help build Broadcom's security software. He taught himself business process management and developed the strategy of building a Minimum Viable Process (MVP) in every data process. He now works with large multilocation chains to help them capture operations data in real-time and use it to make better decisions. The data and insights from his SaaS solution have helped companies, such as a burrito chain, prevent million-dollar mistakes. In this episode, you will learn the following: How did Tommy Yionoulis use technology to create an innovative solution for a multi-location business in 2008What is the importance of a minimum viable product and utilizing it in a business process workflowWhat are the benefits of using data and technology to make better decisions in a large multi-location business?What are operations management and the importance of making data-driven decisionsIf the whole purpose of using data is to make better decisions, why do businesses struggle to enforce thatHow operations management platforms can help drive predictability and success in a businessWhat role does culture have to play in operations managementWhat is data accuracy scoring, and why should we be examining this metricAnd much, much more ...

Discover the secret to customer health with scientific rigor and an analytical approach to understanding customer churn, adoption, retention, and expansion. "When it comes to customer success, it's not just a Boston Tea Party - it's a long-term process that requires scientific rigor and analytical understanding to get to the nirvana of customer health and happiness much quicker." Manasij Ganguli is the founder and CEO of Zap Scale, a software that helps B2B SaaS companies retain customers, reduce churn, and increase upsells. He has two decades of experience in customer success, and is passionate about helping businesses streamline their customer success process. Manasij Ganguli, a SaaS business owner, realized that retaining customers was a key factor in making a successful business. He and his team spent four years of trial and error to understand what health metrics could measure customer happiness and retention. He wanted to make sure no one had to go through the same hassle, so he developed a data-driven customer success program that would drive growth. His program uses eight data sources to analyze customer health and create a machine-learning model to predict churn, adoption, retention, and expansion. Manasij's goal is to make customer success easier, faster, and more scientifically valid. In this episode, you will learn the following: Is there value in building out a customer success program if so whyWhy is customer success being conducted in at least some instances without any science behind itWhat metrics and science to look at in order to ensure our customer success program worksHow to unlearn preconceived notions around customer service and success to better serve customersHow ZapScale caters to the nuances of a particular company and their brandHow can customer success teams reduce the time it takes for them to understand their customers' health metrics and measure customer happiness?What methods can customer success teams use to understand customer health in an SMB or midmarket context where one customer success person is handling hundreds of accounts?How can customer success teams use data points such as product usage, ticketing, feature requests, communications, meetings, and NPS to get a better understanding of customer health?and much much more ...

When Irina Poddubnaia faced the challenge of managing ecommerce orders, she was forced to grapple with the difficult task of retaining customers, preventing miscommunications, and tackling the chaotic customer service process - all while trying to maintain her business's reputation. You will learn how to maximize customer satisfaction and drive growth without extra resources by discovering the secret today! "With that said, since then, the system evolved to various niches and submissions because we have seen that the headless ecommerce is taking off. So we implemented a widget that people can take and just embed into their store instead of just using the entire tracking page. Yeah, it's a gradual process. We started with one customer, then switched over to just generalizing and adapting everything that works with this one customer to everyone else." Irina Poddubnaia is an experienced SaaS founder, business consultant, and operations/process optimization specialist. She has over 8 years of experience in ecommerce and runs a fulfillment center in China. She developed Trackmage, a software that simplifies the customer experience and allows ecommerce stores to gain extra sales. Irina Poddubnaia's story begins when she realized the importance of providing notifications to customers in order to prevent them from having to contact customer support. She understood that customers often don’t read disclaimers and policies, and are likely to reach out to customer support if they don’t receive notifications. This experience drove her to develop an ecommerce project management system, one that would be customizable to different businesses and their needs. She knew the importance of customer retention, and the value of relationships with customers over short-term gain. To her, customer support was a profit center and data was key to understanding customer experience. She discovered that customers often check their shipment tracking pages multiple times a day, and it was a great opportunity to show additional products that could lead to conversions. In this episode, you will learn the following: How to leverage customer support as a profit center to improve customer retention and reputation.The importance of data and the big picture perspective when making decisions.The importance of following up with customers after the purchase to combat buyer's remorse and increase sales.Why customer service is a growth business lever today more so than before (role of social media)How automation can help reduce costs and drive retention and revenue growthHow customer service or support can become part of your business marketing engineHow Trackmage helps automate and reduce time spent on customer supportand much much more ...

When Amanda Klitsch, is tasked with helping marketers quickly capture leads, she advocates for an empathetic approach, stressing the need to build strong relationships with the audience and emphasizing the value of testing and optimizing to maximize return. You will learn how to unlock the power of remarketing to boost your success and discover its secrets. "No one buys anything because they saw an ad, especially in the business space. So there is a real need to build that relationship and create a conversation that your audience wants to engage with and that your audience finds valuable." Amanda Klitsch is the Director of Demand Generation for Salient MG, a strategic mapping agency for road-stage B2B startups. She has created end-to-end user journeys and cross-channel communications for BTB technology, IT, higher education, and healthcare companies. Amanda Klitsch believes that no one buys anything because they saw an ad, especially in the business space. She also believes that marketers needed to build relationships with their audience and create conversations that the audience wanted to engage with. Amanda focused on consumer psychology and helping users engage from start to finish. She is familiar with the challenge of having limited resources and gave advice on how to stretch the dollar and get more for less. Amanda uses data to show how remarketing drives success, such as a 90% lower cost per lead and a 100% higher conversion rate. She stressed the importance of the give-to-get relationship between the user and the business, and the need to track micro yeses and adjust the strategy accordingly. Amanda understands that the success of remarketing depends on the approach to awareness and segmenting the influencers In this episode, you will learn the following: What are the biggest challenges marketers face when engaging with clientsHow can marketers maximize their investments in digital marketing, even with limited resourcesHow can marketers create trust with their audience and convert more leadsWhy is remarketing an often-overlooked opportunity for brandsThe psychology behind remarketingThe potential impact of remarketing on brandsWhat makes a remarketing campaign effectiveHow to ensure that the people you engage with are able to convey the message to others in a B2B contextand much much more

When Ken Burke sold his company for a ten-digit exit, he thought he'd be enjoying the beach, but instead, he became a serial entrepreneur and re-empowered himself as a leader to build a new software company from nothing, facing the central conflict of his own culture vs the culture of his investors. Ken Burke is the founder and CEO of the Entrepreneur Now Network and author of "Intelligent Selling: The Art and Science of Selling Online" and "Prosper: Five Steps to Thriving in Business and Life". He is an ecommerce pioneer and mentor who sold his enterprise-class ecommerce software platform, Market Live, to Vista Equity Partners in 2016 in a successful ten-figure exit. Ken Burke learned about how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that drives growth through his own journey of being an entrepreneur and leading his own tech company. He emphasizes the importance of culture by emphasizing that it goes beyond employees and extends to customers and even the board- to have a "no BS" attitude and allow the executive team to lead. He also stresses the value of investing in people, encouraging positive behavior, and creating an educational e-learning platform to foster customer loyalty. "You don't need to be the smartest brain in the room. You don't need to be the one talking all the time." In this episode, you will learn the following: What is an entrepreneurial mindsetHow Ken Burke turned a ten-digit exit into a strategic acquisition?What was the advice that Ken Burke received from Sequoia Capital that changed his leadership style?What strategies did Ken use to foster a culture of customer loyalty and engagement?The role of financial awareness and education in developing an entrepreneurial mindsetThe best ways to deal with people-related issues that leaders in business need to faceKen's tips on raising funds that serve to scale your businessand much much more ...

In this podcast episode, Alexis Kingsbury, an experienced management consultant, shares his passionate journey to empower business owners with his unique process to help them break free from an overwhelming workload, reclaim their time, and achieve success without sacrificing their work-life balance. You will learn the essential steps to quickly document business processes for maximum growth and scale. "Scaling beyond those 42 hours becomes nearly impossible because you're already at full capacity. I imagine that there was a point at which he was working five days a week and as he added more team members, he gets to the point where he's working 60 hours. There is no more juice to squeeze out of him. He's already giving his all and the risk... and I know this from other business owners. Where they went down that route and didn't solve it and as a result, closed the business or significantly cut it back. Not because it's the right thing for the business, not because they need to cut their costs or anything like that, but because it's stressing them out, so they'd rather it be dead than killing them.." Alexis Kingsbury is an award-winning entrepreneur who runs two software businesses with remote global teams, serving over 500 organizations around the world. He has helped business leaders save thousands of hours of their time each year, enabling them to focus on business growth. Alexis Kingsbury was frustrated by his inability to scale his business and let go of certain tasks. He decided to create a software business, Airmanual, to document business processes so that he and other business owners could quickly drive growth and scale. Through his experience, he learned that investing 3 hours into documenting processes could save around 15 hours per week of a business owner's time. He is passionate about helping other business owners to understand this cycle and free up their time to create a greater impact. By documenting processes, he was able to increase the value of his own business and reduce the risk of it failing due to a lack of knowledge and certainty. In this episode, you will learn the following: Why process documentation is critical to scalingHow to increase the value of a business when selling or buying it.How to achieve work-life balance while running a successful business.How to create space in one's calendar and mental space to achieve greater impact.How documenting business processes reduces organizational process uncertainty and mitigates riskHow to effectively and simply document business processesGood practices for creating process documentationHow to create a culture around documenting business processes to scale predictablyand much much more ...

With his goal of creating a better way to do business, Bobby Gillespie sets out to operationalize his brand to empower his team and customers but discovers the courage and clarity needed to make it all work is not so simple. You will learn how to maximize growth for your brand by creating a motivating culture through easy implementation. "The secret to happiness is growth. Personal and professional growth. Learning new things, discovering new stuff, seeing new places and just not sitting static and sitting still. As we know if you sit in the middle of the road, eventually you'll get run over." - Bobby Gillespie Bobby Gillespie is a brand growth consultant, author, and founder of Propr Design, a Baltimore-based B2B Brand Growth Agency. He and his team advise and implement strategies to help B2B brands scale through better positioning, messaging, design, web, and marketing. Bobby Gillespie was fed up with the transactional way agencies were being run and wanted to find a better way that focused on impact outcomes and results, while also providing respect and autonomy for his team. He discovered that operationalizing your brand with a culture that drives growth starts with a solid foundation of values, purpose, mission, and personality. By having clarity and confidence in the answer to the question "What's best for the brand and our future customers?", Bobby was able to eliminate the leadership gap and build a better way. In this episode, you will learn the following: What is the secret to happiness in business?How can a strong brand foundation lead to more successful customer engagement?How can core values and brand personality be used to create a successful business?

When Donatas Jonikas, a marketing consultant, decides to jump into the startup space to explore innovative ideas, his bold undertaking leads to an ambitious research of over 1000 startups in order to validate his book idea and uncover a compelling central conflict. You will learn how to use data-backed, proven methods to accelerate business growth. "I love innovative ideas. I love to help people build something that was never built before, to bring into reality just ideas. Which was like, okay, it's just an idea. Maybe it makes sense. Maybe it could live in this world. And, okay, let's check it. Let's do it. If it's a viable thing." Donatas Jonikas holds a PhD in Economics and a Master's in Marketing Management with more than twelve years of experience in the field. He is the author of the book - Startup Evolution Curve: From Idea to Profitable and Scalable Business and has developed and implemented remarking strategies based on his research for more than 50 businesses around the globe that have helped them scale dramatically. Donatas Jonikas had been working as a marketing consultant for eight or nine years when he felt bored with traditional businesses and decided to dive deeper into the startup space. He conducted extensive research on 1000 startups from different industries and backgrounds. During a presentation to 300 startups, someone asked where they could purchase the book he was suggesting. This inspired Donatas to create a strategy to prove his concept and create a book, Accelerate business growth: How to grow fast with data-backed proven methods. He offered incentives to those who participated in his research, including the chance to be featured in the book and to receive a free autographed copy. After months of hard work and dedication, he was able to create a book that has helped many startups on their journey to success. In this episode, you will learn the following: How Donatas Jonikas found success in the startup space after years of consultingMistakes founders often make when scaling their businessWhy a failure in marketing and sales is likely to cause business failureWhat it takes to validate an idea with the help of customers before investing in the development of a product.How the Double Sprint Method can help founders improve their chances of success in the SaaS industry.How to best build a moat around your businessWhere and how to make critical "go" or "no go" decisionsand much much more ...

Reach your peak performance with gamification and unleash the power of coaching, questioning, and rewarding. Here's what I cover with sales gamification expert Christopher Cumby in this episode: How can gamification be used to help improve company culture and employee engagement?What are the keys to high performance and how can individuals become more efficient and productive?How can businesses use AI technology to help their teams work smarter and more effectively? Christopher Cumby is an accomplished entrepreneur, business development consultant, and sales pro. Christopher wrote “The Success Playbook” and “How to be Kick-ass” to share his arsenal of practical, applicable success strategies with people who are ready to make a change and start living the life they want. His successful playbook - How to Be Kick-Ass has sold over 700 million and helped numerous companies and entrepreneurs achieve their sales goals. Christopher is also a 2x million-dollar commission owner and his first company launched across the multimillion-dollar market sales in less than six months.