1351: The Deal Acceleration Program that Drove $16MM in Revenue w/ Nick Bennett

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:09.160 Welcome back to be to be growth. I'm Logan Lyles with Sweet Fish Media. I'm 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:12.720 joined today by Nick Bennett. He's the director of field marketing over at 3 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.320 logs dot io. Nick. How's it going today, man? Good. How you doing? I am doing 4 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:21.450 fantastic, man. It's always great toe have linked in friends meet in real 5 00:00:21.450 --> 00:00:25.430 life for at least as in real life as we can get these days, uh, recording 6 00:00:25.430 --> 00:00:28.960 remotely and at least seeing each other's faces live. Nick, I've never 7 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:33.000 asked you this question. It's just never come up on linked in Are you for 8 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.450 or against pineapple on pizza? Where does that land for you and your 9 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:41.320 household, man? I'm a definitely hard No, on that. I do like pineapple. I 10 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:45.010 like Apple, but I could never have it on pizza. I've tried it. Just not a fan. 11 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:49.620 Yeah, not a fan. What's your go to pizza topping? Honestly, just just 12 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:53.350 pepperoni. I keep it pretty basic keeping it on school, all right? And 13 00:00:53.350 --> 00:00:56.270 that's a good classic. Well, Nick, we're gonna be digging into something 14 00:00:56.270 --> 00:01:00.120 that you're equally probably more passionate about than pineapples not 15 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:03.410 being on pizza. I'm actually on the other side of that. I like a little 16 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:07.530 sweet with the savory, but we'll leave that a conversation for another day. 17 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:11.360 But something that really gets you fired up is changes that are happening 18 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:15.170 in field marketing. I was just mentioning to you as we were chatting 19 00:01:15.170 --> 00:01:18.210 offline when I think of field marketing right now, you have been one of those 20 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:22.550 voices on LinkedIn, probably the voice on LinkedIn when it comes to field 21 00:01:22.550 --> 00:01:25.400 marketing. And you mentioned the other day something that really gets you 22 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:30.930 fired up. Is folks thinking that field marketers are nothing less than just 23 00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:35.230 glorified event planners and not to discount what event planners do in the 24 00:01:35.230 --> 00:01:39.040 separate space? But in B two B, That kind of has this negative connotation, 25 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:43.350 and I'd love to get into some tactical things and some trends that you see in 26 00:01:43.350 --> 00:01:48.120 field marketing right now. But one, Why does this that misnomer? Do you think 27 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:52.420 get you so fired up these days? It's such a It's such a misconception, 28 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:58.040 because maybe 5, 10 years ago, that's how things were seen. But like current 29 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:01.360 day, there's there's two types of field marketers. There's your event marketers. 30 00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:03.870 There's nothing wrong with that that's that's cool. That's what they do. 31 00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:07.900 That's what they're good at. But there is the modern day failed marketers, the 32 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:11.850 ones that truly care about revenue, the ones that are partnering with sales and 33 00:02:11.850 --> 00:02:16.220 the ones that truly a driving the needle like That's what I aspired to. 34 00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:19.020 And that's what I want to try to go towards, and, like when people to say, 35 00:02:19.020 --> 00:02:22.650 Oh, you know, you just go plan this event for me, that's what you do, like 36 00:02:22.660 --> 00:02:26.940 know your value is so much more to the company that you work for. When did 37 00:02:26.940 --> 00:02:30.930 that kind of change for you in the evolution of your career? Was there a 38 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:35.080 certain moment where you realized, Hey, I could add a lot more value? I could 39 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:39.690 be much more of a strategic partner to sales than just executing whatever is 40 00:02:39.690 --> 00:02:44.050 asked and making sure that the event goes off without a hitch. But thinking 41 00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:48.820 more about how is this a sales execution? Was that a certain event? 42 00:02:48.820 --> 00:02:52.850 Was that just a culmination of things? How did that happen for you? Honestly, 43 00:02:52.850 --> 00:02:57.080 it was just from talking to other people, like VPs of marketing CMOs like 44 00:02:57.090 --> 00:03:00.140 I've tried to do a good job of networking with others and trying to 45 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:04.260 get their mindset of what field marketing should be in their eyes and 46 00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:07.950 then just talking to other field marketers as well. And just trying to 47 00:03:07.950 --> 00:03:11.200 say Okay, you know, this is what everyone thanks feel marketing is This 48 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:15.530 is what the reality is. This is what others think. And then I just tried to 49 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:20.010 basically pull it all together and say, Okay, you know, Phil, marketing failed 50 00:03:20.010 --> 00:03:24.030 is in your title like you should be strictly aligned with the sales team. 51 00:03:24.030 --> 00:03:27.220 Whether it's a specific territory region. Maybe you're covering the whole 52 00:03:27.220 --> 00:03:30.900 country, whatever. But you should have a specific sales team that you're 53 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:34.430 working with and that you're helping drive a needle. And at the end of the 54 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:38.810 day, like sales is my customers. So I want to see every single one of them 55 00:03:38.810 --> 00:03:43.470 make club or crush their goals because their goals to make money, my goals to 56 00:03:43.470 --> 00:03:47.740 help them make money. I love that approach van What? What does that look 57 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:52.420 like being a strategic partner to sales being the peanut butter to their jelly 58 00:03:52.420 --> 00:03:56.910 being the pineapple to their pizza? If you like pineapple on pizza. What does 59 00:03:56.910 --> 00:03:59.340 that look like day to day? What are some of the things that you've kind of 60 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:03.760 baked into your rhythm or your schedule as a field marketer to make sure that 61 00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:09.240 you are being a strategic partner to sales in the day to day? Not just Hey, 62 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:12.320 let me follow up and make sure that event was good for the sales team like 63 00:04:12.320 --> 00:04:15.820 that. Okay, that's a step in the right direction. But what does that look like 64 00:04:15.820 --> 00:04:20.339 in your daily rhythm? Ongoing man? Yes. So I think it's really creating a new 65 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:23.760 playbook right now. And so it's being on, you know, it's being on your sales 66 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:28.070 team calls. It's working with sales leadership to basically say OK, hey, 67 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:32.580 this is gonna be our go to market for specific, you know, specific territory 68 00:04:32.580 --> 00:04:36.420 specific region. What works in Boston doesn't work in the West Coast, and 69 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:39.050 what works in London doesn't work somewhere else. So you have to 70 00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:42.940 basically come, You know, come at this from many different angles because it's 71 00:04:42.940 --> 00:04:47.830 not gonna be a one size fits all, and I think it's important to work with sales 72 00:04:47.830 --> 00:04:52.350 hand in hand and also not be afraid to say no to them like some of these sales 73 00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:55.480 reps, especially more of the enterprise. Like seasoned reps, They're going to 74 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:58.380 say, Oh, well, I've always done it this way This is the way that we should be 75 00:04:58.380 --> 00:05:02.980 doing it well, your way hasn't always worked. So you know, it's time Thio 76 00:05:02.980 --> 00:05:06.510 change that up and just being able to participate and have those 77 00:05:06.510 --> 00:05:10.840 conversations. And like I said, not be afraid to say no. But also be a part of 78 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:14.290 their Q B are showing the results metrics that you're driving from the 79 00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:18.760 programs that you're doing is equally important because if you're just kind 80 00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:21.300 of looked at, is the person like Oh, you know, we did this event? It was 81 00:05:21.300 --> 00:05:25.280 great. You know what happens to all those leads? Are you basically watching 82 00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:28.850 them through the funnel? Are you helping your str team with cadences and 83 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:32.740 outreach sequences that can kind of help them reach more people? It's 84 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:36.810 literally you're touching almost every part. You're definitely touching every 85 00:05:36.810 --> 00:05:39.880 part of sales, but you're also touching every part of marketing. Pull it all 86 00:05:39.880 --> 00:05:43.080 together. I love what you're saying there about programs that you're 87 00:05:43.080 --> 00:05:47.410 helping run alongside the sales team and seeing them all the way through to 88 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:51.430 close one. Really? And I want to dig into some specifics there. But 89 00:05:51.430 --> 00:05:55.240 something you mentioned begs a follow up question. Nick, can you share maybe 90 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:59.480 without throwing any sales team member or former colleague under the bus? What 91 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:04.230 was one of those examples where you told sales? Know what? What was it? And 92 00:06:04.230 --> 00:06:07.530 how did you go about telling them knowing and why did you do it? Can you 93 00:06:07.530 --> 00:06:11.480 think of an example of that that's happened recently? Yeah, definitely. So 94 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:15.260 there was. There was there was a rep that was in New York City. And, you 95 00:06:15.260 --> 00:06:17.960 know, they're They're they're in the market. I'm in Boston, so I don't know. 96 00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:22.170 New York is well, as they dio, but I wanted to do just something specific 97 00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:26.330 around ah, certain part of New York that I felt, you know, I did a lot of 98 00:06:26.330 --> 00:06:30.440 research. I knew it was gonna be good on day. Just was like, No, it's it's, 99 00:06:30.440 --> 00:06:34.090 you know, you're targeting the wrong I see, p, you're targeting the wrong you 100 00:06:34.090 --> 00:06:38.360 know, daytime, like people are gonna come at this time of year, and 101 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:42.220 basically I said, Well, you know, it's It's my budget. I'm gonna move forward 102 00:06:42.220 --> 00:06:45.710 with it. And I had support from from leadership and we did it and we 103 00:06:45.710 --> 00:06:50.380 actually drove about. I think it was like almost $100,000 in pipeline from 104 00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:53.350 that specific event. And, you know, at the end of the day there I was like, Oh, 105 00:06:53.350 --> 00:06:56.320 yeah, you know, maybe I am wrong, You know? Not. You know, sometimes it's 106 00:06:56.320 --> 00:07:00.830 usually like this, but I guess you were right this time. I love hearing that. 107 00:07:00.840 --> 00:07:04.790 And so let's dig into some specific programs. As you and I were chatting 108 00:07:04.790 --> 00:07:09.450 off line, you mentioned how fired up you get a around deal acceleration 109 00:07:09.450 --> 00:07:13.540 programs. One. What is a deal acceleration program? Unpack that for 110 00:07:13.550 --> 00:07:17.310 anyone. Maybe listening. Who eyes hearing that term for the first time. 111 00:07:17.320 --> 00:07:20.950 And then, too. There was a really good example. Rytas Cove. It was hitting 112 00:07:20.940 --> 00:07:23.890 that I would love to hear. You kind of break down why you did it. What? You 113 00:07:23.890 --> 00:07:28.180 did kind of what the results were. Yeah, definitely. So So a deal acceleration 114 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:31.530 program in failed marketing is basically anything that's, you know, 115 00:07:31.530 --> 00:07:34.770 say, middle of the funnel. You're trying to push it down the final. You 116 00:07:34.770 --> 00:07:38.000 want to basically get it to a close one? Or maybe it's, you know, in early stage 117 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.770 opportunity. What can you do to push it forward? And so you use a variety of 118 00:07:41.770 --> 00:07:46.310 tactics to basically get to that point working with sales to kind of do that. 119 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:50.420 And so, you know, greatest Cupid was hitting. I said, Okay, budgets are 120 00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:54.710 gonna freeze. We know this, like, the economy is going to tank. What can we 121 00:07:54.710 --> 00:07:59.040 do to collectively come together and still drive pipeline? Because when you 122 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.300 tell a board Well, yeah, you know, Kobe is hitting. You know, you still have 123 00:08:02.300 --> 00:08:05.760 numbers to hit it the end of the day. And so I got with sales, and I said, 124 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:11.080 Okay, I had I think it was about 45 sales reps total. And I said, Okay, I 125 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:15.110 need each one of you to give me your early stage opportunities. So we called 126 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:20.570 them s ones and s two's basically right off right after the handoff from an str 127 00:08:20.580 --> 00:08:25.690 and I said each of those opportunities give me 2 to 3 contacts per opportunity 128 00:08:25.690 --> 00:08:30.570 that are basically once a champion one's like a C level execs targeting 129 00:08:30.570 --> 00:08:35.750 you know, C R o C M O, and basically heads of operations. And so got all 130 00:08:35.750 --> 00:08:39.630 this information. And I also said, Throw your to renew ALS in there, too, 131 00:08:39.630 --> 00:08:43.890 just in case, because we were going through a big renewals for Q two and Q 132 00:08:43.890 --> 00:08:47.900 three that, like we needed to make sure we crushed. And so I got all this 133 00:08:47.900 --> 00:08:52.790 information, tallied it all together. So there was 311 total names that we 134 00:08:52.790 --> 00:08:58.640 basically had on this list. I had their name, their email address. I had what 135 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:03.960 stage opportunity they were, and I had also we were going to send them a gift, 136 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.360 so we were going to send them a $50 uber eats gift card. No, called the 137 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:11.550 action. It was basically like, Hey, here's $50 to feed your family. We know 138 00:09:11.550 --> 00:09:15.830 things were about to get tough. This is on us. We'll follow back up with you 139 00:09:15.830 --> 00:09:20.050 when things start to pick back up. And so I had each rep kind of give me a 140 00:09:20.050 --> 00:09:24.800 short little note that was personalized to that specific person, and I 141 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:28.950 literally went on who breeds his gift website, and I purchased each one of 142 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:33.240 these gift cards manually, and I put the name in there. I put the note in 143 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:39.010 there, sent it on every time someone basically opened it, I would Ford that 144 00:09:39.010 --> 00:09:42.410 onto the reps so that they could see who was opening it, and then they would 145 00:09:42.410 --> 00:09:47.000 be following up if that person didn't follow up first. And so I tracked all 146 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:50.600 of this through an Excel spreadsheet. We basically had a Salesforce campaign 147 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:54.470 that we were also able to actually track the R Y and attribution through. 148 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:59.940 And it took me. I should say the whole program came together in a week and a 149 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:05.260 half. I literally was able to start to, like, get by and get budget. It only 150 00:10:05.260 --> 00:10:09.090 cost $20,000. And if you think about that and like Boston in New York, 151 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:12.480 that's only like two or three dinners if you were doing like in person events. 152 00:10:12.490 --> 00:10:17.380 So I said, Okay, got all of this. We we ended up calculating I was actually 153 00:10:17.380 --> 00:10:21.720 getting ready for a sales Q B r to kind of present thes results, and we ended 154 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:28.150 up out of the 311 that we sent. We had a 30% conversion rate of people 155 00:10:28.160 --> 00:10:33.390 basically, either moving some stage of the funnel further down. And so out of 156 00:10:33.390 --> 00:10:39.320 that 30% we actually influence 37 a half million dollars of type line from 157 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:44.880 the specific program. And then for at the end of think it was the end of to 158 00:10:44.880 --> 00:10:51.580 one because we were on a fiscal year we closed. I think it was. It was about 159 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:58.110 $16 million closed one that that impacted from this specific programas 160 00:10:58.110 --> 00:11:03.080 well and, like people don't understand that failed marketing can play a huge 161 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:06.720 part into Dale acceleration. Like some people. Like a lot of field markets I 162 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.650 talked to, they don't even think of Dale. Acceleration has, like a tactic 163 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:13.760 that they can use, and this just goes to show that, like it does move the 164 00:11:13.760 --> 00:11:17.160 needle and you only have to do anything too crazy. Send people a gift card. 165 00:11:17.170 --> 00:11:23.020 People love free money. Hey, everybody, Logan with sweet fish here. If you've 166 00:11:23.020 --> 00:11:26.390 been listening to the show for a while, you know we're big proponents of 167 00:11:26.390 --> 00:11:31.000 putting out original organic content on Link did. But one thing that's always 168 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.990 been a struggle for a team like ours is too easily track the reach of that 169 00:11:34.990 --> 00:11:38.290 linked in content. That's why I was really excited when I heard about 170 00:11:38.290 --> 00:11:42.800 Shield the other day from a connection on you guessed it linked in. Since our 171 00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:47.050 team started using shield, I've loved how it's led us easily track and 172 00:11:47.050 --> 00:11:51.350 analyze the performance of are linked in content without having to manually 173 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:55.310 log it ourselves. It automatically creates reports and generates some 174 00:11:55.310 --> 00:11:59.390 dashboards that are incredibly useful to see things like what contents been 175 00:11:59.390 --> 00:12:02.340 performing the best and what days of the week are we getting the most 176 00:12:02.340 --> 00:12:06.950 engagement and our average views proposed? I highly suggest you guys 177 00:12:06.950 --> 00:12:10.290 check out this tool. If you're putting out content on LinkedIn, and if you're 178 00:12:10.290 --> 00:12:15.110 not, you should be. It's been a game changer for us. If you go to shield app 179 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:19.870 dot ai and check out the 10 day free trial. You can even use our promo code 180 00:12:19.880 --> 00:12:26.530 B two B growth to get a 25% discount. Again. That's shield app dot ai And 181 00:12:26.530 --> 00:12:31.950 that promo code is be the number to be growth. All one word. All right, let's 182 00:12:31.950 --> 00:12:40.190 get back to the O Man. I love that I'm reading Never lose a customer again, 183 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:44.840 and I feel like I've referenced it in, like, four out of the five episodes. So 184 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:48.780 people are probably sick of me talking about it this week. But it's just so 185 00:12:48.780 --> 00:12:52.770 top of mind. And Joey Coleman talks about this sales call that he had with 186 00:12:52.770 --> 00:12:57.690 an executive when he was at corporate executive board and he got to talking 187 00:12:57.690 --> 00:13:02.110 golf with this prospect and he didn't. They didn't get much time to actually 188 00:13:02.110 --> 00:13:05.230 talk about the deal on him to give the pitch. He was in a sales role at that 189 00:13:05.230 --> 00:13:10.180 point in person field sales, right? And, uh, he it came up in conversation. Oh, 190 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:13.640 I'm gonna be a Pebble Beach and in a little bit playing golf with my friends. 191 00:13:13.640 --> 00:13:18.350 And the prospect was like diehard avid golfer. His his office was like the 192 00:13:18.350 --> 00:13:22.470 mecca of golf, and he's like, I've never played Pebble Beach. Now what 193 00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:26.210 Joey could have done is, like, you know, sent him an email and said, Oh, I 194 00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:30.560 Pebble Beach was great. But when he was there, he saw a golf ball that was 195 00:13:30.560 --> 00:13:35.040 monogrammed. Pebble Beach golf course, but that year was the 100th US Open. 196 00:13:35.040 --> 00:13:39.170 And so it had that on there. And so he actually, while he was on his trip, 197 00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:43.920 wrote a note that was very thoughtful, put that with the ball, packaged it up 198 00:13:43.930 --> 00:13:47.760 and then sent it out. He ended up closing a $35,000 deal. The chapter of 199 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:53.000 the book is the $35,000 golf ball, and you know, just like your example taking, 200 00:13:53.010 --> 00:13:57.740 taking something thoughtful and intentional because of what's going on, 201 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:02.730 either because of direct information and access that you have to that 202 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:05.650 prospect where you could make it very personalized, like this Joey Coleman 203 00:14:05.650 --> 00:14:09.440 story from this book, or just looking at the context of what the heck is 204 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:12.830 going on in the world and what your prospects are probably thinking. It's 205 00:14:12.830 --> 00:14:16.080 not like every one of those was completely personalized. It was a gift 206 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:20.760 card to their favorite restaurant in New York or Boston or Seattle, but it 207 00:14:20.760 --> 00:14:25.890 was contextual to the situation and ended up driving very similar results. 208 00:14:25.900 --> 00:14:30.140 Did that completely surprise you? Was there anything that you you thought 209 00:14:30.150 --> 00:14:34.200 maybe you guys would have done differently? Looking back or you know, 210 00:14:34.210 --> 00:14:39.590 kind of in hindsight, Anything else surprising besides the drastic results 211 00:14:39.590 --> 00:14:43.440 that that deal acceleration program drove any other learnings that you 212 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:47.680 think from that specific situation that people could replicate in other 213 00:14:47.680 --> 00:14:50.750 programs when there's not a global pandemic hitting and they're going to 214 00:14:50.750 --> 00:14:55.510 send you Brits gift cards? So I mean, I definitely like that the manual time of 215 00:14:55.510 --> 00:15:00.960 buying all those gifts literally took me, like I would say, you know, 4 to 5 216 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:05.570 hours to basically go through like you're using a gifting company like 217 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:10.130 analysis Indo. So I think, would would cut down on a lot of that and also help 218 00:15:10.130 --> 00:15:14.210 automate it because another thing that I realized was the people that we sent 219 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:17.550 thes gift cards to. If they didn't accept it or didn't claim it, for 220 00:15:17.550 --> 00:15:22.020 whatever reason, we were still out $50 so there was no way to recoup that 221 00:15:22.020 --> 00:15:25.850 money back. Whereas some of these other websites, like, you know, you're able 222 00:15:25.850 --> 00:15:29.760 to if if it does, if it goes unused, you get credited back to your account. 223 00:15:29.770 --> 00:15:33.130 I think that would be the one big thing that I would have changed because it 224 00:15:33.130 --> 00:15:37.490 was probably you know it was probably at least like 50 to 75. That basically 225 00:15:37.490 --> 00:15:42.430 just went unused. Your unclaimed that were lost money. But the results still, 226 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:47.210 you know, covered everything. So it's all right. I would say so in the tens 227 00:15:47.210 --> 00:15:53.090 of thousands in the investment and the over 10 million enclosed one and Mawr 228 00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:56.910 influenced. Uh, yeah, definitely. I would say it's worth it. And you know 229 00:15:56.910 --> 00:16:00.180 we'll have toe link in the show notes to an episode I just did with the 230 00:16:00.180 --> 00:16:04.360 founder and CEO Greg Siegle over at Alice. He was just on the show, and we 231 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:07.050 were talking about personal experience, so that would be a great follow up 232 00:16:07.050 --> 00:16:11.960 episode. If if you like this topic, let's talk a little bit more Nick about 233 00:16:11.970 --> 00:16:17.310 where you see virtual events going wrong right now. It was something that 234 00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:20.920 you and I were chatting about here recently and, you know, feel marketers. 235 00:16:20.920 --> 00:16:24.770 I think they can learn a lot from this Deal acceleration program. They can 236 00:16:24.740 --> 00:16:28.570 take kind of what you're saying about just infusing themselves into the day 237 00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:33.380 to day of sales, something that they've undoubtedly tasked with right now is 238 00:16:33.390 --> 00:16:38.560 taking in person events. Virtual I think we'd be remiss in talking about 239 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:43.200 field marketing in 2020 and not talking about this phenomenon. I imagine both, 240 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:47.880 As you know, just a consumer of content and talking with your peers. You've 241 00:16:47.880 --> 00:16:51.810 probably seen some good, bad and indifferent or maybe good, bad and ugly 242 00:16:51.820 --> 00:16:57.240 when it comes. Thio virtual events over the last several months. Any cases of 243 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:01.670 really good execution and really bad execution don't have to name names or 244 00:17:01.670 --> 00:17:05.530 throw anybody under the bus like I said earlier. But I think we can learn from 245 00:17:05.530 --> 00:17:09.079 successes and failures, so I'd love you for you. Toe. Give us a little 246 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:14.630 perspective on virtual events in 2020 man Yes s. So I am going to give a big 247 00:17:14.630 --> 00:17:19.210 shout out toe. One company that doesn't really really well and it's gone. Danny 248 00:17:19.210 --> 00:17:23.920 over there. He runs a really awesome program like I've been to a lot of the 249 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:27.740 events that he's put on virtually, and they are by far like pretty much 250 00:17:27.750 --> 00:17:32.800 anything. Gone does is amazing, same adrift as well. They do an exceptional 251 00:17:32.800 --> 00:17:36.250 job. I think those two companies, they're probably the top that come to 252 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:40.970 mind when, like you say Okay, that's what I want to model my virtual event 253 00:17:40.970 --> 00:17:45.900 after it's it's basically that. But I mean, I think it comes down to, like, 254 00:17:45.910 --> 00:17:49.240 you know, you know which platform you're using. You need to make this 255 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:53.520 that it's not just another webinar. Everyone's doing the same thing right 256 00:17:53.520 --> 00:17:57.580 now. What can you do to stand out that will make people want to come to this? 257 00:17:57.580 --> 00:18:00.640 And at this point, I mean, we're into September now people are getting 258 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:05.360 fatigued, like I can't tell you the amount of event invitations that I get 259 00:18:05.370 --> 00:18:09.050 for Webinars and such, and it's just like they're all the same thing. And 260 00:18:09.050 --> 00:18:13.410 it's just like, you know, one person talking. It's very monotone, like it's 261 00:18:13.410 --> 00:18:17.140 not It's not exciting. It doesn't get you like are you know, I'm pumped to, 262 00:18:17.140 --> 00:18:21.980 like, learn about this today. But when I do go to an event by gong or drift, I 263 00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:25.630 do get excited about that because one their speakers air always killer. The 264 00:18:25.630 --> 00:18:28.940 content that they put together is always killer. They just do a really 265 00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:33.100 good job. Is there something they're doing different about the format versus 266 00:18:33.100 --> 00:18:37.850 kind of that one person talking slide deck? Have you seen them kind of mix up, 267 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.600 you know, speakers or what are some of those tactical things that you see them 268 00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:45.170 executing on that have made their virtual events better? Yeah, I think 269 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:48.290 it's just mixing up the speakers. It's not just one person, it's kind of 270 00:18:48.290 --> 00:18:52.160 broken out. And then, you know, you have some use cases, like as someone 271 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:55.970 that uses gone on a regular basis. I like to see how other customers are 272 00:18:55.970 --> 00:19:00.320 using it as well. And like having a fireside chat, I think, is another 273 00:19:00.320 --> 00:19:05.630 thing that I find interesting, especially when it comes to. So I'm big 274 00:19:05.630 --> 00:19:09.940 toe listening about VCs and how VCs play into, like the B two b world. 275 00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:12.960 Especially like, you know, with everything. A lot of companies still 276 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:17.650 going aipo through, kind of like the co vid thing right now, Like that type of 277 00:19:17.650 --> 00:19:21.390 content is super interesting to me versus someone that just says, Okay, 278 00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:24.310 here's a product demo. We're going to sit on this, and I'm gonna basically 279 00:19:24.310 --> 00:19:28.630 power point you to death for the next hour. Like if I'm going to commit an 280 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:32.450 hour of my time to something, I wanna be able to walk away at the end of the 281 00:19:32.450 --> 00:19:36.280 day and say, You know what? I didn't know that or meet new people. That's 282 00:19:36.280 --> 00:19:41.140 another thing, too. It's like, you know, everyone's trying to replace in person 283 00:19:41.140 --> 00:19:44.420 events. And one of the biggest thing in person events was the networking piece 284 00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:50.820 of it. How can you replicate that without it feeling too, too weird? Yeah, 285 00:19:50.830 --> 00:19:53.840 yeah. I mean, that's a really good point, Nick. It was something that came 286 00:19:53.840 --> 00:19:59.560 up in my interview with Sergio Claudio at Adobe. We were talking about how 287 00:19:59.560 --> 00:20:04.060 they took Adobe Summit virtual in a matter of, you know, dozens of days. 288 00:20:04.060 --> 00:20:07.480 Like I forget what it was, but it was very short. We'll have a link to that 289 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:11.680 in the show notes as well. Um, some good learnings from a very quick pivot 290 00:20:11.690 --> 00:20:15.960 from in person to virtual right as the pandemic was hitting earlier this year. 291 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:20.350 So you mentioned. Okay, so I've got kind of 44 tips for virtual events. 292 00:20:20.350 --> 00:20:24.670 From what you said, mix up the speakers. Ah, fireside chat format could be 293 00:20:24.670 --> 00:20:28.790 really engaging. Make sure that you provide some use cases and some very 294 00:20:28.790 --> 00:20:33.300 specific illustrations. Not just kind of things that you could find on, you 295 00:20:33.300 --> 00:20:37.510 know, any other linked in post or or any other block post and then making 296 00:20:37.510 --> 00:20:41.080 them interactive. And the reason I wanted to recap there and actually come 297 00:20:41.080 --> 00:20:45.840 back to the interactive portion is that's what Sergio from Adobe was 298 00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:50.270 telling me that they were focused on on their upcoming virtual events, that 299 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:54.480 they realized from the feedback of Adobe Summit going virtual, that people 300 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:58.180 were really asking, How can I interact more? How can I ask more questions of 301 00:20:58.180 --> 00:21:02.110 the speakers? But also, how can I get into, you know, a side room with some 302 00:21:02.110 --> 00:21:06.270 of my peers? Because just between you and I, I never went to events for the 303 00:21:06.270 --> 00:21:10.310 content, right? Because if stuff I could get from a webinar or a podcast 304 00:21:10.310 --> 00:21:14.640 or linked in or whatever, but it was a chance to get a concentrated group of 305 00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:19.640 peers of prospects of industry movers and shakers in one spot. Whether you're 306 00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:23.380 in manufacturing or marketing doesn't really matter. Same same is true. There, 307 00:21:23.380 --> 00:21:28.260 there any any interesting applications of that interactivity that you've 308 00:21:28.260 --> 00:21:32.360 either tested out or you've seen as a consumer of content where people are 309 00:21:32.360 --> 00:21:37.020 doing it well, yes, so so something that actually prior toe logs that I was. 310 00:21:37.030 --> 00:21:41.310 I worked for a company called Clary. So something that we did there was round 311 00:21:41.310 --> 00:21:45.600 tables and that was a huge, huge hit. Because if you think about it, we got 312 00:21:45.610 --> 00:21:50.280 about, you know, 15 to 20 people that were all revenue leaders across, you 313 00:21:50.280 --> 00:21:53.600 know, different companies. But we got them onto a zoom. It wasn't anything 314 00:21:53.600 --> 00:21:57.520 crazy. And all we did was we just had conversation. We literally opened it up 315 00:21:57.520 --> 00:22:01.320 like everyone could talk is they want We posed questions. People could ask 316 00:22:01.320 --> 00:22:06.370 questions that were interesting to them. And I think that was a huge hit. And 317 00:22:06.370 --> 00:22:10.350 honestly, the amount of the the amount of pipeline that we contributed from 318 00:22:10.350 --> 00:22:14.110 the marketing standpoint on those specific round tables were bigger than 319 00:22:14.110 --> 00:22:17.650 a lot of the in person events. And like that was my goal when I launched those 320 00:22:17.650 --> 00:22:21.540 was to basically say Okay, this is gonna be is close to in person 321 00:22:21.550 --> 00:22:25.170 networking that we can get. But we have to keep it small and intimate because 322 00:22:25.170 --> 00:22:29.790 when you opened up to 50 60 70 people, it's just you have only about five or 323 00:22:29.790 --> 00:22:32.950 six people that will talk. Everyone will get shy. They don't want to talk 324 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.990 to each other. But you keep it small and intimate. Maybe get, you know, send 325 00:22:35.990 --> 00:22:39.830 some sense, um, drinks to people, you know, a virtual wine event. Get them 326 00:22:39.830 --> 00:22:44.240 talking. It definitely works. Where do you think that tipping point is? Is it 327 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:48.950 10? Is it 15? Is it 20? So? So definitely. When it gets above 20 it 328 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:54.120 gets it gets a little bit tough. I think below 20 is good. I've tried it 329 00:22:54.120 --> 00:22:58.640 with even, like, 35. And it just you just get the same people talking every 330 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:04.490 single time. The sweet spot is 10 to 12 e really like that. So are you saying 331 00:23:04.490 --> 00:23:08.630 10 to 12 attendees with maybe three or four Kind of leading the commerce, the 332 00:23:08.630 --> 00:23:12.730 round table conversation? Exactly. And we've actually only had usually one 333 00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:17.120 person leading the round table. So we try to keep it when you know it clear. 334 00:23:17.120 --> 00:23:21.130 We literally tried to keep it one, maybe two people from Clary on No sales 335 00:23:21.130 --> 00:23:25.230 reps on it was very informal. Nope. Itchiness. It was just meant to be 336 00:23:25.230 --> 00:23:28.450 thought leadership and just kind of learning from each other. Yeah, and so 337 00:23:28.450 --> 00:23:32.410 you're almost crowdsourcing. Some of the content because you're letting the 338 00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:37.070 prospects out of that pool of 10 to 12 really bring, you know, their 339 00:23:37.080 --> 00:23:40.410 contribution, that that's really interesting. We've been doing small, 340 00:23:40.420 --> 00:23:44.450 intimate, monthly customer mastermind calls with all of our customers, that 341 00:23:44.450 --> 00:23:49.130 sweet fish. And it is kind of Hey, we have content kind of prepared a little 342 00:23:49.130 --> 00:23:53.690 bit more webinar style. We very rarely have a slide deck. So I think the last 343 00:23:53.690 --> 00:23:57.350 one, we actually had one, and that was like a big deal for us, eh? So I think 344 00:23:57.350 --> 00:24:00.840 we do some things a little bit differently, But I've noticed that in 345 00:24:00.840 --> 00:24:05.090 the last 10 to 15 minutes there's really some good conversations where 346 00:24:05.090 --> 00:24:09.230 one of our customers asked a good question or they contribute something. 347 00:24:09.230 --> 00:24:13.470 So I think, kind of I'm seeing some magic happened in that that space. And 348 00:24:13.470 --> 00:24:16.810 so what you're saying is kind of expand that and make it the whole thing right? 349 00:24:16.810 --> 00:24:21.480 Make it the whole event, whether it's ah, hour long mastermind call or an 350 00:24:21.490 --> 00:24:25.210 hour long roundtable, whatever you want to kind of term it, I think that's 351 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:29.930 really good advice for people to to test out that format on and try 352 00:24:29.930 --> 00:24:32.550 something a little bit different. If nothing else, you're going to give 353 00:24:32.550 --> 00:24:35.940 people a little bit of a surprise and kind of wake them up from the norm. 354 00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:39.120 Which is why we've been starting. I think it's a good thing and all of your 355 00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:42.600 channels to try and wake people up a little bit. It's part of the reason 356 00:24:42.600 --> 00:24:46.190 we've been opening all of our podcast episodes with, like, the fun questions 357 00:24:46.190 --> 00:24:49.430 like I opened at the top of the interview today. Are you for or against 358 00:24:49.430 --> 00:24:53.080 pineapple on pizza? Are you team Coke or Pepsi? What habits have you picked 359 00:24:53.080 --> 00:24:56.460 up in during the pandemic as opposed to? Hey, Nick, tell us about your 360 00:24:56.460 --> 00:25:00.670 background and all right. I know I'm gonna listen to this for the career 361 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:04.710 journey for 2.5 minutes before we get to the actual content, so Alright, 362 00:25:04.710 --> 00:25:08.720 Super meta. I know. I know. I just had to go there. Awesome. Well, you, Nick, 363 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:13.400 you have dropped a ton of knowledge. Me and I love your thoughts on really the 364 00:25:13.410 --> 00:25:18.520 power that a strong field marketer can have to drive revenue and drive results 365 00:25:18.520 --> 00:25:21.800 within their organization. That deal acceleration program, I think, is 366 00:25:21.800 --> 00:25:25.560 something that a lot of people can learn from. As we close out today, you 367 00:25:25.560 --> 00:25:29.150 mentioned kind of picking the brains of some other marketing leaders, 368 00:25:29.150 --> 00:25:33.880 especially CMOs and VPs that have kind of influence your thinking on field 369 00:25:33.880 --> 00:25:38.650 marketing. Joining give a shout out to anybody there that other marketers, 370 00:25:38.650 --> 00:25:43.720 especially field marketers, should be following on LinkedIn or anybody that's 371 00:25:43.720 --> 00:25:47.750 been kind of contributing to your career journey there. Yeah, I mean, so 372 00:25:47.750 --> 00:25:51.280 honestly, that that there's a good amount of them. I mean, I think the you 373 00:25:51.280 --> 00:25:55.520 know, the big people that that five follow on on LinkedIn. You know, you 374 00:25:55.520 --> 00:25:59.860 got Chris Walker, who I think is anything marketing. Really. He's 375 00:25:59.860 --> 00:26:04.580 awesome. Toe, listen to you got Dave G. I mean, there's there's a handful of 376 00:26:04.580 --> 00:26:09.250 people that are on there. I don't I don't wanna miss anyone, so I'm gonna 377 00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:13.620 I'm gonna way can keep it at those to those air to to good pics. I'll throw 378 00:26:13.620 --> 00:26:18.470 Gitano Denard Ian their asses well, and you know, there's man we could just 379 00:26:18.470 --> 00:26:21.660 keep going. We could go. Daniel Murray. We could you know, I think you're 380 00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:25.410 putting out a lot of good stuff. So anyway, on that note is we rounded out 381 00:26:25.410 --> 00:26:29.880 today, Nick, for anybody who you are now a new coming across their path. 382 00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:32.560 What's the best way for them to reach out or stay in touch with you, man? 383 00:26:32.740 --> 00:26:36.710 Definitely link tonight. Try to respond to every single message that that it 384 00:26:36.710 --> 00:26:41.920 sent over to me. I probably spent way, way too much time on Lengthen on. Then 385 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:44.850 another piece of it is you know, if you're looking to reach out and try to 386 00:26:44.850 --> 00:26:49.680 learn more community rev genius free community on slack, that basically has 387 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:53.520 sales marketing, Reeboks leaders and their lots of big names. Couple that 388 00:26:53.520 --> 00:26:57.310 you've mentioned already, Um, couple up and comers that air in there as well. 389 00:26:57.310 --> 00:27:00.890 So you can always find me in there as well. Absolutely, Man, I actually just 390 00:27:00.890 --> 00:27:04.410 joined that slack community, and I've I've just been kind of lurking for now 391 00:27:04.410 --> 00:27:08.560 until I I can find some time to carve away from linked in to get really 392 00:27:08.560 --> 00:27:12.710 plugged in there. But those niche slack communities, really I think, have kind 393 00:27:12.710 --> 00:27:16.700 of taken off is we've been looking for that networking and that community 394 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:20.060 aspect that we've been missing a lot of this year. So really good thoughts 395 00:27:20.060 --> 00:27:23.970 there, man. People check out of genius if you're looking for that community as 396 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:26.960 well. Nick, thank you so much for joining me on the show today, Man. It's 397 00:27:26.970 --> 00:27:31.280 always fun to talk to a good Lincoln friend Live and and as close day in 398 00:27:31.280 --> 00:27:34.560 person as we can get these days. Definitely likewise, it's always a 399 00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:35.070 pleasure. 400 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:42.550 Is the decision maker for your product or service? Abebe Marketer Are you 401 00:27:42.550 --> 00:27:46.740 looking to reach those buyers through the medium of podcasting? Consider 402 00:27:46.740 --> 00:27:51.990 becoming a co host of BTB Growth. This show is consistently ranked as a top 403 00:27:51.990 --> 00:27:56.130 100 podcast in the marketing category of Apple podcasts, and the show gets 404 00:27:56.130 --> 00:28:01.720 more than 130,000 downloads each month. We've already done the work of building 405 00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:05.740 the audience so you can focus on delivering incredible content to our 406 00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:12.070 listeners if you're interested. Email Logan at sweet fish media dot com.