Nov. 3 Show: Michael A. Brown

October 31st, 2011

Defining Engagement and Real Person Engagement; not just through email and tweeting.

SLMA Radio will interview Michael A. Brown, one of the foremost experts on telesales and lead generation. We will ask him about the biggest mistakes marketers make, his pet peeves and what salespeople can do to improve their closing ratios.

Michael is neither shy nor retiring and his in-you-face-honest opinions are sought after by large and small companies. Michael A. Brown’s BtoBEngage consulting and training services enhance companies’ ability to approach, influence, advance, and sell. His clients range from startups to the Fortune 50. www.BtoBEngage.com. Michael has been elected as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management in 2009 and 2010. He has several articles in the telemarketing section of the member’s only area and is a frequent guest on SLMA Radio. Listen in and Learn.

Listen Now:

Standard Podcasts [00:50:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Posted in Lead Generation | Comments |

Oct. 27 Show: Adam Metz - Metz Consulting How to project the ROI for marketing lead generation

October 25th, 2011

Adam Metz is the VP of Business Development at Metz Consulting the social concept, a social customer management-consulting firm, based in Oakland, California. Metz has consulted with companies since 2006 on how to acquire, manage, monetize and retain customers from the social web. Metz’s customer community, at http://metz.customerhub.net has nearly 500 members, and offers a no-cost 9-hour training course on social customer relationship management.

Metz's second book, The Social Customer, came out on 9/16/11, and his first book, There Is No Secret Sauce, has sold or downloaded over 3000 copies, and is currently in its third printing. He has additionally published an eBook, The Metz Way.

Metz specializes in social media marketing and social customer relationship management (social CRM) for awesome consumer brands and loves lifestyle, travel, apparel and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies.

Metz has consulted with nearly 100 consumer and B2B companies, including Hershey’s Chocolate, Waggin’ Train Pet Food, Wente Vineyards (top 30 winery) Pirate’s Booty, MBT Shoes, Maestroconference, Obama Girl (Barely Political), Lynda.com, Passport Resorts, Hollywood Park Racetrack, The San Francisco Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Mighty Leaf Tea, Timbuk2 bags, and dozens of others. Adam Metz also worked on the first social media program for Pulitzer-Prize winning author Thomas Friedman.

Metz has lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Washington, and University of California, Santa Cruz and has given keynote talks at numerous conferences and associations including the California and Minnesota Chapters of the American Marketing Association, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Western Association of Convention & Visitors Bureau Technology Conference, and the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association.

Metz lives in Oakland, California with his fiancee Susan.

Listen Now:

Standard Podcasts [00:50:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Posted in CRM and Related, SEO and Social Media, Current and Past Shows | Comments |

Oct. 20 Show: Kirko Papajanis, President Vondara and Boxpilot

October 17th, 2011

SLMA Radio will ask about how successful guided voice mail is for penetrating the telephone maze in order to leave a message that is actually heard. We’ll ask about statistics and how Boxpilt is used call mail/email programs.

Kirko Papajanis was recruited by the founding partners of Vondara in 2001 to build critical Human Resources systems at the young company's Boxpilot Division. He focused on developing an easy to execute hiring model which minimized overhead. By 2008, Kirko was promoted to the role of President of Boxpilot and currently manages all business operations for both Boxpilot and Vondara. Kirko studied Mathematics at the University of Toronto. He currently lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

Listen Now:

Standard Podcasts [00:50:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Posted in Email & Direct Mail | Comments |

Oct. 13 Show: SLMA CEO, Jim Obermayer and Brad Kamphuis of Active Conversion

October 10th, 2011

James W. Obermayer is a principal in Sales Leakage Consulting, Inc., an Orange County, California based sales and marketing strategy consulting firm and a principal of Cerius Consulting. He specializes in helping small to medium-size companies identify sales and marketing leakage issues that stifle sales growth and waste valuable marketing dollars. Aside from consulting, his career has been equally divided between sales and marketing positions in business-to-business corporations.

Jim has served as Vice President, Worldwide Sales at an enterprise software company (Stac) an internet services company (Internet Products), Senior Vice President for two industry-leading inquiry management firms (IHS and AdTrack Corporation), and Vice President of Marketing for a medical device manufacturer (Brentwood Medical Products). He has also been Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a direct marketing agency (Kern Direct).

In addition, Obermayer is the author of "Managing Sales Leads, Turning Cold Prospects into Hot Customers" and "Sales & Marketing 365." He is also co-author of "Managing Sales Leads, How to Turn Every Prospect into a Customer" (over 12,500 copies sold). In addition, he has written more than 80 articles on sales and marketing management. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and training seminars for such organizations as the Direct Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association to corporate sales meetings.

During the show, Jim encourages you to tweet him any questions using the #slmaradio hashmark. He'll be responding to your questions during the live show.

Brad Kamphuis is an expert in both strategic and direct selling, as well as networking, telemarketing, and lead generation tactics. He is trained in all the “big-name” sales strategies, including Dale Carnegie, Sandler Sales, Miller Heiman and Brian Tracy and has been involved in training hundreds of sales representatives. With his 22 years of expertise Brad has combined sales execution, marketing tactics and business development strategies to drive sales growth in companies ranging in revenue from $350K to $350M annually. Brad leads the business development department at ActiveConversion.

Listen Now:

Standard Podcasts [00:50:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Posted in Current and Past Shows, Sales Lead Management | Comments |

Oct. 6 Show: Debra da Costa, Direct Marketing Partners and Susan Finch, Binky Patrol, Inc.

October 4th, 2011

Debra da Costa, CEO Direct Marketing Partners

Debra da Costa is the founder and CEO of one of the leading sales lead management service providers, Direct Marketing Partners. Debra is a pioneer in the sales lead field. Debra da Costa founded Direct Marketing Partners in 1991 with the goal of creating a company truly responsive to the individual needs of clients. To this end, she structured DMP so that the company would be large enough to have the depth of expertise required by corporations with worldwide interests, but of a size that would permit close project participation by all the firm's senior staff, as well as flexibility and agility.

From the beginning, and under Debra's leadership, DMP has provided clients with marketing campaigns, which generate sales leads of superior quality. Over the years, the company’s offerings have expanded to include call center/ telemarketing, hosted database, list research and acquisition, direct mail, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing, professional services consulting, fulfillment and event support services.

Before creating DMP, Debra was the President of Debra da Costa Consulting where she was responsible for high-tech industry marketing campaigns.

In her career, Debra has held several design and technical positions with public agencies in both Canada and the U.S. and was responsible for the marketing efforts of Lawrence Moss and Associates. It is through these experiences that she discovered that all roads lead to marketing.

Debra will be answering question and sharing insights on the importance of lead qualification.

Susan Finch, Founder/CEO Binky Patrol, Inc. - a 501c3

In 1996 Susan Finch was immersed in a high-end art gallery in Laguna Beach, but knew she needed to do something to help her community and children in need. The idea for Binky Patrol Comforting Covers for Kids came to her one afternoon and she immediately contacted local media to help her get this idea rolling. One of the first partnerships she developed was with Wahoo's Fish Taco headquartered in Santa Ana, California. She learned the value of mutually beneficial partnerships with regards to sponsors and events. She was carried along in the beginning by Wahoo's Founder, Wing Lam who showed her how everyone can win and all brands can benefit from the criss-cross marketing and publicity. This was before Social Media and the Internet was truly getting its legs at that point. Now, 15 years later, the organization has enjoyed publicity at the local level with chapters finding their own corporate partners. The companies are able to utilize the list of the charity and gain exposure, goodwill and a sense of community without a lot of effort. The charity benefits from the added volunteer force, exposure to the sponsors clients, newsgroups and social media reach. All benefit. Susan will answer questions about ways B2B and B2C can help expand their reach while helping a charity, without putting a strain on their budgets.

Listen Now: