With new technologies and new channels, the buying process has changed. The data shows that sales people who engage prospective buyers via social channels close more sales. In this episode of Expert Opinion, Jill Rowley - acclaimed by Forbes as one of the world's top social sellers - sits down to explain why social is such a vital role in the sales funnel and how B2B brands should approach social selling.

Founding Partner Alan Brew discusses business strategy and brand strategy with Wendy Newman, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing at AMN Healthcare. Numerous acquisitions coupled with organic growth and constant changes in the healthcare arena led AMN Healthcare to re-evaluate their brand and how to position the organization for future success.

Transforming a legacy brand means transforming the ways in which an organization engages with consumers. In this episode of Expert Opinion, Founding Partner Alan Brew sits down with Jason Bartlett, Xerox Global VP of Digital Marketing, to explore how Xerox is reinventing itself and changing long-standing perceptions of the brand through a forward-thinking and consumer-focused content marketing strategy.

The internal tribes of organizations are the foundation for a company's success or failure. In this episode of Expert Opinion, Founding Partner Ryan Rieches interviews Dave Logan, author of Tribal Leadership and President of CultureSync - a business management and consulting firm - to discuss the role of tribes in business organizations.  

Customers are searching for greater leadership beyond your service or product offering — they are looking to brands to take on bigger issues and truly engage with them. In this podcast from September 2012, BrandingBusiness Foudning Partner Ray Baird talks with Derek Creevey, Executive Vice President at Edelman, to discuss how today’s media environment and customer demands are ever-evolving and how PR practitioners should be influencing policy and brand strategies for their clients. Creevey uses examples of companies that are effectively putting their purpose behind the brand and shifting from selling to enabling people to buy into that purpose.

What are the general thoughts around branding strategy post recession? BrandingBusiness Founding Partner Ryan Rieches talks with Bill MacElroy, CEO and Founder of Socratic Technologies, to discuss the findings of a recent global study which gathered insight from senior marketing and business executives around their attitudes towards branding and their key areas of focus in terms of branding over the next 18 months. During the radio show originally recorded in August 2012, MacElroy explores key findings of the study (focused specifically on B2B).

Going through a rebranding and renaming process with an established, successful company can be like renaming your child. There is a great deal of emotion involved and past history to take into consideration. But, as companies grow and evolve and confront ever-changing business dynamics, the brand name and positioning may need to be evaluated. BrandingBusiness Founding Partner Ryan Rieches talks with Jason Rose, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Inovalon (the new name of MedAssurant) about the process that established companies go through when re-evaluating their brand name and positioning strategy. In this radio show from July 2012, Rose explains how MedAssurant went through a holistic brand evaluation to understand how the brand was currently being perceived in the healthcare marketplace, and how BrandingBusiness guided them through the process of changing their name and introducing it both internally and externally.

The ultimate outcome companies want is for their customers to be emotionally bonded to their brand, to be in a vested relationship with the brand. In this episode of Expert Opinion from June 2012, BrandingBusiness Founding Partner Ryan Rieches talks with Dr. Joesph Michelli, President & Founder of The Michelli Experience, about how brands go about creating the total customer experience. Whether B2C or B2B, branded customer experiences create true differentiators in the marketplace. When brands not only try to meet the operational needs of their customers, but prove to care about their happiness and success, this is when brands stand apart from others.

Business success can often be attributed to consistency – consistency when it comes to quality, overall look and messaging, and customer service. In this episode of Expert Opinion from May 2012, BrandingBusiness Founding Partner Ryan Rieches talks with Brett Wood, President & CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America (TMHNA) about the ways in which the B2B division of Toyota leverages the brand equity, values and philosophies associated with the automotive brand. A common hurdle for B2Bs, Wood shares how TMHNA defines its key customers – both dealer partners and end–user customers – and how they develop consistent messaging that speaks to both.