Inbound2Grow

An inbound operating system consists of all of the systems, programs, and tools your company uses every day. An inbound operating system keeps everyone in the organization on the same page and working toward the same mission.

An inbound operating system is important because it provides a framework for cohesion. When you think about your organization your mission is the why, the strategies you employ are the how, and the operating system enables the what. The operating system provides the tools, systems, and process you need to follow through on your mission and your MSPOT.

“Transparency without context is chaos.” – JD Sherman

Want to learn more about inbound operating systems? Check out Episode 11: What is an Inbound Operating System?

Inbound leaders hold teams accountable, but the teams come up with the plans and execute. The Inbound Operating system keeps them on track along with the MSPOT.

1. You can’t impose culture; you can only guide and influence culture
2. Document culture
3. Evaluate your operating system

Industrial Executive (https://www.toddhockenberry/theindustrialexecutive)

Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

This is it, the last episode of Inbound2Grow. It’s been a great year, and we want to thank everyone who has listened to, reviewed, read, or otherwise enjoyed the show. Inbound2Grow allowed us to explore the concepts we laid out in Inbound Organization, but we feel like we’ve covered the bases and it’s time for something new which brings us to the Industrial Executive.

The Industrial Executive podcast will pick up where we left off in Inbound2Grow except we’ll be focused on talking to actual leaders and executives in the industrial manufacturing space.

The goal of the new podcast is to focus on our primary persona, B2B executives, and their issues, which certainly include inbound and inbound organization concepts, but not exclusively. Industrial Executive will feature a new, interview format but we’ll also have an episode here and there with a format similar to Inbound2Grow, including the voice of Dan Tyre. We hope you choose to follow the new combined show at theindustrialexecutive.com.

Industrial Executive

New! Take the Inbound Organization Assessment Online (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Every company, regardless of what they sell, is impacted by technology. From the technology you use internally to track sales to the chatbot your clients use to talk to you, technology has the potential to create a superior, remarkable, and memorable customer experience.

Every piece of technology you use and your customers use to interact with you should be simple and accessible. Technology should be simple to use out of the box, easy to set up, and easy to figure out. The easier it is to use, the happier your customers are going to be. And the same goes internally. Giving good people bad systems is a recipe for employee churn.

You should also be leveraging technology to automate redundant and low-value work. Things like follow up emails, lead intelligence, lead notifications, sending emails through the CRM, and meeting tools are all opportunities for your internal technology to support and enhance the customer experience by supporting your employees. You should be using technology to create a centralized view of your customer.

Externally, tools like chatbots, knowledge bases, and conversations are opportunities to curate your customer experience. Technology should be enhancing the experience of your customers, clients, and leads.

“Inbound thinking pervades everything for us from product development to customer service to technology. We built the product based on the specific feedback of our members and the problems they wanted to solve and the relationships we have, and how we make their lives easier, so we end up having a sticky connection with them and their struggles. It all goes back to the inbound idea. It’s all about people and relationships.” Liz Connett, Fattmerchant

This is the year. Now is the time.

A centralized view of the customer is a must.  

This doesn’t have to be hard. There is a lot of great software and tools out there

There is a huge risk if you ignore the role of technology

Shop yourself!

Industrial Executive (https://www.toddhockenberry.com/theindustrialexecutive)

Is there a marketing person leading the IT team? - https://seths.blog/2018/11/is-there-a-marketing-person-leading-the-it-team/

Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

Very few companies think about how their accounting, finance, or legal departments impact their customer's success. But if you’ve ever had a bad experience wading through a 20-page legal document or spent hours on hold trying to correct a bill, you know that those interactions impact how you feel about a company as a customer. A bad enough experience with a back office department can make a customer walk away, but conversely, a great experience can support and add to the customer success journey. And that is why an inbound back office is a critical part of building an inbound organization.

A department is part of the back office if it is a non-customer facing department. This covers departments like operations, legal, and accounting as well as support staff and IT.

Back office departments aren’t traditionally customer facing, and so they tend to be less connected to the buyer, the buying journey, and the customer experience. An inbound back office pulls all of those departments into the work of curating the customer success journey.

An inbound back office takes the position that it is essential that it is easy for customers to opt-in, buy, pay, leave, understand legal requirements, access account information, and get questions answered. An inbound back office makes these processes easy and is essential for creating a unified customer experience.

In an inbound organization all of the systems in place enable your employees to help, they exist to support and solve for the customer. Often back office systems get put in place to support the company, not the customer, but every interaction builds a customer experience. Your products and customer-facing people are important, but the back office is also part of the experience and relationship. It is important that interactions with the back office are supporting the relationship and building an amazing customer experience.  

“We see legal as being a supporter of the inbound culture by helping employees prepare for and manage the responsibilities of transparency. Transparency also imposes a burden on legal. We cannot only say no but must explain our decisions regarding the culture code and the business objectives. We must be transparent with our team, including partners and vendors because we know this process builds trust.” - John Kellenher

1. Audit each touchpoint in the customer journey that the back office influences
2. Make sure all of your employees know your buyer persona and how they impact the buyer journey
3. Build MSPOTs for each of your back office teams

• Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

Ecosystems are easy to overlook. Most often the business of running a business, building and maintaining a thriving company culture, and building an inbound organization take center stage. But whether you know it or not, you’re already in an ecosystem. All of the people and companies you work with, everyone your business touches, form your ecosystem. The greatest choice you have is whether you nurture and actively build that ecosystem or simply exist in it passively.

So, what is an inbound ecosystem? Your ecosystem consists of:

• Employees
• Customers
• Vendors
• Suppliers
• Partners
• Channels
• Industry groups
• Stakeholders
• Competitors

Anyone and everyone you work with, collaborate with, or share the same space with is in your ecosystem. What makes an ecosystem inbound is actively engaging with and working toward making your ecosystem a source of value for everyone in it.

The work of creating an inbound ecosystem begins with your employees and then moves to your customers. Employees are first because you can’t have happy customers without happy employees. We’ve spent a lot of timing talking about why employees are essential, so we won’t rehash it here but if you want to learn more check out this episode (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound2grow/episode-109-putting-people-first) or this episode (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound2grow/what-is-a-culture-code).

Your customers are second because your customers are already connected digitally, you can either engage with and support those connections or ignore them. It is beneficial to you to acknowledge and engage with them. Bringing your customers into your inbound ecosystem as active participants allows you to create more value for them.

Creating value is at the heart of the inbound ecosystem. When everyone involved works to create value, everyone benefits. There is value in the connections that are made, sharing experiences, and working together to solve problems

Inbound ecosystems are strategic. Understanding them and nurturing them allows you to not only create the most value for yourself but also for everyone involved.

“It takes a network to defeat a network,” Stanley McChrystal

Because everyone is interconnected, you need to create a network or ecosystem that is better than your competitors to succeed in your marketplace.

1. Identify the ecosystems you’re already in
2. Find ways to share or co-create content
3. Co-marketing with others in your industry

• Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

If you’ve ever connected with someone on LinkedIn or got a new follower on Twitter and then immediately got a direct message asking you to check out their product/service, set up a call, or any other pitch you’ve experienced a sales fail.

Too often modern salespeople utilize outdated tactics that fall flat in the age of inbound. Time wasting cold calls, unsolicited emails, and cold outreach of all kinds are holdovers from the 90s era of spam and like Smash Mouth’s All-Star, most people in 2018 would rather not.

The worst part of pushy sales tactics is that they don’t just annoy people, they make your prospects loath you. Time wasting cold outreach where the salesperson has done zero research is less likely to land you in a spam folder and more likely to result in a prospect that will never work with you and is more than happy to tell anyone who will listen how awful you are. Cold calling is high-risk behavior.

And your prospects can tell when you haven’t done your research beforehand and are doing your qualifying on the phone. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, what they do, what they need, and how to help them, then you’re not ready to pick up the phone.

All of this isn’t to say that you can’t reach out to someone you don’t have a personal relationship with, but how you approach cold outreach and set the stage makes all the difference. If you know your prospect and can speak immediately to their problems may be, they’ll listen.

For instance, don’t start talking about your product. No one cares! Everyone cares about their problems, and if you want to succeed you need to explain how you will address/help with their problems.

If you know who they are, what they are doing, and you have connected with them in a personal way then it’s much more powerful and more likely they will be receptive to your outreach.

The goal is to build trust. Doing your research, listening to your prospects, and respecting their time are key. If you can’t check off all three of those boxes, then you’re deploying an outdated tactic that is more likely than not going to fail.

Your tactics should show that you respect your prospects, their time, and their needs. In short, your tactics need to be inbound. 

Dan’s top 3 sales fails:

1. Talking not listening!
2. Demoing, not discovering
3. Calling everyone – The riches are in the niches. Don’t call everyone it’s a waste of time

Help early. Help often. Focus on your customers.

“Inbound selling is a modern, buyer-centric form of sales where the seller prioritizes the buyer’s needs ahead of their own. Inbound salespeople focus on the buyer’s problem and context above all else. The inbound salesperson customizes their sales process and solution, should one exist. Smart leaders will take the time to learn about it, teach your sales reps how to become inbound sellers, and start using this method as a competitive advantage for your company in the age of the empowered buyer.” Brian Signorelli

It’s so important there is only one takeaway this week:

Senior leaders need to shop themselves – experience your sales and marketing experience for the point of view of the customer

• Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

This week we sit down with our friend Jill Konrath to talk about the biggest issue facing sales and marketing people today.

Everyone Jill talks to is overwhelmed. Everyone is too busy and feels like they aren’t getting enough done. And in today's business world everyone is also expected to always be on, responding to emails, actively engaging in social media, and generally being instantly available.

The result of all of this overwhelming work and always-on culture is that distractions are rampant, we’re getting less done, and it’s hurting our ability to make sales and meet our goals. And as the work piles up, we all get farther away from the things outside of work that are important.  

Luckily Jill has some practical suggestions for how to minimize the distractions, manage your time effectively, and get more done with less.

Jill Konrath’s career is defined by her relentless search for fresh strategies that actually work in today’s sales world. Jill Konrath is also a frequent speaker at sales conferences and kick-off meetings. Sharing her fresh sales strategies, she helps salespeople to speed up new customer acquisition and win bigger contracts. Her clients include IBM, GE, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Staples and numerous mid-market firms. Jill is the author of three bestselling, award-winning books including Snap Selling and Agile Selling.

You can find Jill on:

LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillkonrath/)

Twitter (https://twitter.com/jillkonrath)

Jillkonrath.com (https://www.jillkonrath.com/)

Latest book:  More Sales Less Time (https://www.amazon.com/More-Sales-Less-Time-Surprisingly/dp/1591847265)

• Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

Inbound customer service is more than reactive platitudes. Customer service used to be customers calling in and spending hours on the phone waiting to tell every person they talked to the same information in the hopes that someone could fix the problem. Customers still have problems, of course, but inbound customer service and success means that the customer service people you talk to know who you are, your history with the company, and are empowered to actually solve the problem. Inbound customer service and success are built around helping customers in meaningful ways.

No matter how good your company is at what it does things will go wrong. They won’t always be your fault, but your customers are going to look to you to provide solutions either way.

Applying an inbound approach to the process of customer service helps you to create happy, loyal customers. Typical customer service, on the other hand, often leaves people less loyal. And it’s not surprising. People don’t want a stress ball or empty, “I’m sorry to hear that.” People want solutions, and inbound customer service works diligently to provide them.

Your customers don’t expect you to solve every problem immediately, but if you are empathetic and proactive in providing help customers are understanding.

Airlines can’t control weather delays, but they can control the way they respond to and treat their customers who are impacted by those delays. No one needs swag; they need solutions. No one wants an airline t-shirt, but they wouldn’t say no to a free drink and a travel voucher.

And getting your customer service and success right is critical. People trust reviews, ratings, and comments and if your customer service is dropping the ball, you’ll see it in what people are saying about you.

“The goal is to align the promise of value, made during the earlier stages of the buyer journey, with the achievement of success by the buyer once the customer success journey begins. The promise of value must align with what the inbound service and success teams manage, so the buyer’s expectations are met.” Michael Redbord

You need a customer success manager! Lean into customer service and make sure your customers are happy. Customers word of mouth is the best way to generate new business.

The best way to grow in the age of buyer control is to create successful customers who become your best salespeople.

1. Align your service teams with your marketing and sales
2. Map out the customer service/success journey steps
3. Build a customer success mindset and team

• Take the Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)
• Inbound Organization Audiobook (https://www.audible.com/pd/Inbound-Organization-Audiobook/1469098903)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

In the old days, we create qualified leads by offering up lots of content. Our prospects found our content, filled out a form, downloaded the content, and then we reached out to them. This strategy still works, but over the last few years, we realized that what people like more than free content is free stuff. And it turns out that giving away software, a product, or service is an even more effective way to qualify leads and move prospects through the buyer journey.

The code funnel is an engagement strategy that allows people to have an experience with your product or software before you ask them for any commitment. This try before you buy (TBYB) strategy allows users to begin extracting value from your product quickly while creating product qualified leads (PQLs).

If you’re not sold on giving away your product or service, don’t worry. It’s not uncommon for this strategy to run into some resistance at first.

Embracing a code funnel or TBYB strategy has a lot of benefits. First of all, it allows you to help more people. Your product or service is solving problems and helping your customers, so the more people who are making use of it the more people you are helping. Hand in hand with this, TBYB means your product has a quicker time to value. Everyone wants solutions and help right now. The faster you can put your solutions into the hands that need them, them better.  

And the more prospects use your software or product, the more qualified they become. Qualified prospects rise to the top because the people who are actually using the software are more qualified than those who aren’t. This means that when you do reach out to these PQL’s you’re less disruptive because they are already qualified and ready to talk to you and you know exactly what to offer them and when to offer it.

You can make a code funnel out of anything! Don’t say X product/service can’t be given away so we can’t use the code funnel. There is some way to implement try before you buy for every product or service.

“The best way to engage buyers is to anticipate what problems they want to solve, diagnose how they research solutions, and help them solve those problems is a fast, comprehensive, and personalized way.”

Companies that make it easy will be the ones that win.

• Review your engagement process and strategies now
• Ask buyers what they want to see before buying
• Think of three ways people can try before they buy

• Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

• Inbound Organization Audiobook (https://www.audible.com/pd/Inbound-Organization-Audiobook/1469098903)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.

Everyone says they are customer-centric, but, like most things, being customer-centric is more difficult than just saying it. Further, what passed for customer-centric five years ago doesn’t cut it today. Today’s modern buyers expect more from the companies they work with and buy from. For a company to be truly customer-centric, they need to be solving for the customer across all levels of their organization. In other words, to be customer-centric, you need to be an inbound organization.

Being a customer-centric business means that your organization is built from the mission up with your customer's success in mind. Your mission shouldn’t be about you; it should be about your customer. The decisions you make should be based on your customers best interests. The content you host on your website should be tailored to every stage of the buyer journey (even customers), and it should be personalized.

Being custom-centric is more than just having great service. Customer service is reactive, customer-centric means proactively ensuring your customers are solving their problems and succeeding. If you just pay lip service to your customers, you’re not customer-centric.

Employee experiences lead to customer experiences.

1. Check your mission, is it up to date and customer-focused?
2. Ask your employees what barriers are in their way
3. Ask your customers if you’re delivering what they really want

• Inbound Organization Assessment (https://www.inboundorganization.com/inbound-organization-assessment)

• Inbound Organization Audiobook (https://www.audible.com/pd/Inbound-Organization-Audiobook/1469098903)

We’re extending the MSPOT contest! You can download the MSPOT template, submit it for review, and anyone who submits an MSPOT will be entered into the contest. The first-place winner will win an hour to review their MSPOT with Todd and Dan!

Download and Submit Your MSPOT (https://www.inboundorganization.com/mspot-review) 

Are you enjoying the podcast? Did you read Inbound Organization? Taking a quick moment to rate and review Inbound2Grow and Inbound Organization on whatever service you use is the best way to let us know how we’re doing. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.  

Thanks to Rebecca Miller our podcast editor, social media coordinator, and blogger and to Zachary Jameson for producing the audio for the podcast. Check out Zachary on Upwork if you need podcast audio services.