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Bits about Books episodes
- Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Ted McKenna, Author, “The Jolt Effect”
Ted McKenna is one of the world’s leading experts in sales, business development, and customer experience and a co-author of the bestselling book The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision. His research frequently appears in the pages of Harvard Business Review and he is a founding partner of DCM Insights, a boutique consultancy focused on using data and research-backed frameworks to help companies attract, retain, and grow their customers.
Ted is an expert in analyzing behaviours—of customers, doer-sellers, frontline sales & service agents, leaders, and board members—and applying analytics in various forms of content, products, and services. At Tethr, Ted worked on mining unstructured conversational data using advanced data science and leading AI/ML tools to build models, scores, and behavioural frameworks of which the most well-known model is the Tethr Effort Index. Previous roles called for deploying syndicated research methods to mine more structured sources such as surveys, diagnostics, demographics, and job data.
Ted McKennaThe Jolt Effect- “The Jolt Effect” is based upon studies of real buyer-seller conversations, using statistical and AI methods to understand what results in a sale, what factors result in negative effects, and what more successful salespersons can do differently when deals don’t seem to progress.
- One of the startling discoveries the author talks about is the fact that buyers are extremely jittery in making decisions precisely because there is an overload of information these days. To minimize risk, they often delay or abandon purchases.
- When buyers stall, sellers assume that they have not been able to convince the buyer with enough information. So they end up piling more information and somehow bring on the fear of missing out on an opportunity. This has negative effects since the buyer is already fearful of making a mistake they might regret later. Most of these engagements result in “no deal”. Instead, the seller must help the buyer as if they were advising their best friend on a purchase.
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Run time – 57.01 mins.
58 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Emilia Korczynska, Author, “Content Operations”
Emilia Korczynska is a Head of Marketing at Userpilot, a Product-Growth Platform for SaaS companies. She’s especially interested in product-led growth, product marketing and content marketing in SaaS companies.
Emilia KorczynskaContent Operations – How to Build and Scale your Content Ops- The author describes content operations as the whole process of planning, creating, optimizing and scaling up content delivery for measured outcomes. This process starts with careful planning, and keyword research to build reach by targeting SEO metrics. This entails organizing content hierarchy for crawl ability.
- Emilia outlines organizing content plans in content epics, SOPS for scaling, and using tools such as Asana, Notion and Google Sheets for a team play for content at scale, as well as the less well-known SurferSEO and StoryChief.
- The book also details roles that are required in the content team for operations at scale. These include writers, content editors, proofreaders, and the head of content. The book is meant to serve as a resource for content managers and heads of content and marketing, both in-house and in agencies.
Run time – 64.08 mins.
1 hr 5 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Stu Heinecke, Author, “How To Grow Your Business Like A Weed”
Dubbed by the American Marketing Association the “Father of Contact Marketing,” Stu Heinecke is a Wall Street Journal cartoonist, hall of fame-nominated marketer, and the bestselling author of “How to Get a Meeting with Anyone” and “Get the Meeting!” Stu is also the founder of Cartoonists.org, a group of WSJ and New Yorker cartoonists who donate their art to help charities raise funds.
Stu HeineckeHow To Grow Your Business Like A Weed- Weeds are resilient and aggressive and propagate even amidst the most difficult of conditions. The author examines their behavior, and what enables them to perform so well. While we do look at weeds as impediments, and we would like to remove them, they come right back. This property of being resilient, however, should be a desirable quality for businesses. Stu Heinecke develops a model for business growth based on the strategies used by weeds to propagate.
- The book dives deep into the weeds model and expands on insights gathered from business leaders, government functionaries, and stars from the world of entertainment. It goes on to explain the W.E.E.D.S. model that can help businesses grow, expand, dominate, and defend.
- Stu Heinecke develops strategies such as Seed Pod Strategy, Seed Strategy, Thorn Strategy, Soil Strategy, Root Strategy, and so on, each aimed at achieving a certain objective. For writing the book the author also had to learn about the biology, nature, environment, and life cycle of weeds in general, as well as specific weed plants. The book is illustrated with some of these plants and gives a brief introduction to these plants.
Run time – 55.02 mins.
56 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Justin Michael, Author, Sales Superpowers
Justin Michael is a world-record-breaking, outbound sales maven who has arguably built the deepest client acquisition methodology of all time: the Justin Michael Method (JMM). It’s driven over 1B in pipeline for 200+ startups and over 25K reps he’s advised. Ex Salesforce and LinkedIn, Justin is the global authority on AI-based outbound prospecting alongside legends like Aaron Ross, Josh Braun, and Mark Roberge.
His counterintuitive, mobile-responsive, neuroscience-backed visual prospecting methodology made him a million-dollar earner and helped countless startups scale past 10M ARR. Justin is the bestselling author of Tech-Powered Sales, which proved that over 75% of the top funnel can be automated by raising your technology quotient (TQ). He lives in Los Angeles, California, advising top SaaS technology CROs and teams on bleeding-edge revenue models.
Justin MichaelSales Superpowers- Sales Superpowers develop a methodology to consistently perform better in cold outreach. According to the author, being consistent and achieving a target number of outreach is better even if the quality of outreach is somewhat less than excellent, than being exceptional on only two days of the week.
- The author teaches the power of personalization and how to research the prospect so as to enable meaningful messages that don’t look like they are part of a mass campaign. He shows how to use current technology to leverage the best of both worlds and use omni-channel messaging to reach prospects through all available channels.
- The author explains neuroscience, game theory, and negotiation, to help sales professionals overcome reluctance and instead serve the client’s best interests. His methods are ultimately very scalable and adaptable to the personal workflows of salespersons.
Run time – 40.22 mins.
41 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Mark W Schaefer, Author, “Belonging To The Brand”
Mark W Schaefer is a globally recognized author, keynote speaker, futurist, and business consultant who blogs at {grow} — one of the top five marketing blogs in the world. He teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written 10 best-selling books. Mark’s new book, “Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy” describes an essential new path to connect to customers in the modern digital world.
Mark’s many global clients include Pfizer, Cisco, Dell, Adidas, and the US Air Force. He has been a keynote speaker at prestigious events all over the world, including SXSW, Marketing Summit Tokyo, and the Institute for International and European Affairs. Mark has appeared as a guest on media channels such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CBS News.
Mark W SchaeferBelonging To The Brand- In this book, the author explains why other selling methods such as cold outreach and inbound are failing to get us the results in an increasingly noisy and disconnected world. This is why the community has become critically important for creating a social continuum that draws in people with similar and relevant interests to engage. Engagement is the cornerstone of being able to exchange ideas that ultimately lead to sustained interest in products and services.
- Many organizations mistake an audience for a community. Social media creates an audience. The difference is, that it is mostly a one-way communication of ideas. A community is different in the sense that every participant communicates ideas. New tools and platforms such as Discord provide the ability to create communities that encourage engagement from all participants. The three distinguishing features of a community are Connection, Purpose, and Relevance.
- Most communities fail because there is a mismatch between company culture and the needs of the customer community. The book details five aspects of company culture that make a community flourish. The book has interviews and case studies and builds a community framework to help organizations go about creating their community.
Run time – 47.07 mins.
48 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Gretchen Gordon, Author, “The Happy Sales Manager”
Gretchen Gordon, a self-proclaimed sales nerd, is far from your ordinary sales expert. After a disastrous Girl Scout cookie-selling experience and a P&G sales gig that left her questioning her career choice in sales, Gretchen decided to face her fears head-on. With a lot of grit and determination, she transformed herself into an award-winning salesperson and was soon promoted to sales manager. Initially proud, she quickly became frustrated and overwhelmed as she felt ill-equipped to perform as a manager. Fortunately, she channeled her inner sales need to learn the secrets to successful sales management.
Now, after nearly 40 years in and around sales, having studied the science associated with success, and after helping hundreds of sales managers grow out of their frustration and stress, Gretchen is determined to create an army of happy sales managers. She wrote “The Happy Sales Manager” to make it easier for the many people who find themselves leading a sales team but feel overwhelmed and underqualified as she once did.
Gretchen leads a team of sales experts at her company, Braveheart Sales, with a mission to cultivate sales organizations so sellers can sell, and leaders can lead. A sought-after keynote speaker, she focuses on the skillset and mindset of sales and sales leadership. When she’s not changing the sales world, Gretchen is an avid competitive golfer, wife, proud mother of grown children, and fur-mom to two Shih Tzus.
Gretchen GordonThe Happy Sales Manager- Sales Managers, once promoted from their roles in frontline sales, often find themselves ill-equipped for their new tasks. Crucially, they often don’t even realize what their core task is. This book talks about key areas that sales managers must focus on, the key competencies to master, and tactical elements that make for great sales leadership.
- Once a salesperson is pushed up to the designation of a manager, they should no longer have a quota, and should not continue to be the rain-maker. Selling and managing are entirely different skills, and you can be focused on only one. Frequently, the sales manager fails because they cannot change their mindset from selling to managing. A key difference in the management mindset is that of a team focus. Since sales are often about individual skills, salespeople often do not have the DNA to make that jump from an individual player to a team player.
- The author dives into details such as coaching as an integral competency to master for the managing function, as well as tactical processes such as conducting meetings. Sales meetings should not, according to her, delve into targets, as these are best spoken about individually with stakeholders.
Run time – 50.57 mins.
51 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Joey Coleman, Author, “Never Lose An Employee Again”
For over twenty years, Joey Coleman has helped organizations like Whirlpool, NASA, Volkswagen Australia, Principal Financial, and Zappos boost their customer and employee experience and turn them into raving fans via his entertaining and actionable keynotes, workshops, and consulting projects. His First 100 Days® methodology helps fuel the successful experiences his clients deliver around the world. His two books have received critical acclaim, and both were instant Wall Street Journal best sellers. In “Never Lose a Customer Again”, Joey shared strategies and tactics for turning one-time purchasers into lifelong customers – while dramatically increasing profits along the way. His second book, “Never Lose an Employee Again”, which we discuss today, details a framework that companies around the world can use to reduce turnover and increase employee engagement.
Joey ColemanJoey works with companies ranging from small VC-funded start-ups to large Fortune 500s, with hundreds of mid-size businesses in between. He developed his narrative skills as a criminal defense trial attorney, advised and counselled Fortune 500 companies as a business consultant, and honed his communications and messaging skills at the White House.
His design and artwork have been displayed in museums, featured in juried shows, and graced publications in the U.S. and abroad. When not travelling the world for keynote presentations, client workshops, and quality beach time, Joey enjoys playing board games, building LEGO sets, and reading bedtime stories with his amazing wife and two young sons.
Never Lose An Employee Again- In his book Joey talks about eight phases of engagement between employees and organizations. Remarkably, engagement starts right from when the employee starts assessing an organization, and that happens much earlier than the first day of work. By the time the employee arrives to work, they are already on the fourth phase.
- It is dollars saved when employee retention is higher. This is true for so many reasons. So, companies must strive to provide ’employee experience’ in the same manner as they strive to deliver ‘customer experience’. Companies which place their employees as priority also seem to do well on measures of customer experience.
- Employees do want to be paid, but that is not their main goal. Their main goal is a quality of life, and companies must pay attention to the goals of their employees, help them achieve these, and celebrate their successes. The book uses case studies of extraordinary organizations from across the world— all seven continents, to show how they achieved outstanding results in employee experience.
Run time – 58.18 mins.
59 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Melina Palmer, Author, “What Your Customer Wants And Can’t Tell You”Melina PalmerWhat Your Customer Wants And Can’t Tell You
- In “What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You”, the author Melina Palmer uses research in behavioral economics to understand and explain why people buy. Collected from insights gathered over years of producing her podcast, The Brainy Business, Melina demonstrates how to avoid cognitive biases that lead to errors in judgment.
- The Brainy Business started with understanding the psychology of why people buy and later expanded to include the psychology of why employees buy-in. The author’s aim is to help companies understand psychology so that they can communicate in a more people-friendly or brain-friendly way that is ultimately more effective.
- Most importantly, she says, our brains don’t really work the way we think they do, that is, the assumption of rationality. Before we start creating models that can be applied, it is important to understand the theoretical concepts behind behaviors and habits, which can then be used as a base for building a corporate strategy that drives results.
Run time – 65.47 mins.
1 hr 6 min - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Purna Virji, Author, “High-Impact Content Marketing”Purna VirjiHigh-Impact Content Marketing
- Most advice on marketing is limited to generalizations such as “know your audience”. Yet, when marketers put out marketing content, they find that it performs pretty poorly in terms of engagement and results. The author, Purna Virji, wanted to dig deeper to find out what exactly fails, what works, and what should the day-to-day strategies be for content-based marketers.
- “High-Impact Content Marketing” offers more than just a strategy on content creation and delivery— it is also a guide with models, frameworks, checklists and exercises that tell marketers the exact “how”.
- The strategy is to first determine the business outcome desired. But the aim of marketing is not necessarily to close the sale but drive a behavior change. For example, for a new car, marketing might aim to make the audience take a test drive. For that they need to make the prospective customer land up at the showroom. These and other insights create the framework of a robust, end-to-end content-marketing guide presented by Purna Virji.
Run time – 59.16 mins.
1 hr - Bizcast: Bits about books – In Conversation with Peter E. Cohan, Author, “Great Demo!”In Conversation with Peter E. Cohan, Author, "Great Demo!". He speaks to Subhanjan Sarkar in this episode on his book, "Great Demo!"1 hr 8 min
About Bits about Books
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Business Podcast Network produces podcasts for B2B brands, Sales and Marketing Teams, SAAS products, Startups and HR teams, helping organizations to connect with audiences and build brand stories.