Conquer Local with George Leith

If we could convince our competitors to stop adapting and our customers to stop evolving we'd only ever have to position once. April Dunford, CEO of Ambient Strategy, gives us a sneak peak for her upcoming talk at the Conquer Local conference! She goes over how to nail product positioning, when to reposition, and how to adapt positioning to the ever changing marketing landscape. April shares two ways to think about positioning, from the perspective of the salesperson connecting with the SMB and from Saas companies to position themselves against their competitors. She provides insights on how to communicate what's really special about a product/service and what a business can offer so they can standout in the crowd.  April Dunford is an executive consultant, speaker, and author who helps technology companies make complicated products easy for customers to understand and love. She is a globally recognized expert in Positioning and Market strategy. Previously, April has run marketing and sales teams at a series of successful technology startups and has launched 16 products into market.  She is also a board member, investor, and advisor to dozens of high-growth businesses and is the author of the upcoming book Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Are your presentations making your audience fall asleep? Do you read your slides? Do you have filler words? George's Top Tips for presentations can fix that. Our gracious host, George Leith, is back with another teaching episode! This week George tackles how to tweak your presentation skills to make them more effective, more concise, and to deliver them stronger. You, the listeners, will walk away with four new exercises to help you in making your presentation skills one to be reckon with. George is thoroughly experienced, educational and inspirational sales and marketing keynote speaker who can enlighten your company or professional association on best practices for transforming sales and utilizing social media’s innovative concepts to align your digital media marketing with current trends and prepare it for the unpredictable times ahead. As a sales transformation keynote speaker, author and guest university lecturer, he has a unique ability to demystify concepts and inspire businesses and professionals to understand and truly embrace the potential that digital transformation has for many business objectives including sales, business development, and marketing for B2B, non-profit organizations, as well as government institutions. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Commoditization is such a beautiful word that means nothing, but it is so important to understand.  Katie Martell, CMO and co-founder of Cintel, will be speaking at the Conquer Local Conference in 2019, June 10-12 in San Diego! She can walk the walk AND talk the talk. Katie gives us a teaser on what she will be sharing with our Conquer Local audience, commoditization. She explains that it doesn't matter what you sell, you are likely selling into a commoditized market. It's an issue that all companies are facing every single day.  Katie Martell is an independent voice in the marketing community and known as the “unapologetic marketing truth-teller.” She has been named “one of the most interesting people in B2B marketing,” a “marketing expert to follow” and a top marketing writer on LinkedIn. Katie is a frequent speaker and emcee at conferences including TEDx, INBOUND, and MarketingProfs, and serves as the Co-Executive Director of Boston Content, the city’s largest community of content professionals. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Rabble Rousers, and hosts the Explicit Content podcast with Enterprise Marketer, featuring direct and honest conversations about marketing.

You asked for it, we listened! We are bringing back our coaching episodes. George Leith is a mad man that truly ENJOYS cold calling. Our wicked host, George Leith, breaks down cold calling this week. He walks us through George's Top Tips for being successful when making cold calls. He goes through how to handle the rejection when a prospect flat out says—no. He draws from his experience and tactics on how to win the "Unicorn" or the "Whale" that you've been dreaming of closing. George even tells you how to get rid of the uhmms out of your pitches. Listen to learn more! George is thoroughly experienced, educational and inspirational sales and marketing keynote speaker who can enlighten your company or professional association on best practices for transforming sales and utilizing social media’s innovative concepts to align your digital media marketing with current trends and prepare it for the unpredictable times ahead. As a sales transformation keynote speaker, author and guest university lecturer, he has a unique ability to demystify concepts and inspire businesses and professionals to understand and truly embrace the potential that digital transformation has for many business objectives including sales, business development, and marketing for B2B, non-profit organizations, as well as government institutions. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Gordon Borrell built an entire business around a survey, and he's still at it! It's 10 years running and there isn't a stop in sight. Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, has confirmed what we've been hypothesizing for awhile now. The customer journey needs to have a relationship built off trust, BUT he throws in a twist. Listen and find out what the secret sauce is. Gordon Borrell is ranked in the top 2% among Gerson Lehrman Group’s 150,000 consultants worldwide and is quoted frequently in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Ad Age, Forbes and other publications. He has appeared on CNN and other TV and radio programs discussing trends and forecasts for local media. Prior to starting Borrell Associates, Gordon was vice president for new media for Landmark Communications, where he worked for 22 years. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

The Solo Salesperson is a thing of the past. The new and proven approach is Team Sales. Conquer Local heads to Amsterdam! We get to pick the brain of Peter Urmson, CEO of Spotzer. We discuss the sophistication of customers knowledge and how it's evolving. The Sales Teams need to be on the cutting edge to keep up with the trends and the changes coming from the big guys like Google, Facebook, and Bing. In turn, this makes the Sales Team a trusted advisor. Peter tells us how the message and information that the salesperson shares with the customer needs to be simple and not oversell or over promise. Spotzer has gone through massive growth with Peter at the helm. Focused on websites, e-commerce, SEM and SEO in 23 countries and 18 languages. Producing several thousand sites and ad campaigns a month means Spotzer needs to be incredibly well organized as a high performing team. Peter advocates that the key to Spotzer's success is having great teams of people who are all trying to make a positive impact of the lives of their customers. It's what gives us a laser focus on quality of service and great products. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Broken sales team? Sales team not meeting their quota? Sales culture not great? We have ALL of those answers. Donny Dye is the founder of Quota NYC. Quota NYC helps companies build sales systems that scale efficiently and can be managed through a simple quota. Donny gives us his inside scoop on what culture should look like and how it will motivate your sales team. He tells us why working from the bottom up in an organization gives you the strongest understanding. For an added bonus, Donny tells us the two things he would create if he had a magic wand and makes a great reference to the Will Ferrell movie, Ricky Bobby. Donny has over 15 years of Saas and enterprise sales experience by selling, leading, and guiding companies scale predictable revenue. If you are building a sales team or have broken a sales team, Quota NYC can help.

No matter the market there is a common denominator, market qualified leads. Conquer Local travels to South Africa this week! We pick the brain of Lyndon Munetsi, Chief Revenue Officer for Trudon, the publishers of the Yellow Pages in South Africa. Lyndon takes us through the journey and the pain points he experienced coming into an organization that has been operating the same way for the last 30 years, the struggles from organization structure, and developing new ways of operating in digital. There is a unique nature to the South African market, there is the ultimate rich to dirt poor people, blue chip companies to small businesses, and capacity to have 500 qualified leads per day to 5 leads to day. Prior to Joining Trudon, Lyndon worked for Accenture as a Digital Transformation Lead, driving transformation activities with listed companies in the Resources, Retail and Telco sectors. He has also held Executive level roles with some of the leading Telco and Media entities in Africa. He has led multifaceted digital teams in driving company-wide digital transformation programs, product innovation, development & execution, digital sales and marketing. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

It's not one size fits all anymore, it's all about thinking like an App. The best package to sell to a business is the one the business needs. On this weeks episode we have Neal Polachek, Analyst and Advisor to the Board Advisors, joining us. Are ROI's BS? Neal thinks there are better ways to measure a businesses success on their investment. Business owners are frustrated with all the different marketing tactics when they want to focus on what they do best, their business. Neal talks about the Baby Boomer generation slowly transitioning into retirement and developing an exit strategy. He explains how a different sales pitch is needed to a business owner close to exiting the business world and to someone who is taking over a business. Engaging the end consumer should be approached in an engaging format, like an App. No need to physically build one but thinking about the customer journey and experience. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Microsoft sales wizard, Carson Heady, joins us for this weeks episode on Conquer Local. Carson started his career in a call center and now is a top performing sales leader at Microsoft. He has been through it all from dial-up internet, DSL, cellular, to when high-speed internet took off. He gives us his insight on how you can understand and work with the territorial sales person who doesn't want to give up control over their client. Carson explains the path that Microsoft transitioned to the new market while expanding to nearly 50 technology centers worldwide. He tells us how they switched gears to have sales specialists dedicated to accounts and work in tandem with their partners. Carson is also the author of the ‘Birth of a Salesman’ series, which details the art of sales - from interviewing through preparation, pitching, closing and advancing your career in sales. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

The hardest working man in digital gives us his take on aligning a businesses mission to a clients mission. The Conquer Local podcast is traveling to Malibu this week - we pick the brain of Jamie Cohen. Jamie serves as the VP of Local Digital for Salem Media Group and is the catalyst to the launch of their digital agency and go-to market model, Salem Surround. He explains how they reintroduce what they have been doing for clients by positioning it in a different way. Jamie tackles the commission shift from radio to digital and the go-to market philosophy by focusing on prospecting and selling. Salem Media Group is a publicly traded media company with direct ownership of more than 115 radio stations, 100's of websites and 1000's of apps. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

The logical thing is when everyone in an organization supports sales—everyone wins, right? The challenges may surprise you. Special guest all the way from Czech Republic, CEO of Mediatel, Luboš Čipera! Mediatel transitioned from the traditional directory print side to a digital organization in a quick and efficient way. Luboš gives us the dirty details on what it really takes to transition a company successfully under the ever changing landscape of sales and marketing. He shares how he increased revenue by 12% year over year by focusing on profitability. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Winter is coming to the marketing landscape, and change is inevitable. So, what will tomorrow hold? This episode is a special one as we reflect on the first full year of the Conquer Local podcast. We bring back the big guy, CEO of Vendasta, Brendan King. We address everything from why we branded the show "Conquer Local," to our formula for giving agencies and enterprises the tools they need to turn themselves into recurring revenue machines. We also discuss the DIY and DIWM models and why it's beneficial to get your clients engaged in the process of digital marketing. And lastly, we explain why SMBs demand more performance from digital marketing compared to more traditional ways of marketing channels. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Equip your clients for battle against the Amazons of the world with the new digital marketing stack. Our very own Brendan King, CEO of Vendasta, is passionate about local businesses and ensuring they have the tools to succeed. In this week's episode Brendan shares his knowledge on how to equip the local sales teams with the new marketing stack and provides insight on how to compete with the top dogs like Walmart and Starbucks. Brendan explains how local businesses have an advantage by giving a different kind of experience, a personal experience. With a well-rounded digital marketing stack from an agency it allows local business to do what they do best, focus on their customers and develop relationships. Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Increase your client retention rate by 50%+. Discover data proven results and tips to help eliminate churn. Jackie Cook, Chief Strategy Officer at Vendasta, gives us the low-down on customer retention. In this week’s episode she shares the results from her comprehensive study on churn; where her team analyzed agency data to give us the details on how to retain customers and help them grow. She provides some great tips and insights, and also answers the all-important sales question: When do I check in to see how my clients are doing? Listen now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij