1189: 4 Channels to Drive Sales & Marketing Alignment w/ Josh Thompson

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:04.759 Wouldn't it be nice to have several thought leaders in your industry know and Love 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.230 Your brand? Start a podcast, invite your industries thought leaders to be guests 3 00:00:10.349 --> 00:00:15.429 on your show and start reaping the benefits of having a network full of industry 4 00:00:15.429 --> 00:00:25.699 influencers? Learn more at sweet phish MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob growth, 5 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:30.500 a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard 6 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:34.420 before, like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard 7 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:38.729 from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't 8 00:00:38.770 --> 00:00:43.289 with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches leading 9 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:48.170 sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're 10 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:52.759 building the fastest growing betb companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. 11 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.320 I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, 12 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.640 and I'm also one of the cohosts of this show. When we're not 13 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:03.600 interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our 14 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:07.549 own business. Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we attend 15 00:01:07.629 --> 00:01:11.590 to take over the world. Just getting well? Maybe let's get into the 16 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:21.299 show. Welcome back to be tob growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet phish 17 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:25.299 media. Today I'm joined by Josh Thompson. He is the VP of marketing 18 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:29.420 over at Palmer Donovan Manufacturing Company. Josh, how's it going today yet? 19 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:33.129 Pretty good, Logan, thanks for having me. Absolutely man. You and 20 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:38.530 I were chatting offline about how you guys, as a marketing organization within Palm 21 00:01:38.569 --> 00:01:42.250 Ordonovan, are keeping your sales team engaged with you and staying in lockstep with 22 00:01:42.329 --> 00:01:47.719 them, especially with a large distributed team a lot of field reps, and 23 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:51.400 I just thought this was a topic we have to share with BB growth listeners. 24 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.519 So I'm excited to chat with you on this topic today. Before we 25 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:57.159 get into it, though, I'd love for you to give folks who aren't 26 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:00.200 a familiar with you a little bit of background on yourself and what you and 27 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:04.469 the team at Palmerdonov interrupt to these days. Yeah, so I've been with 28 00:02:04.629 --> 00:02:07.669 palm or Donovan for almost nine years. You know, most of my backgrounds 29 00:02:07.710 --> 00:02:12.830 actually been sales. So when you talk about sales and marketing alignment, you 30 00:02:12.909 --> 00:02:15.900 know it's a great asset for me that I came from our sales team. 31 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:20.060 I started in sales right out of college back in two thousand and six. 32 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:23.979 Really Been, you know, sales ever since. In the last few year's 33 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:28.419 I've switched to a purely marketing role. You know personally about me. I'm 34 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:32.289 married, got two kids, two boys six and four years old. Great 35 00:02:32.289 --> 00:02:37.849 family back in West Virginia. I'm from West Virginia but lived in Columbus Ohio 36 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:39.650 today. So it's a little bit about me. I love it, man, 37 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:42.969 and tell us a little bit, just for some context, what you 38 00:02:43.009 --> 00:02:45.960 guys do over at palm or Donovan and what you guys are up to these 39 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:47.840 days. Yes, we've been around since one thousand nine hundred and seven. 40 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:53.680 So actually yesterday, December ninth, was our hundred and twelve anniversary of the 41 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.949 company, so that's pretty cool. And we are a distributor and fabricator of 42 00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:04.550 building product so we sell products like roofing, siding, decking. We actually 43 00:03:04.629 --> 00:03:08.030 fabricate entry doors for your house. We have products from about seventy five different 44 00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:13.860 manufacturers, some of the larger names that you may know, companies like certaintied 45 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:19.259 a, Zach Owen's corning their matrude doors and we selled a pro dealer. 46 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:22.819 So we don't sell the homeowners. That would be like independent lumber yards, 47 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:28.569 specially retailers, national retailers like Home Depot and lows, and then just about 48 00:03:28.569 --> 00:03:31.969 us. Our tagline is that we deliver more products, expertise and solutions help 49 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:36.289 our customers succeed. I love it, man, very well said. So 50 00:03:36.569 --> 00:03:39.330 let's dive into the topic today. You mentioned something there that you know you 51 00:03:40.009 --> 00:03:46.159 were in sales for a long time before stepping into an exclusively marketing focused role. 52 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.560 What was that transition like for you? Were there's some things you had 53 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:55.430 in mind about sales and marketing alignment or bringing some of your your skills or 54 00:03:55.430 --> 00:04:00.990 your knowledge of what sales looks like into a marketing role that you thought, 55 00:04:00.310 --> 00:04:03.750 you know, helped you as you stepped into this role at Palmer Donovan. 56 00:04:04.189 --> 00:04:06.469 Yeah, so one thing, a little bit of context. You know, 57 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:12.460 we're are distributor, so we're the socalled middleman, right, so we're not 58 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:16.100 the company that's selling it to the in user and then we're not the manufacturer 59 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:19.939 that's out there trying to push their brand. So when I started in sales 60 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:25.410 at Palmer Donovan, we literally had no marketing team, so we had a 61 00:04:25.449 --> 00:04:29.089 lot of sales people out on the road that were basically doing their own thing 62 00:04:29.129 --> 00:04:32.250 and creating their own materials. We did have a graphic designer on staff that 63 00:04:32.329 --> 00:04:34.850 would be used from time to time, but, you know, a lot 64 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:39.639 of things were done in the field. So as a sales representatives, I 65 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:44.079 saw a lot of opportunities where, you know, if somebody was organizing at 66 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:46.480 that you know, instead of the sales team spending their time to building those 67 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:49.759 materials, you could definitely have an inhouse group that was, you know, 68 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:54.029 starting to help them with promotions, with events, to put some of these 69 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:59.829 things together. So my stepping stone actually was from sales to sales management and 70 00:04:59.990 --> 00:05:02.550 I was in sales management for about four years. And really what happened over 71 00:05:02.589 --> 00:05:05.990 the course of those four years as I started to spend less time on the 72 00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:11.339 management piece and more time on the marketing piece because, one I enjoyed it 73 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:15.060 and to us saw a lot of opportunities there to enhance what we were doing. 74 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:18.379 So I started working on promotions, I started putting time into the events 75 00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:23.089 that we put on and really what happened is a period of time came where 76 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:28.449 we were building a new online ordering site which required knowledge of our products and 77 00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:31.410 how we promote those products and what they look like to our customers, and 78 00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:34.649 I basically raised my hand and said Hey, you know, we can't move 79 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:40.040 forward any longer with us doing marketing as a hobby. We've got to go 80 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.519 all in and one of the big aspects of this as our new online ordering 81 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:46.120 site for our customers. So basically put my hand up, going back about 82 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:50.230 three years and started that project and moved into a, you know, marketing 83 00:05:50.269 --> 00:05:56.310 specific role for the company. I love that. I can definitely relate, 84 00:05:56.389 --> 00:06:00.149 Josh. I came from, you know, copy or printer office equipment sales 85 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:02.709 for about ten years before I joined the sweet fish team and I was definitely 86 00:06:02.910 --> 00:06:06.019 in those sort of roles where, you know, there might be a graphic 87 00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:10.300 designer and there might be someone you could lean on to create some collateral, 88 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:15.420 but there was no marketing department and I imagine as you stepped into it. 89 00:06:15.459 --> 00:06:17.810 I loved your line about we can't do marketing as a hobby anymore. I 90 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:23.329 wish I could remember where. I saw it in someone's signature block the other 91 00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:26.370 day. I saw, you know, VP of arts and crafts and then 92 00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:30.970 in parentheses it said Aka Marketing, which I felt was just a hilarious little 93 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:34.439 line, kind of going in line with what you were saying. They're as 94 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:38.639 you stepped into it. You mentioned this to me offline the other day. 95 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:43.680 Is that you know, you really took this viewpoint of sales being your customer, 96 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:46.720 and you know, I think that's going to inform how we talk about 97 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.310 you know, your involvement as a marketing leader with sales kickoffs and other sales 98 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:55.230 events, but just that mindset going into it. I imagine that that was 99 00:06:55.990 --> 00:07:00.269 that's been something that's benefited you and it came from being a salesperson looking for 100 00:07:00.459 --> 00:07:04.259 someone to help you, looking for a marketing person who wasn't there at the 101 00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:08.579 time, but wishing that hand, I wish there was this role to serve 102 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:11.860 me so that I can do my job better. Do you think that that 103 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:15.490 mindset is something that maybe some marketers are missing, or you know that they 104 00:07:15.529 --> 00:07:19.649 could learn from your specific experience there? I'm amazed, and you know it 105 00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:24.889 probably is for larger companies where it gets to be more difficult, but especially 106 00:07:24.889 --> 00:07:29.970 with our manufact her partners, there's this real divide between the sales force and 107 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.720 the marketing team and it's not like that at Palmer Donovan. You know, 108 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:38.639 we're very engaged in everything that goes on in the organization. You know, 109 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:43.600 I talked to at least five sales representatives a day from the company. You 110 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:46.350 know, we're a sales team of fifty. We're a marketing team of for 111 00:07:46.589 --> 00:07:49.389 today. So there's a lot more of them than there are of than there 112 00:07:49.389 --> 00:07:53.310 are of us, and you know we want to have that connection. We 113 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:57.389 want to make sure that the resources we provided them are adding value to what 114 00:07:57.550 --> 00:08:01.500 they do every day. And when we create a resource, that's fifty people 115 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:03.699 out there. Yet we can send things out digitally and we obviously interact with 116 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:09.060 customers from a marketing perspective, but that's fifty customers that, if we serve 117 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:11.339 appropriately, they're going to go out and they're going to pass those resources we 118 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:15.970 give them. They're going to educate the customers using those resources. So I 119 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:20.449 think we make each other better in that way. You know, we've really 120 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:24.730 tried from a communication standpoint to, you know, stay front and center with 121 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:26.759 the sales team. We put out a Monday email to the sales team. 122 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:30.879 It comes from marketing. We talk about what's going on in the company. 123 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.639 We talked about the promotions that are going on. Promotions are put on by 124 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:37.639 the marketing group, right, we come up with the ideas. A lot 125 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.110 of it's because I have a sales background and we run the promotions. We 126 00:08:41.230 --> 00:08:45.389 run them by the sales managers, get buy in from them and then we 127 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:48.389 put the promotions out, you know, on the company's behalf. So we 128 00:08:48.470 --> 00:08:54.750 do a Monday email. We're a big Microsoft teams company from a collaboration for 129 00:08:54.070 --> 00:08:58.179 spect of you know, similar to slack if you have flak. But you 130 00:08:58.259 --> 00:09:01.740 know, we put out all the communications to both divisions of our sales force 131 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:07.299 on team. So we're really controlling the message of what goes out, making 132 00:09:07.299 --> 00:09:13.490 sure reminders go out. You know, sales people are are customers to write. 133 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:16.889 You can't tell them once and forget about it. You've got to constantly 134 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:22.009 go back and that's where the Monday email, that's where the Microsoft teams communications 135 00:09:22.850 --> 00:09:26.240 you know, putting those reminders out there. You know we'll do video updates 136 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.679 sometimes and record updates and training for the sales twoint team on different resources we've 137 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.639 put out to the customers because we want that would have their buy in and 138 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.559 make sure they're aware of what we're doing, and it all goes back to 139 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:43.870 just making sure sales and marketing are aligned and everything we do. Hey, 140 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:48.190 everybody, Logan here. Quick shout out to today's gross sponsor. talkable helps 141 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:54.779 ECOMMERCE companies grow through targeted referral programs that leverage insights from door customers behavior. 142 00:09:54.820 --> 00:10:00.659 Join others who've hit their sales goals and seen a n x Roy on their 143 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:05.019 referral programs. Talk about lets you segment your offers and personalize your messaging two 144 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:11.769 different audiences, like new versus repeat customers, or by geolocation. Talk about 145 00:10:11.809 --> 00:10:15.929 also easily integrates with the rest of your text act, having a low impact 146 00:10:16.129 --> 00:10:22.200 on site speed and navigation, creating a seamless user experience while helping you drive 147 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:26.879 more sales. Learn more at growth doc. Talkablecom all right, let's get 148 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:31.320 back to the show. I love what you're talking about there, Josh. 149 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:37.669 It echoes what I heard Matt while and John Pereira talking about recently. Just 150 00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:39.909 a few episodes back here on BB growth. We were able to have, 151 00:10:41.389 --> 00:10:43.190 you know, lucky enough to have a sales and a marketing leader on the 152 00:10:43.269 --> 00:10:48.470 same episode here on the podcast from high spot and they talked about that need 153 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:52.940 for consistent, regular communication, and I like what you're saying here, Josh's 154 00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:58.100 you know, viewing sales as your customer doesn't just mean that, oh, 155 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.860 we want to please them, it means literally looking at them like you would 156 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:05.970 a customer that you are trying to market to. And what does that mean? 157 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:11.009 That means a lot of communication. That means putting it in various channels, 158 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:16.370 in various formats and contextualizing it for those various formats. So applying just 159 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:22.080 good modern digital marketing practices in the way that you communicate to sales. It's 160 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:24.960 like, you know, we communicate with customers and we know we take one 161 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:31.679 piece of content or we want to promote one upcoming event and we do a 162 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.110 Linkedin ad, we do linkedin organic content, we, you know, tweet 163 00:11:35.149 --> 00:11:39.149 about it, we email our list and then when we go to communicate with 164 00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:41.990 sales, it's like, oh, one email and then we're done. Right, 165 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:46.740 and they're humans too. We need to communicate them to them with the 166 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:52.019 same best practices we have in mind with communicating to our external customers. Can 167 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:56.179 you help me a little bit, Josh? It seems like this has become 168 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:00.500 a recurring theme. We had another marketing leader just talking about this as well, 169 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:05.570 where they've started an internal communications podcast. In that respect. It was, 170 00:12:05.809 --> 00:12:09.730 you know, about the last time that this topic came up in sharing 171 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:15.210 information broadly about the company internally. You guys have been using it as another 172 00:12:15.250 --> 00:12:18.279 one of these tools to communicate regularly with the sales team, especially because you 173 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.919 have a lot of field reps that have a lot of windshield time and they're 174 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.399 on the go a lot. Right. Yeah, so, you know, 175 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:28.559 being a small team, trying to keep our marketing budget and control, we 176 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:31.830 always look for opportunities for, you know, what's the least amount of dollar 177 00:12:31.990 --> 00:12:37.870 input for the greatest output and value to our organization. So two things we've 178 00:12:37.909 --> 00:12:43.350 really driven home the last year and a half for webinars and then the last 179 00:12:43.389 --> 00:12:46.700 about six months is with podcast. So we've had a lot of success in 180 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:50.059 both both relatively and expensive to put on, but I really think add a 181 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:54.500 lot of value to what you're doing. So with the PODCAST, like I 182 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:58.419 said, we started about six months ago. We have two internal PODCASTS. 183 00:12:58.090 --> 00:13:03.649 One is inside PD. That really is just high level for the organization podcast. 184 00:13:05.090 --> 00:13:09.090 Giving example that, yesterday we had two gentlemen that had long histories with 185 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:13.279 palm er Donovan and with our founders day being yesterday, hundred and twelve years 186 00:13:13.399 --> 00:13:18.320 and business. We had a podcast on basically them telling old stories about our 187 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.960 company and showing some of that company history of palm or on of them. 188 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.269 So we use our inside PD podcast in different ways to give marketing updates, 189 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:31.669 to have our CEO does a monthly update and that's been really impactful. But 190 00:13:31.750 --> 00:13:35.950 then we really have done a great job specific to the sales team. We 191 00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:39.590 do a podcast. It comes out every other Monday and it's called first call 192 00:13:39.149 --> 00:13:45.620 start high level. So what's going on nationally with housing starts and any major 193 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:50.700 announcements from manufacturers or from major homebuilders? Work down to the region. You 194 00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:52.940 know what's going on with our competition. What's going on with dealers that we 195 00:13:54.059 --> 00:13:58.250 do business with? Any major announcements there? And then we talk about you 196 00:13:58.330 --> 00:14:01.370 know what promotions are going on in the company. You know any any reminders? 197 00:14:01.450 --> 00:14:07.009 Any you know our shows we put on for customers, any programming or 198 00:14:07.009 --> 00:14:09.409 events? Put Them from the marketing team. So we kind of use it. 199 00:14:09.850 --> 00:14:11.360 You know, sales people have a lot of drive time, at least 200 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:15.200 they do an our organization. So wow, we can take fifteen minutes on 201 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:18.279 a podcast and we can give them something. We push and say, Hey, 202 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.399 here's how you need to start your week, here's what's going on, 203 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.039 here's the important you know, items you need to remember and you should be 204 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.549 working on within our company. And then a lot of times will interview somebody 205 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:31.750 on that podcast, somebody internally that maybe does really good at a certain skill 206 00:14:31.830 --> 00:14:35.269 when it comes to sales or how do you sell one of our shows to 207 00:14:35.389 --> 00:14:39.019 our customers or an event that we put on, and it's just great knowledge. 208 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:43.100 We might interview a manufacture but there's just so many different ways you can 209 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:46.220 use podcasts in your organization, especially when you know it all comes back to 210 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:52.100 you're trying to allow people to self serve and allow them to consume that content 211 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:54.929 whenever they're a bone. I think that's really why podcasts have become so popular 212 00:14:56.289 --> 00:14:58.690 and it we're really a great fit for our organization. I mean to get 213 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:03.610 into the details, we just updated our software and our equipment for podcast. 214 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:05.970 I think we spent eight hundred dollars for the equipment. So if you have 215 00:15:07.129 --> 00:15:11.200 somebody internally that could lead a podcast and organize it and put it out, 216 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:15.960 it's a great way to push content out to your organization and you know, 217 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:18.960 what we're hoping is that we can get good at podcasting internally so that, 218 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:22.110 you know, here soon maybe we can put out o an external podcast to 219 00:15:22.190 --> 00:15:26.710 our customers and, you know, deliver value in a completely different way. 220 00:15:26.110 --> 00:15:30.830 Yeah, obviously I love that talking about, you know, the the value 221 00:15:30.870 --> 00:15:33.990 of podcasting of folks know here at sweet fish as a podcast agency, you 222 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:39.179 know, we are very big on the return that you get for the investment 223 00:15:39.379 --> 00:15:45.139 of a podcast that's external facing. But it's really interesting to hear more folks 224 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:50.330 like your team, Josh, using the same medium, the same channel to 225 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:54.769 communicate effectively in a cost effective way with the rest of their team internally, 226 00:15:54.809 --> 00:16:00.090 and especially their sales team. It seems like it's a growing trend and and 227 00:16:00.169 --> 00:16:03.809 I love what you're sharing there and just the practicality of the way that you're 228 00:16:03.850 --> 00:16:07.159 talking about it in some of the things that you can use that internal podcast 229 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.320 for. When I go back to something I alluded to earlier that you and 230 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:14.200 I talked about, it ties in with this recurring theme here, Josh, 231 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:18.710 of viewing sales as your customer. Talk a little bit about how you guys 232 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:25.070 approach you know, your annual sales kickoff and other events that are for the 233 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:27.830 sales team, whether they're training or you know, they're the annual sales kickoff 234 00:16:27.830 --> 00:16:32.750 that pretty much every organization has in some former fashion. How you guys go 235 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:36.580 into that, what you look to do and what you look to send the 236 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:40.500 sales team out with? A lot of it again, is informed by, 237 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:42.700 you know, this same approach of what would we do with external customers? 238 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:45.980 We want to approach it the same way with our internal customers, who are 239 00:16:47.139 --> 00:16:49.169 the sales team, right. Yeah, so an event and our company for 240 00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:52.850 the sales team is like any other event we put on for customers. So 241 00:16:53.570 --> 00:16:59.289 we actually just made an announcement yesterday. We have our our two sales divisions. 242 00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:03.480 One was called Palmer Donovan and one was called seal right door, our 243 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:07.200 door fabrication unit, and we just rebranded seal right door to Palmer Donovan. 244 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:12.960 So actually it's great timing. Starting this evening we actually have a sales meeting. 245 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:18.630 We have all fifty sales representatives coming into Columbus, Ohio for a sales 246 00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:22.630 meeting and as a marketing team, we organize that. We work with the 247 00:17:22.710 --> 00:17:26.430 sales leadership and sales managers on what they want to accomplish at that sales meeting. 248 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:30.059 We work on the event and where we want to have it. We 249 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:33.940 put a lot of time into the dinners. You know, as I said, 250 00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:37.339 we're a sales let organization. We want to bring them in and thank 251 00:17:37.420 --> 00:17:40.019 them for the work they do every day. I can tell you as a 252 00:17:40.059 --> 00:17:42.180 sales representative it's really easy to feel like you're on an island a lot of 253 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:45.730 times. So to come in even once a year and, you know, 254 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:49.490 show the appreciation to them for what they do every day, I think the 255 00:17:49.569 --> 00:17:53.130 time you put into where they stay and where the meetings are held and where 256 00:17:53.130 --> 00:17:56.849 the dinners are, I really think they appreciate that. So it gets into 257 00:17:56.849 --> 00:18:00.839 the detail, which like, just like you would with any other customer. 258 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.200 But then, you know, sales people like swags, so we have backpacks 259 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:10.200 with, you know, new apparel items and business cards and pins and give 260 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:12.390 away items that they can take back to their territories and give to customers, 261 00:18:12.470 --> 00:18:17.309 but also things that you know, they can take home and they can enjoy 262 00:18:17.309 --> 00:18:19.349 as well. So we put a lot of time into the sales meetings and 263 00:18:19.549 --> 00:18:22.950 finding the locations and making sure we get it right and it just helps to 264 00:18:22.990 --> 00:18:26.220 build the relationship to between the sales team and with the marketing team. I 265 00:18:26.299 --> 00:18:30.539 mean again, if you're not talking and interacting with your sales professionals in the 266 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:33.859 field every day, I think you're missing an opportunity. There's not a day 267 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:37.819 that goes by that I don't create a piece of content or a cell sheheet 268 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.930 or something to serve them that I'm not sending at the three sales reps and 269 00:18:42.009 --> 00:18:45.769 saying hey, we look this over. You give me feedback, how can 270 00:18:45.809 --> 00:18:49.250 we make it better? and that just builds that relationship between marketing and sales 271 00:18:49.369 --> 00:18:52.809 so that we're aligned, we're all working towards the same goal to some more 272 00:18:52.890 --> 00:18:56.359 products and speed up a sales cycle. And then again, they see value 273 00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:00.160 and what we're doing every day and I think that that definitely is got to 274 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:04.359 be beneficial to your organization. Absolutely. Man. It just comes back to 275 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:08.119 good marketing, right. You know, we don't settle on a buyer persona 276 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:12.710 and then just start pushing out content and never revisit that and never pull our 277 00:19:12.750 --> 00:19:18.750 customers and never listen to recorded sales calls or hold a customer event and ask 278 00:19:18.829 --> 00:19:22.509 them how are we serving you? Is this you know headed in the right 279 00:19:22.589 --> 00:19:27.299 direction. Questions about maybe your product road map or products you're releasing you need. 280 00:19:27.460 --> 00:19:30.980 Again that the theme that I keep hearing from what you're saying, Josh, 281 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:36.180 is take the things that are effective for you from a marketing perspective and 282 00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:41.250 apply those to your communication with sales, and I think you gave three or 283 00:19:41.289 --> 00:19:47.490 four very specific channels that you can use to increase that communication and therefore alignment 284 00:19:47.529 --> 00:19:52.049 with sales. You know, you talked about regular email, Caden's slack or 285 00:19:52.130 --> 00:19:56.720 Microsoft teams, whatever your you know, Messaging Platform is across your organization, 286 00:19:56.759 --> 00:20:00.680 a podcast and events. If you look at all four of those, I 287 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.759 think you can create a good Omni channel relationship with your sales department and that 288 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.230 one to one touch. You know, it's something that Ethan viewed and the 289 00:20:08.269 --> 00:20:14.069 folks over at bombomb talk a lot about in in how they talk about communicating 290 00:20:14.109 --> 00:20:17.990 with video with your prospects, is that people want to be known, seen 291 00:20:18.309 --> 00:20:22.059 and heard, and it seems like you are taking those principles and applying those 292 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:26.740 to your relationship as a marketing leader with your sales organization. So my hats 293 00:20:26.779 --> 00:20:29.819 off to you. Folks can't see me on video on tipping my Broncos camp 294 00:20:30.099 --> 00:20:32.660 to Josh Right now because I think he's doing a lot of things right and 295 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:37.170 I really appreciate you sharing some of these tactics and strategies with listeners today. 296 00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:40.690 Josh. If anybody listening to this man, would like to stay connected with 297 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:44.210 you ask any follow up questions on some of the strategies that you guys have 298 00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:48.089 been employing, like your internal podcast for communication with sales, or just want 299 00:20:48.089 --> 00:20:51.640 to stay connected with you for the future, what's the best way for them 300 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:53.759 to reach out? And Yeah, I mean two ways. One, you 301 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:59.279 can obviously connect with me on Linkedin, just Josh Thompson, but you not 302 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:04.109 Palmer Donovan to you can obviously email me. It's just Josh Dot Thompson, 303 00:21:04.829 --> 00:21:11.390 thho mpso in at Palmer Donovancom and then same with the company. If you'd 304 00:21:11.390 --> 00:21:15.910 like to learn more about Palmer Donovan, you can visit Palmer Donovancom. Easy 305 00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:18.019 enough, man. Well, thank you so much for continuing the conversation we 306 00:21:18.180 --> 00:21:22.460 had offline bringing it to listeners today, Josh. This was a great conversation. 307 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:25.500 I appreciate you share in your knowledge with listeners today. Man. Thanks, 308 00:21:25.579 --> 00:21:30.819 Logan. Really appreciate it and enjoyed it. Hey, everybody, Logan 309 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:33.730 with sweetfish here. If you're a regular listener of BB growth, you know 310 00:21:33.890 --> 00:21:37.730 that I'm one of the cohosts of the show, but you may not know 311 00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:41.210 that I also head up the sales team here, is sweetfish. So for 312 00:21:41.329 --> 00:21:44.690 those of you in sales or sales offs, I wanted to take a second 313 00:21:44.730 --> 00:21:48.119 to share something that's made us insanely more efficient lately. Our team has been 314 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.000 using lead Iq for the past few months and what used to take us four 315 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:57.200 hours gathering contact data now takes us only one. We're seventy five percent more 316 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:03.430 efficient. We're able to move faster without bound prospecting and organizing our campaigns is 317 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:07.029 so much easier than before. I'd highly suggest you guys check out lead Iq 318 00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:12.029 as well. You can check them out at lead iqcom. That's Elle a 319 00:22:12.190 --> 00:22:15.230 d iqcom.