How to build a subscription-based business that will bring you recurring revenue? In this Expert Insight Interview, Anna DiGilio provides tips on building a sustainable online business by selling your knowledge as a digital product. Anna DiGilio is a founder of Guided Readers, an online platform that allows users to discover best teaching practices.

The interview discusses:

• Transferring your knowledge into a marketable asset
• Building and scaling the business
• Generating recurring revenue
• Achieving consistency by creating a community

Creating a marketable asset

Many people have acquired particular knowledge during their years of education or by performing a specific job. Notably, through abundant experience, a person can also gain plenty of skills. The crucial point would be transmitting your know-how into the matter that will become valuable to others. When people on a larger scale start to perceive your expertise and to find it useful, they will be ready to pay for it. This moment is a turning point where your knowledge becomes a commercial asset. Recognizing it on time is of great importance.

Building and scaling the business

Once that idea and the plan is made, the next logical step would be materialization. The starting point would be educating yourself on a particular field of interest. Hence, the core is creating a knowledge base by finding a lot of available resources and readings. Meanwhile, creating an everyday routine which will consequently build up your base day by day. It can, and it usually starts with baby steps, but once you gain the profit, it is time to speed up the wheel.

Experiencing recurring revenue

Selling a single thing each day can bring uncertainty into your business when it comes to planning the future and possibly expanding or reselling your business. Profit margins have to be firstly, very high, secondly, consistent for a long-term period. On the other hand, imposing subscription-based membership could make your predictability much more precise. We can reduce uncertainty if we know in advance how much money we will generate next month. The key is in making things obvious rather than hoping for the day to day income that is extremely unpredictable.

Creating a community

Consistency is achievable only if you can make people stay, and that is possible through memberships. Once people recognize your work, they will become supporters. Consequently, as we are communicative human beings, they will give referrals. Based on these recommendations and their word of mouth, you will be able to create your community that will consist of people who share the same problems or similar experiences. The creation of the target group by the subscription website will enable you to create online groups or chats. Hence, this makes people feeling like a part of the association and develops a sense of belonging that will make them loyal customers.

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 know what an OKR stands for? In this Expert Insight Interview, Roger Longden discusses the background and baseline of OKR – objectives and key results. Roger Longden is an OKR specialist, founder of a There Be Giants company, and an international speaker.

The interview discusses:

• The background of OKR
• Digital processes
• The need for agility

Background

The beginnings of OKR start in Silicon Valley, with Intel being the first company to use the approach. This approach happened to arrive at the same time when people began to show dissatisfaction with the traditional way of measuring and managing performance. OKR was a solution to the need to respond and keep up with technology innovation at that time. OKR works the same way as agile project management, with the exception that OKR applies to the whole organization.

Digital Processes

Nowadays, the external factor that accelerated the way how business processes work for around five years and encouraged innovation is Covid19. When a pandemic happened, companies that wanted to continue thriving had to digitalize their business processes and to emphasize agility. Many companies that work internationally shifted their work to online platforms. These companies also reported better quality of work and higher employee efficiency. Since even after the pandemic, many companies might decide to continue their work digitally, digital processes need systematization.

Agility

Considering the uncertainty that we live in today, companies should make only short-term plans and objectives. A company could set up a twelve months OKR, but it would be beneficial to reevaluate it every three months. Another thing that helps the company’s agility is to have a cross-functional team setting. Different teams within the company usually have their own objectives as budgets, so it would require quite a mindset shift as OKR needs to be on the team level. For example, the sales and product department share the same objective by wanting the product to be successful. OKR can serve as a spotlight, and it can connect all the departments in a large organization by leading them all to focus on the same goal for the next period.

Agile organizations need two aspects of evaluating performance. The first one is tactical, which includes targets, quotes, budgets, etc. The second, and usually overlooked one, is adaptive performance. The adaptive performance is crucial for true agility in the company. This measures how people respond to the setback or a failure and how they get back from it. It measures people’s ability to adapt and learn from different situations and how they apply that acquired knowledge in the future. And lastly, it measures people’s adaptivity to experiments.

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.

Five ways can help us to build a protected small business. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Scott Reib discusses five tips on how to shatterproof your small business. Scott Reis is a founder of REIBLAW, a law firm, and Next Level Legal Coaching, coaching and consultancy practice.

The interview discusses:

• Establishing a corporation or LLC
• Having the team of advisors
• Establishing written contracts
• Being careful with intellectual property

Corporation or LLC

Many people run their businesses as sole proprietorships because it is low priced, and it requires less legal work. However, a sole proprietorship does not separate a person from a business entity, leaving the person exposed to lose everything if things go wrong. So, registering your business as a corporation or LLC helps you to separate and secure your assets. It also increases your chances of success to 60 percent because all that formality makes your brain to take the business more seriously.

The Advisory Team

For all the business activities to go smoothly, you need to establish a team of advisors. Firstly, you need a CPA to take care of your books, taxes, payrolls, etc. Then, the key is to create relationships with your banker, insurance broker, and business lawyer. The banker will be there to help you quickly with all your banking needs. Insurance broker needs to understand your risks and to be able to help you to cover those risks the best. Your business lawyer can give you any legal information in real-time over the call or text message, which can be helpful when trying to close a deal, for example. Lastly, hiring a business coach is a faster way to grow your business because the coach will be able to look at things objectively and give you the best direction and advice.

Written Contracts

Handshake business deals still exist, and people usually do them when they do business with friends or family. However, having a written contract is beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, entrepreneurs are not familiar with legal things, so they easily overlook little but overriding things that can cost them the ownership of the product. And second, the lawyers can make contracts to be very simple, direct, and short. Two pages are enough for a well-written business contract to prevent headaches later if any concerns arise.

The Intellectual Property

Regarding intellectual property, it is necessary to protect yours and not to use someone else’s. The main mistake people make is that they build a business for years and then try to trademark it, but then they find out that someone already has the trademark. So, before starting a business, go to the trademark office, do the research, register if available, and then build a business. And finally, when you use internet content such as pictures for your company, make sure that you are using the content that is royalty-free, or respect the copyright by paying for picture. You can learn more about trademark registration here

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.

Have you ever been amazed by some salesperson’s skills? In this Expert Insight Interview, Jackie Rainforth discusses how to become a sales superstar. Jackie Rainforth is a President of Rainmakers Business Solutions, an award-winning sales expert, speaker, trainer and author, and Tec Canada presenter.

The interview discusses:

• Being attentive to details
• Service as a differentiation strategy
• Back to basics

Attention to Details

What separates sales superstars from ordinary salespeople is that superstars do the things that others fail to do. To be a sales superstar, we have to pay very close attention to details because customers notice and pick up on those little things right away. A good example is a follow-up. Sending a thank you card or following up to see how everything is, goes a long way with the clients. The sales department represents the pilar in between the company and the products and services the company offers. Thus, salespeople are the ones who need to make the whole buying experience as pleasant and smooth as possible for the clients.

Differentiate

Once the sale is closed, many salespeople like to transfer clients to customer services. However, customers do not like explaining their situation again to another person. In that case, salespeople could simplify the experience for the customer by filling in the person from the other apartment in the story instead. The point is to make a whole customer experience simple. Many companies do not understand how difficult it is for their clients to do business with them. The way of doing business has shifted, and people expect nothing but excellent service. Nowadays, it is hard to be differentiative regarding products or services offered, so the best option for the company to differentiate itself is to excel in customer experience. We can gain many insights into the quality of service and how we can improve simply by asking our customers.

Move from Survive to Thrive

There is no secret to success in sales. Everything falls to going back to the basics. For instance, when talking to the clients, it is a must to take notes. Closing a sale can take up to months, and it is impossible to remember all the things client said or asked for without writing it down. Another thing is asking for a referral. People assume that leaving a good impression on a client will bring them referrals, but actually asking for a referral is more productive. Also, thinking outside the box to stand out in front of the clients, being flexible, and being able to adapt to different situations as going digital during the pandemic are significant factors in achieving success.

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.

Have you ever experienced that moment of awakening when you found out your purpose, passion, and inspiration in life? In this Expert Insight Interview, Dr. Alise Cortez discusses ways of how to inspire yourself and others at work. Dr. Alise Cortez is a management consultant for awakening passion, inspiration, and purpose, logotherapist, radio show host, speaker, and author.

The interview discusses:

• The process of awakening
• Our purpose
• Our meaning
• Our identity

The Awakening

The Covid19 pandemic has produced many negative things, but one good thing that we can take out from it is that this pandemic can serve as a reset button. A reset button for everyone who got lost in the superficiality of the pre-pandemic fast-paced world, to take time to self-reflect and to find purpose, meaning, and identity in life again. The change comes from inside. And all that takes is for one person to have the awakening to become an inspirational leader for many other people in the organization.

Purpose

The purpose is a choice, a path that we choose in honoring who we are and what we mean to be. However, like any other choice in life, people struggle to decide to pursue it. There are two ways which help people to make a choice. The first one is when you feel a lot of discomfort in life and no fulfillment at all, so you crave for something to change. An example of that could be a mid-life crisis. The second way is popular with the logotherapists, and it is called maieutic questioning. This method includes an element of surprise because the person is asked so many provoking questions in the right momentum that it becomes an eye-opening event for him or her.

Meaning

Meaning reflects what is important to us, and it has an emotional component for all of us. Many people avoid making decisions that can change their lives by doing things others expect them to do. But, once when we take that mask off, and we find something authentic to only us, then we find our true meaning. Until the moment we discover something meaningful for us, we will not be able to make our choices differently.

Identity

Identity is a life-long process of finding who we are. Nowadays, our jobs play such a significant role in our life, that losing a job makes us feel like we lost our identity. However, we have to remember that the essence of finding purpose is about serving others, not ourselves. Thus, remembering who we were helping this whole time brings us to realize that our job was just a way to express our service to others and not our identity.

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.

Sales Experts Advice and Tips

MUST WATCH PANEL DISCUSSION[icon name=”binoculars” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]

Get ready for 2021! This year has been a challenging one for many people but now is the time to build for 2021. You may need to pivot, you may need to after adjacent markets or you may just have to rebuild in your market – whatever the case going into 2021 with a strong pipeline is critical. This all-star panel will advise you on how to do just that!

This expert panel brings practical advice on how to achieve this.

Recorded Live Event, 18th November 2020
10:00am PT – 11:00am PT

Elinor Stutz broke through barriers long before doing so was popular. First, she proved women can sell. Her blog Smooth Sale was created to teach how to earn a returning and referring clientele. Elinor is an international best-selling author, a Top 1% Influencer, and sales guru, and inspirational speaker.

Jason Jordan is a partner at Vantage Point, focusing exclusively on sales manager training, and is a recognized thought leader in B2B sales. Jason is also a best-selling author, and his articles have been published in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and many others.

Wendy Weiss, who is known as The Queen Cold Calling™, is an author, speaker, sales trainer, and sales coach. She is recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling, and new business development and she helps clients speed up their sales cycle, reach more prospects directly, and generate more sales revenue.

How can we improve our performance in business? In this Expert Insight Interview, Dr. Emily Letran discusses high-performance teams and high-performance leaders. Dr. Emily Letran is a keynote speaker, high-performance coach, business consultant, and dentist.

The interview discusses:

• The fundamentals of high-performance
• Metrics approach

The Fundamentals

Things that describe high-performance leaders are clarity, energy, productivity, and influence. Having clarity means being straightforward with what is important to you, your values, and your goals. Sometimes, we think that we know in which direction we are heading, but it turns out that our goals are not in alignment with what we are doing now. Deciding to pursue things that are our primary goal usually requires a sacrifice on the other side, so it is crucial to be clear with ourselves. Regarding energy, we need to understand our energy levels, and we have to recharge regularly. For instance, many people work remotely nowadays due to the pandemic. So, it is very beneficial to block our time in increments, for example, 50 minutes increments. During those 50 minutes, we can give our full attention and productivity to our work. After that time, we need a break, no matter if it is physical, mental, or spiritual. Taking a break will clear our mind and will enable us to give our full attention and productivity to work once again when we come back. Setting the work environment the way how we feel the most comfortable and motivated will also help us to increase our performance. Most importantly, the key to high performance is to be very self-intentional about what we want to do and determined to get it done. And lastly, influence represents positioning yourself as a leader, as someone others respect and want to follow.

Metrics Approach

Furthermore, another thing that can improve our performance when approaching the task is to keep the performance metrics. Knowing the metrics means measuring our performance in numbers. In sales, that could mean knowing the number of people that we are going to call or the percentage of closed sales. Knowing the numbers gives us insights into whether we were focused enough and intentional enough with our time to give 100 percent of our effort to specific tasks.

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.

The uncertainty and turbulence of 2020 contributed to the shaken self-esteems of many of us. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Terry Barridge discusses how we can build our self-esteem back if the situational pressure lowers it. Terry Barridge is an international keynote speaker, self-esteem architect, and public speaking coach.

The interview discusses:

• Getting back up from feeling down
• Pursuing success
• Reaching dreams step by step

Lift Your Spirit

It is very human to have moments when we feel a little down. Luckily, some ways can help us to lift ourselves back when that happens. They say that laughter is the best medicine. Our friends usually have the same sense of humors as we do, so finding a humorous side of the situation we are in and telling it to a friend helps both lifting our spirit and calming our mind. Laughing at it takes off the power from it. Sharing a story with friends always makes the situation look less terrible and resolvable. The same stands for business friends. If you work in sales, find a friend from the same industry to share your experiences. Besides humor, taking time to do some hobby is helpful as well. No matter if that hobby is sailing, gardening, walking in nature, etc., any hobby will make us shift our minds to something we enjoy while giving us a fresh look at life.

The Pioneering Attitude

Success is driven by finding a purpose and then staying focused and productive to achieve that purpose. Many businesspeople get stuck on the numbers in their work. Instead, finding a project and then doing it incrementally in smaller steps with shorter-term goals will lower the pressure from the situation and yield better results. We are capable of doing and achieving much more than we think, and all we need to do is find the self-confidence to be able to self-rely on ourselves when the unknown forces us to improvise. And this uncertain time caused by a pandemic is a great time to let our pioneering spirit shine and invent new ways.

Dream

We all have dreams. Dreaming is good because it keeps us moving forward. But, by the rule, the one who looks for it usually has a hard time finding it. By relaxing our minds, we will be able to think clearly and to ask ourselves the right questions. If we think about where our next opportunity might be or how to utilize our resources to benefit us the most, we will eventually come up with the solutions for our future steps towards our goals. Thus, the best way to make a dream come true is by taking small steps towards that dream.

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.