How do you build trust with your audience? By consistently showing up and adding value. Jared Robin, CEO of RevGenius, is a LinkedIn regular with a unique style, a compelling story, and a clear point of view. This has helped him build a strong personal brand and connect with over 45,000 followers.

For leaders, managers, solopreneurs, and individual contributors, building a powerful presence on LinkedIn is a game-changer.

A HardNumbers study shows a strong link between social media presence and financial success for unicorn companies with active founders.

“Our report reveals that unicorn companies whose founders have the most LinkedIn followers secured over £763 million in total investment on average. This is over 20% more than the average total raised – £632 million – across the UK’s entire unicorn cohort.

“This shows that investors want to align with leaders who have a clear, compelling story. When the story resonates, investor buy-in is more likely.” [Source]

The compelling story needs to be told. We know building your personal brand is needed, and we know it works. What’s next? 

Balancing act: How to start and stay consistent? 

We’ve all been there struggling with:

• Finding time for consistent content creation
• Generating fresh, cool, and engaging content regularly
• Balancing personal authenticity with professional branding
• Engaging in a meaningful way 
• Using AI in more elaborate ways than simply chatting with Chat GPT  

Whether that’s a busy CEO, founder, manager, or IC, building a consistent and powerful personal brand is a full-time job. 

Strategies to build your personal brand 

That’s why we talked to four experts who shared their strategies for building a personal brand and engaging with their audience, all while using AI as a tool. Check out our session with Justin Simon, The Founder of the Distribution First podcast, Brianna Doe, the Founder and CEO of Verbatim, Chelsea Castle, The Head of Content and Brand at Close, and Blaine Bolus, the Co-Founder for Castmagic, or read the recap below.

Start with a strong point of view

“Be willing to take a stand and repeat it until it becomes a recognizable theme.” – Justin Simon

Having a clear and recognizable POV is the starting point in building your personal brand. The consistency in messaging and defining your unique value proposition will guide all your efforts. As Justin explains, the more you talk about the topic, the more it becomes ingrained in your audience’s minds. This clarity helps in establishing your voice and makes your content memorable. 

How can AI help? 

AI-powered tools like sentiment analysis and market research platforms can provide insights into what your audience cares about. This data helps you craft messages that resonate and differentiate you from the competition.This not only sets you apart but also gives your brand a solid foundation. Use AI tools to analyze market trends and audience preferences to refine your value proposition.

Castmagic has an iOS app that turns your thoughts into content — you can share your thoughts, and let the app transform them into multiple posts. You can also use the Content Sample feature to style your content like the influencers you follow on social media. 

Having a clear “why” and an established POV helps in setting a clear direction and reducing content fatigue.

Be authentic. Always.

Authentic content is what truly resonates with your audience and builds trust. “Be clear on your ‘why’ and set boundaries to approach personal branding from a healthy perspective,” Chelsea Castle explains. Genuine engagement is key.

Balancing professional and personal brands helps with authenticity concerns.

Define the one word you want to be known for and focus on evoking the desired reaction from your audience.

How can AI help?

Personalization at scale: AI can help personalize your interactions at scale. Use it to analyze your audience’s behavior and preferences, allowing you to tailor your messages. This personalization helps build stronger connections and fosters trust. As Justin Simon points out, it’s about integrating your brand into everyday interactions without losing the personal touch.

Meaningful Engagement Avoid using AI for generic responses, especially in comments and direct interactions. Brianna Doe, the CEO and Founder of Verbatim stresses, “Creating content online and building a personal brand online doesn’t mean you can’t have boundaries.” Focus on meaningful, thoughtful engagements that reflect your genuine interest and expertise.

Store, Revisit, and Refine Your Ideas

Coming up with consistent content ideas can be challenging. Brianna Doe shares her approach: 

“I use Notion to store and organize content ideas, categorizing them based on my content pillars.” Having a system in place ensures that you always have a pool of ideas to draw from.

Blaine, co-founder of Castmagic, recommends creating a library of high-performing content from other creators. “Building a swipe file can serve as inspiration for what to post and when,” he explains. This file can serve as a valuable resource for generating new ideas and understanding trends in your niche.

Capture and document first, and then fit those into ideas later

How can AI help?

Repurposing: Tools like Castmagic can help repurpose content from various formats, ensuring you get the most out of every piece of content you create. This means transforming webinars, podcasts, and articles into bite-sized social media posts, blog entries, and more. Imagine taking your raw thoughts from sales calls, meetings, or recordings and transform them into a variety of content types: social posts, newsletters, blogs, etc. You can turn any conversation into insightful leadership content. 

Writing assistance: While there is a debate about using AI for direct content creation, it can be incredibly useful as a writing assistant. Chelsea Castle mentions using AI to “synthesize and analyze content” and improve the clarity and conciseness of your writing. Tools like ChatGPT can help refine your content, making it more engaging and easier to digest.

Automate to focus on connections

Automate to focus on connections. Identify where collaboration happens in your content workflow to optimize for both speed and authenticity.

Part of your job as a creator is being a curator of your own content

There’s no other way, we need to minimize manual effort but without losing the personal touch. Transcriptions, summarizing, scheduling, and content distribution can all be handled by tools but curation is key:

Curate and evaluate content before automating to avoid appearing inauthentic.

And by content we mean not only podcasts you were a guest at, your articles, the company’s webinars, and interviews but also: your calls, conversations with customers, community chats with your friends AND your own thoughts. 

“Recording thoughts and conversations can create a multimedia library that can be repurposed into different content types.” [Justin Simon]

TL: DR Best Practices Cheatsheet

• Tap into your media library for evergreen ideas. Turn context into content.
• Keep it simple. Know what you want to be known for, how often you want to show up, your point of view, and who you want to connect with. Building a personal brand is all about showing up authentically.
• Record your thoughts and repurpose them as much as possible.
• Embrace authenticity and use AI as your assistant and sparring partner.
• Consider moving your audience from rented platforms to your own (like newsletters) and use AI for deep personalization.

How can Castmagic help in content creation? 

RevGenius webinar session was powered by our partner Castmagic. It’s an AI-powered tool that makes it easy to create content from your audio and video conversations. It transcribes and summarizes key points from webinars, podcasts, and meetings, allowing you to quickly turn them into blog posts, social media updates, and newsletters.

Imagine a CEO who regularly speaks at industry panels and webinars. With Castmagic, these sessions can be transcribed and key insights extracted to create LinkedIn posts, a blog, and content for a company newsletter.

To give you an actionable plan and help with building your personal brand with AI we sat down with the Castmagic team to share the multiple ways you can use it — dive into the use cases here or check out our breakdown:

• Pages — Combine multiple recordings to extract and repurpose content into a 2000+ word article, newsletter, social post, and more.

• Customer Discovery — Record your sales calls and push them through the Customer Discovery Profile. Learn more about companies to come up with authentic write-ups. 

• Courses — You can take the webinars and run them through the Courses Profile, get worksheets and quizzes, summaries, and cheat sheets, and even build out a course program. 

• Podcast — make sure to repurpose your podcast once recorded into various formats: articles, interviews, courses, and social posts. 

• Meetings — Record your meeting and get quotes, key points, and ideas listed. Let the AI organize the agenda and action items. Use the shared link to send the recap to the team. Perfect for inspiration, content posts, and more.
• iOS App — Start recording your thoughts. A 2-minute recording on your walk can turn into an endless supply of social content to build out your brand on Linkedin. 

Remember that you can create your own prompts to repurpose any audio or video recording in your writing style and brand voice.

Sign up for a free trial and experience the magic of Castmagic!

Your personal brand is a reflection of your professional journey 

As Jared Robin highlights:

“I get into dozens of conversations daily with community members, many of which are automatically recorded on Zoom. What comes out are so many thought-provoking ideas and concepts. Castmagic allows me to create content from that easily and repurpose it so the gems get captured and don’t die when the call ends. These conversations contribute to the brand I’m building.”

Your personal brand reflects your professional journey – make it impactful, authentic, and memorable. Don’t miss our upcoming webinars on marketing, sales, and GTM trends!

The post Taking Your Personal Brand to the Next Level With AI appeared first on RevGenius.

Shannon is a business creative at heart. She loves strategic and measurable storytelling that makes an impact on the business and on people. As a recovering PR person she loves the art of the well-crafted pitch and tailoring content for the end use. She’s passionate about businesses and products that are changing the way we work and live. 

Words are important, but even more important are the people you are sharing them with.

One-liner about you

I’m a marketing exec working with companies to define their ‘why does it matter’?

What is not working anymore in the B2B space?

The altitude of our programs are no longer working, you hear either short term wins or we need to wait a long time to see results. How do we break down long term projects to show leading indicators of success? How do we get away from always working towards the short term?

Most difficult project you’ve worked on

A leaky funnel for me is always the most difficult. Breaking down where the issues could be (there could be many!) and working through how to prioritize. 

Your biggest professional accomplishment

When I left my first leadership role, I asked the company not to backfill me and really let my team rise up (because I knew they could). They were all promoted within the year. 

What are you passionate about?

I am super passionate about getting messaging and differentiation right, how do you really speak to your customers in a way that makes them remember you? That paired with a high performing and well coached team is unstoppable.

Best advice you’d give to yourself 10 years ago?

Chase the work, bet on yourself, the rest will come.

What’s the number 1 trend you feel will shape the future of the B2B space

Peer to peer referrals and relationships.

What is one thing you love about RevRoom?

I am so grateful for how open and game everyone in RevRoom is to help, give their opinions and advice and build relationships. 

Ready to join conversation with leaders like Shannon? Enter RevRoom

The post RevRoom Member Spotlight: Shannon Curran appeared first on RevGenius.

You can watch the whole show here: 

Or dive into the key takeaways below!

TL:DR

• Strategic hiring for your growth stage: Learn how to align your Salesforce Admin hiring strategy with your company’s current stage. Go through pros and cons of fractional/consultancy services & full-time roles
• Strategic CRM management: Which rules to follow
• Techstack: Explore the impact of tools like Sweep in streamlining Salesforce administration for efficient and effective CRM management

When should startups consider Salesforce? 

Deciding when to adopt Salesforce depends on more than just current needs or the stage of development. It’s critical to evaluate if your org is ready for such a technological shift. 

You need to have the right team in place to design and streamline processes effectively BFORE integrating any new technology, Salesforce included. This “people, processes, technology” trio  emphasizes that technology should complement well-established processes, not replace them. Without solid processes—be it in sales, quoting, or pricing—attempting to implement Salesforce can introduce more challenges than solutions. 

The second piece of it is really making sure that you don’t adopt Salesforce before willing to invest in it the way that you need to. When it comes to Salesforce, perception is reality. If you view it as just another CRM — you’ll see minimal investment go into the platform and then little more than baseline functionality come out of it. It’s a lost opportunity. It leads to lower adoption because it’s not adding enough value to the reps or the end-users, which in turn leads to decreased visibility and insights that RevOps teams can get. In that case, the overall ROI isn’t impressive. 

Companies that view Salesforce as the foundation of their GTM infrastructure can leverage it to get a 360 degree visibility into their customer lifecycle.

There’s no end to the implementation, it needs to be an iterative, incremental process and you have to be prepared as an organization to put the money and resources behind it.

If your business has key priorities like planning, processes, and aligning everything for growth, your RevOps person might not have the bandwidth to also manage Salesforce. Recognizing this gap, many startups opt for external help, either from freelancers or firms. 

Typically, by Series B, hiring a dedicated Salesforce admin becomes viable. 

Daily Salesforce tasks are tactical, centered around solving problems and supporting sales teams. It’s a hefty job. So, if your organization is mature enough to involve RevOps early, it’s wise to free up their time for broader strategic efforts.

3 Ways To Get Salesforce Support

There are three main ways to get Salesforce support, depending on your company’s growth stage. 

1. Hiring full-time staff — The most cost-effective strategy for Salesforce projects, helping to build internal expertise and shaping a long-term product roadmap.
2. Partnering with Salesforce consulting firms — Consulting firms are ideal for larger projects, offering a comprehensive team to manage everything from start to finish, especially useful for initial Salesforce implementations or major upgrades like CPQ deployment. However, this is often the priciest option.
3. Hiring freelancers or independent contractors — Freelancers or independent contractors offer a versatile middle ground. They’re great for short-term capacity boosts, filling gaps left by departing staff, or even tackling strategic projects similar to consulting firms but with a more integrated approach. They excel in specialized tasks that might be beyond your team’s current capabilities, allowing for a consultant to lay out the initial plans for complex projects, which your team can then execute.

Ideally, you’d build an in-house Salesforce team, ranging from one admin for smaller setups to larger teams with dozens of specialists for bigger companies. Your team size should match your needs, aiming for an internal group of admins, developers, architects, and product managers. 

It’s crucial to understand your workload’s consistency before investing; you wouldn’t want to hire an admin who’s busy 15% of the time.

Most companies, like Gong, HighSpot, Outreach, and PandaDoc, tend to hire their first full-time Salesforce admin around Series B. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation. Clari waited longer, SalesLoft not until Series C, and Seismic even later. The timing for this hire varies, highlighting the nuanced decision-making process. Generally, the Series B stage marks a point where sales and overall growth velocity justify investing in more dedicated Salesforce support.

Moving to Salesforce around Series B means looking for your first admin, but starting small is okay. There are options like Sweep for smaller teams to easily get into Salesforce without being overwhelmed by the thought of needing a large team later. A key point many miss early on is how much more is spent on Salesforce services than on the licenses themselves.

For every dollar on a Salesforce license, how much is spent on services?

It’s more than $6 on every dollar companies are spending on Salesforce. 

Salesforce offers the chance to build a highly customizable and integrated business infrastructure with virtually no limits. The key consideration is the total cost of ownership: for every dollar spent on Salesforce licenses, additional costs are incurred for staffing and professional services to tailor the platform to specific needs. This cost can appear skewed; investing less in Salesforce initially often leads to higher expenses later due to poor setup or short-sighted customizations that require constant fixes or become quickly outdated.

Larger teams of 40-50 people are typically found in multinational corporations using multiple Salesforce products. Establishing a strong foundation, whether through consultants or full-time employees, can significantly reduce the ongoing management and support costs of Salesforce. This contrasts with the higher averages seen in the market, which result from companies treating Salesforce as an afterthought, leading to costly system habits that are hard to correct.

How do you measure the ROI of Salesforce?

When evaluating Salesforce, it’s important to consider the total cost of ownership. This includes all investments made to optimize its use, which can be surprisingly high. 

The real value of technology, like Salesforce, depends on having a strategic process in place. 

If your strategy requires customization beyond what standard tools and best practices can support, it’s worth reassessing to avoid overcomplication. Many standard solutions integrate well with Salesforce, covering a broad range of needs without necessitating excessive customization.

Buy vs. Build 

Bridging the gap between business people and technical teams is crucial to make the right decision. We should start by asking some basic questions: 

• How would I build this? 
• How long is it going to take? 
• What are the technical dependencies? 
• What’s the potential for the processes to mature beyond what we’re building and changes need to happen. 

Salesforce Over-engineered? 

There are two scenarios when Salesforce can become overengineered:

1. The initial adoption is too broad — this can easily result in excessive customization of elements that will inevitably be outgrown. 
2. Teams have an reactive approach to development — companies tend to address immediate needs as they appear, leading to an accumulation of ad hoc solutions pushed into production without a holistic vision. 

Most companies should view Salesforce as they would any product under development, including those intended for external customers. This means having a multi-year product roadmap in place. While this roadmap doesn’t need to be detailed, particularly for projections beyond twelve months, it’s crucial to have a clear sense of Salesforce’s long-term direction.

Best Practices for Salesforce Implementation

Remember to prioritize process over technology. It’s unrealistic to expect Salesforce to fix underlying issues; instead, focus on refining or re-engineering existing processes before migrating to Salesforce. 

These migrations often serve as a driver for organizations to address long-standing process inefficiencies that may have been overlooked. It’s an opportunity to reassess day-to-day operations and optimize processes before integrating new technology.

Checklist:

• It’s important to start small and iterate. Don’t implement everything at once simply because Salesforce offers extensive capabilities. 
• Begin by redesigning existing CRM functionality and incorporating new features enabled by Salesforce. Leave room for iterative enhancements as priorities, processes, and other tools evolve over time. 
• Be aware that implementing Salesforce is a cultural shift within a company. It’s not just another tool for the sales team but a fundamental change in how the organization operates. Adoption and communication are key; otherwise, you risk chasing after users to comply with processes. 
• Salesforce adoption requires a collective effort—it’s a team sport. Responsibility lies not only on the sales team but also customer success, marketing, and beyond. When everyone collaborates effectively within Salesforce, it becomes a powerful tool for the whole GTM team. 

Watch the whole show here and if you want to learn more about Sweep, a visual workspace for Salesforce, check out their website here. 

The post Salesforce Management for Startups: When and How to Start? appeared first on RevGenius.

Inbound Sales Funnel Sets the Stage for Your Entire Pipeline 

The top of your inbound sales funnel sets the stage for your entire pipeline, determining whether your team succeeds or fails. We’ll dive into real tactics and tricks to avoid common rookie mistakes to fully optimize your inbound sales funnel to bring in the best potential buyers and maximize your pipeline throughout your customer sales journey.

Key Takeaways:

• Optimize your inbound sales funnel to better qualify prospects
• Create a better, more targeted experience for potential customers
• Boost your sales team’s performance and time management by using automation and AI.
• Figure out how to reach and connect with buyers who have high intent

Let’s dive in!

Today’s Sales Funnel Is Not A Straight Line

The sales process isn’t straightforward anymore, with buyers engaging more before reaching the sales team. As solutions diversify, buyers expect seamless experiences, so it’s vital to connect well with them. Let’s look at some common rookie mistakes that slow things down and how to fix them.

Mistake #1: Making Buyers Jump Through Too Many Hoops 

We now know that conversions are about eight times higher when a connection is made within the first five minutes versus waiting six plus minutes.

Buyer’s number one focus is NOT looking for our solution. They have their own tasks and goals. They want to talk to you right now.

Once prospects move on to other tasks, it’s easy to lose their attention. To keep them engaged, simplify the process by allowing them to book meetings directly on your website after filling out a form. This not only increases meeting bookings but also alleviates the pressure on the GTM team to ensure timely follow-ups. 

How can marketers step in? How can we make things less painful and have less friction? 

Marketing teams can empower sellers by enabling them to focus on… selling. Providing comprehensive account information allows sellers to personalize interactions from the first call, delivering value within the initial five minutes. Research shows that demonstrating ROI within the first ten minutes significantly boosts the likelihood of closing a deal. Instead of burdening sellers with unnecessary questions, marketing and sales should collaborate closely to streamline processes. By taking initiative to gather information independently, marketers can ensure that sellers are well-equipped to succeed in every interaction. This approach not only reduces buyer frustration but also enhances the overall experience for both parties. After all, nobody enjoys completing a lengthy survey before a meeting just to address a couple of pressing questions.

Real-Life Example

If a prospect has visited multiple pages on your site, it’s essential to prioritize the products or areas they’ve shown the most interest in when making initial contact. This approach not only meets the customer’s expectations but also lays the foundation for a strong relationship from the outset. Sharing and leveraging this data effectively can make a significant impact on the customer experience and ultimately contribute to successful outcomes.

It’s crucial to book meetings within the first day. While accommodating different time slots can be challenging, ensuring there are enough options available for immediate or next-day discussions is key. We often set a buffer of four to six hours for scheduling, but research suggests that being the first to connect significantly increases the likelihood of securing a deal. 

Around 80% of buyers tend to go with the first vendor they engage with. 

This early engagement allows us to make a strong impression, showcasing our solution before competitors enter the picture. Once we’ve wowed them with a demo or conversation, other solutions become mere checkboxes in their evaluation process. Being proactive in reaching out first can make all the difference.

Mistake #2: Not Qualifying The Lead Before It Gets to Our Sales Team

The key is to qualify leads before they reach the sales team, right at the form-filling stage. While some may rely on sequential workflows, where leads are passed to the next available salesperson, this approach can lead to issues if the connection between buyer and seller isn’t optimal. 

Only 27% of inbound leads are truly qualified and sales-ready. 

Marketing can play a pivotal role in lead qualification, understanding that people ultimately buy from people. Starting with a simple form, we must strike a balance, gathering necessary information without bombarding prospects with excessive questions. The approach should be tailored based on the target audience and how they typically engage with content. While debates around forms and MQLs persist, there are instances where forms are necessary for effective qualification.

Streamlining forms with enrichment features can be incredibly beneficial, allowing us to gather essential information without overwhelming prospects.

For instance, in the B2B SaaS space, a simple question like “What CRM do you use?” can provide valuable insights and help weed out irrelevant leads. Utilizing workflows ensures that leads are routed to the appropriate team members based on their industry or other relevant criteria. While adding questions like industry or B2B/B2C designation may be necessary for larger companies with diverse business units, it’s crucial to keep forms as concise as possible while still gathering relevant context. 

Mistake  #3: Every Lead Is Going to Your Sales Team

You don’t have to talk to everyone. And actually you shouldn’t. Don’t be afraid to route people away from your sales team if they’re not in your ICP.

Marketers’ primary concern often lies in optimizing the top of the funnel and ensuring we’re attracting quality leads. 

One effective strategy is to guide leads through a post-form submission journey that provides value and narrows down their options. This can involve directing them to a thank-you page packed with on-demand demos, customer testimonials, and trial invitations, while still offering an option to connect with the sales team if needed. By tailoring the follow-up process based on user behavior and preferences, we can increase the focus on higher-quality leads, ultimately boosting win rates and average contract value (ACV). 

This approach also allows us to fine-tune our paid channels, ensuring we receive leads that align with our criteria. 

It may seem tempting to engage with every potential lead, but it’s essential to prioritize quality over quantity. By focusing on prospects who are more likely to convert and investing time in nurturing those relationships, we can drive meaningful results. 

Mistake #4: You Conversations Aren’t Personalized 

Buyers are nearly 70% through their buyers’ journey before contacting sales. 

They’re coming into that first meeting with different objectives, with different questions, different needs, and different pain points than all of the other buyers.

• We don’t want to give them more information than what they can already find online.
• We don’t want to provide the same experience to every single person regardless of who they are. 

Best practices to follow:

• Personalize demos and personalize the agendas.
• Have conversations that resonate better with the prospect.

People don’t just buy software. They often buy organizational change. 

The “Hubspots of the world” can fundamentally change the way people do marketing.

What should you consider? 

• If you already have some information about your buyers, let them know about it. Let’s solve their problem before it’s even called a “problem”. 
• Be human: let them feel seen.

Different buyers care about different things. If you address their specific needs, you’ll improve your chances of making a sale. Using personalized approaches increased success rates from 1.5% to 5-7%. This improvement applies to the whole sales process and makes your team’s efforts more valuable. So, focusing on quality leads to better results than just aiming for quantity.

Can Chat GPT help?

Chat GPT is a super helpful tool but you can’t depend on it entirely. One great use is summarizing long calls. People are still learning how to use it to understand their company’s image online. Make sure to double-check its insights and compare them with your knowledge and SEO data. It can also uncover new insights or help research new industries. Think of it as a copilot, freeing up time for more important tasks. But remember, don’t let it run on autopilot; personalized conversations matter. Use your best team members for meaningful interactions.

Mistake #5: You Forgot About No Shows Or Abandoned Bookings

Many salespeople give up too soon, but research shows that it often takes five or more follow-ups to secure a sale. Buyers are busy, so missed appointments don’t mean they’re uninterested. It’s important to keep trying. Marketing can help by keeping leads engaged and automating follow-ups, while sales teams can use alerts and SDRs to chase leads. If appointments are being missed, it’s crucial to figure out why. Regular checks can identify problems like boring agendas or limited time slots, so you can fix them and improve your chances of making a sale.

Instead of a wide funnel, think of our goal as a narrow pipe to capture every lead. It’s disappointing when interested prospects seem to vanish. 

Using leadership connections or different communication channels can help re-engage them. Remember, ‘not right now’ doesn’t mean ‘never,’ so keep nurturing these leads. Each lost lead had a problem we could solve, and by staying connected through webinars or collaborative content, we can address their needs.

Nurturing isn’t just about emails—it’s much broader. Multi-threading, for instance, involves engaging with various people in the company, especially in today’s complex buying landscape. You’re not just dealing with one decision-maker; you’re navigating through a whole committee. It’s about understanding the organizational change process and addressing it through different channels, like inviting them to webinars or events. It’s also crucial to track missed meetings and ensure everyone is informed. By automating this process, you can effectively re-engage prospects through targeted campaigns.

Mistake #6: Setting and Forgetting 

Optimizing the inbound sales funnel isn’t a one-time task—it requires ongoing evaluation and adjustment. Many of us set up our tools and processes and then neglect to revisit them. To ensure effectiveness, we need open communication between marketing and sales teams. Experimentation is key—setting aside small budgets or ideas to test can provide valuable insights. 

If you wanna watch the whole show, check it out here:

The post 6 Mistakes Sinking Your Inbound Funnel appeared first on RevGenius.

Watch or read our conversation with: Brianna Doe, Co-Founder @ Verbatim, Katie Penner, Head of Sender Relations at Sendoso, Jess Ramos, Sr. Data Analyst at Crunchbase (and an influencer after hours!), hosted by Jared Robin.

What is Influencer Marketing? 

Brianna Doe: Influencer marketing is when a content creator who’s built up an audience that trusts them and engages with them, partners with a brand to promote their products or services. 

Think of product unboxings, launches, co-created content and sponsored posts. But the thing is, in this day and age, we’re saturated with ads — they’re all of our social media feeds and we don’t really look at them anymore. 

With influencer marketing, you’re able to break through that. 

If you partner with the right people that have built trust with your target audience, they’re able to help you build trust and credibility for your brand as well, a lot quicker than a paid campaign. 

Influencer marketing is a great way to speak directly to your audience.

X Factor — Trust 

Jess Ramos: I am very protective of my audience because I want to make sure I’m showing them things that are relevant and interesting to them, but also reputable. 

The trust factor is huge.

If brands can find people that have the target audience they need, it makes the connection even stronger.

Creative Freedom vs. The Script

Jess Ramos: I love when brands give me creative freedom. I have had companies before come to me and give me a commercialized looking graphic and say: “Post this. We want you to talk about these exact bullet points” and those posts performed the worst because they don’t align with my regular content. 

Katie Penner: Creators have built this intense emotional connection with their audiences and they know more than anyone what’s going to resonate. I think it’s so silly that brands are providing scripts and sometimes not even caring if that creator is a user of their service or platform. It’s very transactional.

Influencers or Creators?

Katie Penner: I like calling them creators because that’s truly what they are. For me an influencer is someone that is just posting and not really giving back to the community. I think creators are more collaborative and offer help to the community, they are determined to upliftt others. 

Brianna Doe:  You can be a content creator and not be an influencer, but you can’t really be an influencer and not be a content creator. I think the thing that makes them different is an influencer does participate in brand partnerships and leverages their online community. A content creator, on the other hand, might not. They might also focus on user generated content that’s free for brands to use. 

Your Playbook For a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign 

Brianna Doe: One of my most successful influencer campaigns was with a brand that provided me with a context of the whole project, the brief with basic information and then – creative freedom – because they knew I would do what’s gonna resonate with my audience best.

They were really focused on building a long-term partnership and to build trust with my audience.

Knowing that I didn’t have to worry so much about negotiating every time I post, I was able to just focus on the content and make sure that we were aligned on their goals. 

The longer term you can think about your partnerships, the more success you’ll start to see, not just with your audience, but with the influencers that you work with, with the content that you’re creating and with the overall strategy.

When you do set up influencer marketing campaigns or programs, make sure everything else is optimized. If you have a content creator driving traffic to a site where you’re not capturing anybody’s information, you’re not able to continue nurturing them, so you’re probably not going to see the results you want. And instead of blaming it on the content creator, it’s important to make sure all of this is in line before you actually launch.

Checklist for the influencer campaign:

• Creative brief (not a script!)
• Clear goals 
• Long-term relationship with the audience AND with the content creator 
• Creative freedom but providing helpful context 
• Overall long-term strategy 
• Optimization of all the touch points 

One Post Anti-Policy 

Jess Ross: When the campaign is just one post, it puts so much pressure on it because you want it to go viral, to get thousands of likes and views for that client, but that’s not always possible. Over the course of five months for example, my brand becomes a lot more associated with the company. People see me posting about them, so the it  becomes familiar. 

Jared Robin: You’re getting more posts, you’re getting recalibrations, you communicate with the influencers or creators that you’re partnering with. You’re getting feedback on brand messaging too. 

Katie Penner: Paying an influencer for one post is like having a one step sequence. It takes time to tell a full story and to bring up features and your experiences with the product. 

Be Clear About the Goals and Expectations  

Jess Ramos: The influencer is not a salesperson. There’s only so much influencers can do. We’re sitting at the top of the funnel. We’re helping bring brand awareness and trust. We’re driving clicks, free trials. But what happens beyond that is out of our control. If we’re bringing people to your website and maybe converting them to a trial or to put in their info, we can’t really do a whole lot beyond that.

I’ve talked to companies that want to get people to sign up for free demos, which are one of my least favorite CTAs. Just because it’s a big ask to get someone to sign up for a meeting. It’s important to find a balance between meeting your business goals, but also giving the influencer a CTA that makes sense and that they can really work with their audience.

Brianna Doe: Make sure you know your goals ahead of time. If you’re trying to define success in the middle of the campaign, it’s going to be a lot more difficult, if not impossible. Make sure to understand if you’re looking to drive brand awareness, free trials,  or you’re trying to capture people’s information or get them to an event. Understand what success is and then just get the metrics that will quantify that. 

Make sure you have tracking in place for whatever metric it is and communicate that to the influencers. It’s really important to make sure you have all this dialed in before you start the actual campaign or engage with the influencer.

Influencers Campaigns Gone Wrong

Jess Ramos: One difficult campaign I worked on was with a B2B company that had an unlimited budget. They got every influencer anywhere close to their target industry and worked with them. Long-term the campaign just fizzled out because it was tons of people all posting the same thing few times a week on LinkedIn. So anybody who follows influencers in this specific domain would see their posts every day. 

They got everyone they could instead of finding a few trusted people to work with. And then they also just oversaturated the market to the point where consumers and businesses got so tired of seeing these posts. The engagement dropped to 20 likes per post. 

Brianna Doe: We had one client who wanted a really fast turnaround time for the campaign. We handled everything we were supposed to: sourcing the influencers, negotiating, getting the contracts in place. And then the company just went silent for a while. There was no communication. Influencers were waiting for updates. They were waiting for their posts to get approved. 

Teams are lean right now. People don’t allocate a ton of resources to influencer marketing in the B2B space. So make sure you start small, with a few content creators, maybe even one. Then build accordingly or scale. Communication should always be a priority.

Brands’ Homework BEFORE Launching Influencers Campaign 

Katie Penner: When you don’t do that homework, you can get caught up in being affiliated with someone that maybe isn’t the best representation of your brand. It’s important to provide the creators with free access to your platform so that they can become genuine fans of what you’re offering — that will definitely come through in the posts that they’re creating. 

Buyers don’t want to hear from you or your company anymore. They are going to their communities, they’re going to the people that they trust, to the creators that they follow. 

You should get to know the creators that you might want to work with also. Make sure that they would be a good fit to represent your brand before even looking at their followers’ count. Our “creator community” is actually pretty small. 

The Combo of Paid Marketing and Influencer Campaigns 

Brianna Doe: On average, people need to see your brand’s name between 7 to 13 times for the linkage. 

So if you can incorporate both the paid marketing and influencers campaigns into the strategy, you’re going to hit it from both ends. You have influencers that people trust talking about your product, giving it validity, and then you can do remarketing at the same time with paid advertising. So they’re seeing it on their feed in multiple different formats. I love the combo of paid marketing and influencers campaigns. 

Katie Penner:  We ran a paid ad recently that was one of Tim Davidson’s posts about how he used to use gifting at Sendoso in his ads. And we generated multiple demo requests from that ad alone. 

No Budget? 

Brianna Doe: Everyone has their own rules here and boundaries they’re comfortable with. I think my time is valuable and people aren’t just paying for the piece of content I’m making for them. You’re paying for all the time someone invested building up their platform, building up their trust and getting access to that audience. Being a content creator is a ton of work, and to get to the level to where you have even 50k followers on one platform is difficult, so I do believe that it should be compensated. I think you can do a lot with a smaller amount of money if you go with smaller creators. Still, there needs to be some kind of budget in place.

I would advise any marketer or brand that wants to start approaching influencers for free content campaigns to really dig into why they want to do that. If it’s a budget concern — partner with smaller creators or potentially hold off on influencer marketing. Focus on other channels and make sure you have at least some sort of budget to be able to engage with people. 

Jared Robin: I think influencers are being underpaid. No matter what you’re doing, you should have a bulleted list of benefits ready.  Some may want to get speaking engagements, others — introductions. That’s going to create a much better bond and trust with whoever you’re working with. And that’s collaboration. 

Behind the Sendoso Influencer Campaign 

Katie Penner: I absolutely think that creators should be paid. We also do some other things, like LinkedIn takeovers with gifting — campaigns that are free but with our influencer program, 

I got a set budget. Then we launched a waitlist landing page where people could sign up. Thankfully I already knew many of these people and was able to go through the list and choose those that I know would really shine and bring out our brand. 

You just have to be pretty selective with your budget and mix big creators with the smaller ones. That’s what worked for us.

Metrics Rundown 

Jess Ramos: If the company is looking for brand awareness, then they want to get their name out there. They want others to know that I’m working with their brand which means focusing on impressions, views, post engagement and comments. If the main goal is to drive free trials or clicks, then the brand wants people to visit their website. I communicate that clearly — I can make that the main goal, but it’s probably going to hurt impressions because I’m going to have to do a post that is more catered to.

If you’re interested in watching the whole show, check it out here. If you wanna partner with RevGenius on events like this, let us know! 

The post B2B Influencer Marketing: X Factor, Sneak Peek Behind the Sendoso Campaign and the One Post Rule appeared first on RevGenius.

Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Common Room, discussed 10 signal categories to look out for. You can watch the webinar on demand here or dive into the key takeaways below.

Market Conditions and the Need for New Strategies

Generating sales and closing deals has become harder due to changes in the market. One big reason is that companies, especially the bigger ones, are getting less money than before. In the last year and a half, there’s been a noticeable drop in funding compared to what we saw more than two years ago. This decrease is making it tough for many businesses, including those selling software and tech.

With funding drying up, especially for later-stage companies, and a wave of layoffs, businesses are facing significant challenges. This environment has led to a decrease in software spending and growth opportunities. 

The Role of Signals in Today’s Sales Environment

It’s estimated that around 95% of potential customers in your target market aren’t actively looking to buy at any given moment. This means only about 5% are actually considering purchasing software solutions. The key to successful selling is focusing on this small, active segment. These are the buyers who are more likely to make quick decisions and potentially spend more. Identifying this 5% – those who are ready or nearly ready to buy – is crucial.

Signals play a vital role here. They act like a bridge or a spotlight, helping sales teams pinpoint these active buyers. By catching the right signals, you can tell when someone shifts from just looking around to being ready to buy. 

Ten Categories of Signals for Effective Selling

Product Signals

Many of us use a product-led approach, which means understanding how customers interact with our products.These data points are vital for identifying potential buyers. For those who don’t have access to this data, it’s essential to collaborate with your data team — product signals are among the strongest indicators of buying intent. 

Here are a few examples:

• Consumption Ceilings: Monitor accounts that are nearing the limits of their current plan. This can be a prompt to discuss their usage and potential upgrades.
• Surges in Product Activity: An increase in how much an account uses your product often means they’re finding value in it, whether for new applications or confirming its effectiveness.
• New Integrations: When a user connects new integrations, particularly sophisticated ones like Salesforce or a data warehouse, it often indicates they’re exploring new ways to use your product.
• New Users: Adding new users to an account is another strong signal. It suggests expansion within the account and new use cases emerging.

Expiration Dates

Expiration dates are another category of signals, similar to product signals, but they’re specifically tied to deadlines related to product usage. A prime example is the timeline of a free trial. Reaching out to potential customers just as their trial period ends gives you a chance to understand their experience with the trial and what they were hoping to achieve. For sales reps, offering an incentive, like extending the trial, can be effective. This approach works well if the prospect needs more time to assess the product.

Another important expiration-related signal is the renewal date of a competitor’s product. Gaining information about when a competitor’s contract is up for renewal offers a strategic opportunity. You can approach these potential customers and suggest they consider your product as an alternative, highlighting what sets your solution apart.

For situations where you don’t have specific expiration dates, creating time-bound offers, like special holiday rates or end-of-year discounts, can also be effective. These offers can act as a motivator for potential customers to engage and make a decision.

Cries for Help

This category is about recognizing when potential customers are actively seeking help. You can find these signals in various online spaces like Stack Overflow, Reddit, or Quora, where users often discuss issues they’re facing with software. Interestingly, even review sites like G2 can be insightful. While you might expect only positive feedback, there’s a section for users to express their dislikes about a product. This information can be invaluable, especially if your product can address those pain points.

Support forums dedicated to specific products or technologies are also rich with signals. They’re filled with bug reports, feature requests, and general user feedback. Tapping into these discussions can lead you to potential buyers who need solutions your product offers.

GitHub Activity 

For those working with software developers, places like GitHub are goldmines for signals. Activities like contributing to open source projects or reporting bugs can indicate a readiness for more professional solutions.

Important to remember 

It’s crucial to approach these signals thoughtfully. Not every signal allows for an immediate sales outreach. It’s about understanding the context and acting in a way that’s genuinely helpful. When reaching out, it’s important to be empathetic, offer real support, and avoid being aggressive. This approach ensures that your interactions are well-received and more likely to build positive relationships with potential clients.

Legislation and Policy Changes

Moving on to the fifth signal category, which is often overlooked but highly impactful: changes in legislation or platform usage policies. These changes can create significant opportunities for sales.

For example, GDPR, the data protection regulation, had a profound impact. When GDPR was about to be implemented, it spurred many discussions and led to an increase in purchases of security and compliance software. This shift essentially created a whole new sector within the industry.

Another recent instance is the updates to Gmail’s sender policies. With these changes imminent, there was noticeable concern among those who rely heavily on outbound email campaigns. Such policy updates can prompt businesses to look for alternative solutions or technologies, particularly if their current methods might no longer be effective or compliant.

In essence, when your product or service aligns with new policies or legislative changes, it presents a prime opportunity to initiate conversations with potential customers. These shifts in the legal or policy landscape can act as catalysts, driving demand for specific solutions.

Employment activity

Another important signal to consider is employment activity. While changes like a customer moving to a new company are well-known signals, there are other employment-related actions worth monitoring.

Firstly, promotions within a company can be a significant signal. When someone is promoted, they often look to make a notable impact in their new role, and your product might be just what they need to achieve this.

Layoffs can also be a telling sign — in situations where a company reduces its workforce, there could be an opportunity for your technology to fill some of the gaps left behind. This could be a chance to propose how your product can streamline operations or handle tasks previously managed by a larger team.

Additionally, the presence of open roles can indicate a resource gap within an organization. This presents an opportunity for your product or service to provide a solution, either assisting the new hire or addressing the needs that the open role aims to fill.

VIP Activity

One of the key signals we pay close attention to is activity from VIPs. This includes engagement from high-level decision-makers like VPs, directors, and above, who typically are less active but highly influential. Noticing any activity from them, such as being added to a workspace, following a competitor, or engaging with your brand, is significant. These actions indicate a strong interest or consideration for your product.

Another important form of VIP activity comes from roles in security, IT, or procurement. When individuals in these positions show interest, it often signals a serious consideration for your product and potentially indicates a higher contract value. These professionals usually deal with multiple stakeholders and seek comprehensive solutions, preferring structured contracts like MSAs and annual agreements. They are detail-oriented, ensuring all compliance and requirements are met, which usually correlates with substantial deals.

The takeaway here is the importance of who is interacting. The level and role of the person engaging can greatly influence the potential value and intent of the interaction. For example, an intern’s actions might have a different implication than those from an executive. Recognizing the significance of these VIP activities can be crucial in identifying high-value prospects.

Tech Stack Activity

It’s important to monitor changes in a person’s or an account’s technology stack, as these can provide valuable insights.

One key area is complementary technologies. If your product works well alongside another, and you notice a potential customer has started using a compatible integration, it’s a great moment to reach out. You can highlight how your product, in combination with the one they’re using, can create enhanced solutions for them.

Another less obvious but equally significant signal is changes in a website’s technology, like the addition of new advertising or analytics tracking. For instance, adding a tool for advertising tracking might indicate that a company is planning to increase its marketing spend, or perhaps a new marketing professional has joined the team. Similarly, changes in analytics tools, like switching from Google Analytics to another platform, can signal that the company is seeking more in-depth website data analysis. These tech stack changes can open opportunities to present how your product or service can meet their evolving needs.

Company Milestones

Moving on to the ninth signal, let’s consider company milestones. While fundraising events are a common focus, as they indicate investment and growth, they also present a challenge in standing out. If you’re reaching out in response to a fundraising event, it’s crucial to add value and differentiate your product.

Beyond the obvious, less apparent milestones can also provide significant signals. For instance, a new product launch might imply a need for enhanced analytics to gauge the product’s performance and effectiveness. This could signify an opportunity for solutions that support analytics and market understanding.

Another notable milestone is company acquisitions. While less common, acquisitions demand substantial integration and adaptation, presenting opportunities for products that facilitate these processes.

Additionally, changes in leadership, like a new board member or C-level executive, often herald shifts in strategy or new initiatives. These changes can open doors for solutions that align with the company’s evolving direction.

Website Activity

The final signal to discuss is good old website activity. While visits to pricing pages are common and certainly valuable, there’s more to be gleaned from deeper engagement on these pages. For example, time spent on the pricing page, interactions with a pricing calculator, or toggling between different plans are all highly indicative of serious intent. These actions represent a much higher level of interest compared to a mere visit to the pricing page.

Another area to pay attention to is visits to integration pages. If someone is exploring how different integrations work with your product, it’s a great opportunity to reach out and discuss how your product can enhance their existing tech stack. This ties back to the importance of understanding tech stack activities and how they can inform your sales approach.

Finally — the documentation pages. When visitors are looking through documentation, they are often seeking solutions or troubleshooting specific issues. Identifying such visitors can be a cue for your team to offer assistance, potentially leading to a meaningful engagement.

Note on the Inverted Signals: Recognizing when a lack of activity or removal of a service might indicate a need.

Navigating Signals with Technology

One of the tools allowing for signal-based selling is Common Room — by aggregating data from various channels, it provides actionable insights, enabling sales teams to approach prospects with precision and relevance. 

If you wanna watch the whole webinar, check it out here:

Also, make sure to check out our upcoming events on all-things-GTM!

The post Signal-Based Selling: 10 Signals To Hit Your Target appeared first on RevGenius.

Mollie is one of the most exciting voices in SaaS, with experience leading revenue operations  at Corteva Agriscience, Syncari, Deel, Sound, now advising growing companies. She’s built numerous revenue teams from the ground up, setting up new standards and processes. She’s also a founding member of RevRoom (a curated community for senior executives) and an active member of RevGenius. We’re talking career, RevOps, leadership and lessons learnt.

How did it all start?

I like to joke that I’ve always been in revenue operations, even before it was cool. I started my career at a large health insurance company, in sales operations. At that time, sales ops involved building RFP databases and doing proposals. Then I transitioned to what would now be considered marketing operations, although back then, tools like Marketo and HubSpot were not widely used. I did email marketing using SilverPop, where I had to HTML/CSS  code every email. It was a fun world.

I truly did operations work, which encompassed marketing and sales support. After that, I worked for a small construction tech startup (which has since been acquired by Oracle), where I took ownership of their Salesforce, marketing automation, and what we would now call revenue operations. This was about 15 years ago, before the term became popular. I continued to lean into the marketing side for a while. Later, I joined Marketo and worked on client implementations in their professional services team. During that time, I learned so much, working with numerous companies across various industries. I’ve worked with FinTech, nonprofits, athletic teams, and more. Eventually, I shifted more towards true revenue operations.

I enjoy problem solving. There’s always something to fix, and in this role, I have the authority and autonomy to make things better. It can be overwhelming, but it’s also rewarding.

What would you consider your biggest success?

I’m a mom of three little kids, and I’m really proud of being a successful-working parent.

Apart from that, I also own my own company where I work with small companies, helping them build their operations foundation through coaching and guidance. In terms of professional accomplishments, one of my favorite projects was running the beginning-to-end open enrollment for a healthcare company.

We achieved an incremental revenue success of over 23 million dollars. It was an excellent result due to having a solid strategy, a well-executed plan, and a customer-centric approach.

Additionally, I consider building strong and successful teams as a significant accomplishment. I’ve always had to build teams from the ground-up, so that’s definitely something I consider my biggest strength.

You’ve built and led teams, what are your biggest lessons on leadership?

I think being a people leader is one of the hardest jobs out there.

In the world of startups, it’s important to accept that not everyone will stay for the entire journey. The fast-paced nature of growth often involves a shift in talents and skills. Individuals who thrive in the early stages of a startup may not be the best fit for later stages, and that’s okay. Sometimes, it’s best for them to seek new opportunities. But I wouldn’t say it’s easy to let them go.

Navigating communication in remote companies can be a challenge, but I already know that effective leadership requires time and effort. I strive to be a people manager who prioritizes transparency and honesty. When people truly comprehend the reasons behind decisions, they are more receptive and motivated (even if they don’t always agree with them).

I am committed to helping my team members advance in their careers.

I believe that bad leadership is one of the primary factors that drive people to leave.

When I instill confidence in my team members and truly believe in their abilities, they are more likely to exceed expectations and make the right choices.

Community: What’s in it for you?

We’re each other’s cheerleaders, champions, supporters, and even therapists to some extent. We win together outside of a company, which is really impactful. It’s less self-serving and more about investing in each other. It’s not about building personal brands or gaining influence.

The community is wholesome and pure. That’s what makes it special.

What trends are you seeing in the B2B space?

There are two buzzwords right now. The first one is AI, which we all know. The second one is productivity, which ties into AI.

Businesses are looking to do more with less and improve their output and performance. If we can automate certain tasks and free up time, we can invest that time in personalization, content creation, and consumer engagement, leading to higher conversion and engagement rates. The focus should be on using AI to enhance the consumer experience, not just as a cost-saving measure.

The consumer experience should be the priority when implementing AI and automation. It’s important to meet user expectations and provide smart, quick, and responsive experiences. We don’t want to frustrate them with irrelevant or unhelpful automation.

What should we move away from?

It’s less about what works or doesn’t work and more about the level of maturity in the approach.

Lead scoring is a good example. If businesses are still relying solely on demographic and behavioral lead scoring without incorporating intent and other factors, they may be behind the times. It’s about understanding when businesses have outgrown certain practices.

So, it’s more about staying adaptable and continuously improving. Businesses should always strive to push boundaries, iterate, and improve. If something is working, it means there’s room for further optimization.

What should we read?

One book that I found really valuable is “Crucial Conversations.” It’s about having difficult conversations in a respectful manner. It taught me the importance of removing myself from unproductive conversations and taking breaks when emotions run high. It’s a skill that applies not only in professional settings but also in personal relationships.

How do you set your personal goals?

Personally, I’m not as formal as sitting down and setting hard career goals.

One thing I invest a lot of time in is reflection.

Every Friday, I write down what I do in a Google sheet that’s always open on my computer. I try to write things down as they come and summarize them at the end of the week. Did I get things done? Did it work? What was the impact?

Feeling like we’re working towards the right things generally helps.

For my personal career growth, I invest in the community and have a career mentor. It helps me think about the right things and stay focused. I’m open to being challenged and continuing to learn. I don’t have a fixed plan like “I want to be a CEO” because I want to be more well-rounded and seek opportunities to learn and improve.

Working with other good leaders and learning from their experiences is also helpful. It’s not just about solving complex issues but also handling situations like staffing challenges and adjustments. For team growth and development, I believe in focusing on three things. Each team member should have two core objectives per quarter related to their job and growth. The third objective is personal learning and development, something that fulfills them outside of work.

I try to put these pieces in place and have ongoing discussions and monitoring. We all start with good intentions, but it can get out of hand if we don’t continually manage it.

What advice would you give yourself 10 years ago?

That it’s okay to fail. Don’t put roots in bad earth. Don’t invest your time in situations where you can’t be your best self. I’ve learned that the hard way. Sometimes we think we can’t leave a job because of the fear of job-hopping, but if you’re in a toxic environment or dealing with bad people, it’s best to get out.

Do what’s best for you, not what’s best for the company or your team.

I still talk to people from my first company, so people remain even if you leave. It’s a hard lesson for many, especially for those from previous generations who stayed at the same company for decades. We need to be okay with making decisions that are best for ourselves. If you’re proud and excited about the decision, it’s the right one.

My advice is to do what you need to do, not what others think is right.

Insights we loved:

Achievement Tracking

Track weekly progress, evaluate goals’ impact, reassess based on business dynamics for personal and operational growth.

Objective Prioritization

Limit goals to three quarterly: two professional, one personal. It encourages focus and achievable targets for team development.

Embrace Failure

Accept shortcomings, avoid toxic environments, prioritize well-being over misplaced company loyalty, and learn from each setback.

Well-being First

Support team in prioritizing personal well-being, empower choices for individual happiness over societal expectations or norms.

Leadership Insights

Frequent check-ins with self, ensure team’s objectives align with personal development, and foster continuous improvement dialogue.

Community Involvement

Value online communities for sharing expertise, discourage self-serving interactions, and foster genuine engagement for growth.

AI & Productivity

Use AI to enhance customer experiences, focus on meaningful applications rather than solely cost-cutting measures in B2B.

Team Building Challenges

Hiring and leading teams require hard choices, transparency, and fostering a supportive environment for members to thrive.

Grace in Leadership

Practice transparency, maintain patience, and encourage a positive mindset. Become a leader who inspires, not the reason for departures.

Ready to join conversation with leaders like Mollie? Enter RevRoom

The post RevRoom Member Spotlight: Mollie Bodensteiner appeared first on RevGenius.

Webinar Key Takeaways

• The shift from the “How economy” to the “Who economy” is a crucial change in today’s digital age, where people are seeking trust and relationships over information.
• Building relationships and trust with your audience is essential for organic growth and long-term success.
• In the “Who economy,” businesses need to focus on understanding their audience and their unique needs, engaging with them through social media and email, and providing valuable content.
• Businesses should be transparent, honest, and show their personality to build trust and establish a strong brand identity.
• Organic growth takes time, and consistency in efforts is essential to achieve success.

It all begins with a shift in the way buyers make their decisions in the digital world. Over the past 10 years, we’ve noticed a transition from the “how economy” to the “who economy” — where the emphasis is on the individuals and influencers rather than the methods or processes. 

Switching From “What” to “Who”

Buyers don’t ask that much anymore because there’s just too many answers. It’s harder to find what you need, so people have switched to asking who. In a way, it’s almost like a return to the pre-digital age.

Whom do I trust? Whom do I know? Whom do I like? Who has the best reputation? Who’s the best person to solve this problem? What’s the best company? 

That’s where the Who economy comes in. It’s a game that’s much more about relationships, trust, reputation, and less about information and education. And that’s a big shift.

Building Relationships With Your Audience

We don’t just want to sell people something; we want to build a relationship with them. So we are focused on creating content that is valuable to them, that answers their questions, and that helps them solve their problems. We also make sure to engage with them, whether it’s through social media or through email. We want to make sure that they know we were there for them.

Building Reputation

Another thing is focusing on reputation. We need to make sure that we are known as a trustworthy and reliable company. We do this by being transparent, by being honest, and by delivering on our promises. This helps us build trust with our audience, and as a result, they are more likely to choose us over our competitors.

You can watch  to the whole episode here.

Interested in creating content like this with us? Let us know! 

The post Recap: Growth Playbook and The Rise of the Who Economy appeared first on RevGenius.