It may be easy to assume that tech-enabled services became an overnight success in the wake of the work-from-home and digital phenomena. However, many companies will not only miss their number but have also experienced an 8% year over year decrease. It is clear that if TMT leaders do not make significant changes to their 2021 strategy, they will get left behind.

On today’s show, Tony Erickson, SBI Managing Director, joins us to discuss how the industry has handled this severe disruption and what market leaders are doing differently to outpace their competition.

Consumer behaviors have changed drastically over the past year, with a significant rise in ecommerce. As the supply chain is being disrupted across industries, businesses are reimagining how to go to market, generate demand, and serve customers.

On today's show, Grant Dismore, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Interstate Batteries, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss the macro trends that are forcing B2B and B2C companies to adapt or die.

Over the past several months, SBI’s latest research has unpacked how market-leading CEOs have responded to market disruption and how they approach planning for 2021. Those identified as "Accelerators" have not only managed to thrive in the face of adversity but remain vigilant in aligning their revenue growth strategy with their corporate strategy.

On today’s show, Chethan Sharma, Senior Managing Director and CEO Practice Leader at SBI, joins us to share key constructs that market-leading CEOs are using to build the 2021 plan.

Marketing leaders have faced numerous difficulties over the past year, but one challenge is not exclusive to just 2020 — sales and marketing alignment. Getting this correct is more imperative now than ever before and can make or break your growth strategy. Ultimately, companies that create strong alignment win 38% more deals and retain 36% more customers than those who are not aligned. 

On today's show, Lori Christiansen, VP of Marketing at Motus, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss how market-leading companies drive alignment between sales and marketing to accelerate revenue growth.

With the global shift to working from home, UC&C companies have witnessed a record amount of demand for their tools and services to carry on productivity away from the office. However, how are market leaders positioning themselves to be set up for success in 2021?

On today's show, Gregg Blatt, SBI Managing Director, joins us to share what UC&C market leaders are doing differently to outpace competitors.

For market-leading software companies, the changing economic conditions have had a positive effect on the bottom line. But this has not been without their fair share of challenges, especially for those facing a high growth environment.

On today’s show, Doug Winter, Founder and CEO of Seismic Software, joins SBI Managing Director Marc Odenweller to discuss how an accelerating software company could pivot to meet market demands and make pragmatic decisions every step of the way.

Legacy companies have been able to withstand nearly every possible economic condition over several decades, and yet even they have had to persevere through new challenges seen this year.

However, companies like Hexagon PPM have not been around for over 50 years by merely surviving difficult circumstances. Through the adversity, they have made their mark by quickly pivoting to market demands in any disruptive climate.

On today’s show, Hexagon PPM CRO, Steve King, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss how PPM has responded to shifts in the market to thrive while maintaining their growth trajectory.

The software industry has experienced more disruption in the last 6 months than in the previous 10 years. With an increased need for online purchasing, content management, payment processing, and more, leading software CEOs have navigated changes in demand drivers flawlessly, even with imperfect data.

On today's show, Marc Odenweller, Managing Director at SBI, joins us to discuss how the top 9% of software leaders have been relentlessly agile in their planning process to outpace competitors.

Over the last 6 months, there have only been an elite few known as "Accelerators" — those companies that have thrived in a recessionary environment.   One such company is CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. By expediting the growth strategies they already had in motion, CAS gained a first mover advantage in their market and continues to widen the gap ahead of competitors.   On today's show, CAS' CEO, Manuel Guzman, joins SBI Managing Director Andrew Urteaga to discuss the fundamentals that an organization must have in place to be able to seize unexpected opportunities.

In a virtual world, Customer Experience has definitively been at the forefront of the digital revolution. How has your company adapted to the new demands of the market?

On today's show, John deLorimier, EVP at Concentra, joins us to discuss how to bring more value to the customer journey and deliver on the brand promise.

As part of our advisory program, SBI recently held a virtual meeting comprised of an intimate group of market-leading B2B CEOs (public and private with market caps from $1B to 10B) to discuss current market challenges and opportunities for achieving strategic revenue growth.

On today's show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, and Chethan Sharma, Senior Managing Director and CEO Practice Leader, share insights from the powerful peer group including:

• The CEO's role in revenue growth strategy
• Managing board expectations
• Driving digital and customer experience strategy

Any CEO can attest to the current level of difficulty in closing deals. Customer sentiment and individual mind share are in high demand, and even with everyone online, many fail to adequately engage their communities in order to access their full potential.

On today’s show, Kevin Boyce, CEO of Higher Logic, joins us to discuss new ways of building and leveraging your internal and external communities to drive engagement in a virtual world. Kevin shares how the company pivoted its strategy to meet today's demands and new ways they have been able to enable and communicate to the organization amid their digital evolution.

It’s hard to imagine a time where calendars weren’t inundated with video calls and discussions around your digital sales transformation. With a virtual revolution upon us, how can you maintain the personal aspects that define your culture internally and externally?

On today’s show, Tim Brackey, President and COO of RGP, joins us to discuss how to translate culture from on-prem to a virtual world:

• Understanding “indie-ployment” and how it may define the future of talent
• Fostering a growth culture and how to measure it
• Developing digital capabilities to meet buyer expectations

For many services companies who achieve exponential growth within narrow timeframes, they often find themselves lagging in critical operational areas, including go-to-market.

Jarrod Johnson, Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs, found himself in a similar situation but was able to remain as agile as he was during the company’s startup years. Jarrod joins Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, SBI, on today's show to discuss how executing SaaS best practices allowed TaskUs to achieve manageable growth by:

• Creating a scalable sales system
• Implementing a high-growth marketing engine
• Building a data-driven customer experience

With the shift towards retention being the new growth, companies have increasingly seen the incremental value that Customer Success brings. If you are still assessing the benefits of a CS function in today's world, you will fall behind your peers and the market significantly.

On today's show, Alan Rudolph, SVP of Apttus, joins Tony Erickson, Managing Director, SBI, to share best practices for Customer Success and strategic deals in today's world. Alan shares how he achieves a 360-degree view of the customer and buyer journey and how to leverage CS to drive business outcomes seamlessly.

To kick off the summer, SBI held a virtual meeting comprised of an intimate group of market-leading B2B Chief Revenue Officers (Public and Private, $240M to $8B in Revenue) as part of their advisory board program. These global CRO's gathered to collectively share and learn from one another in an intimate, confidential setting.

In this video, Matt Sharrers, CEO of SBI, and Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, share insights from the powerful peer-group reflecting the sentiment of what is top of mind of global CROs. They discuss emerging best practices such as, what are the applications of digital? You first have to find your strategy.

The evolution of the Marketing leader role has transformed drastically over the years. Today, those changes are even more significant than what their role looked like nearly 90 days ago. Still, there is no telling what the second half of the year will bring for CMOs.

On today's show, Jim Kruger, CMO at Veeam, joins us for a glimpse into how a market-leading software company has been adjusting to the current market conditions and how they are preparing for the back-half of 2020.

Customer Experience is no longer just a buzz word that companies can throw around. It has become a megatrend that demands a complete mindset shift in not only executive teams, but it also requires buy-in from the board in order to thrive.

On today’s show, Ryan Hollenbeck, CMO of Verint, joins us to discuss what market-leading companies do differently to prioritize CX programs. In Ryan’s first segment, he shares 3 critical steps to building a world-class customer experience program.

Vince shares valuable lessons learned from his tenure at Heartland that not only relate to the post-COVID recovery but also how you choose to advance your revenue growth journey through any challenging circumstance.

Having a full comprehension of customer experience in a digital world is crucial to revenue growth today. This motion requires not only active market listening, but communicating actionable insights across product, service, and channels — all while reducing friction in a virtual environment.

Joining us today is Tish Falco, veteran CX strategist and thought leader in tech and subscription-based services. Tish shares valuable guidance on:

• Defining CX vision and design from end to end
• Channel optimization protecting the revenue stream
• Brightening the future of digital CX

Although many sales leaders have had to adjust to this new world since March, global companies have had to acclimate since January. With every challenge that came with reorganizing a regional market, also provided the chance to accelerate a very crucial digital transformation.

As an early adapter to this new normal, Deb Walton, Chief Revenue Officer at Refinitv, saw the opportunity to interact with customers and employees like never before. On today’s show, Deb joins us to discuss how the changes she had made out of necessity have quickly proven to be more effective and have established permanence for years to come.

At the beginning of stay-at-home orders, maintaining a connection with the customer base was a top priority for CMOs. Marketing teams worked quickly to stand up virtual communities and help customers in an authentic way.

Now, as executives look to the future and aftermath of the pandemic, continuing to invest time and resources into their communities remains an integral part of making their number — not doing so could create a costly disconnect and breed mistrust.

On today's show, SBI community expert and Executive Consultant Laura Hall shares how to continue strong community engagement and why this continuity is important.

Shifting the go-to-market model to digital has been a subject on the mind of market leaders for some time, and now it is being accelerated. For better or worse, COVID-19 has been the catalyst for a digital transformation that will fundamentally change how customers engage with vendors.

Veteran and market leader Chris Perry, President – Broadridge Financial Solutions, has a broad view of his organization and recognizes the critical importance of digital transformation right now. On today's show, Chris discusses:

• Differences between the current crisis and last recession on a macro/global level
• An accelerated roadmap for digitizing the client experience now and after the pandemic
• How sales and marketing must work together to help clients take risks and “win the recovery”

In the world of a sales enablement leader, the primary goal is to keep the sales team efficient and effective. How that goal gets accomplished occurs with consistent resegmenting of the customer base, cleansing the pipeline, and accurately forecasting changes and opportunities in the market. Market leaders know that these actions were important even prior to the last 30 days and are critical now.

Jedd Williams, Vice President of Global Sales Acceleration at Poly, was in the midst of a transformation when COVID-19 shifted the sales strategy and operating norms. Hear Jedd discuss:

• Why resegmentation was the first step in adjusting go-to-market strategy
• How the forecasting process has changed and its effect on product build schedules
• Covering the install base by considering propensity to buy and propensity to upgrade

Well-established tech companies have typically developed a large, multi-layer partner ecosystem that they rely on. For a sales leader in this environment, problem-solving, and having shared responsibilities with these channel partners is the only way to succeed in moving the GTM strategy forward.

Today, Scott Peterson, SVP Americas at Mitel and veteran UCaaS executive, shares what is working for him in adjusting to COVID-19 market implications with his partner ecosystem:

• Packaging and pricing with different-sized partners
• Daily scrums with channel partners
• Deal flow and execution

We have seen first hand how the pandemic has devastated businesses around the world. However, as we adapt to a new era of commerce, many companies have found opportunities to reevaluate their strategies and thrive. For a CRO in the SaaS cyber security industry, market opportunity has increased.

On today's show, Bob Layton, CRO of Digital Defense, joins us to discuss the effect of the pandemic on software companies. Bob shares that while many aspects of their business remain unchanged, like their coverage model, they are finding creative ways to drive revenue and incentivize their teams.

It can be difficult to keep up with current updates and regulations surrounding this new normal. Without knowing the full implications of how long this crisis will last, how are business leaders adapting their strategies, especially when working with customers on the front lines of the pandemic?

On today's show, Milton Silva-Craig, CEO of Q-Centrix, joins Doug Bain, SBI's Healthcare Practice Managing Director, to discuss how teams must be agile in facing our new reality. Milton shares how to communicate with your teams and customers and solve arising problems outside of your traditional playbook.

For weeks now, businesses have been impacted by COVID-19. While it has been difficult to predict the severity of the pandemic, the one thing that has been unwavering is people's innate desire to connect with one another. As a Customer Success leader, the actions of your teams now will undoubtedly leave lasting impressions for years to come.

Bernie Kassar, Chief Customer Officer at Xactly, joins us on today's show to discuss what Customer Success teams are doing to help guide businesses through these uncertain times. Bernie shares unique opportunities for companies in today’s environment and how to create a frictionless customer experience.

While businesses world-wide have been grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, few industries have been seeing a surge in demand. Among those who have an opportunity to thrive are industrial markets like transportation and logistics. While T&L companies have the potential to increase revenue and enter new verticals, this is not without added risks.

On today’s show, we are joined by industry expert Chris Davy, Managing Director at SBI. Chris shares his experience and lessons learned from previous market disruptions in T&L and highlights the importance of a clear exit strategy.

There’s no denying it – unity, connection, and community are the marquee themes in the COVID-19 business world. Navigating these current challenges has also presented the opportunity to reimagine what is possible from product offerings and new revenue streams to internal and external communication.

On today’s podcast, Jeff Ray, CEO of Brightcove, a video powerhouse company, joins us to discuss how CEOs have the potential to:

• Create unity through authentic messaging
• Lead teams with empathy and positive intent
• Innovate and propose new offerings through cross-functional collaboration

"We're all in meetings where the dog runs around the back behind you or the neighbor fires up the chain saw. It's just the way it is. We're actually getting to know one another's kids and dogs better... I think there's more authentic talking happening now than ever before. And it would be a shame for us as leaders to miss that window of opportunity."

Sales leaders around the world have been adjusting to working from home while attempting to maintain a team-oriented environment. However, leading a virtual workforce eliminates the face-to-face interactions that so many businesses have relied on. How do you sustain personal connections and community, especially in large, global organizations?

On today's show, we are joined by Steve Blum, SVP Worldwide Field Operations at Autodesk. Steve shares how he has been keeping talent engaged during COVID-19 challenges.

Although the global pandemic is creating challenges that businesses have never dealt with before, many leaders had already felt imminent market changes prior to the outbreak. Executives are in the process of reimagining their go-to-market strategies and seeking to minimize disruption, given the circumstances.

On today’s show, Tony Erickson, Managing Director at SBI, joins us to share what market-leading CEOs and CROs are focusing on right now:

• Revising GTM strategy to optimize productivity
• Assessing channel mix and sales coverage
• Measuring progress through behavioral indicators

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2020, sales leaders anticipated a much different outcome for their Q1 goals. In the face of a global crisis, how can you not just keep the lights on but also take care of your team?

Joining us on today’s show is Chris Gosline, an Engagement Manager at SBI, to discuss best practices for providing quota relief and adapting compensation plans. Chris outlines three options that every sales leader should consider.

Over the last week, we have seen the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market, businesses, and communities. During these unpredictable times, one thing is certain; we cannot control these events, but we can control how we react.

In today’s interview, we are joined by Josh Horstmann, Senior Partner at SBI, to discuss how to adapt to the new normal. Josh shares a 7-step action plan and timeline to help executive teams mitigate business impact during the crisis.

Entering a role as a new sales leader can be challenging enough. Entering a new role within a legacy company during tumultuous market conditions might then seem impossible. Having overcome these challenges, Steve King, CRO of Hexagon PPM, joins us to discuss his experience leading a full go-to-market transformation.

Steve shares how he prioritized the challenges he faced and began leading the sales organization through massive change.

Companies who find themselves declining in revenue, experiencing customer loss or employee churn may be in dire need of a turnaround. To successfully recover from this type of crisis, it often requires a new CEO to step in and lead through the turbulence.

In today's segment, an expert in company turnarounds, David Ratner, CEO of Hyas, joins us to share insights for new CEOs who find themselves in a turnaround position. 

Stefano Redditi, EVP of Sales and Marketing for JAS Worldwide, joins us to discuss how he has successfully made this move upmarket to achieve enterprise customers. Stefano shares his experience from identifying triggers for change to navigating the resistance that accompanied the reorganization.