Predictable B2B Success

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.

Jonathan Shroyer, Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer of Arise Virtual Solutions, is on a mission to turn customer service into a profit center but faces the challenge of overcoming organizational data silos, outdated CX tools, and prioritizing customer pain points to create a frictionless customer experience. You will learn how to create a customer service culture that will lead to growth and profitability. "If you invest money into customer service, customer experience, you're going to have longer retention tails and you're going to have, what did you say, 160% of revenue versus competitors. If you're willing to invest those two to $3, you're going to get $10 to $12 in output." - Jonathan Shroyer Jonathan Shroyer is the Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer for Arise Virtual Solutions and has over 20 years of experience in the customer experience space. He is a big contributor in creating an advanced virtual first customer care platform for some of the biggest brands in the world, including Microsoft, AutoDesk, Postmates, and Caban. Jonathan Shroyer, the Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer for Arise Virtual Solutions, has been in the gaming space for more than 10 years. He believes that gaming is at the forefront of all the great adoptions of future innovations and that customers need support and service. Jonathan has developed a way to mathematically prove that customer experience can be a profit center and not just a cost center. He has created a Customer Outcome Score and focuses on four or five metrics including customer satisfaction and product adoption and retention. By using leading indicators in this way, customer service teams can be nimble and take action in real time to generate profit and ensure customer satisfaction. In this episode, you will learn the following: 1. How can companies turn customer experience into a profit center? 2. What are the challenges faced by organizations while trying to create a frictionless customer experience? 3. How can companies use metrics to measure customer outcomes and optimize customer experience?

Uncover how combining innovative culture with traditional marketing strategies can skyrocket your growth! You will learn how to use an innovative work culture, what it takes to really listen to customers, and use old-school marketing strategies to skyrocket your growth! "With anything I do, I like doing things differently, and quite frankly, I love doing things better. So that's one of the objectives we try to seek whenever we pick a type of business to get into." - Ross Youngs Ross Youngs is a successful entrepreneur and CEO of Univenture, a full service designer, manufacturer, and distributor of packaging and marketing products. He has been an entrepreneur since 1988 and has received multiple grants from the US Air Force, NIH, DARPA, and APA. He is an expert in creating innovative direct mail solutions used by major clients such as Target, Mercedes Benz, Disney, and American Express. Ross Youngs is an innovative entrepreneur who has created an innovative mail solution used by companies like Target, Mercedes Benz, Disney, and American Express. Ross believes in differentiating products to stand out in the mail pile, and his company, Univeenture, manufactures a bioplastic envelope called the Envypack that works in mailhouse and postal automation.  Ross emphasizes that a successful business needs an innovation culture and the ability to listen to customers and focus on outcomes that serve customers best, rather than just cutting costs. He encourages businesses to experiment and test with direct mail to see the potential it can have in bringing in quality customers at a lower cost. In this episode, you will learn the following: Could using old-school direct mail marketing strategies still be effective in today's tech-driven world?What is the power of differentiation when it comes to direct mail marketing?How can businesses use innovation to bring higher response rates and sales?

Colin Shaw is the founder of Beyond Philosophy LLC, a customer experience company that has been recognized by the Financial Times as 'one of the leading management consultancies for the last four years in a row. Colin Shaw is an original pioneer of 'Customer Experience.' LinkedIn has recognized him as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers'. He has written seven best-selling books on Customer Experience. Colin is also the co-host of the highly successful Intuitive Customer podcast, which is rated in the top 5% of all podcasts by BuzzSprout. In this episode, he shares how we can create delightful experiences for businesses that drive growth. Insights he shares include: The four areas we need to understand and have a handle on in order to improve the customer experienceWhy asking customers what they want or need isn't a good idea and what to do insteadHow to build relationships to further customer experienceHow to take a data-driven approach to improve the customer experienceHow to get the customer experience insights you needHow to determine the emotions experiences evoke in customersHow to best utilize insights and data to improve the customer experienceand much much more ...

Dan Varroney is the President and CEO of Potomac Core, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in association transformation and industry-focused strategic partnerships, and the author of Reimagining Industry Growth: Strategic Partnership Strategies in an Era of Uncertainty). Dan is a much sought-after expert on economic performance, supply chain issues, and strategic partnerships. His groundbreaking book demonstrates how utilizing these institutional frameworks can help business leaders leverage the collective strength of the supply chains and value chains to overcome challenges, address uncertainty, mitigate risks, and position their industries for growth.  Dan has spent 30 years successfully transforming Trade Associations. Those transformations were rooted in this simple philosophy: We should act on what we know instead of what we think As the world continues to reel from COVID, countless industries are left uncertain about the future. Because of this chronic uncertainty, leveraging all avenues means that industries need to look beyond traditional growth solutions. One area that provides a tremendous opportunity is optimizing strategic partnerships between industries and trade associations among business executives. In this episode, he shares how we can use powerful strategic partnership strategies to drive industry growth. Insights he shares include: Why do certain parts of the marketplace believe that from a trade association perspective that an Inside Out focus is the way forward for industriesWhat does it take to bring about a change in perspectiveThe place of change management in the process of bringing about a change in perspectiveDo we need inspiration? If so how can we find it despite the circumstancesThe advantages to developing insatiable curiosityHow do we explore the potential strength and value of partnerships with trade associations to move the needle for entire industries? Is there a framework we can useWhat strategic partnerships look like from a trade association point of viewRisk minimization through strategic partnershipsand much much more ...

Lowell is the CEO & Founder of Traction Advising which specializes in helping B2B SaaS companies with >$5M ARR get acquired. Lowell’s been a Co-founder/CEO/Chairman, COO of a $120M public company, Startup CRO, and Global VP Rockwell. He’s a Global Mentor, Investor, Board member, and CEO coach. His current business Traction Advising was started out of his frustration when he was in a buyer’s position. The investment banker model uses accounting/finance people trying to sell. “No one hires accountants to sell products so why hire them to sell a company?” Selling/Marketing a small SaaS company is more like selling a technology product than selling a financial instrument. With the company's buying/selling experience of more than 30 organizations, he knows what internal stakeholders need to approve a transaction. As a founder/CEO he knows what it’s like to start up a company, build a product, hire employees, raise money, find customers, keep them happy and make payroll. He leverages this experience to craft acquisitions that get the best outcome for the founders/investors structured to maximize success. In this episode, he shares how we can position our business for greater traction and to drive growth. Insights he shares include: Why do business owners want bankers to help to drive the sale of their businessWhy having bankers drive the process is wrongWhy relationships matter and how to best build themMisconceptions or stumbling blocks when it comes to evaluating a companyFactors most businesses do not take into consideration when selling a businessFinancial vs. Strategic: Understanding why SaaS buyers buyApart from due diligence when buying a SaaS business what technical aspects Lowell keeps an eye out forand much much more ...

Darryl Praill is the Chief Marketing Officer of Agorapulse, a social media marketing platform. Darryl is a high-tech marketing executive with over 25 years of experience spanning startups, re-starts, consolidations, acquisitions, divestments and IPO's. He has been widely quoted in the media including television, press, and trade publications. He is a guest lecturer, public speaker, and radio personality and has been featured in numerous podcasts, case studies, and best-selling books. Praill is a former recipient of the coveted Forty Under 40 Award and has held senior executive roles in leading companies including Sybase, Cognos (now IBM), webPLAN (now Kinaxis), and CML Emergency Services (now AIRBUS). He has raised over $50 million in venture funding across multiple organizations and consulted with world-class corporations including Salesforce, SAP, and Nielsen. In this episode, he shares how we can use soft leadership skills to empower teams and drive growth. Insights he shares include: The biggest challenges with revenue growth for companies in the B2B spaceThe place for soft leadership skills for today's executive leadership teamsIs revenue growth the by-product of a handful of attributes? If so what are theyWhat does it take for a CRO to be successful todayIs there a correlation that can be drawn between how tasks are executed and the manner in which leaders develop relationships in and out of a teamHow to build psychological safety in conversations with othersHow to better understand people's motivations in their roles and responsibilitiesDarryl's take on experiential learning in the context of leadership developmentHow best to tackle revenue growthand much much more ....

Zino Rost van Tonningen is the CEO of TyrAds, a marketing agency that aims to help increase the growth of your mobile apps as well as ensure that the apps are being recommended to its target users.  Zino has 8+ years of experience and a proven track record of building and growing 8 fig businesses across the globe. He has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and helped them succeed with their app marketing. He has managed 7 figure marketing budgets for apps worldwide and effectively achieved client CPAs. Zino's company builds its own automation technology for advanced marketing automation. In this episode, he shares how we can use data to fuel app marketing strategies that drive growth. Insights he shares include: Why do some companies prefer to go with a no-risk CPA model as part of their app marketing strategiesCPA model vs CPM modelHow to approach developing your app marketing strategies when starting outWhy first-party data is going to be really importantHow to set up and prepare for first-party data now to mitigate the risks associated with upcoming changesThe role of programmatic advertising in your app marketing strategiesHow programmatic advertising worksHow to set up programmatic advertising using data to make it really work well for youand much much more ...