Frenemies - Where growth meets reality

Playbooks, by now they're a buzzword, and yet too many B2B companies fail at creating, maintaining, and implementing playbooks that Sales and Marketing need. In this episode Ahmet and Julia dive deeper into what kind of playbooks are needed, why they're important, and what needs to be in them. 

Topics discussed in the episode:

• Do playbooks reduce creativity?
• Sales onboarding with vs without playbooks
• What is Demand Generation Playbook
• How playbooks help new employees
• What needs to be in an effective Sales playbook
• Why the CRM is an important part of a playbook
• Do we need standardized outreach cadences?
• Standardization vs. Creativity
• Why Marketing needs a playbook as well
• Why it's more fun to work in Sales and Marketing

The tech stack is much talked about and in this episode Julia and Ahmet take a deep dive into the tools and solutions Sales and Marketing need. This is an episode full of name dropping, recommendation, and useful tips on the most important sales and marketing tools that make a difference in the day-to-day work of busy marketers and sellers. 

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Who has the biggest tech stack - Sales vs Marketing
• What team adopts technology more
• CRM and Marketing automation tools
• The tools needed to analyze, track, and optimize
• LinkedIn tools and post scheduling
• AI: what are the tools actually worth the cost
• Project management tools - when is it time to invest in them
• Analytics and dashboarding
• Do you need sales content management
• Are sales intelligence tools actually worth the cost?

You want to keep up with the newest tools on the market and stay ahead of the game? We can recommend Poduct Hunt to do exactly that: https://www.producthunt.com/

As both Julia and Ahmet started new jobs four months ago they are talking onboarding and training in this episode focusing on what training Sales and Marketing need to perform at their best.

Topics they discuss in this episode:

• What does Marketing need to know to be fully onboarded?
• What does the perfect Sales onboarding look like?
• How onboarding differs between startups and enterprises
• Why we love playbooks
• How do you stay up to date in Sales?
• How do you keep up with market trends?

This episode is a personal one: Ahmet and Julia take a tour back memory lane and talk about their first work experiences, how they ended up pursuing careers in Sales and Marketing, and how they ended up doing a podcast. Most importantly, in this episode they discuss what they truly love about Sales and Marketing. 

We need Sales - all of us can agree on that in the B2B industry. But we also hate Sales. That's why Julia and Ahmet talk about the root of the Frenemies relationship between Sales and Marketing starting with everything they hate about Sales. 

While Julia has a lot of experience being a prospect and working with the Sales department, Ahmet gives an inside view on what Sales is currently lacking, and why people can hate Sales. 

Topics they discuss in this episode:

• Why Sales isn't a team sport
• Does Sales have to be pushy?
• Is the Sales quota what makes everything so difficult?
• How sellers always find a shortcut

We love marketing, but we also hate marketing. That's why Julia and Ahmet talk about the root of the Frenemies relationship between Sales and Marketing starting with everything they hate about marketing. 

Naturally, Ahmet has a lot of experience collaborating or not collaborating with the Marketing department. Julia uncovers what she hates about marketing as an experienced marketer. 

Topics they discuss in this episode:

• Is Marketing just a bunch of ideas and no follow-through?
• The downside of Marketing being so visible
• How Marketing can approach Sales to collaborate well
• Why Marketing emails suck and how to fix that
• Why Marketers are excellent data analysts
• What Sellers need from Marketing
• Why every departments thinks they have the toughest job

This week there is no episode of Frenemies, because we are using our reach to raise awareness to support Turkey in this situation. 

Your help and your donation is needed to support the affected people and areas who lost their homes, their family members, and their livelihood. 

Here is the list of organizations that are safe and need any donation:

• AFAD: https://www.afad.gov.tr/depremkampanyasi2
• UOSSM: https://www.uossm.org/donate
• Ahbap Foundation: https://bagis.ahbap.org/bagis
• OXFAM: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/
• AKUT: https://www.akut.org.tr/en/donation

We thank you for your support and time,

Ahmet and Julia

We're playing buzzword bingo - covering the most important buzzwords in the world of B2B Sales and Marketing. Naturally, Julia and Ahmet drift off from talking buzzwords to talking about the challenges in Marketing and Sales and the collaboration between the two departments. 

Questions discussed in the episode are:

• What is high quality content?
• How should a prospect be qualified?
• Do eBook downloads matter?
• Why is the ICP so important?
• Is Growth Marketing a thing?

And the biggest question of all: who will win the buzzword bingo?

In this episode of Frenemies Julia and Ahmet talk about what nobody really wants to talk about: their fuckups. What did they fail at in 2022, did they learn anything from their fuckups, and can you turn fuckups into wins? 

The fuckups they cover in this episode:

• A Sales gift gone wrong
• Job interviews
• The long list of Marketing fuckups
• Non-functioning demo buttons
• Prioritizing quantity over quality
• Products trying to be the best at everything
• Underrating outreach methods
• Overcomplicating things
• Implementing a demand generation approach
• Perfection vs. Activation: where's the balance

In this episode of Frenemies Ahmet and Julia talk about the Start of the calendar year versus the end of the calendar year. Each of these time periods has its own challenges and they talk about how Sales and Marketing experience these periods, which one is easier for each department, what trends they typically see going on, and what people should be aware of. 
They also cover the following questions:

• What Sales and Marketing have in common at the start of the year
• Why the end of the year often leads to low-impact initiatives
• Why companies tend to over-sell their product
• Are Sales and Marketing just making wrong claims?
• Why sellers give discounts at the end of the year
• Why the Sales system is broken