Predictable B2B Success

Ray Van Hilst is the director of client results of Yoko Consulting.

Ray seamlessly blends 20+ years of marketing experience with modern web principles to establish and advance the web presences of organizations that help build a better world.

In this episode, Ray shares his experiences and lessons learned in how to create a persona that powerfully and easily boosts business growth. Insights he shares include:

• Why do companies struggle with developing a holistic approach to their websites
• The best ways to make the shift from selling to empathetically understanding your customers
• Why are user personas key to understanding your customers on an ongoing basis
• What challenges or mistakes businesses make in developing user personas 
• How to create a persona
• A better approach on how to create a persona and why
• What quantitative and qualitative data should we seek
• How do we really understand what success for the user looks like
• How do we use this to craft a story and journey for them
• and much much more ...

Kimberly McLemore is an author and a seasoned Business Strategist that helps you move beyond your challenges and execute your vision.

She has owned two private businesses, has 25 years of experience overseeing multi-million dollar projects in the private and public sectors, and over 15 years of experience teaching a small business plan training certificate program through the State of Iowa.

In this episode, Kimberly shares how to craft a brand awareness strategy to rapidly drive growth. Insights she shares include:

• What is brand awareness and why is it important
• Why develop a brand awareness strategy
• How does digital marketing increase brand awareness
• How to build online brand awareness
• How to craft a successful brand awareness strategy
• The best ways to extend our reach to new audiences
• Examples of brand awareness campaigns
• The best ways to measure elements of your brand awareness strategy
• and much much more ...

David Stellato is the Chief Growth Officer of DFO Global Performance Commerce, an international, boutique digital marketing agency. David oversees DFO’s global business development efforts, focusing on structuring and building unified media, technology, and product sales teams across global offices, especially in Europe, Asia, and South America. He also leads growing the company’s joint-venture portfolio, bringing together new partnerships and alliances under the DFO Global brand. David’s extensive background includes enterprise website development, search and online reputation management, and programmatic video campaigns.

In this episode, David shares his experience and his insights around what performance marketing is and how to use it to drive business growth.

• What is Performance Marketing?
• Is Affiliate Marketing the Same as Performance Marketing?
• How Does Performance Marketing Work?
• Elements that successful performance marketing has in order to drive business growth
• The best ways to establish relationships that drive performance marketing
• How performance marketing differs from channel sales
• How to make offers that drive growth
• How to keep a handle on costs of acquisition on an ongoing basis
• How David is able to establish predictability in the performance marketing process
• How performance marketing principles can be applied to the B2B space
• How David goes about building relationships with influencers in a specific niche
• How David leverages user-generated content and influencer content
• Performance marketing trends to watch out for
• and much more ...

Gary MacDougall is the chief technology officer at Pypestream and is a technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of executive-level experience building software, managing teams and successfully bringing products to market. Over time he has refined his unique blend of hands-on development, organizational leadership, and ability to create a development process for execution and delivery and enabling exceptional communication across organizational lines – mentoring motivating, and driving development teams to succeed.

In this episode, he shares his experience and perspectives on how to get a mentor using 10 powerful steps that drive business growth. Insights he shares include:

• What is a mentor
• What does a mentor do
• How to find a mentor
• Why you should consider working with a mentor
• How to build a relationship with a mentor
• What qualities does a good mentor have?
• How to add value to a mentor-mentee relationship
• The key to mentorship and advancement
• 10 steps to finding and developing a mentoring relationship
• and much much more ...

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/how-to-get-a-mentor-10-powerful-steps-growth/

Mark Herschberg is a fractional CTO for various companies including Averon. He is the author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. He studied at MIT and started the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually.

In this episode, Mark shares his insights and perspectives on the 10 powerful entrepreneurial skills and characteristics needed to drive business growth. Insights he shares include: 

• Do lessons learned from ballroom dancing mirror Mark's thinking behind the book -The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You
• The time that Mark realized that he just had to teach people entrepreneurial skills and characteristics that weren't being taught in any formal way at the time
• Why the career toolkit isn't just for people who are interested in changing roles or careers or even students
• Why organizations should have their people invest in developing their entrepreneurial skills and characteristics
• How culture and leadership of a business impact the development of people's entrepreneurial skills and characteristics
• What is unique about the perspective Mark provides us with
• Why Mark divided his book into 4 sections - Career, Leadership and Management, and Interpersonal Dynamics?
• Why are these areas are important to an executive or anyone aspiring to scale their business
• Why start with a career plan and what it looks like?
• The 10 powerful entrepreneurial skills and characteristics needed to drive growth

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/entrepreneurial-skills-and-characteristics/

Naira Perez, CEO of Springhill Digital a digital marketing agency that develops digital marketing strategies, identifying customer patterns and behaviors on and offline, and optimizing ROI through generating qualified leads, better processes, and effective planning and execution.

In this episode, Naira shares her perspectives and insights in exploring the plethora of possibilities that exist in raw data and in building community online for brands. She also shares why companies don’t need huge budgets to make their digital marketing more effective. Insights she shares include:

• Why businesses approach advertising the wrong way
• What should be done instead
• Why focus on building online community as an advertising objective
• What is an online community?
• Types of online communities
• advantages of starting a branded online community
• steps for building an online community
• Tips for a thriving online community
• Examples of successful online communities
• and much more ....

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/building-community-online-to-drive-growth/

Tyzer Evans a top-performing salesperson who has been fast-tracked to manage and lead multiple sales teams. He has earned a reputation for being a "fixer" for businesses.

In this episode, Tyzer shares his insights on winning sales deals by creating value for customers on an ongoing basis.

• How Tyzer earned his reputation of being a fixer
• Why do salespeople struggle to demonstrate value to potential future customers
• What does real value look like even though many companies say they provide value
• How do you really understand value from the perspective of a customer
• How to go about creating value for customers
• Does value need to address four kinds of needs: functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact
• Why Tyzer recommends using power questions
• Implications of creating value for customers on sales teams
• The best ways to hire salespeople to drive predictable business growth
• The winning factor that makes Tyzer able to drive growth predictably
• and much more ...

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/creating-value-for-customers-strategies-growth/

Bianca Lager is the CEO of Social Intelligence a company that supports organizations in accomplishing compliant screening practices alongside the values-based goals of protecting workplace culture and preventing harassment.

In this episode, Bianca shares her observations and insights into running compliant social media background checks that help with hiring the right people to unlock growth and take the business to the next level. Insights she shares include:

• Is social media screening legal
• What does a compliant social media background check look for/cover
• If the social screening uncovers a stupid off-color post a person made five years ago, they're doomed
• Why can't you, as the hiring manager, just conduct the social media check yourself
• If it's impossible for one person to conduct thorough social media background checks and compliant reviews, how does your solution do it
• If a job applicant's accounts are private, then what
• Should you consider undertaking ongoing screenings of your employee's social media activity
• How do we ensure we respect people's privacy
• Is there a potential for "false positives"
• How can I tell if a social media background checks/screening vendor is any good/conducts compliant screenings
• and much more ...

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/social-media-background-checks-to-hire/

SaaS pricing models: A guide to crafting the right SaaS pricing strategies.

Ajit Ghuman is the Head of Product Marketing at Narvar, (an enterprise-grade customer engagement platform that helps retailers inspire loyalty beyond reason by enabling seamless post-purchase experiences.

In this episode, shares his experiences and lessons learned around creating effective SaaS pricing models that enable a business to rapidly scale. Insights he shares include:

• Why do businesses believe that pricing is complex?
• Should crafting SaaS pricing models be solely a marketing activity that is part of the traditional 4P's
• How to go about conducting a pricing analysis
• What are the principles businesses should know in order to be able to price to scale
• What information should they have in order to craft an informed pricing strategy
• What lessons can we learn from other companies in the software space.
• The framework that Ajit recommends for businesses to craft their SaaS pricing models
• Why effective SaaS pricing models require marketing and sales to work closely together
• and much more ...

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/saas-pricing-models-a-guide-to-crafting-models/

Margie Agin is the author of Brand Breakthrough: How to Go Beyond a Catchy Tagline to Build an Authentic, Influential, and Sustainable Brand Personality.

She also the founder of Centreboard Marketing, and an award-winning marketer who helps B2B technology companies discover what makes them unique and find the words to say it.

In this episode, she shares her perspectives and insights into how to craft a brand strategy framework that unlocks rapid business growth. Insights she shares include:

• The problem that B2B companies face with their content
• Is their brand strategy a cause for it
• How Margie defines a brand and a brand strategy framework
• What are the deliverables for a brand strategy
• The role of culture in developing a brand strategy
• How to unpack culture when developing a brand strategy
• How to identify the brand voice
• Framework for a successful brand strategy
• What do we need to look at beyond the brand strategy framework
• How to develop brand awareness
• How to develop brand adoption
• How to develop brand advocacy
• How Margie approaches content development in light of a brand strategy framework
• and much more ...

Discover more - https://www.sproutworth.com/how-to-craft-a-brand-strategy-framework/