SBI Podcast (Talent Strategy)

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.


Global Director of Talent Development for UPS Capital discusses the employee experience and how it impacts top line.

Direct download: AP_1817_Curt_Redden.mp3
Category:Talent Strategy -- posted at: 7:58pm EDT

Welcome to the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast. Today, we're joined by Scott Cook to discuss how the right hiring practices can help ease the way to your team hitting its mark, year after year. After all, sometimes it’s not about finding the right tool for the job but, rather, the right team.

During this interview, we’ll discuss how to:

  • Define your hiring profiles
  • Assess current talent and select new talent
  • Design the compensation program to attract and retain the right employees
  • How to get the most out of your interview process

We’ll use SBI’s workbook titled “How to Make Your Number in 2016” to guide this conversation.  Specifically, pages 197-213 which detail SBI’s 7 Step Talent Strategy Methodology.

We walk Scott through this model, and he explains how he uses his version of it at his company to streamline their hiring strategies. The benefit to you all is you get to see a “demo”, if you will, on how to use this tool. At the end of this show, if you want to use the SBI Workbook yourself, I let you know how to get it.

If you want to develop a best-in-class hiring process, listen to this podcast to hear how one of your peers built theirs.

Of course, having rock solid hiring practices is just one small part of hitting your number year after year. For more weekly sales and marketing insights like this, subscribe and leave us a review! Your feedback will help us improve our show and continue to bring you content that keeps you at the top of your game.

Direct download: SBI_AP1541-Scott_Cook.mp3
Category:Talent Strategy -- posted at: 5:55pm EDT

Welcome to the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast. Today, we're joined by Kim Mitchell to discuss how understanding the employee life cycle can unlock the secrets to employee retention and maintaining employee engagement.

Kim Mitchell is the Chief People Officer at Renaissance Learning, the world leader in cloud-based assessment, teaching, and learning solutions. If anybody knows how to keep a sales and marketing team happy, engaged and open to new things, it’s her.

Kim explains how the relationship a member of the sales team has with the company changes over time, or even across a business cycle. The relationship starts during the recruiting stage, which is a very different relationship from when a sales person is in on boarding, at year 1, during a promotion, and at key milestones, such as the 10 year anniversary.

Employee engagement goes up, or down, based on whether the employee has an emotional connection with the mission of the sales force, and the company.

And the adoption of a new sales team initiative is tightly correlated with employee engagement.

So, how do you drive employee engagement in the sales force? What are the secrets to employee life cycle management? Tune in and find out.

Understanding the employee life cycle is just one small part of hitting your number year after year. For more weekly sales and marketing insights like this, subscribe and leave us a review! Your feedback will help us improve our show and continue to bring you content that keeps you at the top of your game.

Direct download: SBI_Podcast-Kim_Mitchell-05272015_1.mp3
Category:Talent Strategy -- posted at: 9:41am EDT

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Steve Byars, the CHRO of the AMX division of Harman International, about how to help a CEO understand if he or she has the right sales and marketing leadership team.

In our first segment, Steve discusses understanding what a great sales and marketing executive talent looks like and the list to double check when seeking the right sales leader for your team.

Next, we evaluate how to know if the person leading the sales and marketing strategy teams has the particular skill set to manage the goals needed at a specific point in time, as well as, how to manage competency learning curves.

In our last segment, Steve shares ways to design a compensation program for a best-in-class marketing and sales leaders that your CEO will love and approve of.

Want more weekly insights like this to help you make your number? Subscribe and leave us a review! Your feedback will help us improve our show and continue to bring you content that keeps you at the top of your game.

Direct download: 02022015-Steve_Byars-SBI_PODCAST.mp3
Category:Talent Strategy -- posted at: 6:02pm EDT

HR Recruiting Strategies for Sales and Marketing

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with John Pierce, the Senior Director of Human Resources for the Americas Region and Global Sales & Marketing team at Motorola, about recruiting strategies he has implemented to attract the best talent in the market.

In our first segment, John dives into recruitment and selection strategies with defining how to find the talent pools you need, where they're needed and the numbers that are required. We also learn about a single-page document that helps summarize the talent acquired and further analyze them in three categories: competencies, behaviors and A-player leadership elements.   

Next, John discusses how to approach the hiring process by sharing qualities to look for in applicants and how to strategically interview potential employees. We then hear John’s perspective on ways to handle an A-player walking out the door, including how to react and what you learn from that process.

In our last segment, John shares how to pave transitionary paths for employees looking to move up in their departments and how to prepare them for success once they get there.

Want more weekly insights like this to help you make your number? Subscribe and leave us a review! Your feedback will help us improve our show and continue to bring you content that keeps you at the top of your game.

Direct download: 01162015-JOHN_PIERCE-SBI_PODCAST_1.mp3
Category:Talent Strategy -- posted at: 3:25pm EDT

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