Predictable B2B Success

R.T. Custer is the founder of Vortic Watch, one of the only American-made watch companies helping resurrect antique watches by combining vintage internals with modern wristwatch cases. 

Within just 8 years, he has been able to take it from scratch to 7 figures in revenue. 

The journey here wasn’t easy. For 5-years, R.T. had a legal battle against the Swatch Group after they accused Vortic of trademark infringement and counterfeiting in 2015. Federal Judge Alison Nathan ruled in favor of Vortic, stating they have the right to salvage and restore antique pocket watches and turn them into wristwatches; even those that carry the Hamilton trademark. 

R.T has also been involved with and developed masterminds and a marketing agency.

In this episode, he shares how we can leverage business masterminds to drive seven-figure growth fast. Insights he shares include:

• Issues R.T experienced and sees in businesses wanting to scale quickly
• Why a marketing agency and masterminds could help
• R.T's definition of a business mastermind group
• What a business mastermind group is not
• How to ensure you are ready for a business mastermind group
• How to pick the right one
• How to get the most out of your investment
• How to start a business mastermind group
• and much much more ...

Matthew Hunt is the founder of Automation Wolf, a company that supports B2B founders and CEOs to develop snackable content that keeps them top of mind and stay consistent in prospects’ newsfeeds; while also bridging the gap between short and long-form content.

Matthew Hunt was an ashamed introverted dyslexic but has turned himself into a successful extroverted dyslexic entrepreneur. He built 3 B2B profitable companies in the last 13 years all built on the back of smart marketing & sales. Matthew has worked with 100s of companies (large & small) to help them implement marketing & sales strategies. To name a few, he has worked with RE/MAX, Valvoline, FedEx, Chef’s Plate, League & TouchBistro.

Matthew knows that no one likes to be marketed to, or sold to, especially prospects. In this episode, he shares his 4 stage demand generation marketing strategies to drive pipeline growth. Insights he shares include:

• Commonly held beliefs that do not help demand generation marketing strategies
• Why you need to own the relationships more than great marketing and copywriting
• How Matthew defines demand generation marketing
• How to get personal with people in the post-pandemic world we live in
• How demand generation and creating community works better than inbound or outbound marketing
• What could community look like for a business
• Why Matthew recommends every business consider hosting a virtual summit
• Does demand generation work for all types of businesses
• What do demand generation marketing strategies hinge on and what does it entail
• What metrics to use for demand generation marketing strategies
• and much much more ....

Pankil Shah is an entrepreneur, founder, and content marketing expert with over 10 years of experience leading product and growth for tech companies. He is the CEO of Outranking.io, an AI platform for writers, editors, and SEO professionals to create content that ranks.

Before starting Outranking.io, Pankil led growth for an enterprise database company, scaling revenue using content marketing. He also co-founded Vclassrooming.com, a learning management system aimed at improving K12 learning outcomes.

In this episode, Pankil shares how we can save time and expense in creating content with AI that helps drives organic traffic and converts. Insights he shares include:

• How to get AI to do research and train it to apply your clients’ tone of voice
• The right way to use AI while writing marketing content
• What is active guidance and why does your AI need it?
• Why being lazy with AI gets you bad content
• What purpose should amazing content fulfill
• The role that outranking plays in the process of creating amazing content
• Misconceptions around AI for content development
• The focus that Pankil recommends to ensure we get a positive ROI from content
• How to approach keywords research when thinking about creating content
• How Outranking has grown its user adoption
• and much much more ...

Prarthana Sibal is the Head of Client Services at award-winning B2B Podcast Agency Pikkal & Co.

Prarthana has managed over 1,000 Podcast Episodes from idea to launch including branding, public relations, corporate communications, brand reputation, and podcasting for brands. 

In this episode Prarthana shares how to use storytelling in podcasts to easily drive revenue growth fast. Insights she shares include:

• Why do people hold the notion that Asians don't listen to podcasts
• Why do people believe that long-form content is not engaging
• Why use audio as opposed to video (which many say is more engaging)
• How to include storytelling in content marketing
• How to include storytelling in podcasts
• How to include storytelling in content marketing for brands with non-sexy products or services
• How to think about episodic content that succeeds in engaging your ideal audience
• How to convince your management to start a podcast
• How to measure success when using storytelling in your podcasts
• Examples of successful B2B podcast practices
• and much much more ...

Jon Lightfoot is the Founder & CEO of Strategic SEO Solutions (SSS). He has over 20 years of marketing experience in both brand-side and agency-side.

Jon is an SEO expert with decades of experience in working with many SaaS brands, B2B enterprise firms, Fortune 500, and startups alike.

He and his team are hands-on in managing their client’s on-site technical SEO, as well as offsite SEO, CRO, and overarching analytics. Additionally, Jon sits on the Customer Experience Advisory Board at the University of California Irvine.

In this episode, Jon shares how we can rank higher on Google and spur business growth fast. Insights he shares include:

• Why is SEO so misunderstood
• Why Jon believes Google has made its algorithm easier to understand
• How do you create content that ranks for keywords and yet is valuable to readers with examples
• What does building authority have to do with SEO 
• How do we rank on Google fast
• How to rank higher on Google
• How to rank higher on Google by investing in thought leadership
• How to rank higher on google for multiple terms from a single piece of content
• How Jon suggests we approach link building
• How to look at competitors as look to rank higher on Google
• How to get your audience to spend more time on your content
• and much much more ...

Alan Gleeson is a London-based B2B SaaS marketing consultant with a particular interest in supporting tech startups to generate leads and grow their businesses. 

Alan started his career in financial services, joining Barclays in its graduate program. During his time at Barclays he joined Freeserve on secondment, then one of the poster boys for the ‘dot com’ boom. He subsequently joined Palo Alto Software, a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) company in 2004 where he acted as the Managing Director for the European subsidiary for a number of years. 

More recently Alan has worked for a number of leading B2B SaaS startups, in a mix of full-time and consultancy engagements. These include the likes of Cognism (one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the UK) and Indeemo (a leader in the emerging mobile ethnography space). 

In this episode, he shares how we can use B2B SaaS marketing to drive growth fast and scale internationally. Insights he shares include:

• Why the pursuit of quick wins is a problem in the B2B SaaS world
• How to navigate the mind-shift required to enable leaders to see B2B SaaS marketing through a different lens
• How to balance the desire for hockey stick growth vs organic growth
• What should companies be doing to future proof themselves and scale, given the trends we are seeing today
• What should companies entering the European market be aware of
• How should European companies entering North America prepare themselves
• Does it make sense to find locals to help navigate the cultural nuances of going international
• Marketing skillsets and indicators to look for in a potential hire
• How to best handle content needs when going to international markets
• How Alan addresses the issue of marketing attribution
• and much much more ...

Angela Thurman is the Principal Managing Director at Thurman Co. LLC. As an electrical engineer, she has worked with companies like NASA and Collins Aerospace leading to the launch of her own company that aims to add the personal touch to Project, Contract, and Supplier Management.

Angela holds a BS, in Electrical Engineering working as an analytical, process-oriented program and contract manager as well as a Mensa Society Member.

Her background includes experience working in the aerospace, defense, telecom, and power sectors. Anglea is a proven leader dedicated to creating an environment where teamwork, organization, efficiency, and client satisfaction are core values.

In this episode, she shares her experience and shares why project management communication is the critical linchpin to seeing projects achieve success and effectively mitigate risks. The implications of a project's success or failure could amount to millions of dollars if not more in a lot of instances. Insights she shares include:

• How to deal with project change management
• How to best deal with the million dollar implications of project management outcomes
• Project management communication - what is key and why it is so critical
• A key area that is often overlooked in project management
• Why the boiled frog report is key to project management communication
• Use of templates to aid project management communication and manage change
• What does it entail for a project manager to mitigate risk
• Does managing a project required developing a narrative of success
• Why Angela doesn't focus so much on tools to ensure project management success
• How to create the right project management culture and project management communication expectations
• and much much more ....

Jose Palomino is the CEO of Value Prop Interactive, which helps mid-market B2B companies struggling with sales growth and margin pressure sharpen their competitive edge to win more and better business.

Jose empowers business owners with winning marketing and sales strategies. He has unlocked hundreds of millions of dollars in growth for dozens of owner-led B2B companies—in highly competitive markets.

Jose is also a speaker, professor, and author of the acclaimed book, Value Prop: Create Powerful Value Propositions to Enter and Win New Markets.

In this episode, he shares his experience to share his top sales skills every great salesperson needs to master to drive growth. Insights he shares include:

• Why do businesses often approach building out sales the wrong way
• Why Jose feels that most business leaders need to take a pause
• Why not having someone to champion sales in a strategic manner can be a problem
• How best to address sales operational issues from the get-go
• Top sales skills every salesperson should master
• Why is a value proposition so critical to a business and sales skills
• The best way for a company to gain clarity on their value proposition
• Is it more important for smaller companies to establish sales operation and sales strategy plan
• What companies can we look to for examples to inspire our own journeys
• and much much more ...

Michael Solomon literally wrote the book on understanding consumers. In fact, hundreds of thousands of business students have learned about marketing from his books including consumer behavior, buying, Having, and Being -- the most widely used book on the subject in the world.

As a Professor of Marketing (in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia) and an industry consultant, Michael combines cutting-edge academic theory with actionable real-world strategies.

His articles, published in journals including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, and Journal of Business Research, have been cited over 30,000 times.

As a business consultant, he helps managers get inside the heads of their customers so they can anticipate and satisfy their deepest and most pressing needs – today and tomorrow. Michael often is asked to provide briefings to global executive teams who want significant increases in their bottom line and who understand that’s accomplished by a deeper connection with their customers.

In this episode, Michael shares how we can use customer engagement strategies to attract and keep today's customers for the long term. Insights he shares include:

• How consumer behavior has changed over the last couple of years. 
• Why do consumers tend to go for long-term, well-established business brands 
• How to use customer engagement strategies to attract and keep today's customers
• How the pandemic has affected consumer behavior and expectation. 
• Understanding the ever-changing consumer behavior; and why it’s a bad idea to over-promise when marketing. 
• The rise and power of influencer marketing. 
• How to modify your consumer engagement strategies so that they fit in today's modern society
• How to ramp up customer engagement. How to turn bored customers into brand fanatics. 
• How to take care of the loyal customers first
• and much much more...

Joe Davy has been the co-founder and CEO of Banzai since 2016. Banzai is the leading event marketing automation platform, with over 200 customers including Microsoft, Dell, Vmware, SAP, and RingCentral.

Forbes magazine named Joe to its 30 Under 30 list in 2019. Joe is also a board director at Legalpad and the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation.

Prior to founding Banzai, Joe was General Manager at Avalara, where he oversaw small business and enterprise business units and was a member of the Avalara leadership team. During his tenure, Avalara grew to over 1,500 employees in 16 global offices with over $150M in revenues. 

In this episode, Joe shares his experience on how we could use customer engagement marketing strategies to become a pipeline hero. Insights he shares include:

• Why use customer engagement marketing
• Joe's definition of engagement marketing
• How can virtual events be part of the process
• Why these events should not be once a year type events
• How can we break down engagement to ensure the success of our marketing
• What customer engagement marketing has meant for Joe in light of the pandemic
• How to implement a customer engagement marketing strategy
• Customer engagement marketing strategies that can be added to your existing marketing strategy
• Customer engagement marketing examples
• How to marry online and offline events and capture data to ensure success before making large investments
• and much much more ...