 This is the second part of the interview with Sean Doyle. We brought a couple of points back for context. We hope you take his points to heart regarding hiring a CMO, and the terminology used by Sales and Marketing - do they match? 4 Questions a CEO should know before hiring a CMO: You wouldn't hire your nephew out of high school to run your sales team, why do you do it to run  your marketing team and campaigns?  "Here's another simple litmus test to sales and marketing have a common language, but what does sales call somebody who's at the point of action, they need a proposal. They want to know what it would look like to buy your product or service. What does marketing call that person? Just ask them those questions. If they don't even call a prospect the same thing, you don't have marketing alignment. If they don't understand what marketing alignment is at all, tell them, just Google it and start the journey.  Here's a point that gets Sean fired up, "When I come into these great businesses that are doing everything well, they've, they've hired a CFO, who's a CPA and has worked at two or three companies and they get it. And they're really talented. They can do tax work, they can do audit work. They go out and they get someone to run their plant with 20 years' experience. And they get somebody to run the supply chain. That's been negotiating and navigating all the supply chain issues, really talented people. They bring in somebody to run customer service that knows the technical support. And then it comes to marketing and they say, well, you know, my nephew just graduated from, stop it. Stop. Just stop that. You would never do that with your accountant or anybody else on your executive team. Why do you hire that person? And then get frustrated and say marketing doesn't work."  Here is the link to Sean's book: Shift: 19 Practical, Business-Driven Ideas for an Executive in Charge of Marketing but Not Trained for the Task   Catch the episode that kicked off this conversation: Guess what - your prospect doesn‘t care about you.

Sales Lead Management Association Radio

Creating something beyond the pool of acceptable substitutes

 So agencies keep creating awareness and awareness and awareness. It's not helping. Our guest, Sean Doyle's firm helps companies with what has become like breathing and very obvious to some, but not too many companies. The way FitzMartin is better is the application of science. Understanding that this prospect list didn't need more awareness. They needed a reason to consider taking that step to plan. He tells a story about a firm they were helping. They needed to understand why should I maybe contemplate yet one more banker at my door? Why should I do that? So we created the whole campaign around that. They changed the voice, the group that did the, testing. They had this brilliant IP, but they kept talking about themselves. Well, guess what? Your prospect doesn't care about you. So the ad that worked so much that got that $800,000 deal, all it said is, do you want to reduce your workman's comp costs? It actually had nothing to the product has nothing to do with workman's comp the outcome of using the product is lowered workman's comp. And that was the motivator for the buyer. And they got their single largest deal because they talked about what mattered to them.  Listen to the first half of this episode, "Guess What? Your Prospect Doesn't Care About You." About Susan's guest: Sean M. Doyle is principal at FitzMartin Inc, a leading consultancy focused on sales marketing and management, sales and marketing technology services, and revenue operations for B2B companies. Sean and his team at FitzMartin are focused on long-term value creation through a sales-first, scientific approach to driving revenue. Sean knows that the split personality of marketing is inhibiting growth aspirations. Budget and impact conversations often become contentious: revenue operation marketers tout their ability to drive sales while brand builders argue for longer-term brand investments. The executive team thinks both struggle to demonstrate the near-term value. It is for this reason that Sean’s team believes a thoughtful and data-driven full-funnel marketing strategy can drive significant value. Sean’s latest book, Shift, explores 19 practical ideas, grounded in the science of behavioral change, that can transform a business’s marketing efforts and, by natural extension, its profitability.

Guess what - your prospect doesn‘t care about you.

 Do you try new skills, and if you aren't great from the start lose interest? Or, do you take it as a challenge to succeed by finding an alternative path? There is no wrong answer here, but you need to know which you do and why. VisionEdge Marketing's President, Laura Patterson gives us a great illustration as she talks about training for triathlons, despite being a weak swimmer.  Here how she applies this to our continuing conversation about changing patterns to break or prevent bad habits. If you missed the first part of this conversation, you can listen here: Changing patterns vs habits, and flipping the script because we can

Training for and Playing to Our Strengths to Plow by the Competition

In this episode Susan and Laura cover four actionable items to change patterns, versus changing habits. What can you control? Here are four ideas to take control and gain an edge in business and life. This was taken from a recent blog post by today's guest, Laura Patterson, President, VisionEdge Marketing. She and Susan drive through this hard truth list. You either embrace it and expand your effectiveness, or freeze in place with no desire to change your approach. If that's you, you can now choose to mix it up, or be left behind. "The greatest teacher, failure is." - Yoda Be Proactive. Participants register for a race. In triathlons, the registration list and course are published in advance of race day. This allows competitors to research the race and the performance of other participants.  We can also read about the course from previous race participants. Most competitors check out the course prior to the race. The pre-race research provides an opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive on race day. It’s vital for business leaders to make conducting research a habit. (Read the rest in the post.) Plan to Win. Two contemporaries from the 20th century offer good advice when it comes to planning. “Plans are nothing, planning is everything” attributed to Dwight Eisenhower, and “failing to plan is planning to fail” attributed to Winston Churchill.  It’s easy for business leaders to get sucked into the vortex of the day-to-day. Lack of strategy and a plan is the equivalent of ‘winging it’. If you don’t currently have a cadence for business strategy and planning, now is the time to create one. Start by analyzing current performance and identifying why things play out the way they do.  This provides insight into your current patterns and an opportunity to analyze which ones are working, which ones aren’t and what adjustments are needed. (Read the rest in the post.) Work the Scenarios. In triathlons unexpected things can happen – tires go flat, people crash, goggles can get kicked off during a swim. Scenarios help you consider possibilities and anticipate what might happen in your market and moves by your customers, competitors or partners. (Read the rest in the post.) Train and practice. Successful triathletes like most competitors train and practice off and during race season – daily – except for a few days before the race. They leverage coaches and refine processes, such as processes associated with transitions and changing flats.  Serious competitors consistently look for opportunities to improve their physical performance as well as address equipment that might give them an edge.  They practice and train with new equipment. Experienced racers know better than to run in new shoes or ride a new bike for the first time at a race.  And they have training partners. (Read the rest in the post.) Here is the post that inspired this episode: https://visionedgemarketing.com/growing-your-business-takes-breaking-patterns/  Here is the episode Laura and Susan were talking about on Market Dominance Guys: Not Getting Trained? Train Yourself! Flip the Script by Oren Klaff goes along perfectly with this episode: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MPTXZ59/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Laura Patterson's book: Fast Track Your Business - Customer-Centric Accelerate https://www.amazon.com/Fast-Track-Your-Business-Customer-Centric-Accelerate-ebook/dp/B084CTKN6P 

Changing patterns vs habits, and flipping the script because we can

 Digging into your company's data may seem like a task you can shove to the bottom of the priority list. Perhaps you delegate it to several people once a month to make sense of the numbers and put it into a story recap format with a bullet-point action list. They all use the same numbers, but are they all telling the full, accurate story? If not, you may not take the action that will either fix or continue the path to growth. Today, Susan welcomes Nick Amabile. His love of numbers, puzzle-solving, and detective work culminated at a young age and set him on the path to building DAS42. Founded in 2015, DAS42 is comprised of data analysts, scientists, business professionals, and engineers who provide end-to-end data services—including data strategy, tech stack integrations, application implementation, and enterprise analytics training. From this episode, you'll have a checklist of what you need to do and consider before you hire a temporary or permanent data concierge firm.  If you like this episode, you may also enjoy the two episodes from Market Dominance Guys with Tom Zheng. Giving Your Data the Sniff Test and Get Thee to a Data Concierge! About Susan's guest: Nick Amabile is the Owner, CEO, and Principal Consultant of DAS42, a US data analytics consulting firm that helps companies make better decisions, faster. Nick’s FullStack Philosophy is centered around the two components critical to achieving data-driven success: building an effective data analytics environment and building a data-centric company culture. He brings world-class analytics and big data technologies like those he used and built at leading internet companies, including Omaze, Etsy, and Jet.com, to his clients. Nick is passionate about and skilled at building internal teams and transforming companies at various stages of growth into data-centric organizations. 

Find someone who has a love affair with numbers and data to set you straight

 In Susan and Paul Furiga's penultimate episode in this series, Paul reminds us that for many organizations, the overwhelming volume and variety of social media seems to create one of the biggest storytelling roadblocks imaginable. And, it also creates some of the best opportunities even though social media is a double-edged sword. In this episode, guest Paul Furiga answers the question of what comes first, a story or social media. About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

Storytelling and Social Media a Powerful, and Possibly Dangerous Combination

 Paul Furiga tells us to walk the toothpaste aisle of any large grocery store and you'll be confronted by a confusing reality asking yourself the question, "Aren't most of these toothpastes pretty much the same?" In this episode we learn how developing the story behind your story is the true secret sauce to power your business to new heights. But a consumer purchasing something is a completely different experience than an employee purchasing on behalf of the company they work for. The story we tell needs to take that into account and adjust accordingly or there will be a complete miss on addressing the needs of the B2B buyer. About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

B2B's Story Needs to Be Different from B2C's Story

 Here we are tackling chapter six of Paul Furiga's book, Finding Your Capital S Story." You need to know the answers to these questions before you can create your story.  What is your organization's purpose? What is the market demand for what your company does? What competitive position distinguishes you from your competitors? What really sets you apart? Who is your client? It's not everyone. AND where are they?  What communication channels do you use to sell your purpose or unique position?  What is your call to action? Don't leave us flat.  Listen to this episode and catch the previous ones in this series: Storytelling isn’t crap, it’s biology. Carl, Joe, the Monomyth, and Déjà vu Learn How to Tell Stories From Wanamaker and The Three Tenors Regularly Adjust Your Company’s Story to Stay Relevant and Interesting When you stray from your archetype your story falls apart 

Will One Bad Thing Bury All The Good You Do?

 In this fifth chapter, Paul explores experiences that led him to focus on storytelling for companies as a career and a passion. We're going to dig into the story of his own company, explore the application of the principles that drive your Capital S Story, and meet some common heroes that we're going to refer to as archetypes. Paul Furiga is our guest as we continue the series with him. He says, "In most organizations, you're a Capital S Story and your brand are lonely souls living separate lives inside your organization, and they've probably never been introduced to each other. And your story should drive your brand. They should be connected." Tune in for the episode of Sales Lead Management Radio, "When you stray from your archetype your story falls apart." About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

When you stray from your archetype your story falls apart

 Susan's guest, Paul Furiga, author of Finding Your Capital S Story, opens this episode telling us, "In the old days before smartphones and Twitter, I would say that a small S story is something you read in the newspaper, and it's in the bottom of the birdcage tomorrow. Now we don't read newspapers that much anymore. What we do is we look at our Twitter feed and then we swipe that story away. So it's the same thing. The point is that the stories that we consume most of the time, don't rise to the level of answering the most important questions about your organization. That's why we created this term called the capital S Story. And the capital S Story is a story above all other stories that answer these questions. Why somebody would buy from you, work for you, invest in you, or partner with you.  These questions get to the very nature and character of your organization. And that's why your capital S Story is a story above all others. Join them for a continuing discussion of why your story drives your brand.

Regularly Adjust Your Company's Story to Stay Relevant and Interesting

 This is our third episode in the series of Paul Furiga going through his book, Finding Your Capital S Story. We get to go down the history of advertising and where it lost its way and how the founders of advertising from over a hundred years ago as a whole have almost been forgotten (Have you heard of John Wanamaker?) at least their original methods and thinking behind the use of stories to relate to their target audience. What we are facing today is not how it started, and we have lost our way as we go in for the easier, messier quick kill and the splatter shot effect. About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

Learn How to Tell Stories From Wanamaker and The Three Tenors

 The brain has been proven to be hardwired for storytelling - both telling and listening. Learn how across cultures, countries, languages the stories we tell are the same at their core. Paul Furiga is back to help guide us to identifying our Monomyth, or Heroe's Journey. We talk about Bridgette Jones, Yoda, and how our brains align when we hear those core stories told by others. Join us as we learn about Carl, Joe, the Monomyth, and Déjà vu from his new book, "Finding Your Capital S Story."  About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

Carl, Joe, the Monomyth, and Déjà vu

 This is a series about Finding Your Capital S Story - the new book by Paul Furiga. In this episode, we tackle the first chapter that I found fascinating - the science behind storytelling and how our brains are hardwired for storytelling. Paul will explain how well-known brands effectively employ storytelling for their success and what we can learn from them, without copying them.   About Susan's Guest: Paul Furiga is the president and chief storyteller at WordWrite, having founded the Pittsburgh-based PR and digital marketing agency nearly 20 years ago in a candy-striped bedroom before growing it into a perennially top-ranked firm. Paul, who was formerly a vice president at Ketchum Public Relations, was honored in 2013 with the Public Relations Society of America Pittsburgh chapter's Hall of Fame Award for his impact in the region. Before that, Paul spent two decades as a journalist, covering it all, from Cincinnati City Hall to Congress and the White House, as well as serving as editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times. As you can imagine, he has some stories to tell.

Storytelling isn't crap, it's biology.

 Kevin McCann of the Executive Strategy Group, gives actionable logical, simple, but wildly important tips in this episodes. Here's one to start, if we take something just as fundamental your website. Take the first, top five pages of your website. Look at your navigation. Print out those pages. Go grab a yellow and green highlighter. You'll have to listen to this episode for the insights and assessment you can do right now. Then, he praises one of his partners, HubSpot, but admits there is something missing. On the buyer persona, typically, it's, "Who is your ideal customer?" What vertical industry are they in? The standard demographic, size of company, title, revenue, growth, trajectory, vertical industry, et cetera. You'll have to listen to get the rest of what's missing and how he solves it with Revenue Growth Mastery  He also goes through what is the REAL pain you are solving. It's not what you think 90% of the time. "The value of your offer needs to be relevant to the impact that the customer is experiencing with their challenge. Most sales reps totally miss that." About Susan's guest: Kevin McCann, President and CEO, Executive Strategy Group Kevin has 27 years of sales and management experience in the high-tech industry specializing in:* Sales negotiation and objection management training* Business development and partner program assessments* Business model growth assessment The Executive Strategy Group is a management consulting firm that works with growth-directed companies seeking to increase top-line revenue. They align your company’s strategy with marketing and sales efforts to increase reach, maximize marketing ROI, shorten sales cycles and generate consistently growing revenue. In addition to one-on-one and team advisory, planning and coaching/mentoring services, the Executive Strategy Group offers on-site seminars and workshops proven to effectively teach participants the skills, understanding and methodology required to succeed in an increasingly complex business environment.

Why business owners tend to hit plateaus and struggle to grow.

 In this episode with Ledge, we talk about taking our secret sauce for granted. To many of us, what we do is a no-brainer, but to most others, it is not. It's awesome, inspiring, valuable. He explains the four values that everything Add1Zero.co does checks back to these four focus items Revenue, Integrity, Calm Confidence, Shared Abundance. When our success fades, or explodes, we can usually attribute it to how far we have or haven't strayed from the core values and concepts. Listen to this conversation. You'll have homework. That's good. It means you have valuable takeaways. If you missed the first episode with Ledge, you can listen here. It’s Not a Hobby, It’s a Revenue Source - Stop Playing House. A bit about Add1Zero.co Lead-to-close sales execution for B2B tech companies ready to leap from 6 to 7 digits of revenue.Their team joins your team - under your brand - to pick up your leads as soon as they hit your CRM, engage and close them, and hand a signed client over to your onboarding and CS teams. Using a proven process for 6- to 7-digit annual growth, they provide sales strategy, execution, and ops -- the real work that needs to get done to close deals.

Our Special Sauce is What Makes Us Valuable

This weekly radio program, with podcast replays, interviews executives about best practices in sales and marketing, sales lead management and sales lead generation. It has been broadcast since 2009.

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Sales Lead Management Association Radio

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