SLMA Live

During our program, Sean Burke, CEO of Kitedesk discusses how a company can economically create real qualified prospects to drive a forecast which drive sales. Qualified leads or prospects can have many definitions, however, from a salesperson’s perspective it is simply meant as “qualified to buy” rather than speaking to the weighted quality of the lead.  

Everyone agrees that new realities of customer buying is driving changes in sales organizations and Cheatham discusses how to approach change and not get slammed in the process.In the book “Selling Vision” co-author Rick Cheatham takes us through the origins of the book and how change doesn’t have to mean one or two quarters of lower revenue when salespeople adjust. Change is a risky proposition for all sales organizations because change means confusion, hesitation and chaos as salespeople adjust to the company’s vision of a new sales approach driven by changed customer buying habits. RICK CHEATHAM leads the US Sales Practice for BTS. He works with clients such as Google, Accenture, Metlife, and IBM to drive their sales efforts into the future. Rick leads a team of over 20 consultants and conceptualizes many of the BTS solutions deployed in the US.  

There were t-shirts with the saying made famous by “The Godfather” movies, and Taylor recently has told us to shake it off. Either method works, but Jay’s approach isn’t to just keep an eye on them or blow them off but to CONVERT them into your strongest advocates and most loyal clients. Sound impossible? You need to hear this. Matt’s guest, Jay Baer has given hundreds of insightful and humorous presentations. He’s an author and the founder of Convince and Convert  - a strategy consulting firm that helps prominent companies gain and keep more customers through the smart intersection of technology, social media, and customer service 

Some of the most common metrics may not be what you think and in fact may be marketing myths. Everything can be measured a dozen different ways, or more. Just look at the way employment, housing sales, and other misleading, skewed statistics. Depends who you ask and how, as well as what the goal of the question is. Join Jim Obermayer and Paul Peterson, VP and General Manager of GoldMine, CRM.

Take advantage of the special deal Dave made with Lynda.com (he calls it the NetFlix of training) where you can find, in addition to Dave’s 15 short but powerful videos, great training of all kinds– 30 day free trial (normally 7 days!) go to www.davecrenshaw.com/free.  This is a great way to get started on making your strengths stronger and eliminating your weaknesses. Dave Crenshaw is the master of helping business owners triumph over chaos. He has appeared in Time magazine, FastCompany, USA Today, and the BBC News. His first book,The Myth of Multitasking: How ‘Doing It All’ Gets Nothing Done, has been published in six languages and is a time management best seller. His latest book, The Focused Business: How Entrepreneurs Can Triumph Over Chaos, is also a small business best seller. As an author, speaker, and business coach,Dave has transformed thousands of businesses worldwide.  

Zeshan Raja, Asst. Director of Partner Success at Continuum shares insights on the importance of a BDR (Backup & Disaster Recovery) plan for any MSP and IT Service company. This falls in line with Business Continuity Plans. As their customers you need to demand this. As the provider, how can you provide this and still remain profitable? Zeshan is here to tell you how to keep this costly, high-resource intensity service from killing your profits.

This is a quick, actionable lesson. Hey, it’s a short show - if you already do all of this - you can share this with others who ask you your secret to SEO Ranking success! 

They say content is king, but without a great call to action (CTA) it’s difficult to drive conversion and turn website visitors into qualified leads. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we explore three important elements in a good CTA – placement, look and language. Tune in now to discover how the right visuals, location and copy can transform your CTAs into powerful, high-converting marketing messages that encourage visitors to download content and engage with you. The Weekly Byte is a video series that provides quick, digestible tips and best practices designed to help your business be successful. Get in touch with us via the comments section below if you have any questions about today’s episode or have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in the future!

It seems the rules change all the time on what works, what gives the best results, how often, how many links, image styles - but let’s get this done right and then you can engage prospects and inform clients. If you don’t inform them, they won’t open it anyway. Take your email marketing to the next level AND learn from this ebook from Continuum: http://bit.ly/mspradio89 Tim Busa, Senior Content Strategist at Continuum shares his best practices with you.

In this SLMA Radio program we speak with Ben Sardella, co-founder and chief revenue officer from Datanyze about how a marketing department can make good on its promise of creating qualified leads by using technology. Ask a salesperson what they need from marketing and they will say, more sales leads.  Give them more and the next time you talk to them they will say you misunderstood them and they need more qualified sales leads.

We are not interested or motivated to learn something until there is something on the table that requires this knowledge. PRACTICING before you pitch is the key to success. Learn more from Mark during this episode. Mark Magnacca, President of Insight Development Group, Inc. and markmagnacca.com, is a recognized business building coach, keynote speaker and author of “So What? How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience” and “The Product is You.” Mark’s mission is to help sales professionals get greater results in less time by teaching his clients to put all of their communications, verbal and written, to the So What Test. By adopting a So What Mindset, clients learn to communicate and structure every message according the needs of the listener.

Salespeople must to learn dozens of different skills to be successful.The most accomplished salespeople have refined each of the talents, one after another, until they are consistently selling (think telephone skills,appointment setting, presenting, technical knowledge, persistence, in person communication, benefit presentations, probing questions, closing and negotiation to name a few). But there is one skill that separates winners from losers and Jeff Smith will share that in this program with host Jim Obermayer.

Social media is a relatively new marketing channel and it can be difficult to find time to leverage it effectively. However, if you want to find and connect with new customers, increase your visibility online and grow your business, social media is an important channel you can no longer ignore. On this episode of MSPradio, we chat with Ben Barker, Marketing Programs Manager at Continuum, about how MSPs can more effectively leverage social media to grow their business. Download this episode’s free eGuide, “Getting Started with Content Marketing” here: bit.ly/mspradio88. 

Mari Anne Vanella has recently been named one of 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management. She is not only a leader in her space, but also has a list of what she’s observed as holding women and men back from gaining respect, getting ahead and leading. She’s been at all ends of this and feels women just need to quit focusing on the negative aspects of “not making as much as men” and just get into the arena on a level playing field. She’s going to tell you the basic, and what should be OBVIOUS steps.

What channels should you use? Who is responsible for creating content? On this episode of MSPradio, we chat with Brandon Garcin, Content Marketing Manager at Continuum, about how MSPs can more effectively produce content and use it to drive traffic, leads and new clients. Tune in now and find out how you can get started with content marketing! Want more info on MSP content marketing?  Download our collection of content marketing quick start guides to learn more: http://bit.ly/mspradio87.

Security has become an increasingly important topic among MSPs and SMBs. Many business owners are looking for solutions to keep their companies secure, and they’re relying on MSPs to provide those solutions to them. So, how can you take advantage of the opportunity? On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Win Pham, VP of Development at RapidFire Tools, about how MSPs can market and sell managed security services to prospects and clients and add new lines of revenue for their business. Listen now and find out how you can take advantage of the need for security services! 

Some of the issues they discuss: The state of Revenue Marketing The four benefits of having a Revenue Marketing Process The CMO Survey The turning point that turns someone into a Revenue Marketer The barriers that prevent someone from considering themselves revenue marketers. The barriers erected by others, especially know-it-all C-Level managers The role of Change Management to initiate a revenue marketing process. What is Revenue Marketing™? Revenue Marketing™ is the combined set of strategies, processes, people, technologies, customers and results that: Drops sales ready leads into the top of the funnel Accelerates sales opportunities through the sales pipeline Measures marketing based on the repeatable, predictable and scalable contribution to pipeline and revenue Improves the ROI of the sales and marketing continuum   Debbie Qaqish Debbie is a nationally recognized thought leader, innovator and speaker on Revenue Marketing with more than 30 years of experience applying strategy, technology and process to help B2B companies drive revenue growth. She is the author of the award winning book – “Rise of the Revenue Marketer,” Chancellor of Revenue Marketing University, and host of Revenue Marketer Radio (WRMR). She coined the term “Revenue Marketer” in 2011. As a principal partner and chief strategy officer of The Pedowitz Group, Debbie is responsible for developing and managing global client relationships, as well as leading the firm’s thought leadership initiatives.Debbie is also PhD candidate and her dissertation topic is how the CMO adopts financial accountability in an e-marketing environment.  

Our networks can be an incredibly powerful tool that not all MSPs leverage effectively. So how can you use your network to your advantage in order to grow your business? On this episode of MSPradio, we chat with Arlin & Pete Sorensen from HTG Peer Groups about how MSPs can grow their network, build relationships and use it better your business and your personal life.   Tune in now to find out how you can get more out of your network!

See the video at http://blog.continuum.net. To gate or not to gate – that is the question. Gated content is an important element of inbound and digital marketing strategy, but knowing what and when to gate isn’t always obvious. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we try and define gated content and answer these questions in fewer than 90 seconds! The Weekly Byte is a series that provides quick, digestible tips and best practices you can use to help your business succeed. Get in touch with us via the comments section below if you have any questions about today’s episode or have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in the future!

Whether it is your first venture into installing a digital asset management system (DAM) or you are into your second or third generation installation, there are specific things to look for to avoid costly mistakes. In this interview with North Plains executives Mohan Taylor and Mike Verrell, they discuss with host Jim Obermayer what to consider when installing a DAM System.  Mohan Taylor:  As North Plains’ Chief Product Officer, Mohan is responsible for the long-term product strategy for North Plains. He has 15 years’ experience in designing and implementing digital asset management systems and has worked for some of the world’s largest organizations. Mike Verrell:  Mike is Pre-sales Manager for North Plains and has been working in the field of Rich Media and Digital Asset Management for over 15 years. He has experience with the challenges faced by a wide variety of industries, including alcoholic beverages, retail, manufacturing, publishing, media, creative agencies, banks and pharmaceutical, to name a few. Mike has worked with a number of large brands with both the business and IT groups in order to ensure the right solution is implemented.