In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, host Armando Biondi and Kelly Benish, VP Strategic Partnerships at Uberall, discuss the intricacies of forming strategic partnerships. They delve into the importance of mutual investment, creating an onboarding plan, stakeholder engagement, and overcoming obstacles in partnerships. Kelly shares her expertise on effective communication, deep partner profiling, and the value of personal connections. The conversation also highlights the significance of timelines, milestones, and the role of marketing in partnership success. The duo addresses the challenges of lengthy sales cycles and the role of vulnerability in relationship-building. They conclude by emphasizing the necessity of understanding and adapting to each partner's unique needs and offering practical tips for initiating partnerships.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Mutual Investment and Joint Business Ventures - Kelly Benish: "Strategic partnerships are a joint business venture; you have to put your entrepreneurial hat on."

Building Strong Partnerships Through Understanding - Armando Biondi: "It's like that proverbial one plus one equals three, where if there's joint alignment and complementarity, interesting things can happen with the proper investment and time."

You can find out more about Donti in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-benish/

HOST: Armando Biondi
GUEST: Kelly Benish
Breadcrumbs Podcast

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Kelly Benish, VP Strategic Partnerships at Uberall, shares her expertise on strategic partnerships and offers valuable insights into building successful and lasting relationships. She emphasizes the importance of personalized experiences, active listening, and guiding partners through challenges. The discussion covers topics such as partner qualification, best practices, risk assessment, and the role of partner playbooks.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Empathy and Expertise: The Foundation of Strategic Partnerships - Kelly Benish: "Building meaningful connections in strategic partnerships is not a pitch. It's a mutual alignment. You've already agreed that they have a need and you can potentially fill it. So now it's just looking at the path forward on how to do that. Map the path effectively and always provide a thoughtful approach. Exercise empathy, accessibility, always be there if they need something and already have the answer or seek the answer from others that have done it before."

Partner Playbooks: Guiding Success through Shared Knowledge - Kelly Benish: "Educating and guiding your partners is crucial; transferring your expertise into their operations makes the partnership thrive. So many times this is going to require you to wear many hats, seek advice from industry friends or existing partners, even to build that expertise. These playbooks should always include all the success factors and criteria that they will surely need through the process. And your job is to really make it easy for them and do all of the hard work and heavy lifting on their behalf."

You can find out more about Donti in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-benish/

HOST: Armando Biondi
GUEST: Kelly Benish
Breadcrumbs Podcast

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Donti Twine, Director of Sales at Kaseya, discusses the importance of collecting and utilizing customer feedback to drive business growth. He addresses the challenges associated with biased feedback sources and highlights the significance of creating a culture of data collection. The conversation emphasizes the role of cross-functional collaboration and real-time revenue expansion opportunities through continuous customer engagement. Practical tips for establishing a feedback loop and metrics-driven decision-making are shared.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

The Power of Cultivating Customer-Centric Culture - Donti Twine: "Feedback mechanism is so important. You're doing things for the masses. You're gonna have those one-offs, right? But those one-offs will derail the rest of your revenue that you can sink from the rest of the customer base."

Real-Time Revenue Expansion through Customer Engagement - Gary Amaral: "Pragmatically, these pulse checks, these conversations, these are like real-time revenue expansion opportunities."

You can find out more about Donti in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donti-twine-mba-2750165/

HOST: Gary Amaral
GUEST: Donti Twine
Breadcrumbs Podcast

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Gary Amaral welcomes Donti Twine, Director of Sales at Kaseya, to discuss the transformative power of turning client feedback into revenue. Donti emphasizes the vital link between prioritizing customer satisfaction and increased profitability, highlighting that businesses focusing on customer satisfaction are 60% more profitable. He delves into the concept of value leakage and its impact on brand and company culture, showcasing the ripple effects of losing sight of customer needs.

Donti addresses challenges faced by sales representatives in converting unhappy customers, particularly in managing negative feedback from sources like social media and peer groups, which can hinder cross-sell and upsell opportunities. He stresses the need to capture, analyze, and interpret customer feedback to create actionable insights that drive business growth.

Data collection emerges as a critical strategy for enhancing customer experience, with Donti advocating a multi-threaded approach involving surveys, social media monitoring, sales analytics tools, and more. He emphasizes the importance of identifying trends in the data to avoid allocating excessive resources to isolated customer concerns, which could compromise overall customer loyalty and repeat business.

The episode explores strategies for boosting customer loyalty and revenue, highlighting the significance of customer acquisition and fostering partnerships with clients. Donti underscores the value of defining a clear business purpose centered on customer welfare and long-term profits. He encourages businesses to view customers as partners, emphasizing that highly satisfied customers contribute to increased revenue.

Donti concludes with a reminder to stay focused on the core business purpose and to cultivate sustainable profits over the customer's lifetime. He highlights the resilience of businesses with loyal customers during market downturns, attributing this to the strong focus on customer satisfaction and success.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Prioritizing Customer Satisfaction for Profits - Donti Twine: "Businesses that prioritize customer satisfaction are 60% more profitable than those that don't."

The Importance of Customer Lifetime Value - Donti Twine: "Customer lifetime value should guide strategies for retention and loyalty."

You can find out more about Donti in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donti-twine-mba-2750165/

HOST: Joe Aicher
GUEST: Donti Twine
Breadcrumbs Podcast

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Christine Crandell, President at New Business Strategies, discusses the revolutionary concept of Experience-Led Growth (ELG) and its significance in modern business strategies. She explains how integrating experience into an organization's mission, vision, and goals can lead to exceptional outcomes. Using examples from companies like Salesforce and BMW, Christine demonstrates the positive impact of ELG on customer satisfaction and business success. She highlights the importance of understanding stakeholder experiences through trend analysis, co-creation sessions, and qualitative interviews. Christine also addresses indicators of a lack of experience-led growth, such as disconnected customer experiences during onboarding or across different departments. She concludes by encouraging businesses to embrace ELG and offers a 30-minute consultation to help them embark on this transformative journey.
 

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Embracing the Power of Exceptional Experiences - Christine Crandell: "In a world of constant change and uncertainty, relying on outdated strategies and approaches can spell disaster."

Transforming Business Through Experience-Led Growth - Christine Crandell: "ELG empowers us to break free from the shackles of yesterday's logic and embrace new ways of thinking and new ways of thriving."

You can find out more about Christine in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinecrandell/

HOST: Joe Aicher
GUEST: Christine Crandell
Breadcrumbs Podcast

SHOW SUMMARY

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Christine Crandell, President at New Business Strategies, joins Joe Aicher to explore the transformative concept of Experience-Led Growth (ELG). Christine draws on her extensive experience in understanding customer needs to reveal the intricacies of experience gaps and their impact on revenue and success. She highlights the challenges posed by evolving customer expectations and underscores the need to close these gaps just as rigorously as revenue gaps.

Christine introduces the idea of ELG, which revolves around understanding and meeting the expectations of all stakeholders, transcending traditional B2C and B2B boundaries. She describes how ELG combines the strengths of product and market-led principles, positioning experience as the driving force behind revenue growth. Christine also outlines the benefits of ELG, including clear goal definition, focused resource allocation, and the shift from reactive to proactive business approaches.

Tune in to this episode to learn how to bridge experience gaps and leverage the power of ELG to achieve unparalleled growth and success.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Bridging the Gap: Customer Expectations vs. Vendor Perception - Christine Crandell: “The gap between what a vendor thinks the customer wants as their experience of the life cycle and what the customer actually really wants. That gap is often pretty huge.”

Unleashing the Power of Experience-Led Growth - Christine Crandell "ELG is all about understanding and meeting the expectations of everyone. Right. That's customers, employees, vendors, investors, and the communities that we work in that we live in. So it's about going beyond just products and services and delivering exceptional value to all stakeholders."

You can find out more about Christine in the link below:  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinecrandell/

HOST: Joe Aicher
GUEST: Christine Crandell
Breadcrumbs Podcast

SHOW SUMMARY

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Joe Aicher and Joe Gelata, the director of Business Operations at OTTO Motors, delves into the critical concept that drives company success: the strategic choices made regarding priorities. Joe Gelata emphasizes that success isn't solely determined by a company's actions, but also by its ability to decide which paths to avoid. The conversation explores the challenges of resource allocation and how to effectively manage tasks and energy, particularly within the realm of Revenue Operations (RevOps). He discussed the use of a priority matrix and shares how his team employs project management tools and a company-wide wiki to transparently communicate priorities and projects.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

The Essence of Company Success: Strategic Choices and Prioritization - Joe Gelata: "Companies are successful, not necessarily because of what they do, but because of what they choose not to do. So make sure you choose wisely."

Balancing Urgency and Growth: Navigating Priorities in Different Company Phases - Joe Gelata: "I'd say it would change based on the life cycle or where the company is in their life cycle. If it's a really early stage company, a lot of those improvement projects end up getting thrown in the garbage because things are changing so quickly... Once you have a really repeatable engine, then it kind of turns into more maintenance."
 

You can find out more about Joe in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joegelata/

HOST: Joe Aicher
GUEST: Joe Gelata
Breadcrumbs Podcast

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Joe Gelata, Director of Business Operations at OTTO Motors, discusses the need for a smaller, focused team in revenue operations to achieve impactful results. He highlights the trap of excessive work without strategic value and introduces the concept of the Eisenhower Matrix for effective project prioritization. By setting deadlines and creating artificial urgency for important yet less urgent tasks, RevOps teams can ensure these valuable projects are completed. Dividing responsibilities and transparently communicating the team's priorities also play pivotal roles in maximizing efficiency and strategic impact. Joe also emphasizes the importance of striking a balance between resource constraints and necessary capabilities to drive organizational growth.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Unleashing Strategic Value in RevOps - Joe Gelata: “If you're doing more work, but not providing the strategic value you hope for, you're just getting stuff done, not necessarily the good stuff.”

Building Scalability Through Prioritization - Joe Gelata: “High importance, but low urgency tasks are where the scalability of your company is built.”

You can find out more about Joe in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joegelata/

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Lorena Morales, the Director of Digital Marketing and Revenue Operations at JLL, discusses the benefits of integrating Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) with lead management practices. The speaker highlights four main advantages of this alignment, including improved clarity, visibility, and adaptability. Setting relevant metrics for lead management OKRs is essential for data-driven decision-making. Ultimately, combining OKRs and lead management can lead to increased revenue and success.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Aligning Lead Management with OKRs Drives Effective Practices and Increases Chances of Success - Lorena Morales: “And the answer is never simple, right? Like, it's never an easy way to get there. But with these types of frameworks that again are not easy to apply because they have to come from leadership all the way to individual or ICs, individual contributors. You can get there.”

Choosing the Right Metrics Helps in Tracking Performance and Making Data-Driven Decisions - Lorena Morales: “This is important because when setting OKRs for lead management, you have to identify key metrics that indicate progress and success. Without these, you can't move forward. These metrics should be aligned with the stages of the lead management process that I already mentioned before, and should provide actionable insights for optimizing lead generation, qualification, nurturing, and conversion.”

You can find out more about Lorena in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraleslorena/en/

In this episode of The Revenue Cafe Podcast by Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live, Lorena Morales, the Director of Digital Marketing and Revenue Operations at JLL, explains the significance of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and their role in goal-setting. She highlights the hierarchical structure of OKRs, where high-level objectives cascade down to individual objectives. Lorena then connects lead management, the process of capturing, tracking, nurturing, and converting leads into customers, to OKRs. She emphasizes the importance of building relationships to generate revenue and aligning lead management efforts with overall organizational goals. This alignment fosters collaboration and improves performance across teams.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

The Power of Human-to-Human Interactions - Lorena Morales: "Without relationships, you really don't have anything because towards the end, I don't believe in B2C or B2B anymore. I believe in age to age, human to human, and those human-to-human interactions are going to provide valuable information at the end and guide customers through the entire buyer's journey."

Aligning OKRs for Revenue Generation - Lorena Morales: "By aligning both frameworks that are very customer-centric as well, we are focusing on revenue generation. This focus shifts from having a general mindset towards revenue, towards how do I generate revenue and how do I achieve the desired business outcome while OKRs provide a clear direction for lead management efforts, ensuring that the strategies are activities and that those activities are tied directly to overall organization goals."

You can find out more about Lorena in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraleslorena/en/