In this episode of the Centricity podcast, our host, Will Riley, meets with Eddie Yoon, one of the authors of The 22 Laws of Category Design: Name & Claim Your Niche, Share Your POV, And Move The World From Where It Is To Somewhere Different. They talk about the ultimate business strategy - category design - which uses a passion for change and the need to upend the status quo to drive innovation and growth.

Category Design - The Ultimate Strategy

• Instead of competing against other businesses or trying to come out at the top of your field, category design is about competing against the status quo.

• Companies that subscribe to a “Be Different” mentality grow quickly, but many are too risk-averse to go in this direction.

• Leaders in these businesses care deeply about their products and believe in what the company produces - they’re frustrated by current societal standards and want to create change.

Types of Category Designers

• Accidental designers are those who create something great that explodes but don’t know why and can’t replicate their success.

• Serial designers are innovators who consistently create successful products that they support and care about.

Resources

Reach out to Eddie via email at [email protected]

Follow Eddie on Twitter @eddiewouldgrow

The 22 Laws of Category Design by Category Pirates, Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, Katrina Kirsch, Nicolas Cole - pick it up on Amazon

In this episode of the Centricity podcast, our host Will Riley meets with Jeremy Miner, author of The New Model of Selling: Selling to an Unsellable Generation. They discuss meeting new challenges as a seller

It’s Time For Sellers to Adapt

• More than ever before, consumers have access to plenty of information about all of the products people are trying to sell to them. They no longer need a salesperson to be their consultant.

• It’s good to learn about foundational elements of sales from older books, but they focus on “transactional selling,” which is less and less relevant.

• Prospects are used to being sold to. When they hear “salesy” talk, they shut down - sellers need to build actual trust with prospects through tonality and asking the right questions.

Moving Beyond Logic

• When a seller seems aggressive or desperate, prospects shut down. Using different tones and facial expressions, you can open them up.

• Prospects are predisposed to say “no” when you start selling to them. Ask them questions like, “Are you opposed to discussing this further?” Make the ‘no’ work for you!

• Stay away from surface-level questions if you are interested in deeper answers. 

Resources

SalesRevolution.pro

To dig deeper into these topics and many more, pick up a copy of The New Model of Selling: Selling to an Unsellable Generation by Jeremy Miner and Jerry Acuff on BarnesandNoble.com.

In this episode of the Centricity podcast, our host Will Riley meets with Connor Jeffers, the founder and CEO of Aptitude 8 and hapily. They dig deep into digital systems and get specific about finding a tech stack that finds a balance between sophistication and efficiency.

Choosing a Solution

• Consultative sellers have to understand the pain and needs of the companies they’re working with, because buyers may not exactly know the terminology for what they actually want.

• A8 helps customers create what they want to build, and then they build it. On the other hand, hapily offers standard functionality and if you have needs beyond that, you will need to seek them elsewhere.

Independent Software Vendor vs Systems Integrator

• Aptitude 8, for all intents and purposes, an integrator. While they can create a setup entirely through HubSpot, but they do end up integrating, especially for larger companies.

• Security-wise, they have access to a lot of data. They have systems in place to ensure that data is safe.

• When working with big organizations, there is a responsibility to ensure that the new systems work better than the original. There is a lot of risk involved for the organization.

Takeaways About Sales/Marketing

• Learn about relational databases, software models, etc. to ramp up your understanding of what you’re selling in general.

• Get educated on APIs. You don’t necessarily need to be a coder to have a basic grasp on what an API is!

Resources

Connect with Connor Jeffers on LinkedIn

Aptitude8.com

In this episode of the Centricity podcast, our host Sean Doyle meets with Cecilia Lang Ree, the Senior Product Manager at Biolinq. They discuss applying behavior science to create more effective, successful marketing strategies. 

Why Apply Behavior Science to Marketing?

• This gives marketing professionals a science-based framework to start from when creating profiles of their prospects rather than relying on trial and error.

• People are often motivated by unconscious factors – even if you’re surveying them and getting responses, they may not be able to tell you a complete picture of what they’re experiencing and why.

• The transtheoretical model maps out how people experience changes in behavior. Marketers need to be familiar with the stages of behavior change in order to have targeted techniques throughout the buyer journey.

The Bridge Between Awareness and Action

• Awareness is not enough to change people’s behavior. 

• Understanding intrinsic motivation can help us develop a step-by-step process that can take someone from knowing about your product to choosing to purchase.

Getting Started

• Get excited about the science. Learn it and teach it to anyone who is interested. 

• Cecilia lists some of her favorite resources - see below!

Resources

Connect with Cecilia Lang-Ree on LinkedIn! 

What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You by Melina Palmer

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing by Nancy Harhut

Start at the End by Matt Wallaert 

Changing for Good by James O. Prochaska

BehavioralScientists.org

Irrational Labs

In this episode of the Centricity podcast, our host Sean Doyle sits down with Ian Altman, author of Same Side Selling, to talk through the three most damaging sales tactics. Tune in to hear the importance of understanding and solving the buyer’s problems, focusing on results, and building buyer trust through tactful language.

Focusing on Features and Benefits

• Lead with exploring the “symptoms” the buyer may be dealing with rather than trying to solve a problem they don’t know they have.

• Focus on meeting your client’s goals and how your product will deliver those results.

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Time Sensitivity)

• Focusing on these types of questions creates a “salesy” atmosphere and puts the client in an adversarial position, which causes sellers to lose buyer trust.

• It’s okay to discuss needs and time sensitivity, but if you start with budget and authority, you’ve already put your buyer on the defensive.

• If you want to talk about budget, instead, try bringing up the costs of NOT addressing the issues your product will solve. 

Forgetting the Buyer

• Know what problem you solve and present that to your contact at whatever level they’re at in the industry.

• Align with marketing to understand your buyer and their needs better. If marketing tools aren’t useful, let the marketing team know so they can help you!

Resources:

http://ianaltman.com

http://samesideselling.com

Pick up Ian’s book, Same Side Selling: A Radical Approach to Break Through Sales Barriers, on Amazon!

In this episode of The Centricity Podcast, our host Will Riley has Joseph Seo back on the podcast to discuss 5 AI you don’t know about (yet). Seo is the Principal Co-founder at Visual Lime Creative and Revenue Operations Specialist at Fitzmartin. Listen to their episode, “ChatGPT for B2B”, if you’d like to hear more from Will and Joseph!

 Chatbots

• ChatBots are becoming more intuitive. While they can’t replace support teams, they are great for triaging support needs.

• Fitzmartin uses Chatspot.ai by Hubspot.

 Copywriting Support

• Seo recommends trying ChatGPT-4, Writer, and Jasper. The differences are mostly about UI, so it’s worth testing them to see what works for you.

• Even though these writing tools can’t hold a candle to human creativity and writing quality, they are great for getting your process started.

 Audio/Video

• Midjourney has plenty of casual applications, but Seo doesn’t use it for business.

• AdCreative.ai is more business-relevant. Use this for high-quality ads.

 Resources

Follow Fitzmartin on LinkedIn so you never miss an episode with Joe!

For more on AI, listen to Joe and Will’s episode “ChatGPT for B2B”

In this episode of The Centricity Podcast, our host Sean Doyle meets with Timothy Hughes to discuss the power of social selling. Hughes is the author of Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers, and he creates regular content for his 32,000 LinkedIn followers. Listen in to hear how social selling can impact your organization and your sales team.

 Social Selling

• Use your presence on social media to build relationships, start conversations, and create commercial interactions. Social selling is NOT predictable pitching!

• Many buyers are immune to pitching – to them, it’s all spam. They are more likely to be interested in connecting and working with the right people.

• Tim’s social selling methods are seeing a 9% response rate from prospects and a 33.6% rate of prospects moving on to the next steps.

 Human Content

• Rather than just using social media to talk about how great your product is, connect with people by creating content that isn’t “salesy”.

• This type of posting will start conversations and make you memorable. 

• It’s not about gaming the algorithm of the platform of your choice, it’s about learning to be social on whatever platform your prospect uses.

 How to Get Started

• Create a buyer-centric profile. It’s not about you, it’s about your customer.

• Cultivate a wide and varied network. 

• Provide insightful content your client can’t find anywhere else.

 Resources

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn

Get your copy of Tim Hughes’ book “Social Selling” on Amazon!

In this episode of The Centricity Podcast, our host Will Riley meets with Joseph Seo for Part 3 of our series on cookies (if you haven’t yet, check out Part 1 and Part 2). Seo is a seasoned marketer who brings his expertise and research-driven approach to marketing strategy to this conversation about the end of third-party tracking and the way companies and agencies alike will have to evolve.

 Adjusting to a “Cookieless” Future

• The marketing industry won’t collapse, but it will be impacted. One of those impacts has been a boom in programmatic advertising. 

• Contextual advertising, or advertising on pages relevant to your product, is an effective way to market your product that doesn’t rely on cookies.

• Capture more first-party data from your website, marketing team, and customer service team. Reps will need to gather the data rather than rely on it.

• Know what kind of data your company uses. If you’re relying on Facebook and Google for your advertising, you may face less extreme changes to your strategy than companies that rely primarily on third-party data.

Effective Marketing Without Cookies

• First-party data will produce better results than third-party because consumers who volunteer to participate show a higher level of interest and commitment to your product.

• Programmatic advertising works well for mobile advertising. As people increasingly use their phones to explore web content, D2C marketing can be effective.

Current and Forthcoming Impacts

• Lower-funnel or late-stage tactics will be impacted first.

• Industries will now be forced to invest in gathering first-party data. Combining ad testing and brand lift studies will give companies more useful data than cookies, so we will likely see the development of more sophisticated campaigns.

• If your company is fairly established, consider implementing a data solution like Segment to centralize your data and simplify decision-making.

Resources

Don’t forget to check out Parts 1 and 2 of our series on cookies! 

Episode 33 The Death of the Cookie: Understanding Internet Privacy PART 1

Episode 34 The Death of the Cookie: Understanding Internet Privacy PART 2

In today’s episode of the Centricity podcast, our host Sean Doyle meets with NYT-bestselling author Jonah Berger to discuss his book Magic Words. They discuss the science behind the impact of words and how we can increase our impact simply by consciously adjusting how we communicate.

Language of “Identity”

• People are more likely to be motivated to do something if they think it reflects who they are or want to become.

• Berger offers several examples, including one that asked children to “help clean up,” vs. asking them to “be a helper,” and the latter was more effective persuasively. This works for adults, too!

“Concrete” Language

• When most people make a bold claim, they will “hedge”, or add in language of uncertainty.

• Berger recommends doing away with hedging and focusing on definite, clear terms if you want to exude confidence.

Resources

Magic Words by Jonah Berger on Amazon

For FREE resources on the SPEACC framework, check out Jonah Berger’s website, http://jonahberger.com

If you’d like to connect with Jonah, you can find him @J1Berger on Twitter, or if you search Jonah Berger on LinkedIn!

In this episode of the Centricity podcast, Sean Doyle meets with Antonia Wade, Global CMO for PwC and the author of Transforming the B2B Buyer Journey: Increase Leads, Maximize Conversion Rates and Build Loyalty. Wade draws on years of experience as a CMO to bring us the truth of what works, even when that flies in the face of what we have been taught. 

Moving Beyond the B2B Funnel

• The “funnel” is an outdated model that doesn’t take into account the layers of complexity presently involved in the sales process. Multiple stakeholders, decision-makers, and increasingly technical products make the process less straightforward than in years past.

• Funnel imagery encourages sellers to move their buyers through the process as quickly as possible without taking time to create relationships, leading to poor customer experiences and low loyalty.

The Future of Marketing

• Don’t sacrifice advertising for brand architecture or vice versa. Both are needed to appeal to stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

• Organize your marketing campaign to make data extraction easy. When you offer valuable information to your customers, the information you get back makes these relationships mutually beneficial. 

Resources

Pick up Antonia Wade’s book, Transforming the B2B Buyer Journey, on Amazon.