Employee Advocacy or Corporate Spam?

There is a fine balance to be had regarding Employee Advocacy.

In this episode, I am joined by the brilliant Andrew Seel, the CEO of Togethr. 

Andrew was been using the internet since the AOL days of CD-Roms and this started his career to where he finds himself today.

His mantra "At the heart of this is a belief that ultimately your people are your brand and that a shared purpose - which you act on and talk about - will set your brand apart in the modern world." 

Andrew and I chat talk through :

What is Employee Advocacy today?

Should Everyone in the organisation be part of the programme?

Do you need a technology platform to support it?

Data, Metrics, Tracking & Success.

How do you help people overcome "Imposter Syndrome"?

Corporate vs The Personal

The Rise of Community Voices in organisations.

And, of course, Generative AI.

To learn more about how Andrew and his team can help you launch your Employee Advocacy programmes, connect with him here >>> (6) Andrew Seel | LinkedIn

Or visit Togethr to access resources and more to help you get started. 

Welcome to the final episode of 2023, and what better way than to help us all be "our true selves at work".

I am joined by Liz Villani, founder of #BeYourselfAtWork, a global movement dedicated to creating a new narrative around the way we work.

Liz and the team do this by helping you understand who you are, through your iAM.

"When you have your iAM you understand what makes you happy. You know you belong, you feel you are valued for who you are. You know how to be your best, and to be your most productive as a leader, manager and a person. All lifting your enjoyment and success at work."

I have been through the process with Liz to find out my iAM. It was a thought-provoking exercise and revealing, too. 

Liz has been working on this for almost 20 years, helping individuals and teams to understand themselves better.

We discuss my iAM and what it means. This isn't about being labelled as everyone has a unique iAM, because we are all unique.

We also discuss how organisations in Financial Services, Professional Services and Private Equity are using this approach in pitching and helping them win by truly standing out from a crowd of grey suits.

As you listen to our discussion, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what makes you, well, you.

You can learn more about #BeYourselfAtWork here https://www.beyourselfatwork.com/iam

Follow Liz on LinkedIn here : Liz Villani - beyourselfatwork | LinkedIn

Read my iAM here : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexanderlow_alexander-low-i-am-activity-7137362034442018816-E0mv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 

Thank you for taking the time to listen.

Be kind to yourself.

If you are a fee earner in professional services, balancing the fee-paying work and your business development activities can be challenging. Some may even say a little daunting. You trained to be an expert in law, accounting or consulting, not necessarily a salesperson. 

Yet, why do some seem able to go out and win businesses and have long-standing client relationships? What is it they do that you are not?

Is what they do even right for today's market?

This is the same question the team at DCM Insights wanted to answer. In partnership with Intapp, they surveyed 1800 partners across Law, Accounting and Consulting to understand what they do regarding business development and client relationship management. 

They also conducted 100 C Suite interviews to understand how and why they buy professional services.

This is also underpinned by the principles unearthed through decades of psychology experiments and anthropology findings applied by sales and marketing experts. 

This gives us "The Rainmaker Genome". 

There are five profiles of Partner and how they go to market :

Expert

Confidant

Activator

Debater

Realist

These are not personality-based but behaviour-based. Of the five profiles, one is predominantly more successful in business development and revenue growth. 

Not only this, these behaviours in how they go to market are teachable.

Listen to one of the founding Partners of DCM Insights and internationally acclaimed Sales Author, Matt Dixon share more on how the research was conducted, what the 5 profiles are and what this means for the future of the modern Rainmaker, as featured in Havard Business Review.

Learn more about DCM Insights and their Activator Development Programme : https://activatordevelopmentsystem.com/

Read the Harvard Business Review article : https://hbr.org/2023/11/what-todays-rainmakers-do-differently 

Follow Matt on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewxdixon/ 

Between 40% and 60% of deals are lost due to clients or prospects making no decision.

So, how do you get them to make a decision?

One way or the other?

You need to JOLT them into one.

In this episode, I am joined by Ted McKenna, co-author of The JOLT Effect and co-founding Partner of DCMinsights.

Ted McKenna is an accomplished sales and customer experience researcher whose work has appeared in the pages of Harvard Business Review. He is a founding partner of DCM Insights, a customer understanding lab focused on using data and research-backed frameworks to help companies attract, engage, retain, and grow customer relationships. Prior to co-founding DCMi, Ted held numerous executive leadership positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds, and CEB (now, a part of Gartner).

We break down what The JOLT Effect is.

The book is based on a large-scale study of millions of sales conversations that revealed the key difference between high-performing and average-performing sales reps: the ability to address the customer’s fear of failure. The book explains why customers often hesitate to buy even when they have a clear intent and how sales reps can use a technique called JOLT - Judging the indecision, Offer your recommendation, Limiting the exploration, Take risk off the table - to create a sense of urgency and confidence in the customer’s decision.

Tune in to learn how you can unlock buyer indecision. 

You can learn more here >>> https://www.jolteffect.com/ 

Follow Ted on LinkedIn >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-mckenna/ 

We have all been there - you receive an email from your manager or a firmwide message. It doesn't quite land well with you, and you feel all sorts of things. 

The message from a colleague which is sent late at night for an ask.

The constant pings and notifications.

Whilst all the intentions behind the communications may well be meant well, sometimes, for the recipient, they are misinterpreted. Which can lead to all sorts. 

In this episode, Jacqui Hanbury, founder of The Pathway Communication Company, joins me.

Jacqui trained as an engineer before moving into sales, then product marketing, becoming a qualified communications coach before setting up her own business. 

Jacqui helps us understand how to communicate effectively in your organisation.

We discuss :

How to position what you are communicating.

Top-down messaging.

Managing up.

Communicating as a team.

The different channels.

The importance of letting people "vent".

How to manage difficult conversations.

How to make sure everyone is heard.

A lot of what we discuss will seem like common sense, fundamentally treating each other as humans and with respect.  Yet, we are sometimes guilty of forgetting this - even if it is not intentional.

Thank you, Jacqui, for your time on this episode.

Connect with Jacqui on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-hanbury/

Learn more about how Jacqui can help you and your business :

https://pathwaycc.co.uk/

In this episode, I am joined by the CEO of UpContent - Scott Rogerson 

Scott is a returning guest where we build on the original episode of "Is Content Still King." listen here >>> https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-7q2ht-1195cab 

We cover off :

Why is Employee Advocacy still a nascent concept in business, with reference to the Cisco post that was doing the rounds?

Sales people, Lawyer, Consultants etc. need to see the value for them in leveraging their networks for what seems like corporate gain at a brand level - how should leadership go about the messaging on this?

Does any of this actually work for lead generation?

How do you prove it is working?

What type of content should your Sellers, Lawyers, and Consultants consider posting and engaging with?

The importance of the "hot take".

And, of course, we cannot not talk about the rise of GenAI.

It's a first in that this was a re-recording because I forgot to press record the first time around, so my huge thanks to Scott for his patience and agreeing to record again!

Connect with Scott here >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottarogerson/

Learn more about UpContent here >>> https://www.upcontent.com/ 

In this episode, we have a returning guest, the brilliant Neil Mullarkey.

Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian. He was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England1. He is known for his work in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and Spice World (1997)2. He is also a founding member of The Comedy Store Players and still appears with them regularly at London’s Comedy Store.  

Neil also works with individuals and organisations, coaching on all things Teambuilding, Corporate Leadership and Communication Skills, all of which is underpinned by the art that is "Improv". 

Neil has also authored his 4th book, "In the moment" where you will "Discover the insights and strategies that will help you improve your confidence, communication and creativity in every moment of your professional career."

In this episode, we dive into, what does it mean to be in the moment.

Neil shares a framework you can start using today.

Neil talks about the difference between having a structured approach and being able to react in the moment.

We work through a pitch example.

We talk about how moments matter.

How innovation can be achieved in the corridors - be it physical or digital.

We end on serendipity and the example Neil talks to is from the former Chairman of a Global Consulting business :

"He wants his share of the lucky market."

Learn more about Neil and get his book here >>> In the Moment book by Neil Mullarkey — Neil Mullarkey

Follow Neil on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmullarkey/

Go see him in action in London - https://comedystoreplayers.com/

Would you create a "digital twin" of yourself?

Fred has set out to do this, and he shares what he has learned so far with FredAI.

Using Interactive Tutor, Fred uploaded his books and blogs into their platform so that he could train it on all of his own content.

FredAI was created, as a chatbot where you can ask questions, and the answers will be based on all of Fred's content, thinking and wisdom that he has curated over 20 years. 

We chat through :

Why has he decided to do this?

What has the learning been so far?

How does he see this complimenting what Fred does in person?

Does FredAI hallucinate?

We then broaden the discussion to where we feel this could all go?

What other use cases might there be?

Coaching to ask the right questions. 

This is early days for FredAI, however, I encourage you to go and chat with "him" and give real Fred your feedback.

Find FredAI here >>> FredAI (collaborativeselling.co.uk)

If you want to set up your own chat bot, go here >>> Interactive Tutor

Connect with Fred here >>> Fred Copestake

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

How do you price in a tough economy? 

How do you price in any situation?

How do you articulate the value-based outcomes your product or service will create?

Pricing has always been an art. Being told you were a close 2nd in a competitive pitch. Maybe no decision at all. 

In this week's episode,, Jonathan "Jonny" Adams from SBR Consulting joins me to discuss this and more.

We cover :

What is Jonny seeing in the market today?

How are the economic head winds impacting different markets?

Why negotiating with yourself is not a good place to start.

What are your tradeables?

What framework you should follow to articulate value.

We have a "Come on Down, the Price is Right" moment.

A bonus of what is Jonny's go-to BBQ recipe on his ceramic grill.

Connect with Jonny on LinkedIn here >>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyadams/ 

Learn more about SBR Consulting here  >>> https://sbrconsulting.com/

• Why Bowen set up Wonderway, based on his sales learning experiences.