In this Expert Insight Interview, Mickie Kennedy discusses the subject of press releases. Mickie Kennedy is the CEO of eReleases, helping entrepreneurs and businesses get their message out.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The newsworthiness of press releases
• How to be strategic about your press releases
• The goal of press releases and why most businesses fail to achieve it

Magic Sauce

There are many people out there nowadays, who denigrate press releases, saying that they are outdated and don’t work anymore. The truth is that they can and often are very effective, especially if you have something newsworthy to share. If you can develop a newsworthy angle and a strategic story, you can get a lot of leverage with press releases.

The thing is that a newsworthy angle can be created with enough effort, and people seem less and less willing to put in the required time and effort to create the “magic sauce” that makes a story newsworthy.

Generating Interest

When people simply throw out rote press releases, it is hardly surprising if they don’t bring the desired results. Mickie Kennedy says that roughly 95% of press releases that eReleases gets are about things like new hires, mobile-responsive websites, and other things that no one really cares about.

If you’re going to spend money to send a press release, you want to make sure it is strategic. Mickey always advises his customers to survey their industry and throw a couple of “oddball” questions to generate authority and interest from publications within their niche.

The Goal of a Press Release

Most people think they understand how press releases work and the mechanics and process of it all, but in practice, they probably don’t have a full view of how it actually works.

There are a lot of press-release services out there that offer to share your press release for under $100, but the reality is that at that price, the press release will not go to the media or through a news wire. They syndicate the release to certain websites, but these sites do not have much traffic, and more importantly, they do not create an original article about the topic. The goal of a press release should be to have a new article written about your business.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Melissa Guller discusses podcasting for online business owners. Melissa Guller runs Wit & Wire, helping entrepreneurs build their businesses through podcasting.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• What it takes to get into podcasting as a business owner
• The misconception of the “crowdedness” of the podcasting space
• The longevity of podcast content

Starting a Podcast

A lot of people are interested in podcasting or starting podcasts now and this has started many a conversation about why this is a good thing and what kind of groundwork business owners need to do before getting on a podcast.

It seems that many people understand that they should have a podcast, just like back in the day when they understood they needed to have a blog, but that’s about as much thought they seem to put into it.

Join Melissa for her free masterclass “How to Launch a Podcast in 60 Days Without Feeling Overwhelmed”

How Crowded Is the Podcasting Space

Podcasting is obviously very “buzzy” these days with a lot of people talking about it. For many people this brings up a worry of whether the space is too crowded. At the time of recording this interview, there are roughly 2 million active podcasts, but there are also over 600 million blogs.

This means that a lot of people don’t realize how “small” the podcasting world is right now, compared to other forms of marketing, because it’s getting so much air time and therefore feels much bigger than it really is. The bottom line is that if there’s already a podcast, blog, or YouTube channel out there on something you want to cover, it means that people are already talking about it, which is a good sign.

Content Longevity

Deciding you want to do a podcast is just the beginning. It takes work, and running a podcast is definitely not easy, but there are many upsides compared to other mediums. For example, people are willing to tune in for a podcast for significantly longer than other forms of content.

Social media posts are seen and forgotten in a matter of seconds, if that. When it comes to podcast episodes, not only are people going to listen to you for anywhere between 15 minutes and a couple of hours, but the longevity of the content is extended far beyond that. People can find podcast episodes years after they’re released.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Leslie Ehm discusses her latest book, Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want. Leslie Ehm is a former TV host, an advertising creative director-turned training guru. She spent decades traveling around the globe with her award-winning company Combustion, working with executives and teams from top organizations like Google, Disney, PepsiCo, etc.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The definition of “swagger” and what it means to be yourself
• The five reasons people have trouble showing who they are
• How to deal with imposter syndrome

Swagger

Many people think of “swagger” as being overconfident or cocky, but Leslie disagrees. To her, the definition of swagger is the ability to manifest who you really are and hold onto it in the face of all of the “psychological crap” that will come forth, regardless of the situation or environment.

It means you have one face, one truth, one heart, and you show up with it, no matter what is going on around you, no matter who you’re with, or what challenges you’re facing. That’s swagger.

Five Swagger Blockers

Most of the psychological derailers that show up are generated by ourselves. This stops most people from unlocking their authentic selves and having the confidence to be who they really are. Each person is unique, but if you pick through it, you’ll find five fundamental issues with most people. These are:

• Persona
• Ambition
• Insecurity
• Fear
• Pain

Imposter Syndrome

People tend to think that they have to create a persona for themselves rather than allowing themselves to grow into who they are. It takes a lot of effort to understand that we’re fine the way we are, and when we do, we are often confronted with the imposter syndrome.

The truth is that we have complete command over the stories we tell ourselves. If you can tell yourself the story that you are a badass who is at a particular place of their journey at this point in time, and you own it and accept it, then you can be powerful where you are today.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Kurt Philip discusses the role of conversion-rate optimization in e-commerce and website development. Kurt Philip is the founder and CEO of Convertica. He directs the company and ensures it continues to deliver the best results for its clients. Kurt works at the forefront of Conversion-Rate Optimization (CRO) technology.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Why CRO matters and who it is for
• How Convertica helps its customers optimize their websites
• The evolution of website builders and how easy it is to create a website nowadays

Conversion-Rate Optimization

In this day and age, it is very easy for anyone to start a fully functioning website by getting on Shopify, WordPress or any other website template service without any marketing or sales knowledge.

Kurt Philip’s company, Convertica, helps people streamline and optimize their websites using various techniques. This means that people with no knowledge or background in marketing can now make 6–figure or 7–figure businesses quite easily as they are optimized and made sure to function in the best way possible.

Convertica Services

The core functionality that Convertica provides in terms of conversion rate optimization is A/B testing. This means taking an optimized, updated version of a website and comparing it against the original to see which produces more conversions.

The sites are optimized in a variety of ways, including making them more mobile-responsive and adding various features that improve the user experience, ultimately leading to more conversions. Here is an ultimate guide to conversion rate optimization that helps you get started easily without any hassle.

Fixing Small Errors

Shopify and WordPress have evolved so much over the past decade, making it much easier for business owners to create websites. These platforms have managed to do this by focusing their development on making it easy for their users to design websites rather than giving them many customization options.

Website builders do have some core CRO built-in on a fundamental level. Still, they don’t generally allow their users to edit every minor error on their website, as this would make the process infinitely more complicated for the end-user. This is where companies like Convertica come in and help business owners improve their conversion rates through simple tweaks and A/B testing.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Josh Little discusses how to have fewer meetings and get more done. Josh Little is the founder of four tech companies — Maestro, Bloomfire, Qzzr and Volley — that have collectively been used by hundreds of millions of people and featured in TechCrunch, Mashable, Entrepreneur Inc Forbes.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The need to collaborate and cooperate to produce results
• The benefits of Volley and what this platform offers
• The future of remote working and transition to a hybrid model

Value of Communication

We need to talk to move work forward. When the pandemic hit, we all went remote, but the need to talk didn’t decrease at all. We often discount how much we need to coordinate and collaborate to do what we’re trying to do as a team. This is especially true for sales teams.

All this means that we now have two options — we can either type or talk through Zoom or another platform. However, if you’re going to talk, you have to schedule it because every video-conferencing platform requires participants to be online at the same time. Josh Little’s latest project — Volley — circumvents this through a video-first asynchronous approach to remote communication.

Asynchronous Communication

Just because we can bring people together in a meeting using a platform such as Zoom doesn’t always mean that everyone is paying attention 100% or that the concept of synchronous communication suits everybody, as it requires thinking on the fly.

Even physical meetings don’t always allow participants the opportunity to think and reflect, and people aren’t always fully engaged. Asynchronous video communication, such as what is provided by Volley, allows more reflection and a more informed and engaged interaction.

Proactive Approach to Change

Many companies struggled when the pandemic happened, especially those that relied heavily on physical spaces and having all their employees at the same place at the same time. Trying to recreate that sort of environment without much experience, on the fly using Zoom, was difficult for many, mainly because it was a reaction to something unexpected.

Now, however, more and more people are beginning to understand that the future of work is some form of a hybrid model between working remotely and in the office, which is why solutions like Volley are so important to talk about.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Jane M Powers discusses speaking with confidence and selling with authority, as well as the INTROmercial formula. Jane M Powers uses her straightforward big-hearted style to guide thousands to transform their messages to money from any platform, with her Speak to Profit formula and core communication system.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Why having the right message takes is crucial for speaking with confidence
• The concept of the INTROmercial and why it is so effective
• Why believing in your product or service matters when presenting it to others

Having the Right Message

A lot of people struggle to speak with confidence. You may have all the background, experience and skills necessary, but it can be tough to articulate your thoughts confidently, especially in public situations.

When speaking, people are afraid of many things, including but not limited to forgetting what they were going to say, saying something stupid, or not being good enough. Jane Powers claims that 60% of your fear goes away when you have the right message.

Consistency

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs and salespeople are boring, confused, and inconsistent in their public speaking. This means they do not articulate to their ideal audience, so Jane helps them connect, articulate, and close their audience. Bottom line — every time you open your mouth, you must make money, and most people aren’t.

To do this, you need to have a clear and consistent message, even if it means memorizing and repeating the same introduction every time you meet a prospect or address an audience.

Believing in Your Product

If you’re going to be a successful entrepreneur and present yourself well to prospects, you have to know your product or service, but perhaps most importantly, you have to believe in it. It is almost impossible to speak with confidence unless you believe what you are saying.

Sometimes people try to fake their belief in a product they’re selling, but more often than not, the façade can be seen right through. That’s why you have to step back and ask yourself whether you genuinely believe in what you’re talking about. If you do, you should be able to deliver it with some level of enthusiasm.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, David Dulany discusses his book The Sales Development Framework: How to Build and Scale a Highly Productive Sales Development Program. David Dulany is the founder of Tenbound, a research and advisory firm 100% focused on and dedicated to sales development.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Focusing on the “people” component of sales development
• Why do companies fail in building SDR teams
• Taking the SDR role seriously within the organization

The “People” Component

Sales development requires a skill-set to be successful. David Dulany and his associates at Tenbound couldn’t find anything on the market that really focused on the “people” component of sales development. When companies start sales development programs, they tend to go straight to the tech.

This can lead to varying results, so Tenbound likes to take a step back and think about things like company culture, recruiting process, and training. These steps are frequently missing from many companies’ sales development journeys.

Finding the Right Person

Many people go into sales development jobs looking for a stepping stone into an outside sales job or enterprise sales. Unfortunately, sometimes companies don’t put the required amount of effort into finding the right person for the right job, as opposed to finding somebody who will “do the job.”

This pattern is particularly evident in Silicon Valley SaaS companies that have received some traction and investment. As soon as they acquire some funding, they tend to set up sales teams without really putting a lot of emphasis on the screening process and checking whether this is something that people really want to do.

Taking the Role Seriously

The first step towards having successful sales development reps (SDRs) in your company is to take the role seriously within the organization. The top-performing sales development programs have executive support, executive sponsorships, and executive interest.

Both the employee and the employer need to understand that this is an important position, not a transitory entry-level step towards something bigger. It is a critical position to the success of any enterprise.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Amira Alvarez discusses increasing your sales through conversation. Amira Alvarez is the founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman. She’s got big dreams, big things she wants to accomplish, and she bets you do too.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• How conversations can help salespeople serve their customers
• The need to look at sales conversations as a “two-way street”
• The importance of listening to your prospects and customers

Sales as a Service

Sales professionals talk to people all the time, and many would argue that their conversational skills are exceptional as a result. But Amira Alvarez argues that it is how you talk to people that really matters. If you’re in sales, you know that it is all about service. As a salesperson, you’re there to solve your customer’s problems by offering them a product or service.

Unfortunately, salespeople often fail to connect the dots for their customers. They don’t ask the right questions or treat the person they’re talking to as their friend or colleague, really trying to hear them out. The best way to dig into your customer’s problem is through honest, authentic conversation.

Avoid Monologuing

People have been doing a lot more virtual meetings, in part due to the pandemic and in part because this is a much more efficient and convenient way of communicating. However, this has led to an increase in “monologuing” in sales conversations. Even when we think we’re having a conversation, we often end up delivering a monologue, only occasionally stopping and waiting to receive some feedback.

Obviously, it will always be necessary to hit the points you need to hit within a sales pitch. Still, it is crucial to recognize that each conversation can go in many different directions.

Listen

Do you want to control the frame of your sales conversations? Absolutely! Do you want to be the one asking the questions? For sure! However, when the prospect answers these questions, instead of just running on to the next point in your script, try to listen, pay close attention, and really see what they are saying.

This is so important because there is so much more meaning to be gleaned from being present in the conversation than simply taking what is being said at face value and only focusing on the surface level.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.