Rooted In Revenue

In this episode, Susan is joined by Rob Brodo, the CEO and Co-Founder of Advantexe, as they continue their series on business acumen strategies. The focus of this episode is on comprehending financial position and key metrics, including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow report. Rob explains that financial management is just a scoreboard for the company's strategy and that understanding these metrics is crucial in measuring the success of the strategy. He also highlights the importance of cash flow, as it is the lifeblood of any business. The conversation then shifts to the importance of everyone in the company having a basic understanding of financial management and its impact on the company. Join Susan and Rob as they dive into the world of financial management and its impact on business success.
The previous episode in this series is here:
https://rootedinrevenue.com/e/transform-employee-performance-with-strategic-insight/ 
Links related to this episode:
https://www.advantexe.com/business-acumen-virtual-workshop
Rob Brodo on LinkedIn and Twitter
Susan Finch on LinkedIn and Twitter
About Advantexe:
Advantexe Learning Solution's mission is to provide world-class Business simulation-centric Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling talent development solutions to organizations around the world in order to help them execute their business strategies and achieve their goals and objectives. 
Their vision is to be the premier talent development resource partnering with their clients to close the talent gaps that are preventing them from flawlessly executing their strategic initiatives and achieving their short- and long-term business objectives.

In this episode, we cover the importance of understanding business strategy for every person working for a company. Our guest is Rob Brodo. Rob is the Co-Founder and CEO of Advantexe. Rob talks about how many CEOs struggle with leading an organization that lacks a clear understanding of their value proposition to customers. The discussion includes the difference between the "believers" and "non-believers," and the importance of knowing the company's strategy and its impact on a company's success. Listen to this first part of a 4 part series on understanding business strategy and how it can benefit your organization.
Links related to this episode:
https://www.advantexe.com/business-acumen-virtual-workshop
Rob Brodo on LinkedIn and Twitter
Susan Finch on LinkedIn and Twitter
About Advantexe:
Advantexe Learning Solution's mission is to provide world-class Business simulation-centric Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling talent development solutions to organizations around the world in order to help them execute their business strategies and achieve their goals and objectives. 
Their vision is to be the premier talent development resource partnering with their clients to close the talent gaps that are preventing them from flawlessly executing their strategic initiatives and achieving their short- and long-term business objectives.

At least a few times a month I hear from a potential new client that their email marketing efforts produce no results. Once we sit and talk about their process, and how they follow up with the leads they get pretty quiet. This isn't uncommon. If you are struggling to create and execute targeted marketing campaigns that drive new business, you are not alone, especially for small businesses. It’s critical to the growth of your business, but you don’t have the time or the resources to do it and you cannot afford expensive marketing software or a high-priced marketing professional. Many of these small businesses are a team of one, two, or three trying to wear all the hats. They are great at what the company does, but they are not writers, they are not marketers, but they know they need to do this to get in front of existing customers and prospects.  Larry Caretsky, Founder of Commence - a trusted name in CRM is our guest today. Listen to this episode to hear how Commence has solved this common issue of starting, but then dropping the ball on everything after the email is sent through a campaign. There is an answer. Join Larry and Susan for, "Follow Up On the Leads, We'll Do the Rest."
Links from this episode:
Larry Caretsky - [email protected]
Larry on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-caretsky-b3a27824/
Susan on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch 
Commence - https://commence.com 
The Marketing Enablement Program - https://commence.com/service/marketing-enablement/ 
 
 

We hear about all the ways marketers miss the mark - what they do wrong. What if we focused on what they are doing right and then expand the use of those tactics? Some companies have a team of one or less than five and each must wear several hats. If, as a group, you lay out what is working, analyze the results through Google Analytics and pulling in all the pieces, as a group, you can tackle what is next.
It may be enhancing the most popular pages you have to ensure you move people along on the journey toward a conversation with your sales team. It may be creating a podcast or other content that appeals to your existing customers as the "inside group" rather than only talking to them when you want to sell them something new. 
Jeanne Hopkins goes through ways to bring out the best in the existing marketing plan, letting go of what's not working and allowing companies to divide and conquer what needs to be done to engage, then celebrating the mountain of measurable successes as a group. Join us for, "Making Use of What Marketers Are Doing Right."
Links from this episode:
Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannehopkins/ 
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch
 
About Jeanne Hopkins, B2B Fractional CRO with growth marketing chops, Advice with Accountability, GTM, PLG; former @hubspot VP Marketing; Speaker; Author; Advisor; Mentor; Start-up Investors:
Deep expertise in data-driven, high-velocity B2B and B2C customer acquisition, sales, marketing, and customer success organizations. Inbound (obviously)-based lead gen programs to support global demand for high-growth SaaS companies. Experienced in building GTM programs from scratch and turning around existing ones. Able to forge lasting partner marketing relationships with startups and enterprise-class organizations. Inbound marketing success in driving practical corporate, divisional and industry lead gen and nurturing programs. Success in growing and leading teams towards rapid results plus can enthusiastically manage many programs, people, vendors and campaigns concurrently, Proactive and highly productive w/analytical skills, thrive in a rapidly changing environment (start-up to corporate marketing), inspires excellence in others. Demonstrates concise, effective communication both written and spoken, able to handle ambiguity, a high workload, and an extreme amount of detail - all within budget.Building sustainable relationships that drive revenue via demand generation programs: Strategic, Technical & Creative - Co-chair MassTLC Sales & Marketing Group; Co-author, "Go Mobile"​, #1 best-selling mobile marketing book. Named to Sales Lead Management Association "Top 50"​ 3 years in a row and "20 Women to Watch" in 2015/14/13 & 2011; Named to VAR Guy Top Channel Leaders in 2015; MSPmentor People to Watch in 2014; BizJournal marketing experts; Speaker @ MarketingProfs B2B Forums, HubSpot Inbound 2011/12/13/14/15 Conferences, MIT Entrepreneurs Forum, AMA, Social Media Today, BrightTalk, MassTLC, Social Fresh. Advisor: OneScreen.io; Siemplify.co; Rank the Vote Digital Council; USEFULL (Coffee Cup Collective); Below The Fold (Acciyo)Author: Go Mobile!

A more complete title is, "How are you marketing to your employees, customers, prospects, community?"
Today I’m talking with Jeanne Hopkins who is launching Salty Marketing Company this month. We’ll cover what a fractional CMO is and isn’t, the four elements of marketing that every company must include or fail.
Employees
Customers
Prospects
Community
Consider this a wake-up call to marketers who are unable to justify their spending. This is part one of our session.
Links from this episode:
Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannehopkins/ 
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/susanmfinch
 
About Jeanne Hopkins, B2B Fractional CRO with growth marketing chops, Advice with Accountability, GTM, PLG; former @hubspot VP Marketing; Speaker; Author; Advisor; Mentor; Start-up Investors:
Deep expertise in data-driven, high-velocity B2B and B2C customer acquisition, sales, marketing, and customer success organizations. Inbound (obviously)-based lead gen programs to support global demand for high-growth SaaS companies. Experienced in building GTM programs from scratch and turning around existing ones. Able to forge lasting partner marketing relationships with startups and enterprise-class organizations. Inbound marketing success in driving practical corporate, divisional and industry lead gen and nurturing programs. Success in growing and leading teams towards rapid results plus can enthusiastically manage many programs, people, vendors and campaigns concurrently, Proactive and highly productive w/analytical skills, thrive in a rapidly changing environment (start-up to corporate marketing), inspires excellence in others. Demonstrates concise, effective communication both written and spoken, able to handle ambiguity, a high workload, and an extreme amount of detail - all within budget.Building sustainable relationships that drive revenue via demand generation programs: Strategic, Technical & Creative - Co-chair MassTLC Sales & Marketing Group; Co-author, "Go Mobile"​, #1 best-selling mobile marketing book. Named to Sales Lead Management Association "Top 50"​ 3 years in a row and "20 Women to Watch" in 2015/14/13 & 2011; Named to VAR Guy Top Channel Leaders in 2015; MSPmentor People to Watch in 2014; BizJournal marketing experts; Speaker @ MarketingProfs B2B Forums, HubSpot Inbound 2011/12/13/14/15 Conferences, MIT Entrepreneurs Forum, AMA, Social Media Today, BrightTalk, MassTLC, Social Fresh. Advisor: OneScreen.io; Siemplify.co; Rank the Vote Digital Council; USEFULL (Coffee Cup Collective); Below The Fold (Acciyo)Author: Go Mobile!

Holly Jean Jackson is a speaker, author, and holistic coach. This means she gives you three in one - a health coach, life coach, and a business coach. In this episode we are focusing on the value of relaunching your book. You put so much blood, sweat, tears, and hair-pulling into publishing a book. But what happens a few years later? Your publisher did their part, you did the signings, the promotions, and then crickets? Let's hope not. You may even be working on your next book, but you still really love your earlier works. There may be a few places that could use an update or a new version done as an audiobook. Have you done all that? Doing an audio version gives you the opportunity for updates. What about the kindle version? Can you update that? What a great way to reopen conversations with fans, clients, and prospects. Holly and Susan talk about the need for an actual marketing plan to relaunch what you did so well the first time. There is always a new way to do it better, and some elements that should be updated.  Listen to this episode of Rooted in Revenue, "You Wrote a Book, Is It Time to Relaunch It?"

We need our prospects to be so confident that they will get the return they expect. And so it's the ROI model, but also it's the level of confidence about the ability to achieve that. The fact that sometimes even what our customers tell us, they see value in our own solutions starts to change and evolve. Eric Whittlake of 6Sense joins Susan today. He says,  "One of the things that you likely will see is they value the thing that's more immediate than the thing." That extends into the need for us to do things to reduce the perception of risk with prospects of choosing a, hopefully, our solutions. That has to do with our sales process, that has to do with our marketing, and establishing credibility. There's more that we have to do there because we have a higher bar. It's time to stir it up again. We have to recognize how much has potentially changed in our market, with our prospects, and how that is so much more important that we go do this work now to understand how we're going to prioritize. Listen to this episode, "Reducing the Perception of Risks with Prospects."

Steve Richard, SVP, Value Realization at Mediafly sits down with Susan to talk about sales and sales training in a recession. He says, "Really good demand gen marketers that are super targeted with what they do and have very little scrap rate have never been higher demand. That's one thing I'm definitely seeing that's critically important right now. And everyone's going outbound."
Key points in this episode:
SDRs, SBRs, are you in the top third, mid-range third, or bottom third?
Time to start self-sourcing opportunities
How many times do you need to repeat training materials, three, seven, 50, or 100 times? 
The sins that steady renewals can cover.
Is this current market downturn isolated to tech to tech, or is it across the board?
Steve's advice to take from this episode:
"If you're good at generating opportunities, you're always going to be fine.  That's it. It's simple. So learn how to generate opportunities no matter what customer-facing role you're in."

It doesn't really matter whether you're a really large company or really small company, you have to continue to find, keep and grow the value of customers, which is the essence of marketing. You can't stop looking for customers and doing that work, but you also have to focus on keeping them. In this episode, Laura Patterson, President of VisionEdge Marketing gives suggestions for smaller to mid-size companies about building an advisory panel from your customers and why that continues to build loyalty, resources for valuable information, and your ability to better serve all of your customers. This fits into the topic of budgets and getting away from a line-items from the past, compared to outcome-based recommendations to nimbly move forward. You will pick up several tips you can implement at your own company - no matter the size - in this episode, "Outcome-Based Budgets vs. Line Item Belt Tightening."
 

Too many times a new CMO or CRO takes a position in a company and immediately wants to make changes without really observing to see what has been working, experience the company culture and getting to know the team. Jeanne Hopkins has been a CMO or CRO for many notable companies, including HubSpot, Ipswitch, Continuum, and currently OneScreen.ai. She knows the people are the greatest asset a company. In this episode Jeanne talks with Susan about her playbook and how important it is for it to align with that of any company she works for. Sometimes adjustments need to be made. Sometimes the company she is joining doesn't have a playbook so they start a fresh one based on Jeanne's. It's a huge value she brings - the ability to observe and pull from the wide range of experiences and successes she's had in B2B tech. Join us for this episode of Rooted in Revenue, "The Importance of a Playbook and Just Sitting for 30 Days."

Sales Managers and Leaders - you need to get your sales teams up 3x. Susan Finch's guest is Todd Duncan. A great place to start is with his golden nugget of a tip. At the end of each hour at the 55-minute rule. In the last 5 minutes of every hour, review what you did in the last hour. What was productive? What worked? What didn't work? If you simply start with this ONE tip, you'll be on your way to working much smarter in the following hours. Waiting until the week's end, or the month's end is too late for this review to make adjustments and improve.
He'll also give his opinion as to why sales pros slip back into bad habits after having great coaching and training. One word - discipline. 
And TRUST - the most important thing to earn and the easiest to lose. How do you get back on track?
What is your WHY? What is your deep motivation? How does an action allow you to achieve something that is really emotionally important to you? You will want to listen to this more than once to fully absorb these huge tips you can start today.
And when you're done listening, go over to ToddDuncan.com and sign up for everything he offers. Follow him on all social channels. As Corey Frank from the Market Dominance Guys says, "Invest ONE hour per day on LEARNING and IMPROVING yourself." This is a great place to start. Everything can improve - you need to accept that and be willing to do the work to improve - every day.
Get his book - High Trust Selling on Amazon
About Todd Duncan:
Todd Duncan built a successful real estate and mortgage business before committing his life to help others do the same. At a young age, he learned the importance of building relationships, and that transactions will make you a living, but relationships will make you a fortune. That life lesson has carried him through his career and helped him become the #1 salesperson nationally at just 23 years old, write 17 books, start his own podcast, and make a transformational impact on the hearts and souls of business professionals. 

If you are in sales, you'd better know if you are transactional-focused or lifetime-focused when it comes to how you approach prospects and customers. There is no wrong version, but you need to know which you are. Your sales manager needs to know which you are too. That deep honesty will allow you to play to your strengths. The theme of this episode is two-fold - being in awe of the fantastic things people you encounter do and who they are, and knowing yourself to the core. If you don't like it, change it. There is also homework at the end from both of us.
A favorite quote from The Big Kahuna is, "It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down'. That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other...”
Jason Beck, this list of movies for sales professionals is for you.  You can listen to our commentary in this episode. Check them out - some are not available on Amazon or Netflix at this time - but check back. The more extensive commentary is on Salesman.org - sign up for their newsletter, too. 
Used Cars with Kurt RussellJerry MaguireThe Wolf of Wall Street (duh)Death of a Salesman 1985 - or see it on stage - so powerfulMoneyballSeize the Day - Robin WilliamsIn Pursuit of HappynessTin MenGlengarry Glen RossTommy BoyDiamond MenLord of WarLove and Other drugsThe Big Kahuna - a sleeper and feel-good movie about salesThe Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
 
Jason Beck is Vice President of Sales at Enerex, retail energy's trusted data platform, providing secure connectivity to the entire value chain — brokers, suppliers, agents, customers, and utilities — to drive efficient transactions. Their flagship service, Sparkplug, is the #1 retail energy sales platform in the world, powering over 10% of US commercial and industrial (C&I) transactions. He's also been a wonderful guest on Market Dominance Guys. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.