OC Talk Radio

With the advent of more sophisticated CRM systems, marketing automation software, some AI applications and years of frustration on the part of Marketing, the uncomfortable question is now being posed: Does marketing own the sales funnel, aka the sales pipeline?

To answer this question, we have gone to Christopher Ryan, Founder and CEO of Fusion Marketing Partners.  The answer to this question will guide both marketing and sales to better understand their role in pipeline management.

About Christopher Ryan

Chris Ryan has 25 years of marketing, technology, and senior management experience, and is a widely known expert in B2B marketing, lead-to-revenue modeling, sales strategy, and business startups. As both a services provider and in-house marketing executive, Chris has written four books on marketing and information technology, including the recently published Winning B2B Marketing.

About Fusion Marketing Partners

Fusion Marketing Partners (FMP) is a B2B marketing agency that specializes in helping companies create powerful lead-to-revenue machines to turn around their stalled or underperforming marketing and sales operations and build value in their business. FMP’s strategic expertise and vigorous execution of proven tactics has quickly driven measurable improvements in awareness, leads and revenue for B2B clients across the U.S. and internationally. The company was founded by principals with deep experience in B2B marketing, sales, business development, web marketing, and public relations — from successful startups to Silicon Valley giants. To find out more, visit http://www.fusionmarketingpartners.com.

Like a lion…Investors roared into 2018.

During the first week of the first quarter of the New Year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 25,000 for the first time ever. Less than two weeks later, it closed above 26,000. The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite also reached new all-time highs.

Strong performance was supported by strong fundamentals. In December 2017, Mohamed A. El-Erian wrote in BloombergView economic and policy fundamentals, including synchronized global recovery, progress on U.S. tax reform, improved certainty around Brexit, and orderly acceptance of changing U.S. monetary policy, “…reinforce the prospects for better actual and future growth, thereby increasing the possibility of improved fundamentals validating notably elevated asset prices.”

Listen in as Bart and Letitia talk about the latest happenings in the market and investing 101.

The Zandbergen Report, where wealth strategies and investment wisdom collide, is led by host Bart Zandbergen, and is LIVE every Tuesday at 2pm PT on OC Talk Radio.

Interested in being a guest on The Zandbergen Report? Email [email protected].

Learn more about Bart by visiting www.BartZandbergen.com

Listen in to hear us: 

Touch on Microsoft and LinkedIn Acquisition One Year Later.  Provide context for how Microsoft and LinkedIn are partnering to drive relationship selling impact.

Talk about how CRM Systems no longer need to be a system of oppression.

Discuss how Machine Learning and predictive analytics change the day to day life of the seller.

Discuss what an innovative solution like Microsoft Relationship Sales has in common with a well known music app (Shazam). Making the magic happen!

Explain what conventional sales tactics will no longer apply?

Share how will the use of new selling tools and technologies change the buying and selling experience?

(Read the transcript and listen again on the Heinz Marketing Blog, Mon. 4/09 at 6am PST).

 Download the Microsoft Ebook – Empowering the Modern Seller 

About Our Guest:  Christine Zmuda, Sr. Dir. of Sales at Microsoft.

Christine says of herself:  My passion and professional satisfaction comes from identifying market opportunities before they are mainstream. My most rewarding roles and accomplishments have centered around developing sales and market strategy for emerging businesses and scaling new acquisitions. I'm always open to learning more about technology and happy to share my own experiences of leading sales, marketing, and channel teams if it's helpful.On a personal note, I enjoy golf, tennis, spending time with my family and embracing new experiences. My new found love is abstract painting, the bigger the canvas the better.

As the founder and CEO, Will tells about their HIPS strategy, investing in an index of High Income investments.  In the current low yield environment investors strive for almost any level of yield that is above ground.  The HIPS strategy includes REIT's, Master Limited Partnerships, Business Development Companies, and Closed End Funds, and provides a diversified set of about 300 of these companies, paying high yield/income.  He also discusses the changes to the tax treatment of some of these categories of investments from the recent tax reform. Anyone needing income or looking for alternatives to the current low yields of traditional fixed income investments will find this interview to be very interesting.

Alex is a Founder and the COO, and explains the opportunities in the digital asset world.  He discusses the quant and data driven aspects of DAS, using  data models, AI, machine learning, quant driven apporaches to Cryptocurrencies investing.  He discusses the major misperceptions of investing in this area, including a leveling of expectations, and the added trading sophistication in space.  Saying that it is about the technology, he differentiates between Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain and discusses the applications and opportunities of each.  They are seeking to bridge the gap between the world of finance and technology, with research backed, quant driven strategies. Wondering what ICO really means, listen here for your answer.

Brands, business leaders, and marketers ignore this new cohort at their own peril. Generation Z, aged 8 to 23, is now America’s fastest-growing demographic, representing 25%+ of Americans.  That makes them bigger than the Baby Boomers, and even bigger than the Millennial generation.  Despite the fact that Gen Z is made up of such young consumers, it is already an important cohort that is making its presence felt across brands, culture and advertising.

While many of us have been distracted by the Millennial generation, today we turn our focus to Gen Zers to learn some surprising truths about their attitudes and behaviors, and why ignoring them will be a big mistake for marketers.

Our guest today will be Patti Girardi, colleague, author and renowned thought leader in generational marketing. Host is Cyndi Greenglass.

Patti Girardi

Patti Girardi is an author, speaker and longstanding contributor to the IMC and DMC programs at West Virginia University's Reed College of Media. She is a recognized thought leader in marketing to Millennials and Generation Z. Previously, Patti served as VP, Marketing for Chartwells, the college dining division of global foodservice giant Compass Group. In this role, Patti led Chartwells’ industry-leading rebrand from “Eat. Learn. Live.” to “Where Hungry Minds Gather,” addressing the unique attributes of Generation Z. Patti previously served as VP, Sales & Marketing for Fox Cable Networks. She began her marketing career with Cox Communications, where she held a number of field and corporate marketing positions. Girardi graduated valedictorian from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and also holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.

Show Notes  Today, I am honored to have another special guest, Rand Sperry who is CEO of Sperry Equities and Sperry Commercial. Now here is a guy familiar with 5 star hotels and roads that actually have asphalt on them. Somehow, Nick Jordan the Executive Director of Wells of Life, convinced Rand and his awesome daughter Keleigh to join us on this rugged trip, where the accommodations are abut 1½ stars at best and the highways are rugged butt-numbing dirt roads. We were located in the most rural areas of the Kingdom of Buganda in the country of Uganda. Before we begin the show let me give you an idea of the credentials of our exception guest.  Rand Sperry is an exceedingly accomplished man. He is CEO of Sperry Commercial, Inc. and has been a highly recognized and influential leader within the Southern California and national commercial real industry for more than thirty-five years. To date, Sperry Commercial and Sperry Equities have acquired more than 100 commercial, industrial, and office properties, exceeding $1.5 Billion in value with over 10 million square feet under management and 6 million owned. Rand is extremely active in both church and community. He has been a member of numerous civic and religious boards and committees in Orange County California over the last 20+ years.   For more with Charlie Hedges please visit www.thenextchapter.life

Alli McKee, Founder and CEO at Stick has a Bachelors from the University of Virginia in studio art. She has an MBA from Stanford. Her original oil paintings have been featured in a variety of publications and exhibits. She's spent almost two years in Africa creating new design thinking curriculum, and then a couple years ago she decided, "Well, what the hell, I'll just go back to the valley and I'll create a start up." 

It seems like we're focused sometimes more on the math [in marketing] or more on the quantitative and not enough on the design. Alli talks to us about the impact and importance just generally of good design in driving businesses today.

Along the way, if you don't already know, find out what a "word wall" is.

You'll also hear Alli's view on creativity:  I think about creativity is that it's really just collecting things, collecting information, and putting it together in interesting ways. It's really not about having this creative talent, it's more having access to that inventory from which you can invent. So the way that Stick works is we're trying to give you a jumpstart on that creative process. It's built around this behavior that I've seen in real life as a designer working with business people, a lot of people, just like yourself, saying, "I'm not creative. I need help with this." But the second you give them a first draft, they always have feedback. Always. Right? So what we've tried to do is build that first draft into a tool. So you can put in your content, Stick automatically generates that first draft for you, and then enables you to act on that feedback in a few clicks in seconds rather than a two day email exchange.

Listen in to see what doing improv has to do with sales and marketing... and a lot more!

You can find the transcript and recording of this episode on the Heinz Marketing blog on Monday, 4/2/18.

Who Owns the Pipeline? Marketing or Sales? – Matt Heinz on SLMA Live Radio

Traditionally, the pipeline has been called the sales pipeline and it has been owned by the salespeople. But is this a true statement today?   With the advent of new marketing automation capabilities, and artificial intelligence applications, marketing is relentlessly inserting itself deeper into the pipeline at almost every level.  To answer this question, we have gone to Matt Heinz, the expert’s expert on the pipeline question. 

About Matt Heinz

Prolific author and nationally recognized, award-winning blogger, Matt Heinz is President and Founder of Heinz Marketing with 15 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations and industries. He is a dynamic speaker, memorable not only for his keen insight and humor, but his actionable and motivating takeaways.  Matt’s career focuses on consistently delivering measurable results with greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty. Matt is a repeat winner of Top 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management and Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers.  And Matt is the host of Sales Pipeline Radio on the Funnel Radio Channel. 

About Heinz Marketing  

We are sales pipeline strategy people at heart – math marketers and sales strategists who embrace revenue responsibility. We know that what really matters is sales pipeline, closing business and accelerating revenue.  Our proven methodology delivers real B2B results based on buyer insights, market-driven best practices, and rapid feedback loop to improve and sustain the results you see. Heinz Marketing’s  proven, buyer-centric demand generation programs take into account the unique nature of your business, customers and industry – applying proven best practices to create a repeatable, scalable engine of qualified opportunities and long-term pipeline. Our approach covers strategy, design and execution – including online and offline efforts that align buyer intent with your sales process to increase both immediate and long-term conversion yield.

SLMA Radio Sponsorship

 Whether you're producing a seminar series, user's conference, lunch and learn, or exhibiting at a tradeshow, Validar has a solution. Call 888 784 2929 or visit us at www.validar.com

This five minute tip from author Bob Bentz answers the most popular question about website design: The first thing you do in web site design is not design for the desk top.  Author Bob Bentz and host Matthew Cummings discuss why mobile is not a nice to have but a necessity.

Relevance Raises Response

Why it's Important:

57% of website traffic today is coming from mobile devices!

Listen to the complete interview here:

Relevance Raises Response

Mobile marketing is all about customer engagement and acquisition with a relevant message that provides the response a brand is seeking. Mobile is the closest a brand can get to its customer.  What we’ll be discussing today is how a brand or business can take advantage of marketing in the age of mobile. Today's episode is hosted by Matthew Cummings.

Some of what we'll be covering includes:

How did you get your start in mobile?

What are your favorites tips for text messaging?

Mobile advertising is the fastest growing medium in the marketing world today.  What do you attribute that to?  And, how can businesses best buy advertisements on mobile?

More consumers are using ad blockers today.  How much of a threat are ad blockers to the mobile advertising industry?

Where is the best place to advertise to download an app?

Bob Bentz is the author of RELEVANCE RAISES RESPONSE: How to Engage and Acquire with Mobile Marketing. Bentz is a 1981 graduate of the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University and a 1983 graduate of Marshall University where he received a MBA in Marketing. After six years in broadcasting, Bentz founded Advanced Telecom Services in 1989. The company expanded to the United Kingdom, Canada, Czech Republic, and Taiwan and grew to $62.2 million in annual sales. In 2017, Bentz founded the mobile marketing agency Purplegator.

More from WVU Marketing Communications Today Radio

Time to declutter your data and create your own narrative story

 

Emerging Social Media Trends Because of Data - Emerick & Greenglass

 

If everything starts and ends with data, where do you want to go?