In this Expert Insight Interview, Michael Loban discusses his new book Crawl, Walk, Run: Advancing Analytics Maturity with Google Marketing Platform. Michael Loban is the chief marketing officer at InfoTrust and an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. He is also a presenter and an accomplished author, whose work has been published by Forbes, Adweek, and CIO Magazine.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The myths and misconceptions about the power of data
• Why data is not necessarily the best place, to begin with, your digital marketing strategy
• The importance of experimentation, testing, and making mistakes

Data Analytics

In 2019, there was $130 billion spent on digital advertising alone, but most people are still not sure that all that spending is producing worthwhile returns. John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

Over the past several years, everyone has been talking about the promise of data analytics and how it can help organizations drive business results. However, in Michael Loban’s experience, this is still easier said than done. He wrote his latest book to debunk the myths about digital analytics and help organizations put consumer analytics to good use.

Where to Start?

One of the struggles that people often have with digital marketing, as with almost any other aspect of the business, is knowing where to start. There is a lot of data available, but it isn’t easy to discern which data is most important to focus on.

Part of what Michael Loban does in his book Crawl, Walk, Run is helping people understand where to start. He believes data is actually not a good place to start. When he and his organization work with businesses, they first try to determine those businesses’ goals. Then, they use data as a tool to achieve those goals.

Failing Upwards

Michael Loban believes that there has to be a “happy medium” where marketers are comfortable with making decisions. It is impossible to always be right about anything, marketing analytics included. However, organizations often suffer from the fact that people are afraid of making mistakes, so they shy away from making any decisions.

In such cases, organizations need to be more open to the idea of testing, experimentation, and even failing before they reach success. Of course, a business should not go all-in on one idea only to see it fail, but diversify its risks and test out several strategies to find the right one.

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, Dr. Kevin Elko discusses how you can turn 2021 into a productive year and how you can come out of this turmoil a stronger person. Dr. Kevin Elko works with organizations in leadership, goal-setting, and various other motivational topics. He has worked with huge sports teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburg Steelers.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The importance of how you think about yourself
• Dealing with setbacks and adopting a winner’s mentality
• How waiting for motivation is not the answer

It Starts with Identity

Don’t let last year change your identity, and keep seeing yourself as strong. Dr. Elko says that a person is either a greyhound or a lion. The greyhound chases the rabbit around the track because it is hungry, but if it is not hungry, it doesn’t chase. The lion, on the other hand, has it in its DNA to hunt every day.
Don’t let last year make you the greyhound or even the sheep. Make sure you stay bold and keep hunting every day. Go out, be brave, live a full life, keep your vision big and expect good things to happen.

So What, Now What?

Many people are perhaps beaten down by the last year; they may feel a little lost and desperate. When they hear this type of advice, some of these people may think that it all sounds great but may still be unsure where to start.

The truth is that we’re not beaten down by last year; we’re beaten down by our thoughts. We let our thoughts get reconditioned into thinking small. You have to reprogram your brain to think big again. Every time you face a setback in your life, Dr. Elko recommends asking yourself the following question: “So what, now what?” Accept the situation and start thinking about the next step you’re going to take.

Winning Begets Winning

Don’t think your way into acting; act your way into thinking. We get addicted to motivation because we think motivation is a feeling. If we don’t feel like doing something, we don’t do it, but the thing is that you’re not going to feel like doing the most worthwhile things in your life.

Winning is a choice, and it is the mother of all motivation. Motivational speakers often talk about getting fired up, but Dr. Elko understands that it isn’t human always to be fired up. He believes that we should never wait until we feel motivated. Do what you need to do, and the feeling of motivation will take care of itself.

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.

Many people are guilty of saying that they want to do something, but when the opportunity for it happens, they let other things get in the way of doing it. In this Expert Insight Interview, Fabienne Frederickson discusses powerful mind shifts that produce immediate results. Fabienne is a founder and owner of Boldheart, business growth coach, speaker, and author.

The interview discusses:

• Having clarity of what you want
• Aligning intention with beliefs
• Changing the mindset

Clarity

Some things can help you to succeed in doing what you originally planned. The crucial thing to do is to have clarity on what you want to do. No matter what you want, you have to be clear about it because not being sure where you want to go usually brings you nowhere. Everything starts with clear intention and then focusing on it. The more ambitious you are, the more ideas you get, and the easier it is for you to get distracted. It is not about having the most activities but about finishing what you have started.

Moreover, surround yourself with people who will support you and hold you accountable. Being part of the accountability-based community helps you to achieve far more than you would if you were alone. That is because we tend to cuddle ourselves too much and often not to hold ourselves accountable.

The Alignment of Intention and Beliefs

Your self-image, thoughts, and beliefs have to be in total alignment with your intention. The discipline to do something you started does not come from willing, but from believing. Your habits and behaviors are the product of how you perceive the world and yourself. Many factors influence self-image and how we perceive the world. One of those factors is the authority that we listen to our whole lives. For instance, if your parents tell you from your early childhood that money doesn’t buy happiness, that is how you will perceive money your entire life.

Change the Mindset

To change your mindset, start with examining your beliefs. Examine what you think about money, relationships, success, and then identify what stands on your way to achieving that. You will figure out which beliefs you need to reframe, beat the fear, and embrace the mindset of focusing on positive things. Only then, your actions and behaviors will change too.

Reconstructing your beliefs means taking control of your own life. It also means being in control of the external factors you are letting into your life. Thus, let in only those that will fill you with positive energy. There is nothing more satisfying than being brave enough to create the life that you enjoy living.

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.

Do you put your focus on challenges or opportunities? In this Expert Insight Interview, Ruben Gonzalez discusses how to be mentally tough and overcome challenges when they happen. Ruben is a Winter Olympian, international keynote speaker, and best-selling author.

The interview discusses:

• Embracing the change
• Shifting the mindset
• Focusing on little steps towards the main goal

Embrace the Change

Last year in March, the whole world shut down due to the Covid19 pandemic. Most of the countries were under strict lockdowns, and businesses across all industries suffered consequences. For instance, people who work as consultants or public speakers faced numerous cancellations. But when setbacks like this happen, the key is to be brave, look for opportunities, and take chances. If the whole world is in lockdown, that means that the virtual world will flourish. Thus, the focus should be to figure out how to get the best from the virtual world.

Shift the Mindset

Many people still pine for the past. Also, many still resist accepting Zoom and other platforms as a way to do business now. However, if done right, Zoom can be a powerful tool. When talking online from your own home, it is easier to show your authenticity and creativity. Sales kickoffs were an annual thing in the past, but now they can become quarterly meetings because it is much easier to gather people online. Speakers have the opportunity to give speeches to people all around the world without traveling but through virtual events. Thus, the pandemic is not the barrier to reaching goals, but the mindset is. Shift your mind to the new opportunities and figure out how to get the best from what you have now.

Long-Term Goals in Small Steps

The main reason people get stuck in overcoming challenges is that they focus on the wrong things. They focus on the obstacles, and that scares them. However, to be successful, you should not focus on what scares you but on what comes after. Setting a long-term goal is very important to have a direction in which to move. But then, put your attention on achieving little steps every day to pave the road to the big goal. For example, maybe your buyers do not buy enough from you at the moment. Focus on building a stronger relationship with them now, so that they buy from you later when they start to spend more money again.

And lastly, evaluate which people you let in your immediate surroundings. We tend to pick up on the habits of people with who we spend the most time. Thus, surround yourself with positive people who will support you to push forward when hard times happen.

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.

There are three things to focus on when trying to improve your performance in a short period. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Gavin Ingham discusses how to achieve more in the next 90 days. Gavin is a founder of #IAM10 Methodology, helping people build high-performance teams and individuals to get the results they want in their business.

The interview discusses:

• Having conviction
• Having clarity
• Being consistent

Conviction

Having the right mindset, the “I can” attitude, is the key in everything you do. Trusting yourself gives you the perseverance to finish what you have started. However, many people seem to have lost trust in themselves during the pandemic. Good practice to do is to rethink your past. Going back in the past will remind you of your strengths and experiences that you went through. You will see that you were able to overcome challenges only because you had the right conviction. Maybe you failed sometimes in the past too, but past failures are lessons to use now. Life is full of ups and downs even when there is no pandemic, but we should always keep trusting ourselves and having a positive mindset.

Clarity

Clarity means being clear about what you should do, when, and how. The pandemic has brought much uncertainty in our lives, but we can still be clear about what we want and plan to do in the next 90 days. Write down any goal that you want to achieve in the next three months. It is crucial to be only one goal because chasing too many things at once usually ends in getting nothing. But make sure that you write it down clearly because a lack of clarity in setting goals leads to a lack of action. Next, focus solely on achieving that goal. You prioritized it, which makes it the most important thing for you now to do it.

Consistency

The glue that sticks everything together is being consistent. Consistency sometimes means doing routine work every day, and many people find that boring. However, having a strong foundation is the path to success. You have to master the fundamentals first to be the superstar later. People tend to overlook practicing simple things thinking they know them already, but they break under pressure. For example, asking closed questions in sales is simple, but many salespeople would break under the pressure because they didn’t practice that part enough. People think that complicated things make the difference. Instead, it is simple things that make the difference.

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.

Your leadership presence is all about how other people perceive you through the signals they get from you. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Carol Kinsey Goman discusses her book, Stand Out: How to Build Your Leadership Presence. Carol is the President of Kinsey Consulting Services, an international keynote speaker, and a coach.

The interview discusses:

• Credibility
• Confidence and Composure
• Connection and Charisma

Credibility

Most business people are already credible in their work, but they do not know how to show their credibility to the public. Being authentically knowledgeable, skilled, or innovative does not mean that people will see you that same way unless you align their impressions with your authentic self. People most commonly undermine their credibility when talking to other people. The beginning of the sentence is critical. Do not start sentences with “I think” or “You probably already know this.” Start it confidently with the headline, express your credibility right away and then keep it simple in explaining the rest. Having a long introduction undermines your credibility.

Confidence and Composure

People tend to notice their mistakes much more than their successes. By picking the negativity first, we play it safe. Thus, learning how to recognize our accomplishments, even the small ones, will help us move on faster from the things that didn’t go as planned. The more confidence you have in yourself, the more competent you will look to others. The same is with composure. The calmer you stay in the moment of crisis increases your competence in the eyes of others. It makes them see a leader in you. Body language plays a significant role in this. Keeping your head up and having your shoulders straight will make you look stable and confident. And by looking stable and full of confidence, there is a chance that you will feel exactly that way too.

Connection and Charisma

We can connect both non-verbally and verbally. We connect non-verbally through body language like nodding, smiling, doing head tilts, or having open palms gestures. Verbally, we make connections by being empathetic listeners. Empathetic listening requires full focus on the conversation. It also requires asking questions to get a good understanding of what the other person is saying. The key is to suppress the desire to make assumptions and to let the person feel heard.

And lastly, we all have charisma in ourselves. That is the magnetic force that drives people to us, but we have to find our unique way to express it. Our charisma lies in our strengths. If you relax when doing what you do the best, your charisma will manifest naturally.

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, Frank Cespedes discusses the ever-changing world of business and how salespeople and companies need to evolve to keep up. Frank Cespedes is a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School. He has run multiple businesses and served on the boards of several startups. Frank is also a prolific author of articles in the Harvard Business Review as well as books. He has written six books so far and has a new one entitled Sales Management that Works: How to Sell in a World that Never Stops Changing.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The accelerating rate of change in the world of business
• How both salespeople and executives need to adapt
• The importance of proactively training your salesforce

Accelerated Rate of Change

The world is continually changing, but recently there has been a prevalent feeling that the rate of change is rapidly increasing. The pandemic has indeed forced a lot of change and accelerated the digital transformation of business.

There is data to support this instinct that the rate of change is accelerating, especially in sales. Nowadays, we have an omnichannel buying world, where prospects go online and offline multiple times in their buying journey, which has a massive effect on the sales process. According to Frank, buying is a process of parallel streams, not a linear funnel.

The Business of Business

Once upon a time, salespeople focused on top-line revenue and nothing else. Not only that, but companies were not good at calculating how much money and time was going into sales because people were pulling resources from other departments.

If you’re starting out as a salesperson, you will not be able to advance your career this way anymore, and you’ll have to understand the business of business if you want to be successful. On the other hand, CEOs and executives are increasingly out of touch with their customer-facing colleagues.

Proactive Training

The amount of money a business loses by hiring the wrong person adds up significantly over time. That said, even if you manage to hire the perfect employee, you still need to invest in their training and development.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are very few companies that proactively train their salespeople. Rather than bringing in experts and training their salesforce when things are going well, they wait until there’s a crisis.

Sales Management That Works

In this practical and research-based guide for managers, salespeople, and investors.  Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes offers essential strategies for thriving in markets that never stop changing.

“Frank Cespedes has developed an essential guide to help companies reconfigure their selling motions and create collaborative internal relationships to deal with changing buying habits. This is a must-read for sales and marketing leaders alike.”

In SALES MANAGEMENT THAT WORKS, Cespedes separates signal from noise and truth from hype. Selling and profitable growth today involve a combination of factors: a coherent strategy, relevant hiring practices, and incentives, and ongoing performance management that motivates the right behaviors in the face of many changes outside a company’s control.

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.

How to move from seven figures in revenue to eight? In this Expert Insight Interview, Bryan Clayton discusses growing your business revenue to eight figures. Bryan Clayton is a CEO and Co-Founder of GreenPal, a.k.a Uber for lawn care, an online marketplace connecting homeowners and local lawn care professionals.

The interview discusses:

• Finding the right channels
• Building your team
• Creating customer experience

Find the Right Channel

When starting a business, it is beneficial to experiment with different strategies and channels to figure out what works the best and what doesn’t. And when we do figure out what works for us, we should stick with it. New business owners usually feel like they should chase any revenue possible, but being the best in one channel is much better than being mediocre everywhere. In the end, having a complete focus on one or two things is more profitable than having divided attention on many different ones.

Build Your Team

Many business owners have a hard time delegating jobs because their business is their baby. But once the revenue starts to grow and the workload increases, it is critical to understand that we cannot do everything alone and expand the team. One of the advantages of hiring people today is that we do not have to get all full-time employees. Many positions can be only half-time hired. For example, since many start-up companies do not need a full-time CFO, it is better to hire a CFO for a couple of hours per week. It is much more cost-efficient that way because it wouldn’t require a full-time monthly salary, only an hourly rate. Yet, you would still get an expert to advise on what should be improved and how.

Create Customer Experience

Opening and growing a business means finding a balance between what buyers want and what sellers need to stay profitable. It is a learning process, and the best way to learn what needs to be changed or in which direction to go next is to be open to feedback from your customers. It is crucial to stay available for your customers to reach you.

Today’s consumers are egotistical and spoiled in terms that they want everything easily accessible. Thus, you have to create a product that can operate in that environment. Sometimes people receive negative feedback and take it too personally. However, negative feedback is the best thing that can happen to a seller because there is a direct insight on what should be improved to provide a better customer experience. In today’s world, everything is easily replaceable. Thus, creating a customer experience is essential to differentiate yourself from the competition.

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.