What We've Learnt: Learning from great minds in the world of business & marketing and beyond

To kick off series 2 we had the pleasure of chatting with Ian Hughes. Not only did he share his thoughts and experiences on 2020 and what that means to him in terms of focus on cultures and values, but his career and what he has learnt along the way.

We also chat with Ian about the future and how he see a brand’s cultures and their values for being even more important after the year we have had. Not only does he share knowledge on what that means as CEO of Consumer Intelligence, but the lessons for any organisation – be those in the financial services markets that he knows so well and cites throughout, or further afield.

A great way to kick off series 2 of What We’ve Learnt.

Our last episode of series 1. We take our time to reflect on what we have learnt during "What We’ve Learnt"!

We are expertly guided through the review by Scott Stockwell, Editor-in-chief Europe at IBM.

Scott has been a WWL listener and using design thinking and review techniques such as Retrospective Sailboat we all three share thoughts on the good and could-be-improved of not just this first series, but the wider world of business and marketing that we are all experiencing right now.

A fitting heavyweight guest for our last episode of this current series.

This week we chat with Andrew, who shares how his decades of experience in both agency and client-side roles have steered his recent work within Fleetsolve, part of SIMEC. He shares how marketing has yet again helped in a broader role across the global business, as they rapidly adapt their commercial models for the changing environment, we learn how marketing has had a key influence on supporting immediate and longer term opportunity. It is ok to still be selling and generating leads right now!

This week we hear from Phil, who shares his recent experiences on how marketing can (and should) be front and centre when it comes to tackling business-wide challenges. He tells us about how manages to put insight at the heart of that process.

Far from being a time for naval-gazing or self-doubt, we discuss how pivoting (sorry, that word again!) has given marketing a chance to show its wider value to the business.

We also have time to talk about the inspiring marketers who we greatly admire.

This week we talk with Robert Norum on Account-Based Marketing - ABM – or is it ABMS or maybe even ABE?

Robert has 3 decades of marketing experience and has been at the forefront of ABM best practice for nearly a decade of that time. He is a tutor and advisor to many brands on how to effectively implement account-based activity to deliver results.

This week it’s all about customer experience (and personalisation) and how the marriage of human and technology is now more important than ever.

We chat with Joe Bush on customer experience and how technologies, like chat, can help focus you on the valuable traffic you don’t manage to covert on your website. We also hear from Kirsty Dawe, who not only shows her experiences of late on how sales and marketing have changed but also on how personalisation on your website is the (obvious) missing piece of the puzzle and how relevance comes from segmenting your content to help busy buyers buy more easily.

Practical and insightful, both Joe and Kirsty offer an array of bright ideas on how to ensure you are offering the best possible experience online.

This week we focus on Social Selling – thoughts on the subject, led by Shane, who regularly trains and advises businesses on the principles

Although the name may be misleading, this is methodology that anyone (in departments other than just sales) should look to understand and implement – to help them and their organisations stand out and attract potential new connections, customers and followers. We talk through the steps to get started, what to avoid, how to improve what you are doing and who to get ongoing inspiration and ideas from on how to build your profile online and become a more connected digital professional.

This week we focus on a shared passion - training and education. We hear from Debbie James at BP and Matt Darmon at Circus Street – both chat about their experience of training and learning and how marketers can embrace digital learning. They also share the balance that is needed – to keep the learner on an even keel and how formats, lengths and the approach must be adapted.

Shane and Steve turn their attention to one of the most over-used acronyms in the industry right now, ABM. They chat with the Zen master of the subject, Andy Bacon, who explains what it is and where to start or focus your time. The episode even has time for top takeaways to start you on your journey.

In the week that the Martech 5000 became the Martech 8000 and in the week that we attended (and Shane co-chaired) a two digital conference on Marketing Tech, it seemed the ideal topic to chat over this week.