Tech Qualified

During this episode of Tech Qualified Podcast, we talk with Bob Perkins, Founder and Chairman of AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals). Bob Perkins talks about the creation of AA-ISP, the various options in which members can interact with and benefit from the resources of the organization, and the ways that thought leadership and thought leadership content are useful and evolving. 

Episode Highlights:

• Bob Perkins talks about his work history and past experiences leading up to AA-ISP.     
• Bob describes the major events, programs, and initiatives that AA-ISP puts on. 
• What does the leadership team look like at AA-ISP?
• Bob Perkins talks about the types of in-depth content that they offer.  
• Bob talks about the benefits of thought leadership content.
• What are the case studies that AA-ISP’s have executed? 
• What is thought leadership look like to Bob?
• How is he seeing traditional businesses provide value from thought leadership? 
• Where does Bob Perkins see this sales and marketing ‘spamademic’ heading?
• Bob talks about the power of personalization. 
• What are some of the trends that Bob is seeing that are working and not working?  
• Personalized communication content can happen through email, phone, chat, social media, and voice.  
• What are Bob Perkins’ thoughts on the future of the intersection of sales and marketing?
• What are some resources that Bob Perkins relies on on a day-to-day basis?

Key Points:

1. AA-ISP members can engage with the organization online, at conferences six times a year, or through the 60+ local chapters, over 40 of which are in the United States. 
2. Offer thought leadership value just to provide help and not force sales for your solutions.  
3. Before you talk to someone, make sure you will be making your conversation about them through genuine personalization.

Resources:

• Bob Perkins: Linkedin
• AA-ISP: aa-isp.org
• AA-ISP Linkedin: Linkedin
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified Podcast, we talk with Tatianna Harris, Director of Digital Marketing at Cybrary, an online training platform that offers cybersecurity and IT training. Tatianna Harris talks about the growth process of Cybrary, the services they provide, how she has learned to be more open to change, and the content they are developing for the B2B space. 

Episode Highlights: 

• Tatianna Harris talks about her work history.     
• Who is Cybrary’s ideal customer and how do they service them?  
• How did Cybrary develop their personas and how did it expand over the years? 
• How do they use information to add value to prospects and their customers? 
• What are some of the bigger initiatives that they will be tacking?
• Tatianna talks about both the company's marketing initiatives and its perspective on recruiting.   
• What does her workflow within marketing look like? 
• How do you manage priorities? 
• What have they done with their infrastructure from a project management perspective with marketing? 
• How does Cybrary’s content team integrate with other teams? 
• What is their secret to growth? 
• Tatianna talks about Cybrary’s case studies. 
• What types of resources does Tatianna rely on for learning when it comes to B2B marketing?  

3 Key Points:

1. Cybrary is a growing company with over 60 employees.
2. Cybrary has over 2 million viewers. 
3. Cybrary puts out 8-10 new pieces of content a week.

Resources Mentioned:

• Tatianna Harris: Linkedin
• Cybrary: cybrary.it
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate
• Marketing Trends podcast: marketingtrends.com/#podcast

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Kevin Martin, the Vice President of Marketing at SBT Alliance. Kevin Martin talks about what SBT Alliance offers to electrical contractor partners, controls and lighting manufacturers, and end-users, the changes that have been taking place in the industry, blending technology and services, and content creation from both a marketing and educational standpoint.

Episode Highlights:

• Kevin Martin talks about his work history.     
• What is the ideal customer profile for SBT Alliance and how do they serve them? 
• What are some of the big industry changes that are taking place? 
• Can you describe the blend of technology and services that SBT Alliance offers?  
• Where are leads coming from and what is the role of marketing at SBT Alliance? 
• Why does education play such a big role in lead generation and long-term brand awareness?  
• How did SBT Alliance get started and what was the process for developing educational resources for prospects?  
• Does Kevon Martin have a team of marketers developing content and what is the team structure?  
• How do they make content decisions when there are so many people involved with a purchase (buying committee)?  
• What systems are they using that are really working? 
• What goes into the topic areas they are going to target in their content? 
• What does their content structure look like? 
• Do they reposition case study elements into other forms of content? 
• Why is it important to have different styles at play to reach people? 
• What resources does Kevin Martin rely on?   

3 Key Points:

1. SBT Alliance’s ideal customers are end-users who need an energy efficiency upgrade, are tired of paying high energy bills and want to upgrade their lighting. Their key target market is helping electrical contractor partners and controls and lighting manufacturers understand and deliver that value. 
2. The 3 divisions of SBT Alliance are the forward-thinking entities: Direct Discount Lighting (DDL), Integrated Advanced Controls (IAC), and Glued Solutions (GSI). 
3. SBT Alliance is getting a lot of authority marketing traction from getting founders on camera and writing blog posts and sharing industry experience as wireless controls and IOT deployment experts.

Resources Mentioned:

• Kevin Martin: Linkedin
• SBT Alliance: sbt-alliance.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate
• HubSpot: hubspot.com
• American Marketing Association (AMA): ama.org

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Alex Brockman, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at CSG. Alex Brockman talks about expanding the brand story at CSG, their align, design, and empower client process, how he keeps tracks of ideas that are at various stages of execution, communicating with his team, and their plans for content. 

Episode Highlights:

• Alex Brockman talks about his work history.     
• What is the ideal customer profile for CSG and how does the company serve them? 
• What does a typical engagement with CSG look like? 
• What does CSG have in store for 2020? 
• The evolution of CSG’s brand story.
• CSG’s process and their people are what keep clients coming in.  
• What does Alex Brockman’s team look like for the execution of their brand story?   
• What is something that Alex has implemented that’s working out well?  
• What did marketing look like at the time that Alex joined CSG?   
• How does Alex keep an inventory of ideas for content marketing purposes? 
• What are some of the conversations that Alex has had with engineers and experts on his team - in order to spark content? 
• What are some things that Alex Brockman would like to do content-wise for CSG? 
• CSG will be focusing on the importance of data, what is known about it, and what is being done with it. 
• What are some resources that Alex Brockman relies upon? 

3 Key Points:

1. The two main verticals for CSG are financial services and healthcare. 
2. CSG’s three-part methodology for client engagement is align, design, and empower.  
3. While executing new ideas, showing data results early on has led to a more incremental buy-in from the team.

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Trish Kapos - the VP of Sales and Marketing at RSI. Trish talks about building the channel, RSI’s CyberCompass cybersecurity solution, what her role as VP of Sales and Marketing looks like, picking and developing partners that make a good match, and what is involved in channel marketing and branding.

Episode Highlights:

• Trish Kapos talks about her work history.     
• What is the ideal profile for RSI and how does the company serve them?
• What is CyberCompass? 
• What was it like stepping into her current role at RSI? 
• What goes into her role of VP of Sales and Marketing at RSI? 
• WIth more sales people, how does Trish believe her role will evolve.  
• How does she prioritize her time across both sales and marketing activities? 
• What is it like working with channel partners and what is involved in channel marketing?  
• What does success look like for Trish? 
• RSI is looking for 30 producing partners in 2020.
• What does she think will be the biggest hurdle to reach this goal? 
• How does she update and communicate with the product team? 
• What resources does Trish Kapos rely on in order to keep up with B2B tech marketing?

3 Key Points:

1. RSI is a 38-year-old company, but it is new to building channels. 
2. CyberCompass is a SaaS security practice software solution that disrupts the cyber and compliance assessment process. 
3. Only less than 20% of potential clients pass the initial security test before utilizing CyberCompass. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Trish Kapos: Linkedin
• RSI: rsitex.com
• CyberCompass: rsitex.com/cybercompass
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified Podcast, we talk with Eric Bauer, Chief Marketing Officer at Z-IMPACT. Eric Bauer talks about what real hyperconverged infrastructure is about, solving data center issues, establishing a marketing infrastructure, the new upcoming initiatives Z-IMPACT is rolling out in 2020, and how they make themselves distinctive in a crowded space. 

Episode Highlights:

• Eric Bauer walks us through his work history and how he landed at Z-IMPACT.
• Who is Z-IMAPACT’s ideal customer and how do they service them?
• How is Z-IMPACT solving a problem in the data center space? 
• What segment of the market is Z-IMPACT going for?
• What are some things the organization had to establish within its marketing infrastructure? 
• How did he come up with what the strategy would be?
• What are some of the approaches that he is taking to personalize and customize specific accounts? 
• What are they doing to differentiate themselves in a saturated space?   
• What are some of the bigger initiatives in 2020?
• How will they get their foundational elements to get their voice out there?   
• How does Eric Bauer feel his role as CMO at Z-IMPACT will change and what will he be responsible for from an integration standpoint?
• Tactically, what are the important things to connect teams together?  
• What are some of Eric Bauer’s favorite resources that he relies on? 

Key Points:   

1. CIOs are looking for a reason to be strategic.
2. A critical success factor for any executive team is to maintain alignment.

Resources Mentioned:

• Eric Bauer: Linkedin Twitter
• Z-IMPACT: z-impact.com
• Harvard Business Review: hbr.org
• Forbes.com: forbes.com
• Entrepreneur: entrepreneur.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Carol Lin Vieira, the VP of Corporate Marketing and Communications at BX3 and Anne Szustek Talbot, the VP of Content at BX3. Carol and Anne discuss how they both came to BX3, identify how the organization works with tech companies, pinpoint how companies can become thought leaders and outline the importance of repurposing content to build brand awareness. 

Episode Highlights:

• Carol Lin Vieira and Anne Szustek Talbot walk us through their work history and how they landed at BX3.        
• Carol and Anne discuss BX3’s ideal customer and how the organization helps them. 
• What are some of the technical verticals BX3 focuses on?
• What is thought leadership in the context of a tech company?    
• Companies are emerging as thought leaders...it’s more than just at a personal level these days.
• One of the best practices within journalism right now is telling stories.  
• What kind of content helps establish a company as a thought leader company? 
• Among many activities on the content side, BX3 interviews clients, records the interviews, and analyzes them to fuel the foundation for thought leadership material.
• What guidance do you have for companies looking to create thought leadership content?    
• Marketers struggle to create a lot of content and miss opportunities to repurposing content.  
• How does BX3 (and their clients) ensure that content gets consumed in many ways and from many different places (repurposed)?   
• How can you justify long-term content plays versus short-term lead generation activities?  
• How should someone measure the success of thought leadership pieces? 
• What resources are valuable for keeping up with B2B tech marketing?

3 Key Points:

1. BX3 has a capital arm, a legal arm, and a consulting arm...and each of those is spearheaded by experts in their field.    
2. Customers are expecting brands to provide a wealth of useful information - beyond just their technology or service.  
3. By generating content that highlights trends and is forward-thinking, you can demonstrate the relevance of your company. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Dmitrius Garcia, Vice President, Business Development and Marketing at xAmplify, a company that works to digitally upgrade your channel marketing with the benefits of marketing automation and marketing attribution. Dmitrius Garcia discusses pain points he has experienced in previous roles when working with channel partners, what client solutions xAmplify offers, what an effective channel program looks like and the upcoming initiatives that xAmplify has planned for 2020.

Episode Highlights:

• Dmitrius Garcia walks us through his work history and working with xAmplify. 
• What were some of the major paint points he used to have while managing partners and resellers? 
• What is the blueprint of an effective channel program? 
• Get a partner recruitment agency involved, train your partners, have the means to deliver at scale, and give these partners the tools to be effective. 
• Does xAmplify have target accounts that their internal team is going after and how has account-based marketing and sales affected the channel process?
• Crossbeam is a tool that shows who your partners are working with, who you are working with, and where the overlap is.   
• What are some of the major initiatives that xAmplify has for 2020?  
• What is Dmitrius Garcia’s process for determining product market fit? 
• What are some of the things that xAmplify is focusing on with content?   
• What does Dmitrius Garcia feel will be his biggest hurdle to overcome with xAmplify in the upcoming year?  
• What is his favorite resource in his space that he utilizes?  

3 Key Points:

1. In most channel programs you have at most about 20% partner participation. The other 80% of partners are not even active.    
2. Bring on partners who are working within your niche with vendors who are comparable to you because the education and the enablement are easier.  
3. If there is a lack of attribution then there is no way to measure ROI. If there is no way to measure ROI because there are no KPIs it is hard to go to your organization to buy software with no data to prove it will be effective. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Dmitrius Garcia: Linkedin
• Dmitrius Garcia’s email: [email protected]
• xAmplify: xamplify.com
• Channel Journeys: channeljourneys.com
• Forester: go.forrester.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Kate Skavish, Chief Visionary Officer of Wave.video. Kate Skavish discusses how Wave.video got started, how she got involved, how they service their ideal customer, repurposing content, what elements make for effective video marketing, and how they use webinars and video in their own marketing. 

Episode Highlights:

• Kate Skavish shares some of her career experiences and her current work. 
• What made Kate make a career shift into marketing? 
• Who is Wave.video’s ideal customer and how do they serve them? 
• Who are the folks that are using the platform and creating the content?
• How would one of the users use the platform and chop a video for different platforms? 
• Are there any best practices for marketers to be aware when they are reformatting video content?  
• How did Wave.video get started?  
• How is Wave.video marketing themselves? 
• In what way do they use customer feedback for new features for them? 
• How do webinars fit into their marketing strategy?   
• Kate talks about using Product Hunt launches and product integrations. 
• How is AI becoming a part of the platform? 
• How do they plan and role-out their own content?  
• Where does Kate Skavish see the future of video marketing going?  
• What does Wave.video have coming up in the near future?  

3 Key Points:

• Wave.video’s ideal customers are digital agencies and small businesses who aim to gain an online presence, using video to get exposure and direct potential customers to their company’s website.   
• Videos benefit from appropriate lengths for each platform, horizontal or vertical video formats decisions, templates to jumpstart inspiration, being short and simple with a simple hook in the message and prompting viewers with a call-to-action. 
• Wave.video uses video tutorials and webinars to educate their customers. 

Resources mentioned:

• Kate Skavish: Linkedin
• Wave.video: wave.video
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Mickey Hernandez, Chief Marketing Director at LaceUp Solutions. LaceUp Solutions is the industry’s leading DSD software for distributors. Mickey Hernandez opens up about going from running his own fully-funded business to transitioning to CMO at LaceUp Solutions, working for his uncle. Mickey explains in-depth how YouTube has benefitted his business, how he has been able to create and publish hundreds of informative videos, and reaching a niche audience.

Episode Highlights:

• Mickey Hernandez shares some of his career experiences and his current work. 
• What was Mickey’s first day at LaceUp like? 
• Who is LaceUp’s ideal customer and how do they service them? 
• What is the landscape like in the marketplace as far as other solutions? 
• LaceUp started out as Mickey’s uncle’s side hustle. 
• What are some of the things that Mickey Hernandez did early on to make the brand stand out? 
• How did he start to develop the brand and the messaging?  
• How did he come across YouTube as a way to reach customers?  
• What was the game plan for creating YouTube content and how did people find those videos?   
• What were his most successful videos?  
• What is his video setup like now and was any of the video work outsourced?  
• How has he branched out to other video topics? 
• On YouTube, you need very specific content for very specific customers.    
• What is the importance of consistency with workflow? 
• What are some of the resources that Mickey uses to stay on top of his work?   
• People will eventually be totally off of old platforms like traditional TV and will solely use online platforms. 
• What resources does he rely on?  

3 Key Points:

1. LaceUp Solutions’ ideal customer is a food and beverage distributor and their software controls the inventory and invoicing for clients, as well as automating the data entry process.   
2. Early on, Mickey Hernandez cold-called competitors pretending to be a customer to get them to show him their system. 
3. In creating content, Mickey answered the question, ‘What does our application do,” listed all the features, and did demo videos for each one.

Resources

• Mickey Hernandez: Linkedin
• LaceUp Solutions: laceupsolutions.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate