Be a B2B Leader

B2B is much easier if your teams are aligned. The thing is that alignment isn’t easy. More often than not you’ll have problems and in the end, you will have to follow a process to reach it. In this episode, you will learn how to do it!

Our guest is Steffen Hedebrandt - the Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder of Dreamdata which helps companies solve one of the biggest problems in B2B - Revenue Attribution.

Steffen will tell us how we can facilitate the alignment of sales and marketing teams. He shares the 3 necessary steps to do it and explains why we have to look at data to repeat successful tactics. Steffen also shares what is self-reported attribution and what role it plays in your analytics. But most importantly, he shares how you can use it to improve the customer experience!

For more B2B tips subscribe to Be a B2B Leader in your favorite app.

Timestamps:

(00:50) - What should every B2B Leader know about sales and marketing - sales and marketing need each other

(03:20) - What is the key step for growth? - figuring out your ICP

(06:15) - The second step - understanding where your ICP expresses intent

(07:40) - How do you find out where your ICP hangs out

(10:00) - Empowering employees to build their personal brands

(11:40) - The third step - stacking ideas

(13:15) - Should content be the main revenue driver in today's organizations?

(15:20) - How to identify which content works?

(17:55) - Should you use self-reported attribution?

(20:30) - How can companies improve the customer experience with data?

(22:30) - How to start tracking offline actions?

(24:50) - How often should sales and marketing talk with each other?

(27:20) - What is the biggest takeaway from this conversation?

(28:20) - Where you can find Steffen and what does DreamData do

LinkedIn - Steffen -https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffenhedebrandt/

Dreamdata.io - https://dreamdata.io/

Books mentioned: Tribes - Seth Godin

To be an effective leader you have to be a great communicator and realize that communication is always a two-way street.

Our guest is Gina Balarin, the Founder and Director of Verballistics where they help companies do B2B communication better.

In this episode, Gina will tell us how we can practice two-way communication and how work has changed over the last few years. She tells us why marketing teams have to first listen to their audience before they start sending messages and why we should look beyond our customers.

We also talk about relationships in business and why people like to work with people they like. On top of that, Gina shares how intrapreneurs can change organizations and why businesses have to be more people-centric than they used to be in the past.

For more B2B tips subscribe to Be a B2B Leader in your favorite app.

Timestamps:

(01:06) - What should every B2B Leader know about communication?

(03:30) - People-centric mindset

(06:25) - How to practice 2-way communication

(13:55) - Do we always need processes to facilitate work?

(17:20) - How intrapreneurs change organizations

(19:15) - Work is not anymore transactional - it's more about relationships

(24:30) - Is marketing about our customers or should we look into our customers customers?

(30:30) - Who should I interview next?

(31:30) - Where you can find Gina

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginabalarin/

Verballistics - https://www.verballistics.com.au/

The Secret Army: Leadership, Marketing and the Power of People - https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Army-Leadership-Marketing-People/dp/1544836341

To break into a new industry you have to have a good strategy. In this episode, you will learn how to prepare for the expansion.

Our guest is Dave Poulos a Marketing executive that creates and executes strategies for diverse companies across nearly all industries

David will tell us what every entrepreneur should focus on to be successful in this journey. He shares how you can determine the size of the market, how you can learn what people care about and how you can do it on a limited budget. Dave explains why every purchase ever made is an emotional decision and the role of trust when selling in B2B.

For more B2B tips subscribe to Be a B2B Leader in your favorite app.

Timestamps:

(00:05) - Intro

(00:45) - What should every B2B leader know if they want to break into a new market segment?

(03:45) - How to determine the size of a market

(05:30) - What questions should you ask during customer research

(08:20) - Learning what people care about when exploring a new segment. structure the buying committee in a new segment

(10:10) - Role of trust

(11:30) - How to explain the need for a budget for research.

(13:45) - Expanding on a limited budget - PR

(16:10) - Is PR still effective

(17:50) - Sharing expertise without giving out the secret sauce and the role of consultants

(21:40) - Hiring experts from industries you want to break into

(23:50) - Experts aren't always experts

(29:20) - What's the biggest takeaway - you can not know your customer well enough, you have to understand them emotionally

(33:30) - Where can you find Dave and how he can help you

https://davidpoulos.com/ - website

davidpoulos.com/blog - whitepaper - getting inside your customer's head

David on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgpoulos/

Many companies want to go global, but many fail because of wrong assumptions or strategies. In this episode, you'll learn what they should focus on and what every B2B Leader can do to set the company up for success. You'll learn why companies should go global and why cost optimization shouldn't be your primary reason.

Our guest is Patrick Jamal the president of global operations at Maxima Consulting. Patrick explains how every country is different and what approach we should take to see the ROI in Going Global. Later in the interview, he tells us how your network can help expand your business and why relationships matter.

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:04) - What should every B2B Leader know about operating globally

(03:30) - Why are you going there? - what that place can offer you?

(04:40) - What's the best reason to go abroad? - and why the price benefit is not what it was some time ago

(07:10) - Each country is different and you are the guest

(08:30) - Everyone has problems

(12:00) - How to pick the best locations for IT operations

(15:57) - Best advice, set the expectations

(17:16) - How to get the first hire right

(20:30) - Build your network and ask for help

(23:45) - When can you see the ROI of an expansion?

(27:20) - Do bigger investments destroy the market?

(29:45) - Takeaway - be honest and nothing happens overnight

(32:55) - Where you can find Patrick

Patrick on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickjamal/

Maxima Consulting - https://maximaconsulting.com/

By listening to this episode you'll learn why you should start creating content with input from Subject Matter Experts. Victor Ijidola the Founder of Premium Content Shop tells us about the idea of T-shaped content that has to provide value for your business and your audience.

He shares how we can leverage thought leadership content in marketing and where it really makes sense. On top of that, he tells us about two distribution strategies to ensure our audience sees the content we produce. We talk about the role of SEO and why the approach to creating content in many businesses is broken.

Timestamps:

(01:00) - What is t-shaped content and how to leverage it in marketing?

(02:30) - How to identify what's valuable for your audience

(03:30) - When to involve subject matter experts in content creation

(05:50) - Is such content more valuable

(08:10) - SEO vs thought leadership

(11:50) - how to ensure your ICP sees your content - 2 strategies

(14:40) - how do you test if your content is interesting

(17:50) - how to approach SEO - video

(19:30) - creating content in a "difficult" niche

(22:10) - how to structure "thought leadership" content

(23:55) - Why you shouldn't fully outsource content

(27:00) - What's the biggest takeaway: work with subject matter experts

(30:10) - Where you can find Victor

Premium Content Shop - https://premiumcontentshop.com/

Victor on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/content-strategist-victor/

I had a problem with my microphone this time, so the quality isn't as good as it was before. However, I wanted to launch this episode because Nemanja shared a lot of great insights for all people who work in B2B.

Buyer behaviors change, and so does the internet. In this episode, you will learn how to adapt to this situation. Nemanja Zivkovic the CEO of Funky Marketing tells us what the sales/marketing landscape looks like today.

He shares how you can impact the buyer journey to ensure your Ideal Customers have a great experience from the first moment they interact with your brand. And he tells us the story of how he started Funky Marketing without previous experience in B2B.

In this episode, you will also learn if you should pay attention to competitors. Nemanja has an interesting take on it. But he also shares why a unique Point of View is an unfair advantage in business.

Timestamps:

(00:45) - What should every B2B Leader know about buyers?

(04:10) - Do all decision-makers change their behavior?

(06:40) - How can we ensure a great buying experience?

(10:30) - How do you learn how people buy in a situation where you are launching a new product/service?

(13:30) - Is fostering relationships the key to success in B2B?

(15:55) - Can you control the buyer journey?

(19:30) - Creating and damming demand.

(21:50) - How to start creating demand with a low budget?

(28:00) - NICHE DOWN

(29:30) - Biggest takeaway from Nemanja- have a unique POV

(31:15) - Where you can find Nemanja and how can he help you?

(32:20) - Who should I interview next?

Nemanja on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zivkovicnemanja/

Funky Marketing - https://www.funkymarketing.net/

Funky Marketing Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/funkymarketing/

Funky Marketing Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/funkymarketing.net/

Funky Marketing Twitter - https://twitter.com/funkyymarketing

Today's guest is Mark Evans - a fractional CMO who helps B2B companies improve their marketing.

By listening to this episode you will learn about positioning in the market. What it is and why every company should do a positioning exercise. Mark shares how it influences your business, your employees, and your clients. He explains why most businesses do it once and then forget about it for a long time.

We learn that positioning doesn’t have to be something big like Nike’s “Just do it”, it can be simple as long as it matters to your customers. Mark tells us how to do a positioning exercise and how often we should check if our message resonates. He also explains what you can do to appeal to different types of customers when your solution can be applied in various verticals.

Timestamps:

(00:49) - What should every B2B Leader know about positioning? - video

(02:20) - How to do a positiong exercies

(08:20) - Does it have to be fancy and broad? Or is a simple strategy enough?

(10:55) - blue ocean and talking to customers

(12:40) - A story about a polish company that didn't adapt and what Mark finds when doing positioning exercises

(16:05) - Are customers more likely to share feedback with a consultant than a business owner

(20:07) - How do you identify if your customers care about their positioning?

(22:10) - umbrella positioning and why positioning is an internal exercise

(26:00) - What's the biggest takeaway from our conversation?

(27:40) - How often should you do the positioning exercises?

(29:20) - Where you can find Mark and what he does

Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markev/

Mark’s website - https://www.marketingspark.co/

Today's guest is Adam Knihtila - the CFO for Growth-Minded Digital Marketing Agency Owners.

By listening to this episode you will learn the most essential thing every B2B Leader should know about finance. Adam tells us what metrics we should focus on. Why each company should have an ultimate goal and how our priorities change based on it. We also talk about what an entrepreneur should do if they just want to sustain a business.

At a later point, Adam explains the role the finance team plays in the whole strategy of the company. Moreover, he explains why the finance team "holds the strings" and why we have to have conversations.

Timestamps:

00:50 - What should every B2B Leader know about finance? - everybody should understand how their work impacts the company's revenue 

03:57 - What are the metrics we should focus on? - how to define what metrics even matter

11:05 - Why is it important to have an ultimate goal in the business? and how your priorities change based on it

14:30 - What should you focus on when you want to sustain a business

16:20 - you don't always have to grow your business

20:40 - What do most people get wrong when it comes to financing

24:00 - the finance team is there to make sure the business is going in the right direction

24:55  If someone wants to move into a leadership role, what's the best thing they can do from a financial perspective?

28:50 - 2 sentences  What's the biggest takeaway from our conversation

29:25  - Where you can find Adam 

30:44 - Who should I interview next? 

Adam Kae Group - https://www.adamkae.com/

Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamknihtila/

In this episode, our guest is Nick Bennett the Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing at Alyce and the creator of Rep Your Brand Podcast.

We dive deep into personal branding. Nick shares with us how his brand impacted his career and Alyce, but he also explains how it can impact you once you start building your own. You will learn some practical tips and how you can get started today.

In the second part of the conversation, we discuss if every business owner should start working on their personal brand. There are a number of ways to do it and it's worth it when executed right. Nick explains why you don't have to post on LinkedIn every day, but it's good to have a presence in your industry.

Timestamps:

00:44 - When did Nick start building his brand and how it looked like at the beginning

03:20 - What is Field Marketing

05:50 - What should every B2B leader know about personal branding?

08:20 - should everyone in the company create their own brand

10:30 - How has Nick's brand impacted his career and the company he works for

14:10 - Does it also impact recruitment

16:00 - What does evangelism mean

12:30 - Why is it important and what areas of business does it impact?

19:10 - How can people start building their brands? and how nick would start it

21:15 - How do you identify what you have to say?

24:40 - How to deal with criticism - his personal experiences

28:20 - Should every business owner build a brand?

29:50 - BUILDING IN PUBLIC

31:30 - Mix of sales and marketing leader

34:30 - Where you can find Nick and Alyce

Nick on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/

Alyce - https://www.alyce.com/

In this episode Ryan shares with us why we have to approach marketing with a business mindset. He tells us that we have less control than we think and that marketing leaders have to be aware of that. We learn a few things about customer research, including how it impacts our approach to business and if the way we spend money makes sense.

Ryan makes a great point about customer research: it's not about the questions you ask, but about the insights you want to get. Businesses face problems, but if you understand why the problem exists in the first place, then you can build a stronger connection with your audience.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:40 - What should every b2b marketing leader know about business?

06:30 - Approach marketing with a business mindset

10:10 - How to learn to speak with executivess?

11:00 - How to work as a team with other people in the company

16:00 - How can customer research impact our approach to business and who should do this research?

21:45 - What are the 3 questions we have to ask our clients if we want to build a solid GTM strategy?

25:52 - How you can approach people to ask for interviews?

30:00 - how to learn about your audience if you have a very small TAM

35:00 - Where you can find Ryan

Links:

Content Lift - https://www.contentlift.io/

Ryan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-paul-gibson

The Definitive List of B2B Customer Interview Questions - https://www.contentlift.io/customer-interview-questions

Course on customer research - https://ryanpaulgibson.gumroad.com/l/suzriq?layout=discover&recommended_by=search