Revenue Today

Today, we welcome Thao Ngo and Emily Ward, SVP of Marketing at Uptempo and VP of Global Marketing at Anthology respectively. They discuss the sales funnel and how a collaboration between sales, marketing, and sales enablement creates the highest-quality leads that have the highest odds of conversion.

Takeaways

• Higher lead quality means fewer prospects need to turn into paying customers to hit targets.
• Teams should know what leads to prioritize as their highest-quality opportunities.

Quote of the Show

"If you had the choice between a thousand leads that convert at 1% or a hundred leads that convert at 10%, which would you prefer? So of course, both of these scenarios yield 10 sales but obviously the preference is to have less conversations, and more quality conversations, so generating those higher-quality leads is really going to help reduce the amount of work the teams have to do to get to sales." - Emily Ward
 

Connect with Thao Ngo and Emily Ward in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Thao): https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaongo/
• LinkedIn (Emily): https://www.linkedin.com/in/elluminated/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Thao Ngo and Emily Ward, SVP of Marketing at Uptempo and VP of Global Marketing at Anthology respectively. Sales, marketing, and RevOps come from differing perspectives on what each other should do. But as this is a partnership rather than a battle, these departments need to remember the factor that unites us: revenue.

Takeaways

• Sales are focused on pipeline generation and finding golden opportunities, marketing wants to know what happens to the leads once generated, and RevOps measures the data for business decisions.
• The single uniting factor between sales, marketing, and RevOps is revenue, and being aware of this aligns us all.

Quote of the Show

"RevOps needs to be able to measure everything in order to provide the data and insight for us to make business decisions. So, what does everybody want? What's on our minds when we get up in the morning? And it's revenue. I mean, that sounds obvious, but sometimes it's not, especially when some salespeople might not think it's something marketers even think about." - Emily Ward
 

Connect with Thao Ngo and Emily Ward in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Thao): https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaongo/
• LinkedIn (Emily): https://www.linkedin.com/in/elluminated/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Leslie Venetz, Founder of Sales Team Builder. She is a 3x Head of Sales and the founder of Sales Team Builder. As a top-performing B2B sales professional and people leader, Leslie has built elite sales organizations with buyer-centric sales teams.

Leslie digs into the training and coaching needed in a renewal-based business, as well as the KPIs they look at in their sales team. She provides actionable advice on improving emails and shares how she grew her SDR team using frameworks rather than scripts. Leslie also talks about how critical the first hire is to the success of the business and fine-tuning the ICP. 

Takeaways

• Emails must be short and hyper-personalized with advantages, not features.
• Take advantage of free resources that connect you with folks who have been in the sales game longer than you for external perspective and community.
• Books to read: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Transparent Sales Leader by Todd Caponi, The Challenger Customer by Brent Adamson
• KPIs for a renewal-based business are based on clients who are most likely to renew, so look at which industries and revenue bands are most likely to continue, and if they are renewing flat or with an increase.

Quote of the Show

"If I could pick one [KPI], it would be the number of qualified meetings kept. I think that's a pretty solid one, it sits in the middle of the funnel. It's pretty quickly after some of that marketing, and sales dev activity, but it's right at the beginning of your AE picking it up before that handover. I think that's an incredibly important one assuming that we're in a renewal-based business." - Leslie Venetz

Connect with Leslie in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslievenetz/
• Website: https://insidesalesteambuilder.com/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Kevin "KD" Dorsey, Advisor and Practice Lead: Revenue Leadership at Winning by Design. He discusses that the way to predict the future is to work backward and determine what will remain constant over the next few years. KD dials in on human psychology and what humans generally want. This narrows down the factors that you can then safely predict how sales, and by default, how buyers will change as well.

Takeaways

• To "predict" the future, think about what WON'T change and will remain consistent like human psychology and how people make decisions.
• In the future, customers and prospects will want the same things like trying your product (PLG), trust (CLG), safer terms, transparent pricing, and easily customizable products.
• What will certainly change is the generation of buyers, company setups, and technology.

Quote of the Show

"When we are trying to innovate or trying to predict the future, a better question is what won't change? What wont change over the next 4 to 5 years? And that's where we focus because we can predict that." - Kevin "KD" Dorsey

Connect with KD in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kddorsey3/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Kevin "KD" Dorsey, Advisor and Practice Lead: Revenue Leadership at Winning by Design. Predicting the future is actually pretty accurate, it's the "when" that people get wrong. In sales, we know that AI will replace certain jobs. It's when that is debatable. The question now is, are you willing to change or adapt?

Takeaways

• Take a good hard look at what AI is already doing today to get an idea of where AI will be in the near future.
• If you are not willing to change and adapt, the future of sales and how you fit in it does not matter.

Quote of the Show

"You have to ask yourself, are you willing to change and adapt? Because if we don't change and adapt, what happens in the future actually doesn't even matter. It doesn't make any difference. So the key to all of this is actually being open-minded." - Kevin "KD" Dorsey

Connect with KD in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kddorsey3/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome back Danilo Nikolich, VP of Sales Development at RollWorks, and Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing at Alyce. ICP is continuously evolving so companies must be aware not to severely limit their TAM and to keep experimenting. Nick then shares how ABM is performed at Alyce and how their strategies are aligned across RevOps, sales, and marketing, as well as the enablement required to teach the sales team.

Takeaways

• ABM helps in narrowing down an organization's ICP and categorizing big and small accounts.
• You must not be afraid of experimenting a little bit to expand your idea of who your ICP really is.
• ABM can involve gifting to keep accounts warm, keeping track of MQA activity, and sales team enablement to teach sellers how to work the sales activity and intent.

Quote of the Show

"ICP could be an evolving variable because, sure, when you start off as a small organization when you think about an ideal customer profile, you might have some ideas as to what that is just based on some earlier adopters and just kind of where you think your product would fit. You just don't have enough data points to figure out what that ideal customer profile looks like. As you evolve, then you have more and more customers, you find out what are your best customers, what are their traits and so forth." - Danilo Nikolich

Connect with Danilo and Nick in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Danilo): https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilonikolich/
• RollWorks website: https://www.rollworks.com/
• LinkedIn (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/
• Alyce website: https://www.alyce.com/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome back Danilo Nikolich, VP of Sales Development at RollWorks, and Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing at Alyce. Danilo talks about looking at your possible leads as a pie and that 40% are not looking to buy but can be convinced to look at your product. By aligning sales and marketing and how accounts are moved through the funnel, more and more of this bucket can be converted.

Takeaways

• Align sales and marketing structurally by handing off MQAs or "sales-ready" accounts.
• Sales activity is a good way to determine how to move accounts through the funnel between sales and marketing. 
• If accounts were a pie, 40% can be convinced not necessarily to buy but to look at your product. Focus on those.

Quote of the Show

"The 40%, Danilo, is the folks that are not in any sort of intent. They're out there. They're not looking for something but they can be convinced to look at your product. He's like that's where we need to get into." - Danilo Nikolich

Connect with Danilo and Nick in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Danilo): https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilonikolich/
• RollWorks website: https://www.rollworks.com/
• LinkedIn (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/
• Alyce website: https://www.alyce.com/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Danilo Nikolich, VP of Sales Development at RollWorks, and Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing at Alyce. Today, they drill down the different tools and strategies you can use to perform ABM with an MQL or MQA model, and how to align sales and marketing by having them work under a CRO to focus efforts from the top down.

Takeaways

• Use technology not just to identify MQLs but also the associated people who will ultimately influence the decision on that account.
• MQA can be defined under an account-based and strictly outbound model.
• Expand the buying committee especially in enterprise sales by making stakeholders feel seen. 

Quote of the Show

"First, divide your lead funnel. And so, what does that actually mean? So separate your lead types. So you have two different lead types. So directly asked to be contacted, which those high-intent leads. Basically the hand raisers, you know, demo requests. They contacted for sales inquiries, and things like that, then you've got your scored leads, so measured as basically MQLs. So lead capture forms, content downloads." - Nick Bennett

Connect with Danilo and Nick in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Danilo): https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilonikolich/
• RollWorks website: https://www.rollworks.com/
• LinkedIn (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/
• Alyce website: https://www.alyce.com/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Danilo Nikolich, VP of Sales Development at RollWorks, and Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing at Alyce. Today, they introduce their masterclass on ABMifying growth by laying the foundation that marketing and sales should be aligned for ABM to happen, as well as defining what a marketing qualified lead (MQL) is versus a marketing qualified account (MQA). 

Takeaways

• The process of ABMifying growth is grounded upon focus and the alignment of sales and marketing.
• ABM is a strategy that can be looked at through different channels like content syndication.

Quote of the Show

"ABM and the strategy behind ABM is really just targeted marketing at the end of the day. And there are really 3 core things that I think about within that strategy, it's how do you win more deals in a more kind of cost-effective way, especially in this down market, how do you reduce churn, and how do you increase the operational efficiencies to be able to do that?" - Nick Bennett

Connect with Danilo and Nick in the links below:

• LinkedIn (Danilo): https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilonikolich/
• RollWorks website: https://www.rollworks.com/
• LinkedIn (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/
• Alyce website: https://www.alyce.com/

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Dutton, Head of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at 6sense. Chris rounds out the discussion on achieving breakthroughs with ABM and AI and takes on audience questions. He answers how to use webinar data in the ABM process and explains what marketing event leads (MEL) leads are and how to engage with this group.

Takeaways

• Webinar data is considered a marketing event lead (MEL) and any person met via this channel must fit a very specific set of criteria to be engaged by a marketing team.
• MELs are a branch of MQLs, and in an ABM environment, they are historically known to be good fits and would warrant follow-ups. 

Quote of the Show

"The MEL process works to identify what are the certain criteria that would have someone be a MEL. An MEL is a marketing event lead, and what I mean by that is they have to fit a certain list of criteria. They have to be in our ICP. They have to check box 1, 2, and 3, and if they do, we would then share those with the team and the team would engage with those individuals." - Chris Dutton

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Dutton
• 6sense
• Email

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Dutton, Head of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at 6sense. Employing the right tech allows you to engage with the right people at the right time when they are ready to buy. 

Chris digs into how they ensured they have enough resources to respond to the buying signals that they were tracking with their 6QAs. This automated cadence uses a series of technologies to streamline the process of taking qualified accounts and ensuring that they are getting worked.

Takeaways

• Getting in front of your ICP means nurturing relationships, so even initiatives like email nurture will reflect it in its P2P approach.
• Track buying signals in your email campaign and have a team of BDRs on standby to insert themselves at any stage.

Quote of the Show

"When these emails go out, they're going out on behalf of our BDRs. So our BDRs can insert themselves at any moment. So if someone engages, they can jump into the conversation. If someone is showing maybe higher intent and we're noticing they're on our website or we're noticing questions on LinkedIn may be that they're asking, they can engage." - Chris Dutton

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Dutton
• 6sense

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Dutton, Head of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at 6sense. He discusses what companies need to do to achieve breakthroughs in their ABM strategy and unlock their TAM using AI. Step 1 is to define your ideal customer profile. Step 2 is to define behaviors that trigger sales activity. Chris shares what a revenue operation looks like when sales and marketing are aligned, as well as provide a solid example in the form of content syndication.

Takeaways

• Identify and define your ideal customer profile by leveraging past firmographic and technographic data. This informs your future GTM strategy and account targeting.
• Content syndication is a good example of how aligning sales and marketing moves better accounts downstream.

Quote of the Show

"There are unique indicators within every organization that would classify or at least alerts you to someone is in some type of buying motion. Here at 6sense, we call that our custom 6QA, and what we have done is we have defined those 5 qualifying factors for us that say hey, someone here is in the market, they're ready to engage in a conversation." - Chris Dutton

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Dutton
• 6sense

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Decker, the CEO of Salescast, as he rounds out principles 3 and 4 of Content-Led Growth: just get started and go back to principle 1—have something to say. Chris shares what fellow founders can do to bootstrap their founder story and apply the lean startup model to get started fast and not worry about results in the beginning. 

Takeaways

• Just focusing on your podcast generates your own long-form content.
• Omni-channel distribution solves the audience issue and allows your email list to build itself.
• Remember to always have something to say. Hit record, publish, and repeat the process—forget about perfection. 

Quote of the Show

"Have something to say. Once you reach a certain point in your content development, let's say you're 6 months down the line, you've had some success and some luck and some growth, you need to go back to principle 1 and you need to go through this exercise again with your soundtracks. What you say has evolved. What you do has evolved." - Chris Decker

Connect with Chris and join the Salescast Community in the links below:

• Chris Decker
• Salescast Community

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Decker, the CEO of Salescast. Retention is a function of connection and repetition aka stickiness, so do what it takes to keep people around. Chris dives into what this means in the world of podcasting and some tactics you can employ to help make your podcast stick with your listeners. He also shares how, in the beginning, it would be best to determine your soundtrack or 2 to 3 things that you can say over and over again that communicate with clarity what you and your business do.

Takeaways

• Pick the path that you want to grow into by choosing the people your clients follow, selecting your exact ideal client, and exploring partnerships. 
• Interview-type podcasts have a 67% average completion rate while solo episodes have a 91% completion rate, a staggering statistic that shows how hosts can create retention for their podcasts.
• Create a podcasting community, engage with them, and get leads from there.

Quote of the Show

"A typical interview podcast has about a 67% average completion rate if you're a great show. So this is the host and the guest, whereas a solo episode where it's just a host has a 91%+ average completion rate. If people are sticking around longer, they're developing a relationship with the host." - Chris Decker

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Decker
• Salescast

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Decker, the CEO of Salescast. He shares the old way of doing content as compared to the new way. He also introduces the 4 principles of Content-Led Growth, starting with principle 1: Have something to say. To get grow through referrals, you must first create shareable and remarkable content that is anchored on your identity and vision.

Takeaways

• Growth is most realized in referrals which is a product of shareability and is based on your identity and vision.
• In the concentric circles of content-led growth, identity and vision form the core and are the basis of principle 1: have something to say.

Quote of the Show

"What you say is going to lead to that remarkability which will lead to that shareability which leads to that referral. If someone understands who you are and what you stand for, they're much more likely to share that with someone else because of the clarity." - Chris Decker

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Decker
• Salescast

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Decker, the CEO of Salescast. He shows a video that he shot on his iPhone, clear evidence that anybody can begin their storytelling journey with the tools already at hand. And one of the biggest lessons is that whatever journey you are on, it is not over. As a matter of fact, it is just beginning.

Takeaways

• Begin telling your own unique story using the tools you already have such as your phone.
• Jump off the cliff to dramatically increase your intensity to solve the problem.

Quote of the Show

"To me, stories are a source of hope and inspiration. When I hit my rock bottom and found myself in recovery groups, people shared their past and eventually got sober." - Chris Decker

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Decker
• Salescast

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Chris Decker, the CEO of Salescast. He shares how storytelling helped him and his community to speak with qualified leads every single day. He also introduces how the power of storytelling, of sharing his true authentic self, brought people closer to him and transformed the way he does business.

Takeaways

• Storytelling is a natural way of bringing business closer to you and helping create a pipeline of qualified leads.
• Allow your business associates to tell their stories, learn from them, and find your purpose as well as others.

Quote of the Show

"I get to share the power of content-led growth with B2B companies large and small. I have the privilege of serving a team of 13 incredible team members, and a community of over 600 podcasters, and have learned a ton of lessons training hundreds of business content creators to connect with their story, multiply that with community, and experience the kind of groundbreaking growth that we've coined content-led growth" - Chris Decker

Connect with Chris in the links below:

• Chris Decker
• Salescast

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome James Breen and Amy-Louise Tracey, the Director of Sales and Senior Account Executive of Loopio respectively. They reiterate that a repeatable process is a secret behind the success of top sales teams. Take your best content and reuse, improve, and repeat them for future RFPs.

Takeaways

• Remember that top teams reuse their best content, improve on past iterations, and repeat so you're not always starting from scratch.
• Don't try to boil the ocean and utilize your contributors only for the parts they are needed.
• Try a go/no-go system to prioritize which RFPs are most winnable.

Quote of the Show

"It's about building a repeatable process. That's the secret. And the amount of times that I hear from prospects like we don't have a process, RFPs come in the door, they land on our desk, and we just scramble to get them done before the deadline. So creating a repeatable process is really key. It's just so worth the time and effort." - Amy-Louise Tracey

Connect with James and Amy-Louise in the links below:

• James
• Amy-Louise
• Company website
• 2022 Loopio Benchmark Report

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome James Breen and Amy-Louise Tracey, the Director of Sales and Senior Account Executive of Loopio respectively. They round out their top 4 strategies to win more RFPs, focusing on the last one which is to use a centralized system in place for RFP answers. This system saves a lot of time and allows the organization to capture all the data about winning bids so no one is starting from scratch every single time.

Takeaways

• A repository for your RFP resources avoids the time suck that backs and forth and copy and pasting usually entail.
• Update your content regularly and make sure they are always up-to-date with the latest versions.

Quote of the Show

"Don't let all of that hard work that you put into a winning bid or even one where you were really close to winning and maybe there was something that was out of your control, like you need to capture that information and not rinse and repeat every time." - James Breen

Connect with James and Amy-Louise in the links below:

• James
• Amy-Louise
• Company website
• 2022 Loopio Benchmark Report

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome James Breen and Amy-Louise Tracey, the Director of Sales and Senior Account Executive of Loopio respectively. They continue their top 4 strategies to win more RFPs by focusing on strategies 2 and 3: involving a range of contributors and qualifying bids that you take on.

Takeaways

• Be clear about the roles of contributors upfront so when an RFP arrives, there is no ambiguity on who does what.
• Only send over the parts of the RFP that concern particular departments.
• If need be, host a kick-off meeting on key prospect needs and themes and establish clear deadlines.
• Prioritize your bids by assessing customer fit, examining the relationship, and gauging the timeline and resources needed for the bid.

Quote of the Show

"Making sure that you're strategic about how you involve, your contributors are the key to this strategy. So we want to separate out the different sections for the correct contributor. We don't want to have to send the whole entire RFP to legal when they only need to look at 6 questions, so let's parse out what parts are actually relevant to them." - Amy-Louise Tracey

Connect with James and Amy-Louise in the links below:

• James
• Amy-Louise
• Company website
• 2022 Loopio Benchmark Report

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs