Social Business Engine: The Enterprise Podcast On Social Media, Content Marketing, Social Selling And Employee Advocacy.

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Companies must have a strategic plan to grow and expand, especially in challenging times like the current pandemic, where market dynamics have shifted and priorities have shifted. Most B2B companies use traditional market reports to guide their strategic decisions, but they are not enough. However, with the right market intelligence, B2B organizations can prioritize their accounts, reevaluate territories and rethink their ideal customer profile to actually thrive. In this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, my guest, Elizabeth Cholawsky, PhD, describes how technology intelligence helps companies plan with confidence and make better decisions. She is a seasoned executive leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing successful SaaS-based businesses. Elizabeth has led and worked with companies to build market-leading offerings, using in-house talent as well as through partnerships and acquisitions. Elizabeth is the CEO at HG Insi

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Marketing and sales plans conceived in early 2020 are either no longer relevant or no longer work, so B2B sales teams have had to change how they sell (and sometimes even WHAT they sell) to adapt to the new environment of the COVID world. In this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, I talk with Jillian Ryan about some of the pivots B2B companies are making to respond to the changing marketing and sales landscape. Jillian is a principal analyst on the eMarketer vertical for Insider Intelligence. Her expertise and analysis focus on B2B marketing, advertising and sales, as well as trends in marketing transformation and the modern workplace. As a former B2B marketing director, Jillian has over 15 years experience driving strategy for B2B software companies and digital publishers. She is also a frequent presenter at industry events such as The B2B Marketing Exchange, Advertising Week and Social Media Week and her commentary has been featured in Bloombe

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Innovative business models bring interesting challenges for marketers. When your company fills a previously unrecognized void, your target audience won’t probably know you exist or recognize that they need you. What marketing strategy can you use if your target audience doesn’t recognize your value? That was the case of my guest in this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine, Stephany Greene. Stephany is Director of Marketing and Public Relations at WestCMR, a company that purchases surplus inventory of in-date surgical supplies from hospitals and surgery centers and sells them  to facilities at a discount. WestCMR was founded in 1997 by Randy Ware. Randy was in sales when he observed excessive waste where hospitals and surgery centers sent their new, unused un-expired surgical supplies to landfills. So he innovated a unique business model to empower hospitals and surgery centers, that enabled them to capitalize their excess inventory by selling thei

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Growth marketing is what drives pipeline and increases sales in the long run. The correlation is undisputed. During a time of social and financial disruption like the current COVID-19 pandemic, growth marketing can be perceived by some as insensitive and opportunistic. What is the modern marketer’s best response? I’m happy to have Meredyth Jensen as my guest on this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. She serves as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Brand Communications at RGP. During our conversation, I learned that RGP is a spinoff from Deloitte in 1996 and has become a global company that has served more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies with services spanning financial, legal, HR, IT and supply chain. Meredyth’s perspective is simple yet powerful: Marketing that is human is marketing that works, no matter the social or economic climate. Join us for this intriguing conversation where Meredyth outlines her personal appr

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Every team of marketers needs to drive marketing results that matter, and as my guest on this episode says, “I’ve never heard a marketing team say, ‘We’ve got all the budget we need!’ “ That’s especially true for small teams. On this episode, David Buffaloe, CMO of Vertical IQ shares the steps marketing leaders can take to drive marketing results despite having limited resources. Vertical IQ provides insights into what’s happening on a variety of levels in over 500 industries. By tapping into the data available through Vertical IQ you will quickly become an industry expert; which equips you to find, connect with, resource, and close new customers and nurture relationships with existing customers. You’ll enjoy hearing the insightful strategies David has for assessing your marketing approach, choosing and using automation effectively, locating the right talent and nurturing their success, and producing marketing results that drive the bottom line profi

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. With the changes happening in the business world due to the Coronavirus crisis, many marketing leaders are learning that managing a remote team of marketers is not a simple matter. Since the entire Vengreso team is remote- now known as “WFH” (work from home) - I wanted to offer help for those making the transition. I invited Matt Langie, CMO of Xant to help me pull it off. And, he delivered!  Matt’s background working for tech giant Adobe and other tech firms has enabled him to amass the experience you’d expect from the CMO of an up and coming sales technology company like Xant. During his career, he’s had plenty of experience working with remote marketing teams so his insight into the subject will serve you well. If you’re a team member who’s now working from home or a manager looking for tips on how to manage a remote team, you’ll find Matt’s advice to be golden. Don’t miss it!  This episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales enga

  Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Growth marketing is about increasing pipeline so the sales organization can be more successful, faster. My guest on this episode of the podcast approaches growth marketing through hyper-personalization. What is that? Imagine yourself driving down the highway and two billboards appear along the road. One is a generic, “buy this product from us” presentation while the other speaks directly to you, addressing a very specific personal need you have. Which are you most drawn to? Ari Capogeannis is Senior Marketing Director in charge of Demand Generation for Cumulus Networks.The company designs and sells a Linux operating system to deliver networking solutions for large datacenter, cloud computing, and enterprise environments. . Ari has seen how hyper-personalization —directed at every person within the decision-making unit of mid-market and enterprise businesses — can accelerate sales pipeline with truly qualified leads as well as decrease the time to c

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice Who is best equipped to carry out an effective Sales Enablement Strategy? Sales? Marketing? Maybe another department? Bernie’s guest on this episode of Modern Marketing Engine is Genefa Murphy PhD, SVP and CMO at Micro Focus, one of the world’s largest digital transformation solutions providers. Genefa believes that Marketing should own Sales Enablement and the goal of this podcast episode is to understand why. We'll also get a peek into how it’s being carried out at Micro Focus.  You’ll learn how Genefa’s team organizes “Sales Councils” to inform and empower Sales Enablement, how they go about repurposing and creating the right content for Sales, and how she evaluates Sales Enablement efforts both qualitatively and quantitatively. Be sure you listen to the entire podcast episode! This episode is sponsored by XANT, the enterprise leader in sales engagement. Xant has authored the Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence. Get your copy at www.SalesCadenceGuide

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. The Unique DNA Of This Global Brand Sykes is a leading provider of customer engagement services with a rich, 40 year history serving global and emerging brands. One demonstration of how Sykes is uniquely different than many long-lived brands is the story of how Ian Barkin came to be part of the company. Ian was previously co-founder and CSO of Symphony Ventures, a professional services firm focused on designing, delivering, and managing modern business processes. The company was so successful that it got the attention of Sykes leadership and was acquired by the company. When that happened, Ian was offered a spot in the C-suite of Sykes as Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer and he says now that he couldn’t be more delighted with this role. Ian says the exposure he had to the culture at Sykes while acquisition talks were underway impressed him. Particularly, he appreciated that Sykes leadership often referred to team members as “family,” a practice h

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice.  Events have been a notoriously difficult marketing channel to measure when it comes to adding qualified leads to the sales pipeline. Much of that difficulty has been due to the limits of the technology marketers have used for years, but there are also shortfalls that have happened in the realms of strategy and planning that need to be addressed. Bernie’s guest on this episode of Modern Marketing Engine is Corey McCarthy, CMO of Socio—a company whose customizable event apps are changing the way companies engage with and measure event leads. Listen to discover how to coordinate event lead generation efforts with sales, how to get marketing and sales on the same page for event planning and strategy, how to make sure event leads make it into the sales pipeline, and ultimately how to measure contribution to sales pipeline through events. Mark your calendar for February 26th and 27th in Salt Lake City at the Grand America Hotel for NEXT 2020. Register now

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice If you haven’t heard of AI sales assistants, chances are you may have interacted with one and didn’t even know it. That’s especially true if you’ve purchased or leased a car in the last few years and made your contact with the dealership by digital means. Automotive dealerships are becoming increasingly more tech-savvy and AI sales assistants are one of the newest tools in the marketing plans of many dealerships. But while this week’s podcast conversation showcases the automotive industry as an example, it's not just about the automotive industry - it’s about how many industries around the world are increasingly deploying AI sales assistants. On this episode of Modern Marketing Engine Bernie speaks with Micah Burgess, Vice President of Sales at Conversica, the only provider of sales conversion management software for marketing, inside sales, and customer service groups. In this conversation they speak about the current state of the automotive industry

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice When it comes to creating and successfully implementing an International business expansion strategy, there are numerous variables that must be addressed. Wouldn’t it be great to have a seasoned International expansion advisor on your team? On this episode, Bernie speaks with an executive who has overseen or been a part of International expansions for many companies. Most importantly, he’s done so successfully and can share lessons-learned that will be of great benefit to anyone seeking to expand to International markets. On this episode, Bernie speaks with John Pincott, GM of Conversica Europe. John has extensive experience with International expansion and is very passionate about the nuances of expanding a successful business into another region of the world. Listen to learn how to know if your company is ready to expand, what it takes to do so, and pitfalls to watch out for along the way. This episode is sponsored by Conversica, AI software for mar

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice. Long term profits are like the constant heart-beat that keeps successful businesses running. Bernie’s guest on this episode has co-written an excellent new book that explains how neuroscience and the human connection can position your business for long term profitability through the creation of raving fans. David Meerman Scott is a well-known marketing expert, globe-trotting keynote speaker, and consultant whose body of work is undoubtedly familiar to Modern Marketing Engine podcast listeners. His seminal book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” is a standard among marketing professionals with more than 400,000 copies sold and available in 29 languages. Now, with the help of his millennial daughter, Reiko he’s penned his eleventh book, entitled “Fanocracy: Turning Fans Into Customers and Customers Into Fans.” Listen to learn how your brand can become the favorite among a dedicated group of raving fans and reap the reward of long term profits. Can An

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice If your Customer Success team isn’t contributing to your growth strategy, maybe this function is in the wrong department? Your customers not only need to be happy with what you sold them, they also need to have a great experience with your brand. Creating a team that is exclusively focused on providing that experience is one of the best ways to ensure customer happiness, loyalty and repeat purchases. But where does the Customer Success team fit inside the broader organization? That’s a question not always so easily answered. This episode of Modern Marketing Engine features Jeanne Hopkins, CMO at Lola.com - a business travel company that makes it easy to track expenses, save money, and create a more enjoyable experience for business travelers. Jeanne explains how and why she’s made Customer Success at Lola an integral part of the marketing team. She also unpacks why marketing is the natural fit for this vital customer-facing team. Most Companies Don’t

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice In a global marketing campaign, is it possible to focus on Brand Messaging and Demand Generation at the same time? The team at Nutanix has pulled it off incredibly well in their 2018 “Freedom” campaign and now in their new 2019/2020 “All Together Now” campaign, which launche in October 2019. The Nutanix brand focuses on bringing siloed technologies such as computing, storage, virtualization, and networking into an integrated single software stack that can operate on just about any hardware. Their goal is to bring siloed technologies and siloed teams together. This episode features Julie O’Brien, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Nutanix. Bernie and Julie discuss the road from the Freedom Campaign into the All Together Now Campaign with an eye toward unpacking how the demand generation side of the equation is integrated into the campaign in a way that stays true to the brand’s promise in clear and concise ways. You’ll hear how the campai

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice How does a company with a premium offering, but little or no brand recognition, market to a universe of buyers who assume that solution providers are all pretty much the same? It’s not easy or simple, but thankfully there are companies out there demonstrating there are ways to to build brand equity and gain the attention you need to set up their sales team for conversations with qualified prospects. This episode features, Dean Nicolls, Vice President of Marketing at Jumio. Jumio as a company has found itself in the position described here - in spite of having won numerous impressive awards in its market segment. Dean speaks with Bernie about the ways he’s leading the Jumio marketing team to use PR, analyst relations, and sales enablement to elevate the profile of what the company has to offer as a premium brand. Unknown Premium Brands Build Reputation Through Education At Vengreso, we often say that modern sellers need to sell in ways that modern buye

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice Whether or not marketers should use the approach of gated content is a hotly-debated question. Should content be entirely free, or are there valid cases for gating content to ensure lead capture for your sales funnel? Bernie’s guest on this episode is James Kessinger, CMO of Hushly. James has spent his career in corporate marketing, product marketing, services marketing, field marketing, and partner marketing - leading both large marketing organizations and smaller teams. James has seen it all and in his role as CMO at Hushly, he is responsible for defining, building, and executing on all marketing, PR, go-to-market, and partnerships. On this episode, James shares his thoughts about whether or not there is a place for gated content in the modern marketing approach - and suggests there is a middle ground that marketers should be pursuing. What Are Good Reasons For Gating Content? When considering the choice to gate or ungate marketing content, it’s imp

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine on your app of choice On this episode of Modern Marketing Engine, you’ll hear from Kelly Bousman, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for AVI-SPL about the powerful role a Customer Advisory Board can play in your business. Kelly says that a Customer Advisory Board is one of the most direct and effective ways to listen to the voice of the customer. When you are able to understand the experiences of your key customers you can develop products and marketing and sales strategies that address real customer needs - both for existing and future customers.  VOC (Voice Of The Customer): Informs All Aspects Of Marketing Strategy The experience your customer has with your product or service is the most important source of data available to help you improve your offering and maximize your customer’s experience with your brand. When you are able to tap into the voice of the customer, you’ll discover answers to many pertinent questions: Is your brand relevant in your industry? Is

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Marketing leaders across the globe have a challenging job - to help their marketing teams remain aligned with company goals and contribute to bottom-line results. It’s a tall order and one that is becoming increasingly more complex as technology saturates every area of business. For this episode of Modern Marketing Engine, Bernie speaks with Heidi Melin, Chief Marketing Officer at Workfront. She and the team at Workfront are enabling teams across all industries to do their best work. Listen to hear the findings of the 6th annual Workfront 2020 State of Work Report. Heidi and Bernie dive deep into one particular finding - that work is getting in the way of work - and discuss how to address it. Work Is Harder And More Complex Than Ever Before One of the obvious conclusions of this conversation is that the way work gets done has changed forever, and will continue to change as technology advances. There are more opportuni

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts One of the hot, hot topics these days in the sales and marketing arena is sales enablement. To clarify the issues and highlight the importance of enablement for every sales organization, Bernie invited Jake Braly, Vice President of Global Marketing at Highspot to be his guest on this episode. The Highspot team provides a technology solution for sales enablement that prepares sellers to speak to buyer needs, engage buyers with answers to the questions they have about a potential solution to their problems, and does it all in a way that optimizes performance and increases deal velocity. Jake’s everyday experience in the sales enablement world makes him an expert to speak to the issue. Join Bernie and Jake for this enlightening and challenging conversation. This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, which means you win mo