The B2B Revealed Podcast

Brianna Caza is with us today to share insights and strategies for getting into freelancing. We spend a good deal of our time talking about how to avoid the “boomerang” effect that sends so many beginner freelancers back to the company they left. 

In This Episode

• What to consider before leaving an organization.
• Data from Briana’s research.
• The importance of autonomy and variety in work.
• How freelancing is positively impacting wage disparity for women.
• Self-management skills for freelancing. 
• How to brand yourself.
• How traditional employers can respond to the rise in freelance work.
• Characteristics to develop for freelancing success.

Josh Bernoff is the author of a stellar book called Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean. The book is focused on making everyone a better writer in business. Most importantly, due to Josh’s background in the technology sector, he has a lot of history with an industry that produces arguably the most jargon, poorly written emails, blog posts, and messaging of any business sector. 

This episode centers on different examples of how people can improve their business writing, report writing, and emails, alongside many other great writing topics.

In This Episode

• Josh’s background and his first insights into useful, clear writing.
• On meaningless platitudes.
• The importance of strong titles and file names.
• How to write a strong executive summary.
• How to craft a great email.
• Why paragraphs are the worst.
• How we got to the current standard of communication in our professional lives.
• What the meaning ratio means when writing great content.
• Why shortening the length of your document is a good idea.
• On the passive voice.
• An approach for narrowing down your usage of jargon.

Thomas Steenburgh is a business professor at the Darden School of Business, with a focus on sales management and B2B sales processes.

We discuss the launch of new products by sales teams, as well as some of the challenges that accompany these product launches. In addition, we cover the types of people who do the best at selling new products, the “shiny new thing” problem when selling to customers, and other gems that will make any company better at selling new products.

To cap off the show, we talk about how B2B and sales topics have largely been ignored as a subject within academia. 

In This Episode 

• The research that went into Dr. Steenburgh's analysis of innovation and product launches.
• The different type of salespeople you'll need for product launches.
• Why face-to-face meetings are important for selling new products.
• The characteristics of reps who succeed at selling new products and those who don't.
• The “shiny new thing” problem when prospecting.

Today’s guest is Ron Carucci, Cofounder and Managing Partner at Navalent, a company that works with CEOs and Executives who are pursuing transformational change. His Harvard Business Review article “Executives Fail to Execute Strategy Because They’re Too Internally Focused” put him our radar and led us to his fantastic book, Rising to Power.

We tackle both the book and the HBR article in this interview.

The crux of the episode--to borrow Ron’s phrase--is the ‘altitude sickness’ that all "rising" executives come across.

Examples of this altitude sickness are: ineffective use of power, effective and ineffective communication and organization design, as well as how effectively they are looking at the competitive landscape to leverage that information and make their organizations more profitable, successful spaces.

In This Episode 

• Ron’s professional background and his current work with Navalent.
• Managing the competitive context for executives.
• The dizzying dynamics of managing and leveraging portfolios.
• Organizational ‘compression’ and strategic thinking.
• Why saying no is so important.
• A few words on Millennials and intergenerational connection.
• Why an executive should link their strategy to their company’s budget.
• Telling executives the truths they don’t want to hear but need to hear.
• Organization design as a system.
• A breakdown of power and its dangers.

If you don’t take care of your data, your marketing campaigns will have a lower ROI, sales teams will be starved for leads, and your company will miss it’s revenue targets.   On today’s episode, I chat with Ruth Stevens, who has spent the last 20 years helping enterprise and mid-market companies take better care of their data. Ruth has also co-authored an excellent book on the subject named B2B Data-Driven: Marketing, Sources, Uses, and Results.    Ruth and I chat about several important topics.    First, we tackle the challenge of data degradation. When the rate of change on nearly any customer or prospect data set is 4% to 6% per month, all companies have to address the problem, this presents.    Second, we cover some thorny problems, out of a full set of 20+ in the book, that bedevils anyone who tries to deal with B2B data.    We also talk about why she is “opt-out” vs. “opt-in” and why this is not just the correct legal position but the appropriate one for B2B marketing leaders to consider.   Finally, we talk about new types of data sets like intent data, along with a host of other topics.

You can learn more about Ruth’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/B2B-Data-Driven-Marketing-Sources-Results/dp/1933199172

Organic reach on Facebook has plummeted over the years and B2B marketers need to adjust.  On today's episode, I chat with Peter Reitano, the Co-founder of Abacus, a digital marketing agency that specializes in leveraging Facebook and Instagram in a B2B context. 

We discuss the challenges of finding organic reach through Facebook, the importance of vertical video and the importance of thumb stopper creative.

Peter also shares useful tips on how you can create an emotional punch with your Facebook and Instagram campaigns, even if you're a more "boring" B2B brand. 

In This Episode 

• The decline of organic research on Facebook.
• The importance of vertical video.
• Why short almost impulsive video clips are more powerful on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• How to create an emotional punch with your content when you’re a “boring” B2B brand.
• Examples of emotional “thumb-stopper” creative.
• How emotional content leads to a more rational B2B “pitch.”
• Why repurposing content onto different platforms is not a good idea.

Learn more about the company behind B2B Revealed at www.cascadeinsights.com 

Today I’m speaking with Sydney Finkelstein, an expert in leadership and the author of the well-researched book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Must Master the Flow of Talent.

We first discuss the main archetypes of different superbosses (the iconoclasts, the nurturers, etc.) through a number of different examples of well-known business leaders.

Then we get into various factors that make superbosses tick alongside some sentiments that are tantamount to treason when talking to a superboss.

Sidney also shares how superbosses almost always leverage the apprenticeship model when it comes to growing new talent.

In This Episode

• What is a superboss?
• The research that went into the book, including hundreds of interviews.
• The three archetypes of superbosses.
• Confidence and why it matters in being a superboss.
• Competitiveness and imagination in the workplace.
• Integrity and being a superboss.
• Why authenticity is essential for becoming a good leader.
• On being a hands-on delegator.
• Why apprenticeship can’t be beat.
• Network development and talent spotting.

Trust in B2B sellers is eroding. B2B buyers are increasingly looking towards third-party sites and influencers for reviews. Additionally, your sales and support teams may not be set up for success in building long-term trust with buyers.

In this episode, Todd shares his extensive experience and tactics for building trust with buyers and ensuring mutual success. Radical transparency in B2B sales can qualify deals more quickly, shorten sales cycles, improve win rates, and keep customers happier.

Todd Caponi is the author of The Transparency Sale: How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results. 

In This Episode

• How transparency can improve win rates, shorten sales cycles, and qualify deals more quickly.
• Why it’s important to let buyers know what you don’t
• A negotiation strategy that actually builds trust.
• How to build trust through a sales cycle and beyond.
• The importance of overcommunicating aftera contract has been signed.
• How to use the right levers, in the right way, to give your buyers purchasing choices.
• Why certainty is so essential for building trust with your buyers.
• Why it’s important to tailor your pitches for each customer and their unique needs.

Kristin Kelsey, an expert on modern office design, joins the show today. 

Kristin provides great insight into why your office looks like it does today and where it’s headed in the future. She also discusses biophilic design, the “third space”, and array of positive and negative trends in office design throughout the years.

But the end of the episode I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to the future Kristin posits.

In This Episode

• How the 50's and 60's changed the overall paradigm of office design.
• What the “action office” was and how it impacted modern office design.
• Kristin’s take on the limited amount of square footage employees receive today for office space.
• Considerations that go into designing communal spaces in an office environment.
• How what were once dead spaces have become the “third space.”
• Future trends such as biophilic design and more.

Martina Bozadzhieva, Managing Director and Head of Research at global market research firm DuckerFrontier, joins the podcast today.

Martina’s expertise comes from direct experience navigating business dynamics in the turbulent European market. If you’re in headquarters or a country manager and if you do business in the UK, France, or Germany, this is one to listen to.

In This Episode:

• Brexit: current business trends and challenges in the UK, and which companies are set to benefit the most with a “hard” Brexit.
• Unique EU regulations that impact B2B businesses.
• Germany’s current economic state, and unique aspects of doing business in Germany.
• Business challenges and opportunities in France.
• Differences in communication styles between the UK, France, and Germany.
• Advice for country managers who are moving from corporate to another country, including how they can best interact with corporate.

Resources:

• Martina’s LinkedIn Profile
• Martina's Twitter