Today’s show is a demonstration on securing and retaining the right talent for a transformation.  Consistent quarterly performance depends on the right talent.  As a guide to the discussion, download our 10th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017. Turn to the Talent phase on pages 100 – 105 of the PDF.

Joining us is Sean O’Brien, the Chief Administrative Officer of PGi. The CAO title is becoming more prevalent in the C-Suite, and is used to describe an executive responsible for two or more functional areas.  PGi is a global leader in collaboration software and services.  Any time you want to connect with people that you are not present with, PGi is the glue to make that happen.  Sean will demonstrate selecting and retaining the right talent for a transformation.

You began a transformation to drive up the valuation of your company.  Listen as Sean describes building vs. buying executive talent.  There’s an opportunity cost to assess based on the skills gap.  We discuss the approach to weighing the opportunity cost of building to fill skill gaps versus buying talent with the skills.  Sean describes how to take a step back and evaluate the existing executive team.

Why this topic? The revenue growth objective, during a transformation, is heavily dependent on having superstar executive talent. At times, the revenue growth strategy calls for a new set of competencies that the existing team does not possess.  Mismatch talent and strategy and suffer from significant execution problems.

Listen as Sean describes how to evaluate talent, both existing and new.  Take a step back and look at the existing executive team as if you’re looking at them for the first time.  Sean states, “in many cases, the talents, the skills, the people that were responsible for getting you to where you are today are not necessarily the ones that are going to take you forward into the future most effectively.”

It’s an opportunity to re-establish that you have the right people in the right roles to take your company through that critical transformation.

The final segment of the show addresses how to prevent a brain drain.  This occurs when outgoing executives bring top talent with them as they exit.  Sean describes concrete actions to show the retained talent that they are valued.  Don’t miss the action items Sean describes.

Evaluate your executive talent at a deeper level by downloading our 10^th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017.  Turn to the Talent phase on pages 100 – 105 of the PDF.  To request a workshop with an expert simply sign up for a MySBI account and check the box in your preferences to request a workshop. 

Today’s topic is understanding how to make the customer experience a competitive differentiator.

I recently interviewed Cigna’s Vice President of Global Product Strategy and Operations, Rob Wentling.  Cigna is one of the largest global health services companies in the world. Rob is accountable for creating and delivering an enterprise-wide product strategy including core product development and management processes critical in helping Cigna achieve its “Go Deep, Go Global, and Go Individual” strategy.

Rob has 25 years of business experience at some of the world’s great companies such as AT&T, ADP, The Hartford Insurance Company, and now Cigna. His experience includes business unit strategy, product strategy, business development, marketing, and development.  Listen as Rob and I discuss how the customer experience be a competitive advantage.

Why this topic? Customer’s expectations have risen, and failure to provide an exceptional experience for each customer can result in poor revenue growth. Some customers prioritize their experience over product performance, believe it or not, when making a purchase decision. This requires a deep understanding of the customer’s journey and each touch point along the way. Mapping this customer’s journey is a difficult yet mission critical task that when done correctly can result in exceptional revenue growth.

Today’s topic is understanding how to leverage sales development reps to generate leads for the sales team. If you would like to implement an outbound marketing program with a team of SDRs, consider having one of our experts spend some time with you in workshop. To get a feel for what's covered in that workshop, download our 10th annual workbook that we use in these workshops.

Joining us is Heather Young, the Vice President of Sales and Business Development for Rimini Street.   Rimini Street is a leading global provider for a third-party enterprise support.  This includes maintenance and support for SAP and Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Hyperion and RETEK software.

Why this topic? For many B2B companies, inbound marketing is not producing enough leads for the sales team.  As a result, many marketers have added a team of SDRs, sales development reps, to drive outbound marketing efforts in an attempt to meet the never-ending need for more leads.

Today’s topic is understanding how to determine which markets to compete in and which markets to avoid.

Why this topic? Many executive teams tend to focus most of their attention on gaining share in their existing markets. While it is necessary to maintain, and sometimes increase market share, changing your company’s exposure to growing and shrinking market segments should be a major focus.

Joining us is Jim Briles, the Chief Operating Officer of American Global Logistics. AGL manages the supply chain for customers who primarily import ocean freight from Asia into the United States. During the interview, Jim will demonstrate selecting the right markets by using AGL as an example.

Today’s topic is how to execute Account Based Marketing.  While B2B account marketing has been around for years, we discuss the modern techniques and tools for success. To follow along, download our 10^th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017. Turn to the marketing strategy section and flip to the ABM phase on pages 214 – 217 of the PDF. 

Demand generation and lead management does not work for companies with business models dependent on a small number of accounts but who spend a lot. Waiting for dream accounts to come to you will result in you missing your revenue targets. If you live and die by the big deal, growing revenues faster than your industry and your competitors requires a shift to Account Based Marketing. 

Joining us from Motorola Solutions is Massimo Sangiovanni, Vice President of Americas for Marketing and Inside Sales.  Motorola Solutions provides mission-critical communications products and services to public safety and commercial customers around the world. This is done by providing them with real-time information, and by arming them with intuitive, nearly indestructible handheld devices. Listen as Massimo describes how the evolution into modern account based marketing has positively impacted sales.

Today’s topic is how to launch new products successfully. 

Product launches fail to generate revenue when sales people and channel partners are not involved in messaging development during pre-launch preparations. When messaging is developed in isolation it is not compelling enough to get your customers to act. Stories told directly to customers by well-trained sales channels enable customers and prospects to answer “Why change?” and this stimulates latent demand while leading to exceptional revenue growth.  

Joining us is Toby Williams, SVP, Chief Product and Strategy Officer for Ellucian.  Ellucian is the world’s leading provider of software and services for higher education institution, serving more than 2,400 institutions and 18 million students worldwide.  Listen as Toby discusses how to create messaging to defeat the status quo.   This starts with market problems that the solution is solving and to capture it through the customer lens. 

Today’s topic is understanding how executives make purchase decisions.  Failure to understand, exactly, how the executive decision makers inside your target accounts buy will result in poor win rates, long sales cycles, and you missing your number.  To follow along, download our 10th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017.  Turn to the buyer segmentation phase on pages 274 – 276 of the PDF. 

Joining us is Gary Ackerman, the SVP Head of Global Sales at Pepperjam.  Pepperjam is a performance marketing company focused on helping global advertisers drive e-commerce sales.  During the interview, Gary will demonstrate how executives make purchase decisions by using Pepperjam as an example. 

Executives are changing the way they make purchase decisions. Some are altering their evaluation criteria. Others are involving more people in the decision-making process. Some are changing their preferences for how they want to engage with your sales team. Decentralized decision-making is becoming centralized, and centralized decisions are now being made regionally. And on and on. Failure to exactly understand how executives are buying will prevent you from growing revenue.

Today’s topic is how to deploy a sales process. The purpose of a sales process is to win more deals, win bigger deals and to do it faster.

Standard one-size-fits-all sales methodologies no longer work. The competitors can license the same sales methodologies from the same vendors you can, so there is no competitive advantage to be had by adopting the latest sales methodology from the sales training industry. To increase deal sizes, improve win rates and shorten sales cycles, you need to adopt a custom, proprietary sales process/methodology. 

Joining us is Lori Chmura, Vice President of US Sales for Cordis. Lori has over 28 years of business experience, and has deployed a version of a customized sales process during her tenure. During the interview, Lori will demonstrate how she has deployed a new sales process. 

Today’s topic is forecasting accuracy.  How to install a thorough forecasting and pipeline management process. 

Joining us is Evan Randall the Vice President of Sales Operations at Tableau Software. Evan is doing ground-breaking work in forecasting accuracy.  Listen as Evan breaks down the approach to drive forecasting accuracy.

The first segment of the show is focused on individual deal level forecasting. Evan describes how he uses predictive analytics to determine what is likely to happen.  He describes the importance of having a sales process with a level of simplicity to achieve adoption.  A well adopted and easy to use sales process enables you to collect good data.