The Front Line - Sales and Marketing Podcast

"Live your truth in the world of sales" says Tom Briccetti, sales coach and founder of Sales Team Go. Want to know how to build a framework to help you scale?

Tom lays out in this episode his process to scaling a business by using tried and tested methods, principles, but most importantly, mindset. Tom also explains how knowing your customers, understanding their needs and wishes is the minimum for building a sales process that is reflective of the customers' journeys. Additionally, Tom shares some thoughts about which technology can help support and enable these objectives.

Listen to this episode to find out more about setting up a sales process and scaling a business!

Want to find out how to grow your business 10x in 18 months? Join us on this episode where we get incredible insight from the man who helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses

Kevin McCann started off as an inside sales rep and grew through the ranks until he got to a position where he could create the strategy for a business to grow.

Unsurprisingly, Kevin focused on understanding his customers' problems, the impact of their problems on their own business, then suggested a solution that was relevant and proportional to the value of the impact on the business.

As President and CEO of the Executive Strategy Group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, Kevin specialises in strategy, marketing and sales for high-tech companies.

Kevin shares the strategies that he uses to build massive revenue in a short time. He talks about how to stand out in a competitive market and to get the right mix of activities to make sales grow. He talks about having a defined niche and selling proposition that puts the customer first.  

He talks about how to do technical sales without needing a technical sales specialist in every meeting. Showing sales reps how to ask the right questions to move the prospect forward with the right allocated sales resources. 

Kevin talked through what he calls the Highlighter test to make sure your website is going to do a lot of the sales heavy lifting for you.

In this episode, we discuss how creating a CRM system that responds to specific needs from an organisation is a sure way of creating a successful CRM platform. We also discussed how CRM systems can help sales processes into converting leads into closed deals, by managing relationships between different parties who are attempting and hopefully succeeding at building mutually beneficial relationships based on "know, like, trust" concept.

In short, CRM platforms, and the discipline to add information to it, is a digital recreation of basic human nature, of using stored information to have a meaningful conversation!

Find out more in this episode dedicated to CRM, its impact on sales process, marketing automation, and what the predictions for the future sales landscape may be.

Why are brand names so important? How do you create a brand name that will see your business grow? What makes a brand sticky? Listen to Louise Karch, a multi-award winning marketer & best-selling author of Word Glue: Find your Million-Dollar Brand Name, give us all the answers.

As an accomplished marketer, coach and athlete, Louise has set out to help people improve their business performance by making sure that their brand name pulls people's focus, in the attention economy that we find ourselves in.

Louise has helped many people dramatically improved their business revenue when she helped facilitate coming up with a new name for brands or products.

Listen to Louise explain the intricacies of a brand and its impact on people's mind, their perception and ultimate loyalty.

Join the discussion in the comments below & listen to the podcast. Make sure you follow Louise Karch for the latest info on her upcoming book on Tagline.

"Change is coming" say Senior Partner Manager from Keap (formely known as Insusionsoft), Jeremiah "The Shark" Sarkett

With the advent of AI in Marketing & sales, how is the sales process being affected?

"The sales process is moving closer to where the customer is", Jeremiah says. And right he is. From a customer experience point of view, customer & consumer behaviours & expectations have changed.

Listen to the episode for more information about the impact on sales process, tech used in sales & marketing, how AI will support & enhance human behaviours

Join the discussion in the comments below & listen to the podcast. Make sure you follow Jeremiah Sarkett for the latest info on Keap and sales techniques on his website https://jeremiahshark.com/

Image credit: AI4marketing

Today we talk to Jason Howes from Arrow Executive about hiring salespeople, training them, coaching them & making them a successful team within an organisation.

Jason has a wealth of experience providing companies with the right tools to hire the right salesperson for the right role. Jason and his company provide services and tools that help organisations build the appropriate role descriptions, filter our the wrong candidates during the search phase, and assess candidates to make sure they will be a good cultural fit, but equally important a competent fit.

Find out more about how Jason and his team can help you by listening to this episode and gaining all the insights that were shared.

Don't forget to like & subscribe to The Front Line podcast

"I don’t control the buying process, I can influence the buying process". Want to find out more about mindset vs state of mind, human performance & impact on sales? Listen to this week's episode with one of our return guests, Geoff Wade.

Last week we released another podcast with Geoff who made a bold, but demonstrably true, claim of 21% improvements in 21 weeks, across the board. This week, he comes back to explain to us how a salesperson's state of mind, and mindset, can make, or break, a salesperson.

Confidence breeds confidence, and a few techniques can help build that confidence. For example, pacing while on the phone, chewing gum, success or power poses, and of course, breathing (i.e. triangular or square breathing).

Listen to the episode to find out more on how human performance can be improved through a healthy and active "mind over matter" philosophy.

Don't forget to like & subscribe to The Front Line podcast

21% improvement in 21 weeks? Across Sales Performance & Leadership Development? Unreal claim you might add? Check out this week's episode with Geoffrey Wade & find out more.

Geoff is the founder of Onirik, the company he founded when he realised he had amazing value to add to organisations that couldn't figure out effective ways to change behaviours within its ranks in order to improve individual and collective performance levels.

When Geoff claims a min of 50% improvement in sales figures, it's based on demonstrable facts, not anecdotal information!

The key to this amazing uplift in performance is down to the Performance Break-Thru model he developed, which focuses on the person's behaviour.

Find out more by listening to this week's episode in which Geoff explains how his systems works in sales, but of course can be adapted to any function in the organisation, especially leadership development.

Don't forget to like & subscribe to The Front Line podcast

Want to find out more about ERP and what they mean to you, even if you are a SMB, especially if you are a SMB?

Today we are joined by Maria Isoton, an ERP implementation specialist and Accountant from Reassure Accounting, who dutifully helps business leaders take full advantage of such systems to the benefit of the company's performance in revenue, but more importantly PROFIT.

What is an ERP, or Enterprice Resouce Planning platform?

Why is an ERP important?

Why benefits are there to have from having an ERP?

Find out more by listening to this week's episode, and checking out Maria's LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaisoton-cfoservices/

Don't forget to like & subscribe to The Front Line podcast

3 golden sales trips from the Senior Partner Manager from Keap (formely known as Insusionsoft), Jeremiah "The Shark" Sarkett. Do you want to know what they are?

How about 3 guesses for 3 tips?

OK OK, you're almost there!!

Here they are:

👉 "Sit back & listen". Yes, active listening to a prospect or a customer is a good idea. Being verbally assaulted by a sales person trying to make a sale is not pleasant, nor it is productive

👉 "Have sales flow, not a script". You need to know where the conversation is heading, or where you'd like it to go. Having every word scripted might make you not listen. Go back to tip 1

👉 "Train like an athlete". Yes, the brain, like the rest of your muscles, require constant training to remain at peak performance. Staying up to date on industry information, macro-trends, competitors, customer VoC, etc... all require you to do the legwork

Join the discussion in the comments below & listen to the podcast. Make sure you follow Jeremiah Sarkett for the latest info on Keap and sales techniques on his website https://jeremiahshark.com/

Join us today in a fireside chat with Paul Sculthorpe, Head of PMO at Baxi Heating UK, to talk about program management & project management, and the benefits of having a formal PMO structure in place could benefit a manufacturing company.

We discussed the many aspects of project or program managers and their impact of the organisation, the benefit of having them but also the diverse areas they cover in the business. What is a common misconception is that PMO only deal with projects. But PM's also manage risk, change management and risk. It's a varied role that also involves receiving & giving training!

Of course we talked about methodology, project management principles and other technical points.

Listen in and share with us your comments.

Please like and subscribe to our podcast.

Online courses, what are they? Should you make use of them? Should you create your own?

The simple answer is YES!

Learning and development training courses improve employee retention

Online courses enable scaling up recruitment efforts and on boarding

Manage and improve the customer experience between your clients and you

Other benefits include assured quality, personalised to the organisation, consistent in the delivery

But also, creating & selling online courses is also a good business model.

Lisa Listama started her company Sparkle E-Learning after having worked for the government. She has a lot of self-taught knowledge and experience in the industry. Join us discussing these points with Lisa.

Sales process? Sales & Marketing Funnel? Marketing process? What are these terms?

Well, they are basically the same, just different names depending on your perspective. In very short, the funnel is how you transition prospects to clients by using sales and marketing techniques.

Listen to this week's episode to find out more about what a funnel is, the challenges, what content is required when, how you can structure it with a CRM, and more importantly, whether you need to formalise the process or not!

Don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe so that you always get the latest tips, tools and techniques from The Front Line Sales & Marketing Podcast

Paul Harrison, partner & Digital Marketing Advisor & business owner at Zib Digital & Magic Hand Carwash, is our guest star today!

We talked a lot of customers, marketing, attribution, & other topics, but we feel the best parts were when we discussed the "truths" about marketing! There are many things we can talk about & many things we can discuss for hours. A couple of stand outs:

- Customers need to always be told the truth

- Customer expectations need to be managed

- The good consultants need to clean up a lot after other "less than desirable" consultants

Join us & listen to this episode with Paul as we discussed what business owners should be doing, or focusing on when it comes to their digital media strategy & social media strategy.

This valuable insight comes from a professional who runs 2 businesses (car wash and marketing agency), has spent many years working with corporate but is now focused on SMB, & someone who is formally trained in Marketing.

Follow us on Social Media & subscribe to our channels. The video will be up on our YouTube in a couple of weeks

Another fireside conversation from The Front Line. This time we introduce a new member of Relevate Consulting,Casper.

Casper is his nickname. His real name is Hung Ly. Casper is Vietnamese & he shares with us his path from school, to university, to working at Relevate Consulting.

We also discuss every day issues like the need (or lack thereof) for formal education in business. Have a listen, join us. 

Let us know what you would like us to discuss next time

We're trying something new, to try and switch things up a little, this week we basically got together on Zoom and recording a quick session where we talk about the podcast, our results, why we do what we do, a little of everything.

As always, we're open to feedback so please do let us know what you think. Also, let us know if you want to discuss anything on our show, that you are welcome to join as a guest.

Have a good week everyone

What is the one marketing secret that will grow your business? We talk to Rhonwyn Learner from Business in Training for some hot tip on marketing your wares no matter what technique you use. 

Third consecutive podcast with Rhonwyn who specialises in helping startups grow their business from 'zero to hero'. Here are here thoughts about the 1 secret to grow a business:

• Don’t suffer from shiny object syndrome
• Don’t feel pressured to pursue marketing techniques that conflict with your skills or comfort level
• How familiarity builds unconscious trust
• The one thing that seals the deal: consistent repetition

Other valuable tips:

• Marketing takes time,
• Pick a strategy, don’t give up, be persistent, give it time to succeed or fail
• Build your brand, build trust, be memorable
• Behave as you profess you do
• Consistent repetition
• 7-11-4 and zero moment of truth

Join us on this episode to listen to Rhonwyn laying it out for all of our benefit. This the second of 3 episodes so stay tuned for the third one next week.

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast using your favourite player, and follow us on the usual Social channels.

Are you a startup looking to win your first customers in a month? We talk to Rhonwyn Learner from Business in Training for some hot tip on marketing your wares & getting good traction in the market.

This was a very interesting discussion where I believe the best quote shared was from a Disney movie: "see a need, fill a need". It sounds so basic but a lot of people fail in their endeavors because they create a product/service that doesn't solve a need consumers have.

Other valuable tips:

- Social Media Marketing is not a magic bullet

- If you are short on time, don’t focus too much on Social Media Marketing, & if you must, pick 1 platform

- If you have a social media strategy, make sure you check the analytics to hone the messaging & content

- Know who you are selling to, know what they need so you can sell them your "why" & “what”

- Start selling, start small & grow

Are you apprehensive about reaching out to people you don't know? In this episode, our guest Rhonwyn Learner, GM of Business in Training explains to us how to get past the fear of connecting with strangers & selling yourself & your business.

We explore many topics but what stood out are the following points:

- be prepared with your WHY and your WHAT

- be confident & persistent

- Seek feedback from coaches, friends & family who can be objective & give impartial opinions

One of my favourite quotes is "confidence & clarity come with action, not thought". Amazing!

Join us on this episode to listen to Rhonwyn laying it out for all of our benefit. This will be 1 of 3 episodes so stay tuned for the next one.

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast using your favourite player, and follow us on the usual Social channels.

How do you transition from a corporate engineer role to a startup sales role in an Australian company in full growth mode? Listen to Holstein Wong's inspiring story about how she transitions from being a user of the tech to a seller of that same tech. Holstein uses her practical experience with the solution to her sales pitch, as she truly believes sales should sell what people want to buy.

We discuss the added bonus of having a social capital in the sales process through authenticity, credibility & personal touch that enables successful sales. We detail the differences between engineers & sales people, their different approaches and attitudes. We also discuss the cultural shift necessary for an organisation to grow globally. Lastly, we discuss how a formalised sales process helps an organisation be more sales efficient & scalable as well. It's also conducive to the right metrics.

Join us in another exhilarating episode talking about #Sales & #Marketing #salesandmarketing

Holstein Wong LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holsteinwong/

We welcome Peter Strohkorb, author, coach, founder & CEO of Peter Strohkorb Advisory with a focus on Sales & Marketing, sales funnel & lead generation. Peter has been on our show twice before & today, for this 3rd appearance, we will be discussing "Smarketing".

Smarketing is a portmanteau coined by Peter to represent the close links between Sales and Marketing.

In many organisations, Sales & Marketing are 2 separate divisions, one feeding the other, each thinking the other is subservient. Nothing is further from the truth. Sales & Marketing are potentially 2 different disciplines, but they both have the same objective: help solve a customer problem. One does it using sales techniques, the other does it using marketing techniques. Neither would work without establishing a "know like trust" relationship with the target audience. Listen in for some gems on the topic

Head over to Peter's website for more resources & to download his sales funnel checklist to see where you stand. More links will be added in the comment box.

Don't forget to subscribe & enable notifications after listening to the podcast.

As a young professional, Shonice Garnham graduated from university with an increasing interest in Marketing, focused on branding. After having worked for a company for 2 years, Shonice decided to start her own marketing agency.

We discussed how important branding is to an organisation & whether brands are a representation of a company's identity or are they a well-design reactive concept based on the target audience's identity?

Shonice also shared with us her biggest challenge in marketing. According to Shonice, Facebook adverstising is a complex challenge. The need to be strategic & tactical on a platform that constantly changes the way it works is paramount. We also discussed the necessity of knowing who your audience is & choosing the platform that is the most relevant.Needless to say, the need for Content Marketing was also discussed

We also asked Shonice what founders need to focus on to launch their ideas or scale their organisations.

Join us in listening to this episode to gather valuable insight about digital marketing for young fresh companies

Lead Gen vs Demand Gen vs Prospect Management? Which is best? Which should you be using, especially now, in the COVID-19 era? What should sales leaders be doing now?

These are the top tips from Peter Strohkorb, author, coach, founder and CEO of Peter Strohkorb Advisory with a focus on Sales & Marketing, sales funnel & lead generation. 

We discussed the effectiveness of "old school" lead generation vs demand generation, which, if done right and includes element of customer relationship management, becomes prospect management.

Most relevant for today, we get Peter's view on the status of the landscape sales leaders operate in. Especially now, it is all about providing value to customers. If customers don't want to buy, you can't sell them anything. So it's not about what sales leaders want to sell, it's about what people want to buy.

Peter will return to our show  to discuss the intimate relationship between sales & marketing, or Smarketing. In the mean time, head over to Peter's website for more information about his 3 core beliefs, & to download his sales funnel checklist to see where you stand. More links will be added in the website blog or LinkedIn post. 

Don't forget to subscribe & enable notifications after listening to the podcast.

Thinking of a pivot in your career? Brian Mc Glennon was a salesperson, now heads up his own recruitment company helping others who are considering a job or profession change to bridge the digital talent gap.

In this episode we discuss Brian's career progression, moving from one job to another, moving from the UK to Australia, & now pivoting away from sales & setting up a recruitment company, Target Impact, helping other sales people into jobs. Brian uses his extensive experience to drill into a person's true motivations & passion to find the right fitting role to the candidate. It's a novel approach from how companies try to fit candidates into a role.

We also discuss some of the traditional recruitment methods & tools, but most importantly we hit on the subject of digital talent gap & how #COVID19 is forcing people to re-skill & up-skill.

As a "talent broker", Brian is focused on using the #crisis to build the back-end of the business while using his extensive efforts in network building to lay the groundwork for the future roles he'll be helping fill.

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-mc-glennon-a7012a1/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/target-impact/

On our show today, we welcome Richard Lloyd-Williams, eCommerce and Digital Transformation expert, to discuss #DigitalTransformation (#DX) in the #NewNormal, and what it means to organisations who haven't jumped on the DX Train yet.

We first go through a couple of definitions of DX, then we discuss what is happening to organisations that haven't transformed, or are just now realising they need to, and what does DX means to #culture and #people in an organisations.

Join us on another exciting episode discussing highly relevant COVID-19 inspired content.

Definitions of Digital Transformation:

Salesforce: Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.

Wikipedia: Digital Transformation is the use of new, fast and frequently changing digital technology to solve problems. One of the examples of digital transformation is cloud computing. It reduces reliance on user owned hardware and increases reliance on subscription based cloud services.

What are the 4 main areas of digital transformation?

There are four types of digital transformation: business process, business model, domain, and cultural/organizational.

Richard Llyod-Williams

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-lloyd-williams/

#Vision

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/florisblok_covid19-crisis-strategy-activity-6658260011346599937-EPoK

#upskilling

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/florisblok_vision-covid19-crisis-activity-6658969158224490496-qKIi

#Frooming

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/avoncollis_frooming-nopants-videoconferencing-activity-6648744763094904833-BkeD

Top 3 tips for effective sales funnels? Have a funnel, one that works, & one that is scalable. 

These are the top tips from Peter Strohkorb, author, coach, founder and CEO of Peter Strohkorb Advisory with a focus on Sales & Marketing, sales funnel & lead generation. 

We discussed the effectiveness of a sales funnel & streamlining it for growth. We also covered the 10 step process that Peter has set up to maximise the efficiency of a sales funnel, & pipeline management, bad sales habits & other topics.

Most relevant for today, we get Peter's view on adapting the sales funnel or process during the #COVID-19 #crisis, yet maintaining a growth mindset.

Peter will return to our show  to discuss the intimate relationship between sales & marketing, or Smarketing, & lead generation, A.K.A. prospect engagement.

Head over to Peter's website for more information about his 3 core beliefs, & to download his sales funnel checklist to see where you stand. More links will be added in the comment box. 

Don't forget to subscribe & enable notifications after listening to the podcast.

What is personal branding vs corporate branding? How can one leverage a personal brand to create more equity through monetisation? Check out this interview with Aaron Ware, who has managed through social media to build a substantial yearly revenue.

Let us know if you have any questions, comments, or if you wish to appear on the show.

[Explicit language]

In this episode we chat with Connor Whitehouse, Sales Recruiter for the Technology industry for The Humanised Group, about the state of recruitment in a period where millions have been laid off, stood down or made redundant, where retail shops are shuttering, corporate job holders are being given the choice to stand down part-time or take a pay cut.

We also discuss the use of technology in recruitment, like ATS, video interviews, AI for sentiment tracking, psychometric tests, etc...

How does one stand out to get back to work in these difficult times?

What is a brand? What is branding? What is an effective brand strategy.

Join us on our podcast where we discuss this hot topic that is quickly becoming the differentiator for successful business.

In the age of COVID-19, should brands be prospecting or managing relationships? We explore the topic with a returning guest star, Mick Wadley from IronDrake Cleaning Solutions.

In this episode we chat with Mick and James Wadley, two brothers who are setting up their cleaning business and what that means during the disruptive time of COVID-19. See the tips and strategies they are using to get ahead despite the disruption. 

In this episode we discuss what organisations should be doing, how it is impacting business and some strategies that you can implement to curb some of the pain of lockdown and social distancing. 

In today's episode we are joined by Louis Dooley and we talk about customer acquisition costs and lifetime value. Its more important than ever before to take care of our customers with 83% of customers paying more for a better customer experience and brand loyalty on the decline. Keep your customers to keep your business going.

Listen to Jeremy Pearce, Floris Blok and Avon Collis discuss their current and future projects, what its like working in the industry and delve into what its like running a business and keeping on top of family life. Each of us have different things going on but we all seem to make it work. 

In this episode we talk about Content Marketing, what it is and why you need to get it in your life. While it may be hard work upfront, content marketing can last a long time and your intellectual property can bring you leads for years to come. Just think about some of the profound youtube videos you have seen time and time again. Join us to see what its all about.

In this episode we talk about marketing Automation, it's uses and abuses. Making sure you have a good customer experience is paramount. But you can also leverage the power of Automation for both good and evil. Have a listed to Avon Collis, Floris Blok and Jeremy Pearce talk about how it can be used to best effect in your business. 

In this bonus episode one of the Hosts Jeremy Pearce from Outside Sales Training speaks with our guest Matthew Macinante from Gingerbread (A Digital Agency) here in Brisbane.

We speak about the complexities of running advertisements in the digital space for small businesses, what are the challenges and common questions we run into when choosing whether or not to employ an agency to run your next online advertising campaign. 

"Theres no cookie cutter(No pun intended with gingerbread)approach with any industry and each and every business needs to have their own unique approach" - Matthew Macinante

Where should you be spending your time as a busy business owner and which one is going to provide you with the most value? In this episode we discuss what inbound and outbound marketing is, how you can use them and in what ratio you need them for your business. 

Can you close deals? Are you doing enough prospecting?

In this episode we talk about sales with Jeremy Pearce, sales trainer and coach, and discuss how important sales is to an organisation. Whether you have a big or small business, the rules are the same. 

Are you enabling exponential growth in your sales organisation? Do you know how to get it or handle it if you've got it?

In this episode we talk about what exponential sales growth is, how to get it and how to keep it. Building exponential growth means you need to start NOW, link right now. Don't chase perfection, just get out there and get stuff done. Learn some strategies and kick some goals. 

Steve Brennan runs a property development sourcing company and is using CRM to manage relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders and Marketing Automation to keep those relationships engaged. Steve is also building an online course, all through this he has been mentored by Avon Collis. This podcast is a short case study on how Steve has been finding the process as well as some insights he has found along the way. 

In this episode we discuss what a CRM is and why it is one of the most critical tools in your business today. Despite this around 70% of businesses still don't have one even though almost everyone who gets one improves. It's a no brainer if you want to improve your customer service particularly since 83% of people will pay more for a better customer service. 

Join Jeremy Pearce, Floris Blok and Avon Collis in this discussion and many more on The Front Line - sales and marketing podcast. Look us up on LinkedIn and feel free to connect or to ask questions. 

A lot of people make marketing decisions based on how they feel about something without actually testing the content or the process. Many great insights can seem odd at first or perhaps counterintuitive but without testing them we never really know if marketing activities are having a positive impact or not.

In this episode, Avon Collis (CRM and Marketing Automation specialist) talks about using critical thinking and removing bias around decision making to make better marketing decisions that ultimately lead to better sales. 

The Front Line sales and marketing podcast is a great place to get marketing ideas, sales tips and info on the latest digital business trends. Listen to a few more episodes and let us know if you have any questions, would like to be a guest or if you have any comments for us. 

In this episode of The Front Line we delve deeper into the background and experiences of the discussion panel:

Jeremy Pearce - Sales Trainer and Coach

Floris Blok - Customer Experience, Marketing Strategy and Digital Transformation

Avon Collis - CRM and Marketing Automation

We talk about how our experiences brought us to our specialisations and how how they can help our listeners who either want to improve sales and marketing in their business or those that want to know what its like working in the industry. 

If you have any like to ask questions or perhaps join us on the podcast you can connect with any of us via LinkedIn and message us directly.