Host: Susan Finch

Storytelling isn't crap, it's biology.

This is a series about Finding Your Capital S Story - the new book by Paul Furiga. In this episode, we tackle the first chapter that I found fascinating - the science behind storytelling and how our brains are hardwired for storytelling. Paul will explain how well-known brands effectively employ storytelling for their success and what we can learn from them, without copying them.

It's Not a Hobby, It's a Revenue Source - Stop Playing House.

Passion is not enough. As a revenue generator - deal closer service provider, Ledge tells us he doesn't need to be passionate about what you do. He needs to be passionate about closing deals for you and generating revenue for you. Then you will be able to channel more of the passion you have for your business. (20:31) "...sometimes folks will try to negotiate and say, well, if you're really passionate about it and you want to be involved in this, maybe you can cut your rates. And no, I'm not at all ... I'm passionate at the price I just quoted you because I'm going to make you millions of dollars. And that's what I'm passionate about. We build revenue machines. The end." Join us for part 1 of a 3 part series. Take notes!

Overcoming the Resource Demand of Virtual Events

Measuring and managing virtual events is every marketer’s challenge.  Sales are suffering as live event leads have dried up and pipelines are falling.  In this program, Victor Kippes of Validar discusses how to track and measure virtual event attendees, content consumed, demos attended, attendee behavior and consequent pipeline contributions and sales made.  Every marketer for virtual events should listen to this program. 

Virtual Trade Shows are Missing the Booth Barker

Ever the optimist, Award-winning Magician, Scott Tokar, is looking forward to the irreplaceable trade shows he is a part of regularly. His corral of other performers know they can adjust and do online appearances, but nothing replaces the barker at a trade show driving people you never reached before to hear your message through entertainment.

Building a Company Based on the Inner Athlete

Whether we were on a team requiring competent levels of motor skills, strength, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and endurance, or in a company or club where we work together, and make a personal sacrifice for the collective benefit of our friends or colleagues there are common themes to the success of the team. SquadLocker founder and CEO Gary Goldberg lives these values, encourages them within SquadLocker, but also in his daily life. He and our host, Susan Finch both admit they were probably tied for last place for being chosen to be on teams as they were growing up. But, there are so many ways our children can learn the value of a good mentor, coach, and team experience that will set them up to be the one EVERYONE is vying for them. 

Where to Start on Social Media to Avoid Mistakes and Burnout

As the Global Communications Director at inRiver, Erika Goldwater manages the strategy and execution of the demand generation, communications, social media, and content marketing programs. She has extensive experience in several companies and has learned a lot about leading and teaching her teams about social media mapping, scheduling, and execution
 Know your team, where they gained their knowledge and experience so you are able to bring them into your vision.
Present a plan and show the full strategy.
Baby steps to explain the steps of what they are, why they need them and how they can implement them.
There is regular cadence, ground rules. Those need to be known - a guidebook they can refer to when you are not right with them.
"After those first couple of tweets, they feel more comfortable and are usually good to go." - Erika Goldwater
"Meeting a tweet quota is not social media engagement." - Susan Finch
Determine, what are the strategic goals of the company? Don't spend the time peppering venues where your buyers don't usually engage.
 The goals: 
Engagement & Trust
Further your brand
Share information value to your customers.
If you aren't going to do that, please don't start social media.
It's social dialogue in real-time.
You have to be dedicated to it. If you don't have a team willing to back you up, 
Teams have to be aligned with the activity - there has to be a commitment to it.
One tweet, one post - isn't enough.
Be careful about re-tweeting blindly without actually checking and READING the linked article. Same with pinning - where did it originate? Did you read it all the way through? You may get bitten in the fanny if you don't.

What can AI do for me? Speaking to the puzzled, intrigued and curious.

What do sales managers say about AI as a tool to help them manage? Are they welcoming or defensive. Our guest, Anil Kaul, says that most are still puzzled, intrigued and curious. Tune in Thursday 10:30am Pacific.
He asks us to ask the question, "What am I going to be doing next to increase productivity?" First, hire the right sales person, coach them, and spend the time training them. Companies spend a lot of time hiring and firing sales staff. They take the hit and miss approach. And now sales managers are expected to spend all of their time coaching. Listen to how this can be solved so sales can get back to SALES and managers can better use their time. 
It's almost like a pocket coach telling you what will work best next. THIS is a great support for managers. But what about the companies that choose to hire coaches?
not easy to find
coaches are expensive
acoach does best on what they know and experience.
AI has all the data available. 
AI learns from history of that client or prospect.
AI learns from other similar prospects and clients and can go back in history to see what has worked in the past.
AI learns from your best sales people.
AI continuously learning, finding patterns and humans might miss.
AI learns in real time and can adjust in real time based on new data.
We expect too much from our sales teams:
expect sales to consume tons of information - read the news, make connections from all the information.
be analtyically so good to figure out what is the best plan for their customer or prospect.
best sales people have that intuition, but 98% don't have that skill.
Listen to this show to the solution for sales and sales managers. Let's get back to sales being an enjoyable, exciting job!
About Anil Kaul
Anil has over 22 years of experience in advanced analytics, market research, and management consulting. He is very passionate about analytics and leveraging technology to improve business decision-making. Prior to founding Absolutdata, Anil worked at McKinsey & Co. and Personify. He is also on the board of Edutopia, an innovative start-up in the language learning space.
An in-demand writer and speaker, Anil has published articles in McKinsey Quarterly, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research and International Journal of Research. He was recently listed among the ‘10 Most Influential Analytics Leaders in India’ by Analytics Magazine India and has been quoted as a “Game Changer” in Research World. Anil has spoken at many industry conferences and top business schools, including Dartmouth, Berkeley, Cornell, Yale, Columbia and New York University.
Anil holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Marketing degree, both from Cornell University.
 
About Absolutdata:
Absolutdata products and services deliver scalable business impact across the enterprise by combining cutting edge AI and ML with its heritage in analytical frameworks, business understanding and technology. A full suite of AI-powered products and data science services are changing the way global brands make decisions. Absolutdata’s NAVIK AI Platform has pre-built solutions, customizable solutions, and enabling services to get an enterprise AI-ready. The growing set of AI-powered SaaS solutions include NAVIK SalesAI, NAVIK MarketingAI and NAVIK ConceptAI. The services teams build custom solutions based on NAVIK AI. Founded in 2001, Absolutdata is based in San Francisco and employs 400 professionals across offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Singapore, Dubai and Gurgaon.

When Corporate Arrogance Bulldozes Marketing’s Good Judgement

Listen on iTunes while hanging upside down!
A little bit of success, can breed arrogance and poor judgment in many fast growing

How to Optimize Customer Experiences for 4-10X Revenue

The rallying cries up and down the halls of marketing today is, “How do we address customer experiences?”

How will Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn affect users?

This topic was inspired by a post Randy Milanovic wrote on his blog. 26 Billion Reasons You May Consider Linking Out He says, "It’s not hard to envision a scenario in which LinkedIn users have to sign in via Live. Here’s hoping it’s the other way around." Well, Greg Cooper, as a leading LinkedIn coach in the UK is quite interested in discussing these possibilities. It will affect many users and possibly the entire platform we've come to rely on as a true business social network. Join them and host, Susan Finch.
 
After recording this show, we have to rename it:
HEY MICROSOFT! Don't screw up LinkedIn! The first half we discussed what LinkedIn has been doing right and our concerns about Microsoft purchasing the platform. The second half is a wishlist directed at Microsoft - what would we want them to do or NOT do as they "improve" their purchase?