Aug. 27, 2020

#CX 67: Improving Your Buyer's Experience w/ Josh Fedie

In this episode of the #CX series, Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, talks with Josh Fedie, founder of Sales Reach, about reducing buyer's remorse, improving the buyer's journey, and getting personal with video.

Listen to more CX conversations on Ethan's podcast, The Customer Experience Podcast by clicking through one of the following links to your favorite podcast player:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Sticher

Google Play

Google Podcasts

Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:07.629 It's the feeling that people have when they work with you. For me, 2 00:00:07.870 --> 00:00:13.910 and for me that is absolutely everything. When you create and deliver a better 3 00:00:13.990 --> 00:00:20.670 buying experience, you're obviously setting up a better customer experience overall. My name 4 00:00:20.710 --> 00:00:25.059 is ethanbued welcome back to the CX series here on BB growth. That is 5 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:30.019 our topic today and I've got with me Josh Feedi, who is the founder 6 00:00:30.219 --> 00:00:35.219 of sales reach, a buyer enablement and buyer experience platform. It's got a 7 00:00:35.259 --> 00:00:38.250 video components. are going to be talking a little bit of video. We're 8 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:41.609 going to be talking about buyers remorse. We're going to be talking about how 9 00:00:41.649 --> 00:00:47.289 to leverage your customers to improve your product or service, two ways to personalize 10 00:00:47.649 --> 00:00:52.679 not just the customer experience in general, but each of your messages in particular. 11 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.679 We're talking about how to turn people into evangelists and how those help the 12 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:00.560 experience for your other customers as well. My name is Ethan butwed. I 13 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:04.469 host the CX series here on the show. I'm chief evangelist at bombomb coauthor 14 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:10.590 of Rehumanize Your Business. You can see video clips of this episode short write 15 00:01:10.590 --> 00:01:15.069 ups of every episode at Bombombcom Slash podcast. But for right now, let's 16 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:23.379 join Josh Feedie of sales reach. The customer experience often starts at or near 17 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:26.939 the buying experience, so today we're going to be talking about creating and delivering 18 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:32.340 better buying a experiences. Our guest brings more than twenty years of sales and 19 00:01:32.379 --> 00:01:37.569 marketing experience in digital marketing in tech, most often as director of business development, 20 00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:41.049 but also as a two time company founder. So why did he found 21 00:01:41.090 --> 00:01:45.450 his latest company, sales reach? In his words, because buyers have changed, 22 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:49.599 sales people matter and marketing shouldn't have all the fun. Josh feedy, 23 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.280 welcome to the customer experience podcast. Hey, thanks for having me on youth 24 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:57.040 and you did your homework before this one. That was good. Well, 25 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:00.709 Linkedin makes it easy and you know, I do spend time in advance, 26 00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:04.510 like I want to have good conversations and I want to feel a little bit 27 00:02:04.549 --> 00:02:07.950 like I know you before we start talking. A It's a show of respect 28 00:02:07.989 --> 00:02:12.469 to you for sharing your time and expertise with me and listeners. But be 29 00:02:12.590 --> 00:02:15.740 it makes it a little bit more fun and, well, some ways, 30 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:17.819 easier to do as well. So, yeah, thank you for noticing. 31 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:22.379 Yeah, and it's easier than ever it's srecially for someone like you. Was 32 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:25.900 Publishing a lot, which brings me to collect before we get into CX, 33 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:30.969 before we get going, I was watching episode four of your new video series 34 00:02:30.009 --> 00:02:34.650 on the rocks, yeah, and you mentioned a few people I really like, 35 00:02:34.969 --> 00:02:39.090 Chris Lindall, todd hockenberry and a previous guest on this podcast, Dan 36 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:43.889 Tire. Yeah, Spot. So I thought just to warm it up, 37 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:46.919 could you tell me a story about one of those guys? Yeah, and 38 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:53.120 bonus points if it has a CX angle. It doesn't have damn tire is 39 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:55.120 one of my favorite people in the world. If I'm being totally honest, 40 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.789 and I've said this before, some people probably really think all that, Josh, 41 00:02:58.830 --> 00:03:01.110 he's a he's a broken record, but I believe in giving respect for 42 00:03:01.270 --> 00:03:06.150 respect is do. I would not have started the business that I started today 43 00:03:06.229 --> 00:03:09.030 without Dan Tire, and I mean that with every ounce of my being. 44 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:15.860 He was the person that was giving me the sales training on the hub spot 45 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:20.060 platform. I was going through Dan Tires Lily in boot camp. I can't 46 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:23.740 remember the exact name of it, but he was super inspiring and as we're 47 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:28.090 going through all this training, it brought to light a product that I had 48 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:32.050 created many years ago for myself with no intentions of ever product tizing it. 49 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:35.770 Didn't really see that there was a need for it in the market place. 50 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.930 But as I was going through the training through hub spot, I realized that 51 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:42.159 the thing I had created was a huge gap in the market place. It 52 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:45.520 wasn't something that hub spot was offering. I started digging around to see who 53 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:47.599 else was making it and at the time no one was really making it. 54 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:52.759 And so I flew out to Boston and asked an I said, look, 55 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.949 I just need fifteen, maybe thirty minutes with you. I just want to 56 00:03:57.030 --> 00:04:00.150 show you the MVP of what I had built ten years ago and I want 57 00:04:00.150 --> 00:04:02.110 to tell you what I planned to do with it. I just need someone 58 00:04:02.150 --> 00:04:08.189 to validate this one and that meeting did a lot for me. He validated 59 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:12.180 the idea almost immediately. He did not agree to be an investor, which 60 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:15.779 was fine because it also taught me how to properly try to raise money very 61 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:21.100 quickly. But he has stayed available to me ever since that day, just 62 00:04:21.259 --> 00:04:25.689 over two years ago. I have his link to his calendar. He's made 63 00:04:25.689 --> 00:04:28.490 it very clear I can grab any time with them whenever I want to talk 64 00:04:28.529 --> 00:04:32.889 to him and I've used that to my benefit to continually utilize him as an 65 00:04:32.889 --> 00:04:38.009 unofficial advisor in my business, and it's been it's been invaluable. Honestly, 66 00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:41.519 that's awesome. I'm so glad I ask that and he is definitely one of 67 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.759 those guys that walks his talk. Of course he's got a mountain of energy. 68 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:46.920 He's like, probably needs you on his calendar just to burn some of 69 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:53.189 that energy off. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, what a good dude. 70 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:58.069 So let's get into CX and we'll probably get into that product idea as well. 71 00:04:58.110 --> 00:05:00.870 I do want to know more about it, but let's start just to 72 00:05:00.990 --> 00:05:03.230 set the scene. When I see customer experience, what does that mean? 73 00:05:03.269 --> 00:05:06.740 Do you Josh? Yeah, it's the feeling that people have when they work 74 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:11.660 with you. For me, and for me that is absolutely everything I want 75 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:14.139 to be. I want to be memorable, I want to be deliberate, 76 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:16.459 I want to be intentional, I want to be strategic. I want people 77 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:21.689 to walk away from any interaction I have with them feeling that way. Nice 78 00:05:21.769 --> 00:05:25.930 and talk about those feelings. I've been thinking about this a lot and I 79 00:05:26.410 --> 00:05:30.050 did a short self episode on it. It'll release just before just after this 80 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:32.009 conversation, and I blow the whole thing down to the same thing. It's 81 00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:36.120 how we make people feel, and the angles on it, like is, 82 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.839 of course, how they feel about us, but then there's also like, 83 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.000 how do they feel about themselves by spending time with this? There's so many 84 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:46.480 like you, like the feeling just goes in a variety of directions. Yeah, 85 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:50.550 that's a super important clarification that you just made there, because you do 86 00:05:50.790 --> 00:05:54.110 need to be looking at it. In my opinion, and it sounds like 87 00:05:54.189 --> 00:05:58.470 yours, in both ways, it is not just how they feel about the 88 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:02.189 sales professional or the company that they're moving forward with, but the feeling that 89 00:06:02.269 --> 00:06:08.259 they're empowered, that they made the right decision after moving forward. The most 90 00:06:08.339 --> 00:06:13.220 human the most human thing is buyers remorse. The second we buy anything, 91 00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:16.699 every single one of us has a certain amount of buyers remorse it. No 92 00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:20.250 matter what we're purchasing, there's always the question of did I need that? 93 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:24.689 Did I need did I need the turbo on this car that I just bought, 94 00:06:24.769 --> 00:06:27.610 or could I have gone with the s version of this car right? 95 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.930 Why did I why did I have to get that version? It could even 96 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:33.000 be a pack of gum at the Home Depot on your way out? Did 97 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:36.279 I really need to buy that? Fires aremorse sets in immediately, and so 98 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:42.720 it's honestly, all customer facing teams need to really step things up, because 99 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.680 the buying experience is not just me as a sales professional. There's going to 100 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.750 be a handoff to the onboarding, implementation, customer success team, whoever comes 101 00:06:49.829 --> 00:06:54.589 next in that line of command, and that's almost the most, in my 102 00:06:54.750 --> 00:06:58.589 opinion, the most critical time to make sure that, like, everything is 103 00:06:58.790 --> 00:07:02.379 turning on all cylinders here, because the second of ball is dropped, after 104 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:06.699 that money changes hands, that's when that buyers remorse goes into the red zone 105 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:12.459 immediately. And we've all had that experience where, immediately after landing the deal, 106 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:14.779 someone comes running in the room and says, Hey, take it off 107 00:07:14.860 --> 00:07:16.930 the leaderboard. You, you lost that deal. Why didn't? Why did 108 00:07:16.930 --> 00:07:20.730 I lose that deal? Did I overpromise? WHO Under delivered? What happened 109 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:25.410 here? But that buyers remorse is real and we need to find find ways 110 00:07:25.769 --> 00:07:30.959 to make people feel empowered in the decision they're making so that they move forward 111 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.319 with less regret. Yeah, really good buyers remorses super powerful. I feel 112 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:40.079 like you know, depending on the price point in the product of the service 113 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:44.040 and the anticipated impact, you know you're on the clock as soon as that. 114 00:07:44.589 --> 00:07:46.990 You know that invoices signed or the credit card is swiped or whatever the 115 00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:49.829 case may be. And so in some cases you know you're on the clock 116 00:07:49.910 --> 00:07:54.350 in the next seventy two hours and other cases you're on the clock over the 117 00:07:54.430 --> 00:07:57.949 next three weeks or maybe even three months, but that clock is moving in 118 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:01.579 managing the confidence, you know, all the excitement that they had going into 119 00:08:01.660 --> 00:08:07.660 this start of the clock there needs to be sustained. So sales reach. 120 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:09.819 I assume that that is the idea that you had it. I was obviously 121 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:13.490 coming out of a felt need that you were experiencing at the time. Maybe 122 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:16.850 that was a little bit of that arc. I guess I was going to 123 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:20.009 initially go in with like, you know, who is your core customer and 124 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:22.209 what are you solving for them? But I have a feeling if you kind 125 00:08:22.209 --> 00:08:24.569 of tell the story a little bit, it sounds like there's a story there 126 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:28.319 that I would love to hear that that might emerge naturally out of that. 127 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:33.480 Yeah, I mean, so the arc where this came from was when I 128 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:39.080 owned my first business I had a marketing agency. I knew enough about coding 129 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.389 to be slightly dangerous, and every single day I was becoming more and more 130 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:50.029 dissatisfied with my sales process. This was years ago. This is before sales 131 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.470 force was a household name, before hub spot even existed. This was years 132 00:08:52.509 --> 00:08:56.419 ago, so I didn't really see that this was something other people would need. 133 00:08:56.539 --> 00:09:01.179 But what the problem was was that I was falling into this call and 134 00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:05.620 response with my prospects. They would ask me for things, I would send 135 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:09.259 them those things, I would feel like I did my job, but then 136 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:11.649 they'd always be this confusion. They'd come back to me months later. Hey, 137 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:15.289 we're about to go in front of the review team. I can't. 138 00:09:15.289 --> 00:09:18.129 I could have sworn. You sent me something about this. I can't find 139 00:09:18.129 --> 00:09:20.649 it. Can you resend it for me? Yeah, no problem. I 140 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:24.200 resent it. And it was then that I've realized that I'm making your life 141 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:28.960 challenging. Why am I doing this? I know enough about putting to make 142 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:33.679 something better for you. So what I started doing was just making simple wordpress 143 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:39.070 web pages that I would stand up for every single prospect that I had spoken 144 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:41.110 with and when they needed something for me, I would load it on to 145 00:09:41.110 --> 00:09:43.429 that page. It was very rudimentary, but it made it simple for them 146 00:09:43.470 --> 00:09:46.789 to have one source of truth for everything they needed to share with their team. 147 00:09:48.029 --> 00:09:52.100 That's where it started. And then the advent of things like personal branding 148 00:09:52.139 --> 00:09:56.379 and started popping up and video based sales, one to one sales efforts, 149 00:09:56.419 --> 00:10:01.580 and you know all about that. And that's where I started seeing, hey, 150 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:07.570 there's a need for the core product of what I built with some additions, 151 00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:13.370 for the modern sales professional to meet the modern buyer the way they want 152 00:10:13.409 --> 00:10:18.450 to interact. We live in this world right now where the same consumer on 153 00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:22.320 Amazon is your consumer right now as well, and everything is so simple for 154 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:26.559 them in that digital space. They're comfortable in that digital space. They don't 155 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:30.600 have to be put up, you know, you know, in a corner 156 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:33.039 where they have to, you know, talk to this salesperson that's telling them 157 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:37.789 what they need there they're making decisions on their own. So why are we 158 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:41.750 pulling them out of those spaces? That's when I decided to, you know, 159 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:46.389 pull together a team, start building this, validate it with some early 160 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:50.899 customers, see if pulling all these components together, your personal branding, personalizing 161 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:56.940 the materials that you're sending to somebody, organizing this process for them so that 162 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:00.980 when it's brought to the decisionmaking table, they have everything in one source of 163 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:03.929 truth, and then infusing it with personalized video as well, so that you 164 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:09.610 can help narrate the situation. However, you need to at every stage of 165 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:13.049 the sales process, in your own words. Love it. So how much 166 00:11:13.049 --> 00:11:18.049 more like from an experiential standpoint, like I can visualize a very, very 167 00:11:18.129 --> 00:11:22.279 simple wordpress page. Yet maybe a little headline in a link, headline, 168 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.519 link, headline, link. Yeah, what does it feel like now to 169 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:30.519 visit one of these one of these days? And when, in the relationship 170 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:33.509 do you start building one of them? Yeah, so first question. What 171 00:11:33.590 --> 00:11:39.389 does it look like? It's a I like to say it's a visual dropbox 172 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:41.950 essentially. Right. DROPBOX is a great way to send a whole bunch of 173 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:45.789 information, as somebody, but there's things that get in the way. Before 174 00:11:45.789 --> 00:11:48.580 they can look at the documents, they have to download them. There's nothing 175 00:11:48.620 --> 00:11:50.779 visual about it. All it is is a title of a material that you're 176 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:54.580 setting them. So there's a very visual component to this whole thing. The 177 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:58.220 beauty of the visual portion of this is that it is locked down by marketing 178 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:01.889 teams. So what we've created as a software that marketing teams can kind of 179 00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:05.450 set it and forget it. It's the Ron who peels chicken friar methodology, 180 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:09.649 right. So I didn't forget it. Handed after your sales team. You 181 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:13.970 don't need to worry, worry anymore, because they're enabled now to put whatever 182 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:16.279 they need on the page. It's already been approved by you. The design 183 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:18.279 is already set in stone. They can't change the color scheme on the page. 184 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:22.600 It's all locked in on your branding element. So that's you know, 185 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:26.159 that's kind of how it is. It's just it's a visual crm. Is 186 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.919 What it is at the end of the day. What was the second question? 187 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:33.190 Again on that? Like when, when in the relationship, are your 188 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:37.590 customer setting these up? Because I can see us being incredibly useful like like, 189 00:12:37.549 --> 00:12:39.870 way, way, way, at the beginning of the journey. And 190 00:12:39.990 --> 00:12:43.419 then, of course, you know, is the account continues to grow in 191 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:48.899 the relationship matures, I can see an account manager or CSM having a lot 192 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:52.299 of value in it as well. Yeah, you already get it. You 193 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:54.299 can. You can use this product whenever you want, even know but that 194 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:58.889 you set it up right from day one. There's no reason not to. 195 00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:01.289 You can actually use this on more of a you should never do a cold 196 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:05.210 outreach, but you should. You can set this up on a warm outreach 197 00:13:05.330 --> 00:13:07.970 very early on. The page builds as you need it to build, so 198 00:13:09.409 --> 00:13:11.210 you never you don't have to send out a page with literally all the bells 199 00:13:11.210 --> 00:13:15.320 and whistles on it. It could be as simple as a way to get 200 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.960 on your calendar, a personalized video to you know, let him know why 201 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:22.120 you want to meet with them. Maybe a lupold materials, but for sure 202 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:24.000 your bio so they know who they are going to be talking to. And 203 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:28.710 then, as the relationship grows, you add to this page. The page 204 00:13:28.750 --> 00:13:31.549 auto updates. No matter how you change the things in the asset library, 205 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:35.549 the page auto updates. You can change it dynamically throughout all the conversations. 206 00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:41.070 And then where I was talking about, all customer facing teams. That's really 207 00:13:41.110 --> 00:13:45.500 who uses this product. It's not just a business development tool. It then 208 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:50.019 turns into a client relationship management tool or an onboarding and training portal or even 209 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:54.700 recruiting. We've seen some of our customers use it in their recruiting efforts to 210 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:58.129 make the recruiting process even more personalized. So it's been pretty cool to watch 211 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:01.250 that. Yeah, that's that is a really fun thing and I would say 212 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:05.250 we've had a similar experience here at bombomb where you know you have the you 213 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:09.120 know this. This software was built in the company was built in part out 214 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:13.080 of same thing, felt me by one of our cofounders in a sales role. 215 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.080 Wanted to get faced face more often. Had too many clients spread over 216 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.080 two wide to geography. Let's recording, send videos and Oh, by the 217 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:22.399 way, I guess a lot of other people could use this too for the 218 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:24.269 same days and that I did. And then all of a sudden you turn 219 00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:28.269 it loose into the world and customers start doing things that you didn't anticipate and 220 00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:33.389 it's just delightful. And the recruiting layer, by the way, makes perfect 221 00:14:33.429 --> 00:14:37.909 sense. I've been teaching a lot about video across essentially a bowtie funnel, 222 00:14:37.070 --> 00:14:41.100 you know, a customer journey against a bow tie funnel. Yeah, or 223 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:45.500 life cycle, and and you can map the exact same thing. The employee 224 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:48.700 life cycle is exactly the same as the customer life cycle. Just some of 225 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:50.500 the terms are different, but it's the exact same thing. If you're doing 226 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:54.490 it well and I'm currently working out in my head, by the way, 227 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:56.970 is the same thing, but for like a personal network thing right, like 228 00:14:58.090 --> 00:15:01.730 like yeah, this isn't a sales relationship, it's not an employee relationship, 229 00:15:01.769 --> 00:15:05.690 but there's some point in yours, in my relationship Josh, where we have 230 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:09.080 some kind of a level of commitment and then this positive thing or if fades 231 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:11.120 out in the beginning. We're not going to go that way. I just 232 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:15.519 feel that. But you know some thing about a personal network to not that, 233 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.039 not that your product would be necessarily be appropriate for it, but I've 234 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:22.350 bet someone could apply it to some of their personal relationships as well. So 235 00:15:24.110 --> 00:15:26.470 obviously alignment is a big theme on the show. I imagine it's something that 236 00:15:26.549 --> 00:15:30.590 you have a lot of thoughts and experience around. We've already talked about the 237 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:35.100 the alignment of communicating with a client, you know, marketing, maybe in 238 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:41.700 the early stages in two sales be DRS drae handoff to CSM account management. 239 00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:45.460 Like, when I say alignment, what comes to mind? Is it a 240 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:48.019 played out terms? It actually like fundamental to the success of any business. 241 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:52.610 Like what do you think about alignment? Two things. A yes, it's 242 00:15:52.649 --> 00:15:58.649 fundamental to the success of any business and be it is the most misunderstood thing 243 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:04.480 in the entire world for companies and it's painful to watch and I've been I've 244 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:11.919 worked in enough companies in an enough different roles where I've seen misalignment and so 245 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:15.879 many different ways. And even being in all those different positions, I don't 246 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:18.990 have the answer for how do we better alive? Are So but what I 247 00:16:19.110 --> 00:16:23.870 believe the answer is right now is that we need to find technologies that we 248 00:16:23.990 --> 00:16:29.710 can utilize throughout the customer life cycle that make it simple, and the core 249 00:16:29.830 --> 00:16:33.899 word is simple, because we tend to make things way more complex than they 250 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:40.139 actually beat need to be in companies and many times the best answer is the 251 00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:45.779 simplest answer. Right. There's no there is no magic to it. When 252 00:16:45.779 --> 00:16:48.009 you see misalignment. Give me like one or two stories, and I mean 253 00:16:48.129 --> 00:16:52.850 like unpack horror stories. It include the names, but like yeah, just 254 00:16:52.970 --> 00:16:56.889 so people can feel that, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, 255 00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:02.720 so this has happened the probably the worst case that this has ever happened 256 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:06.039 in my personal life. Names will not be mentioned. I can't mention name. 257 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:11.440 Please don't. Yeah, but will protect the innocent on this one regardless. 258 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.559 Big Deal closed a big deal. It took many, many months to 259 00:17:15.950 --> 00:17:21.069 wrap up this deal. It was a large contract for a large price tag, 260 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:23.630 and so so I involved many members of the organization I was at while 261 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:29.670 this proposal was being created. I'm a big believer in making sure that everyone 262 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:34.700 understands exactly what we're selling in here before we move forward. However, I 263 00:17:34.819 --> 00:17:40.299 do not think that the respect was given to the review process of our agreement 264 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:45.490 before we put it in the customers hands, because immediately after landing that deal, 265 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:48.890 we it was within about a month, the customer started asking questions. 266 00:17:49.170 --> 00:17:52.089 Well, when are we going to get to this piece? Well, when 267 00:17:52.089 --> 00:17:53.450 are we going to do that? Josh said we were going to do that 268 00:17:53.849 --> 00:17:57.130 and the team was coming back and saying, Oh, no, no, 269 00:17:57.410 --> 00:18:02.079 Oh, I don't think Josh said that. I kept getting pulled forward and 270 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:03.359 I pull out the agreement. I'd say, guys, it's right here, 271 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:07.400 it's right on the agreement here. Yes, I promised this and this is 272 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:11.160 part of what we say we do here, so we should probably be doing 273 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:12.950 this for these people. This is what they paid us for. This is 274 00:18:14.029 --> 00:18:17.789 why it cost so much money to move forward in this contract. At the 275 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:23.309 end of the day, that deal was salvaged. However, there were some 276 00:18:23.470 --> 00:18:29.099 discussions about potentially having to do it have legal teams intervene, and I don't 277 00:18:29.220 --> 00:18:33.779 think that I left that place before that deal to see what ended up at 278 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:37.220 transpiring with that deal. It was just part of an ongoing issue that I 279 00:18:37.259 --> 00:18:40.220 had to get out of there, but I don't think that you can ever 280 00:18:40.339 --> 00:18:44.369 really salvage a relationship that starts off that way. People will always have that 281 00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:48.730 in the back of their minds and honestly, it could have been alleviated by 282 00:18:48.250 --> 00:18:53.250 a better review of what we were actually delivering to these this customer before we 283 00:18:53.410 --> 00:18:56.960 move forward. Be I learned that I probably should have done on a better 284 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.720 job when it went from sales to on boarding and the customer support team, 285 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:06.480 properly communicating. This is exactly what's going on here because instead down that deal 286 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:10.470 specifically, my process was you've already reviewed this agreement in detail. Correct, 287 00:19:10.470 --> 00:19:14.789 yes, awesome, here's the signed agreement. Move Forward. I'm onto working 288 00:19:14.869 --> 00:19:18.190 on the next deal. Big Mistake on my head. Yeah, I like 289 00:19:18.349 --> 00:19:22.589 that you said properly communicating. I think you know, as you were sharing 290 00:19:22.670 --> 00:19:25.980 that I kept thinking, like I feel like just clear communication. But there's 291 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:30.019 it's more than that. It's shared values, it's a it's maybe this is 292 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:33.420 where I've seen some miscommunication and misalignment is around kind of like one off stuff 293 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:37.740 that that is like it. You know, it's not repeatable. You're going 294 00:19:37.779 --> 00:19:41.650 to wind up doing like we work each time. You do a unique deal. 295 00:19:41.769 --> 00:19:45.170 That just doesn't make a lot of sense. So here's another term that 296 00:19:45.289 --> 00:19:49.250 I think. Do you call alignment misunderstood? Yes, absolutely. Okay. 297 00:19:49.289 --> 00:19:52.880 Here's another term that I think is misunderstood that I feel really confident that you 298 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:57.880 have something interesting to offer on and that is personalized. Like what is a 299 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.240 posonalized experience? Yeah, in your view, like yeah, yeah, it's. 300 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:07.069 Look, there's two different ways to look at personalization in your process, 301 00:20:07.269 --> 00:20:11.470 and I think that this is where the confusion happens. There is infusing yourself 302 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:15.670 and your personal character and who you are, what you stand for, your 303 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:19.150 personal brand, infusing that into your process. That's half of personalization in my 304 00:20:19.230 --> 00:20:23.140 mind. But the other half, the most important half, is where you 305 00:20:23.220 --> 00:20:30.380 stop talking about yourself and you start delivering materials that are personalized to the person 306 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:34.849 that you're sending it to to address their unique challenges. And if you don't 307 00:20:34.849 --> 00:20:38.089 do both of those things, you don't say you don't build a trust, 308 00:20:38.089 --> 00:20:41.210 because they don't know who you are, they don't care who you are. 309 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:45.369 That's it's just a thing. But if you don't deliver what they actually ask 310 00:20:45.490 --> 00:20:49.000 for, what they actually need. Amazon does a great job of this. 311 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:52.799 There is a there's a very good reason why, every time you go to 312 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.079 Amazon and you select anything, it says customers that bought this also bought this. 313 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.960 Are you interested in that? That's how they help personalize this. That's 314 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.349 how they let you know we understand you. You're purchasing a mop. You 315 00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:07.829 might also need a bucket and you might also need some soap, because everyone 316 00:21:07.869 --> 00:21:11.309 else, the bottom up, did to. We're going to be helpful here. 317 00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:12.990 We're going to make a guess that this is what you need. Right. 318 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:17.549 Sales people need to be strategic in that same way. If somebody reaches 319 00:21:17.589 --> 00:21:21.140 out to you and says this is what I need, you need to dig 320 00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:22.740 into it a little bit more. And and what if you just use the 321 00:21:22.779 --> 00:21:26.660 Amazon model? Well, the last customer I spoke with that needed that also 322 00:21:26.740 --> 00:21:32.180 needed this in this. Could you also use that? Oh Wow, I 323 00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:34.009 could actually I wasn't even thinking about that. Well, there you have it 324 00:21:34.369 --> 00:21:37.529 right. So Chris Lind Al, who you know, who's a big fan 325 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:41.849 of bombomb and, is going to be on my podcast here soon. I 326 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:45.569 love that guy. He's great. He was just on my friend Nicklivador's podcast 327 00:21:45.650 --> 00:21:49.720 called coffee and closers. He said something absolutely profound. He said that he 328 00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:55.640 loves to look at industries outside his own when he's trying to decide how to 329 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:57.960 move forward, how to innovate, how to truly innovate in his space, 330 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:02.029 and I thought that was absolutely profound. I think a lot of us do 331 00:22:02.309 --> 00:22:04.430 this without really thinking about it. But I think the sad reality is that 332 00:22:04.509 --> 00:22:07.549 a lot of us don't do this. A lot of us just kind of 333 00:22:07.549 --> 00:22:11.470 look at our exact competitors and go well, bomb I's doing this, then 334 00:22:11.750 --> 00:22:14.549 whiskey is should be doing this, and if we Stey, then twenty three 335 00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:18.099 should also be doing none. Why don't we look at why don't? Why 336 00:22:18.099 --> 00:22:21.059 don't we, as Bob I, look at Uber? What could uber teach 337 00:22:21.140 --> 00:22:25.299 us about the customer experience? Because I guarantee there's something there. We just 338 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:27.700 have to be willing to pay attention to it and dive a little deeper and 339 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:33.490 think a little bit more intentionally. Yeah, really great. I love that, 340 00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:37.130 in addressing personalization, off the top there, that you went to Amazon, 341 00:22:37.250 --> 00:22:38.769 because what I what I think a lot of people go to in their 342 00:22:38.849 --> 00:22:42.490 heads, is, oh my gosh, I have to do all this work 343 00:22:42.609 --> 00:22:47.480 and it's not enough just to slug in the variable data of their company name 344 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.839 and their perfect their first name in their industry name. I actually need to 345 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:53.319 go read a linked in profile and maybe see if they were a guest on 346 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:57.000 a podcast. So I have something personal to talk about. And that's true. 347 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.549 But there's also and I'll tie alignment back in here too, is something 348 00:23:00.589 --> 00:23:04.390 I was imagine as you walk that out, is you know there's information because 349 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:07.589 this, Oh, you bought them up, maybe you need a bucket, 350 00:23:07.029 --> 00:23:10.750 and so you have that curiosity for starters, as a word that came to 351 00:23:10.829 --> 00:23:11.900 mind, this curiosity to say, oh, that's interesting. Why do you 352 00:23:11.940 --> 00:23:15.380 think you need that? Oh well, maybe you need this in that. 353 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:18.420 But then also kind of closing that loop, because you know the customer success 354 00:23:18.420 --> 00:23:25.420 or customer support, customer service, Account Management as or sorry, account manager's 355 00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:30.410 Am's. Yep, have information about customers that have fedback up earlier in the 356 00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:33.730 process is going to teach sales and marketing a lot more about how this actually 357 00:23:33.890 --> 00:23:40.569 pans out. And so personalization isn't it is scalable in a lot of ways 358 00:23:40.930 --> 00:23:44.640 and it doesn't just mean spend a bunch of time doing a bunch of research 359 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.119 and figuring out, you know, what their favorite coffee cake is so you 360 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:49.880 can send it to their office on a Wednesday morning and to light them. 361 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:52.799 That's not a bad thing to do either. No, you don't know, 362 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:59.470 but the personalization doesn't have to be completely time consuming and manual. Yeah, 363 00:23:59.509 --> 00:24:02.109 and what I would throw out there as well, as long as we're thrown 364 00:24:02.150 --> 00:24:06.910 out words right and riffing off of words, the word that I like is 365 00:24:06.950 --> 00:24:12.420 visibility. Visibility throughout the organization is what helps you be more intentional and personal 366 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:18.380 in your efforts to deliver more value with every interaction. Because, look, 367 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:22.299 if I'm just in a sales capacity, my job is to find leads, 368 00:24:22.339 --> 00:24:27.329 land deals, past them on Rinse and repeat all day law, and many 369 00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:32.730 organizations keep the salesperson doing that all day. Law. Now that you've handed 370 00:24:32.769 --> 00:24:34.329 this off, your out. Now we have a custom success manager. This 371 00:24:34.490 --> 00:24:37.849 is their role. Don't, don't, don't get in the way. Don't 372 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:40.880 do that. That's the worst thing you can possibly do, because if I 373 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:45.359 don't have visibility as to what happens next after I've handed that off, that's 374 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:48.559 where you have issues, like the story I told earlier. Right, I 375 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:52.480 don't know that I need to explain this more intentionally to my internal team. 376 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.950 If I don't know, you've already been having issues doing the things I've been 377 00:24:55.990 --> 00:24:59.430 selling in at this company. You need to give me the visibility to do 378 00:24:59.589 --> 00:25:03.230 that. Additionally, though, on the good side, I need visibility to 379 00:25:03.390 --> 00:25:07.180 the good things that happen as well post sale, because that's how I can 380 00:25:07.220 --> 00:25:12.180 double down preemptively bring in bigger dollar amounts, because I know that if I 381 00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:17.140 land this person that does this, there's a ninety percent chance that they're going 382 00:25:17.140 --> 00:25:18.579 to also need this of this. I might as well make it part of 383 00:25:18.619 --> 00:25:22.809 a package right now, so they don't feel like we're like continuably upselling them 384 00:25:22.849 --> 00:25:26.289 but after the deal, yeah, or that we misunderstood them and we held 385 00:25:26.289 --> 00:25:30.849 back opportunities and whatever what it's better for everybody. Yeah, that'solutely. It's 386 00:25:30.890 --> 00:25:33.890 really good. And before I before we move on to another topic, I'll 387 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:37.839 just double down and say yeah, Chris Lindell. I've I've always regard him 388 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:41.400 as like a kind of a marketing genius or savant. Might be too far, 389 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:44.440 and I think the way the the what you offered there is more of 390 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:48.279 an illustration of the genius, because he does have like a lot of natural 391 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:53.109 instinct there, but this idea of intentionally seeking out new influences and new voices 392 00:25:53.269 --> 00:25:59.789 and new perspectives to broaden that like that. The creativity happens in taking too 393 00:25:59.910 --> 00:26:03.390 seemingly disparate things, but somehow they just collide together in your brain, which 394 00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:07.059 is part of where the genius and creativity happen. But the more you vary 395 00:26:07.180 --> 00:26:10.299 your input, I think, the more interesting the outputs going to be, 396 00:26:10.819 --> 00:26:15.059 at least from a learning and development creativity stand point. How let's talk briefly. 397 00:26:15.220 --> 00:26:18.970 Go to market. You know, are you all would you? Are 398 00:26:18.049 --> 00:26:22.170 you more product led, sales led, marketing led? Like, how do 399 00:26:22.250 --> 00:26:25.970 you regard that? You think a lot about it or did you know? 400 00:26:26.250 --> 00:26:29.410 How did you so? And I'll just back it up one more step. 401 00:26:29.450 --> 00:26:33.359 Yeah, you had this idea, it was validated, it was clearly a 402 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:36.599 good idea. You had a clear use case for it. So you're like 403 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:37.799 now we're going to bring it to market. Like, how did you think 404 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:41.720 about all of that? Yeah, I was. I was very intentional with 405 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:47.349 our go to market strategy. It was all about storytelling. So I suppose 406 00:26:47.549 --> 00:26:51.549 that you could say it. We're a marketing let organization. However, I 407 00:26:51.710 --> 00:26:56.869 would say that sales people should also be sales storytellers today. So we're a 408 00:26:56.950 --> 00:27:00.230 sales and marketing let organization. I'm super proud of the product that we've created 409 00:27:00.460 --> 00:27:04.220 and the product proves itself every single day. So when when I tell the 410 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:07.579 story about the benefits that this is going to bring your organization, when I 411 00:27:07.660 --> 00:27:11.660 tell the story about the challenges that you're likely facing and the reason we created 412 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:15.890 this, the product has to make good on that story and that promise, 413 00:27:17.049 --> 00:27:21.329 and so we've been really, really blessed in that we have not had the 414 00:27:21.410 --> 00:27:26.410 churn rate that many SASS companies have. When people come in it becomes part 415 00:27:26.450 --> 00:27:30.680 of the grain of their company pretty quickly. We started as a sales tool. 416 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:33.960 That's why we called it sales reach and I thought this is just a 417 00:27:34.039 --> 00:27:38.240 sales tool. That was my own ignorance. My customers were the ones that 418 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:42.039 decided. This was for all customer facing teams, because our customers were the 419 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:45.589 ones that started using it and all these other divisions and then coming back to 420 00:27:45.670 --> 00:27:48.269 us and saying, did you know what works well for this, and I'd 421 00:27:48.269 --> 00:27:52.390 say now I didn't what you can you tell me about that? Then they'd 422 00:27:52.430 --> 00:27:56.630 explain it to me. My customers have made this product something that I think 423 00:27:56.990 --> 00:28:00.500 can be a very valuable company, not me. I didn't do it. 424 00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:03.019 I was the visionary that thought we could build a sales tool, but turns 425 00:28:03.019 --> 00:28:07.740 out it's for any customer facing team. It responds to a lot of different 426 00:28:07.779 --> 00:28:11.140 needs and we keep finding more and more and more people using it in more 427 00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:15.609 unique and interesting ways. We just the other day, just real quick story, 428 00:28:17.009 --> 00:28:19.569 with all of this covid nineteen scare going around, but by the time 429 00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:23.210 you release this, hopefully that scares over and we have moved on, but 430 00:28:23.289 --> 00:28:27.000 I kind of doubt we will have by then. Unfortunately, regardless, we 431 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:32.480 were watching all these conference is getting canceled. All of these sales teams for 432 00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:36.240 our customers were calling us up and saying, not only is our conference canceled 433 00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:38.599 in our trade shows are canceled, but we've been grounded. We cannot fly 434 00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:44.789 anywhere right now. We don't want to meet with customers facetoface, because WHO's 435 00:28:44.910 --> 00:28:49.069 legally responsible if we get someone really sick and they die? What? What? 436 00:28:49.269 --> 00:28:52.710 Then? What do we do? And so we were brainstorming in the 437 00:28:52.789 --> 00:28:57.940 office and thinking, Wow, could our products help with these events that are 438 00:28:57.940 --> 00:29:03.900 now canceled, to do more of a digital conference? And so within two 439 00:29:03.940 --> 00:29:07.099 hours we used our product as it stands right now and created our own digital 440 00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:11.690 conference just as a proofpoint and MVP of could it work for this? And 441 00:29:11.930 --> 00:29:15.569 it does. It's really simple to do it actually. So now we've had 442 00:29:15.690 --> 00:29:18.930 some of these event places reaching out to us saying hey, how did could 443 00:29:18.930 --> 00:29:22.329 we use that for ours? We combine up our speakers on your just like 444 00:29:22.450 --> 00:29:23.640 that too. Right, yeah, how long we to take a bunch? 445 00:29:23.880 --> 00:29:26.200 Two hours. I can have a going Oh wow, okay, that's simple. 446 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:30.640 So, you know, I think the covid nineteen thing, I don't 447 00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:32.920 want to say it's going to be good for business at all, but what 448 00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:34.720 I do think it's going to be good for is I think that it's going 449 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:40.509 to for sales professionals to double down on the tools that they've likely had access 450 00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:44.549 to all along, that they really haven't invested enough time in because we're going 451 00:29:44.549 --> 00:29:48.109 to have to find ways to be more personal and intentional in our efforts without 452 00:29:48.190 --> 00:29:52.059 the facetoface, and this is where companies like bombomb and sales reach really, 453 00:29:52.180 --> 00:29:56.740 honestly, are probably going to win. Yeah, I agree. I you 454 00:29:56.819 --> 00:30:00.299 know, I haven't found a really t tasteful way to make that argument, 455 00:30:00.380 --> 00:30:04.259 but it's it's right there to be had. Honestly, it is the reason 456 00:30:04.299 --> 00:30:07.410 we get on airplanes and spend all this money and stay in hotels is to 457 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:11.970 get facetoface with our customers and our future customers. And so you know with 458 00:30:12.369 --> 00:30:15.410 I love your use case there, and of course zoom comes to mind. 459 00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:18.089 It's what we're using right now, something that we use all the time here 460 00:30:18.130 --> 00:30:22.160 at bombomb, and then for the Asynchron of stuff, of course bombomb helps 461 00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.480 fill that gap. I love this idea of learning from your customers. I 462 00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:32.200 think it is certainly something a founder or an early team member someone needs to 463 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:36.990 be building those relationships really early on to create that intense feedback loop. So 464 00:30:37.230 --> 00:30:41.190 for you, and there's a CO creation element. I just love for you 465 00:30:41.269 --> 00:30:42.750 to talk a little bit about what do you think it was that made these 466 00:30:42.789 --> 00:30:48.029 customers so eager to share back with you or your team members. You know 467 00:30:48.349 --> 00:30:52.500 what they're doing and like we've always had that here. It's essentially been kind 468 00:30:52.500 --> 00:30:55.940 of a key part of my role as the as the early marketing person here, 469 00:30:56.099 --> 00:30:59.299 is like how we're actually people using this word. Are The stories that 470 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:02.059 we can share? Can We? Will they give us permission to share their 471 00:31:02.140 --> 00:31:03.730 videos? Would they come on and, you know, talk with a couple 472 00:31:03.730 --> 00:31:07.289 of us about what they're doing? It just seemed instinctual. But I think 473 00:31:07.289 --> 00:31:11.970 they're or companies. It people inside companies right now where it's not maybe normal 474 00:31:11.049 --> 00:31:15.130 behavior or they don't have those the nature of relationship that maybe you do with 475 00:31:15.210 --> 00:31:18.960 your customers that I know you do talk a little bit about how you cultivate 476 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:23.559 those relationships and maybe some of the upside benefits of that, that that relationship 477 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:30.279 and that cocreation of the product. Yeah, so where it starts is it 478 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:36.349 starts in being available. It starts in creating not the illusion but the the 479 00:31:36.549 --> 00:31:41.470 knowledge that you are available. There are so many organizations that exist right now 480 00:31:41.750 --> 00:31:45.789 that are great companies and I can't name the CEO, I can't name them, 481 00:31:45.950 --> 00:31:48.940 I don't know who he or she is. They aren't on Linkedin, 482 00:31:48.980 --> 00:31:52.619 they aren't on any channels, they're not making any noise anywhere. They are 483 00:31:52.779 --> 00:31:56.819 not accessible to me. And the worst part about those organizations that usually if 484 00:31:56.859 --> 00:32:00.299 the CEO isn't accessible, neither are the employees, because all of this personal 485 00:32:00.450 --> 00:32:06.809 branding and social sharing and and bringing communities together around your company and around the 486 00:32:06.849 --> 00:32:10.170 mission and vision that starts at the top. The top has to make it 487 00:32:10.730 --> 00:32:15.089 something that other people in the organization embrace and say, Oh, that's okay. 488 00:32:15.170 --> 00:32:16.440 If if he or she is doing that, then I can do that 489 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:20.279 too. Right, that's where it starts. And so for me, I 490 00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:22.960 was very, very intentional. Right from the ghetto. I said storytelling already, 491 00:32:23.160 --> 00:32:27.359 but I wanted to tell my story and I wanted people to know that 492 00:32:27.559 --> 00:32:31.950 I truly believe my central mission is that I'm not successful unless we're all successful. 493 00:32:32.309 --> 00:32:36.430 There's no reason for me to try and do all these great things and 494 00:32:36.549 --> 00:32:39.509 keep it in a back human keep it to myself, because bomb you guys 495 00:32:39.549 --> 00:32:43.509 can be as successful as you want, it's not going to take anything away 496 00:32:43.509 --> 00:32:45.859 from me. And it's the same way back and forth. Right, we 497 00:32:45.940 --> 00:32:50.579 should all be cheering each other on and being accessible. And when you are 498 00:32:50.579 --> 00:32:54.420 accessible, there's kind of a double edged sword to this, because your customers 499 00:32:54.460 --> 00:32:59.250 expect you to be the one that responds to them. We use drift on 500 00:32:59.329 --> 00:33:04.210 our website and so we created Josh Bot, is our BOT, and that 501 00:33:04.329 --> 00:33:07.849 was kind of tongue in cheek because people were coming onto the chat and they're 502 00:33:07.849 --> 00:33:09.049 like Hey, is Josh there? And it's like well, yeah, but 503 00:33:09.410 --> 00:33:13.160 he's our CEO. And Yeah, I want to talk to Josh. I 504 00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:15.559 see all his videos. He seems like I want to talk to well as 505 00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:16.799 let's just make a Josh Fot, you know, and then I can shim 506 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:21.759 in if I have time, and that works great right, but it builds 507 00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:28.230 a evangelist faster than anything in the world, and evangelists are the easiest sales 508 00:33:28.309 --> 00:33:32.390 team you can possibly create because if a lead comes in through a passionate evangelist 509 00:33:32.470 --> 00:33:36.430 of your organization, you don't even have to work on that deal. Some 510 00:33:36.509 --> 00:33:39.670 of the biggest deals that we've landed here at sales reach are from evangelist that 511 00:33:39.789 --> 00:33:43.940 have just sent out a page to one of their customers and their customer comes 512 00:33:43.980 --> 00:33:45.460 back and says what the heck was that and they say, Oh, here's 513 00:33:45.500 --> 00:33:49.180 Josh is in fall and to copy me on it and I see the whole 514 00:33:49.259 --> 00:33:52.180 email chain and I just follow up and say here's a page just for you, 515 00:33:52.339 --> 00:33:54.700 but it's done. We just landed it. It was that easy. 516 00:33:55.089 --> 00:34:00.009 You can't do that without passionate advocates and there's no reason for your customer to 517 00:34:00.130 --> 00:34:05.529 Teut your product for you unless they feel like they want to. And that's 518 00:34:05.569 --> 00:34:09.800 how you build that. I love it. I love the the evangelism and 519 00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:15.679 that or the fanaticism or the advocacy. There I found that people not only 520 00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:20.440 will basically sell the deal for you, but they'll also oftentimes train it and 521 00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:22.360 on board it for you. To you know, it's like yeah, because 522 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:27.349 it's like you know this, you're selling, I assume nationally of course, 523 00:34:27.389 --> 00:34:30.230 but probably internationally as well. Yes, right, and so in you're probably 524 00:34:30.269 --> 00:34:35.429 doing training, some self serve, probably some zoom calls or those other types 525 00:34:35.469 --> 00:34:38.420 of things, but you know the person that sold and probably lives down the 526 00:34:38.460 --> 00:34:42.659 street or works upstairs in the office tower or whatever the case may be, 527 00:34:42.860 --> 00:34:45.139 and so they're just even more available. Of course that's a value add to 528 00:34:45.219 --> 00:34:52.929 it's really interesting. I've seen a number of our customers selling in teaching bombomb 529 00:34:52.010 --> 00:34:55.329 to other people as a value add to the other person, like as as 530 00:34:55.369 --> 00:35:00.570 a benefit to the so it's when you can get there that's really powerful. 531 00:35:00.570 --> 00:35:04.170 Well, look, this is thought leadership, this is personal branding, one 532 00:35:04.530 --> 00:35:08.039 and one. So the best thing you can possibly do is bring something of 533 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:13.320 value to another person. And it shouldn't matter if it puts money in your 534 00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:16.679 pocket every time, because what it actually does as guarantees that it's going to 535 00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:20.840 put the right dollars in your pocket at the right time, and that's the 536 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:24.789 important thing we should all be focusing on. If we discover something and becoming 537 00:35:24.829 --> 00:35:29.949 evangelist our self for that company. Right. For many, many years I 538 00:35:30.110 --> 00:35:34.909 was a sab evangelist before, unfortunately, they filed bankruptcy and I couldn't buy 539 00:35:34.909 --> 00:35:37.739 it an I saw anymore right. But I drove nothing but sobs from the 540 00:35:37.820 --> 00:35:40.780 age I was thirteen years old when I bought my first sap. I bought 541 00:35:40.860 --> 00:35:45.099 SOB, sobs of I had eighteen of those things. Everybody knew me as 542 00:35:45.099 --> 00:35:47.139 the guy that owned a sob. That's how they knew me. It became 543 00:35:47.260 --> 00:35:51.010 part of and so when someone asked me, well, what do you think 544 00:35:51.010 --> 00:35:52.489 about sobs, it's a you should definitely buy us ob it's the best car 545 00:35:52.530 --> 00:35:55.369 I've ever owned, and they would buy us all and then it would break 546 00:35:55.409 --> 00:35:59.289 down and they'd realize how expensive it is repair and then they hated me. 547 00:35:59.489 --> 00:36:01.570 So I learned a valuable lesson in communicating what's going to happen down the road 548 00:36:01.570 --> 00:36:05.960 as well. With the Evangel it's yeah, don't oversell it. It's, 549 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:07.639 you know, a great experience. You might spend a little more money, 550 00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:12.960 but that's that's how it works though, right. Yeah, yeah, it's 551 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:15.079 really good. Even before we wind down too much, I'd love for you. 552 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:19.909 You are obviously understand the power of video. You use it. I 553 00:36:20.070 --> 00:36:22.989 just talk a little bit about video, how you got going with it in 554 00:36:22.070 --> 00:36:25.190 some of your favorite ways to use it. Yeah, so video for me 555 00:36:25.389 --> 00:36:30.750 started in a very rudimentary way. I started putting videos onto proposals that I 556 00:36:30.789 --> 00:36:35.179 would send the people to kind of narrate the process of here's what you're looking 557 00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:37.260 at, here's where you're going to have questions, here's what I didn't put 558 00:36:37.300 --> 00:36:40.699 in this proposal and why I didn't put it in, in hopes that it 559 00:36:40.739 --> 00:36:45.300 would help a keep them higher up on the proposal. So they didn't do 560 00:36:45.539 --> 00:36:47.090 just do the scan to the price so I could explain myself a little bit 561 00:36:47.130 --> 00:36:50.369 before they saw the price. It seemed to work pretty well for that, 562 00:36:50.730 --> 00:36:52.610 but they also seem to like the narration of what they were looking at. 563 00:36:52.969 --> 00:36:57.730 That's how I started with video and I was very uncomfortable when I started doing 564 00:36:57.849 --> 00:37:00.329 the video. I was an actor, I wasn't myself. I was, 565 00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:04.199 you know, I was the newscaster. That's what I looked like and it 566 00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:07.960 wasn't great. Then when I decided to start this business, that's when I 567 00:37:08.119 --> 00:37:13.559 decided I need to start speaking more, I need to start doing the right 568 00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:16.670 things to build my credibility, to bring my thought, to build my thought 569 00:37:16.710 --> 00:37:21.949 leadership, and I was not seeing anything as powerful as video at that time. 570 00:37:22.349 --> 00:37:27.190 So I absolutely doubled down. Doubling down as an understatement. I immediately 571 00:37:27.550 --> 00:37:30.579 I didn't even know how to use any of the equipments, but I ordered 572 00:37:30.659 --> 00:37:32.820 the best. That's just the way I am, that's the way I'm programmed. 573 00:37:32.860 --> 00:37:37.500 I don't want a fifty lens when there's a two Tho lens that's going 574 00:37:37.500 --> 00:37:40.300 to make me look really, really amazing. I don't want a USB powered 575 00:37:40.420 --> 00:37:45.210 microphone when I can have Mike's hanging all over the place. And I can 576 00:37:45.289 --> 00:37:49.090 have a broadcasting microphone like this. I can have a wireless papel like we're 577 00:37:49.090 --> 00:37:52.409 right now. I can run this thing through preamps and filters and all kinds 578 00:37:52.449 --> 00:37:54.849 of stuff. I'm big on getting the best quality I possibly can and I 579 00:37:55.010 --> 00:37:59.519 just get really passionate about this stuff. And what I will say is that, 580 00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:02.760 making that investment, I spoke with my lead investor before I did it 581 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:07.440 and I explained the thought process around it. kind of got his blessings before 582 00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:09.079 I went jot dropped this amazing amount of money. But I told him, 583 00:38:09.079 --> 00:38:12.599 I said look, Hey, if I do invest in this, I'm going 584 00:38:12.599 --> 00:38:15.349 to be even more motivated to use it because I do not want to throw 585 00:38:15.389 --> 00:38:19.269 all that money away. Be If I can produce at a higher level, 586 00:38:19.269 --> 00:38:22.110 I think I can get a higher reach with organic contents then I can with 587 00:38:22.510 --> 00:38:28.420 inferior product with paid so let's just try this out and see what happens. 588 00:38:28.460 --> 00:38:30.260 See if I buy the right equipment. I can tether it to all my 589 00:38:30.340 --> 00:38:34.219 other technology. I don't need to have a shoot hooter and an editor. 590 00:38:34.340 --> 00:38:36.579 I can do all this stuff. I could learn all this. So I 591 00:38:36.699 --> 00:38:39.659 shoot all my own videos, I edit all my own videos, I the 592 00:38:39.780 --> 00:38:43.289 content that I produced. I don't think about it too much. I'm one 593 00:38:43.329 --> 00:38:45.489 of those guys are it's like, Hey, I have this thought or I 594 00:38:45.610 --> 00:38:47.130 just saw this and this is my thought, my take on it, I'm 595 00:38:47.130 --> 00:38:50.730 going to hit record. I have everything I need right next to my desk 596 00:38:50.730 --> 00:38:52.250 all day long. Might as well just make a quick video about it. 597 00:38:52.650 --> 00:38:55.960 And so I think that to start, you have to just get started. 598 00:38:57.239 --> 00:39:00.920 You just have to get started and you have to battle through the incomfortableness. 599 00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:04.400 I deal with this all the time with my customers. Video is a critical 600 00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:07.360 component of our software and when they start using it, they go, oh, 601 00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:10.829 we were so excited because we saw your videos and your videos were great 602 00:39:10.829 --> 00:39:14.710 on this page, and I can't make them like you. Can you make 603 00:39:14.750 --> 00:39:16.590 my videos? I say no, I'm not spokesperson, I'm not billy may 604 00:39:16.989 --> 00:39:21.110 write. I do jump around and scream all the time that I'm not billy 605 00:39:21.190 --> 00:39:22.750 May. I can't do that for you. You're going to have to learn, 606 00:39:23.030 --> 00:39:25.780 and the only way to do that is to make like thirty or forty 607 00:39:27.059 --> 00:39:30.659 absolutely horrible videos and to force yourself to share them with somebody so that you 608 00:39:30.739 --> 00:39:36.340 get used to that. And then guess what you get better because you learn 609 00:39:36.420 --> 00:39:38.090 to act, and by learning to act I mean you learn to just be 610 00:39:38.170 --> 00:39:42.530 yourself when a camera is turned on your face, and that's when the magic 611 00:39:42.610 --> 00:39:45.929 starts happening. It's awesome. Okay, so so much good stuff. They're 612 00:39:46.570 --> 00:39:52.250 especially, especially around getting out of the newscaster mindset and just becoming yourself. 613 00:39:52.369 --> 00:39:54.920 It does it practice, is the only way, and I mean around poll 614 00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:00.559 peel and a billy may reference in the same episode. Like really peeking here. 615 00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:04.400 I see a lot to about. I got another interview tomorrow, but 616 00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:08.630 we've really set a high bar here. This has been awesome. If folks 617 00:40:08.789 --> 00:40:14.110 you know, Josh referred to a couple of the microphones. He swung one 618 00:40:14.110 --> 00:40:15.710 of them in front of his camera. If you want to see video clips 619 00:40:15.789 --> 00:40:20.269 and you want to get highlights of these episodes, I do write them all 620 00:40:20.349 --> 00:40:25.699 up at Bombombcom podcast. It's just the word bomb twice podcast and and you 621 00:40:25.739 --> 00:40:29.260 can see some of the stuff that we're talking about. If you were primarily 622 00:40:29.300 --> 00:40:30.659 a listener, you might want to drop in for some of those video clips 623 00:40:31.059 --> 00:40:35.659 in the blog post. Josh, this has been awesome. We could probably 624 00:40:35.699 --> 00:40:38.250 just word drifted for an hour. Yeah, yeah, I love it and 625 00:40:38.570 --> 00:40:44.289 real quick with the equipment. I have a video that explains a whole bunch 626 00:40:44.329 --> 00:40:46.090 of the equipment that I use. I'll send you a link to that and 627 00:40:46.130 --> 00:40:49.969 if you want to share that with your fingers as well that that'd be a 628 00:40:50.039 --> 00:40:52.639 great one for them to just kind of see all the different things that I 629 00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:55.239 personally use in my equipment. Awesome. I will absolutely take that. I'll 630 00:40:55.239 --> 00:40:59.840 look for that and I will absolutely add it to the post. At bombacom 631 00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:04.469 podcast, Josh, relationships are our number one core value here at Bombam and 632 00:41:04.550 --> 00:41:07.070 down the show, and so I always love to give you, before we 633 00:41:07.309 --> 00:41:10.190 part, a chance to think or mention someone who's had a positive impact on 634 00:41:10.309 --> 00:41:15.510 your life or your career. Yeah, so I already think think Dan tire 635 00:41:15.590 --> 00:41:16.789 at the beginning, so I'm not going to do that one again. I'm 636 00:41:16.789 --> 00:41:22.579 going to thank the other most important person in this business, outside of my 637 00:41:22.699 --> 00:41:28.059 wife and family of course, which was my lead investor, who is not 638 00:41:28.739 --> 00:41:31.860 we don't list him publicly anywhere right now, but his name is also Ethan. 639 00:41:32.409 --> 00:41:37.050 He was the one that he gave me everything. Honestly, he was 640 00:41:37.090 --> 00:41:42.130 the one that that invested in a dream and an idea. It was nothing 641 00:41:42.289 --> 00:41:45.409 really more than a Napkin sketch when I shared it with him, and without 642 00:41:45.769 --> 00:41:50.599 that support early on, we could have never, never been here, and 643 00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:54.960 he's been a critical, critical component ever since that day. He's doubled down 644 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.719 on his investments. He's helped lead the sea round that we just closed. 645 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.269 It's been an absolutely incredible relationship and he's been a solid resource for me, 646 00:42:04.510 --> 00:42:07.829 as have all of my investors. I was very intentional and selecting investors. 647 00:42:07.869 --> 00:42:13.190 Anyone listening that's a founder that's thinking about starting a business, I can't stress 648 00:42:13.190 --> 00:42:16.179 enough to be very intentional with the investors that you allow in and really treat 649 00:42:16.179 --> 00:42:20.179 it that way that you're allowing them in, because these are people that are 650 00:42:20.219 --> 00:42:23.579 either going to help you succeed or push you towards failure faster. And in 651 00:42:23.739 --> 00:42:30.449 my case, my investors and I are on a text message basis. We 652 00:42:30.570 --> 00:42:34.929 are constantly in communication. For the most part there's a lot of encouragement and 653 00:42:35.050 --> 00:42:38.409 support, but there's also hard conversations when they need to be there, and 654 00:42:38.530 --> 00:42:42.849 that's been really, really critical. But it all started with my first investor, 655 00:42:42.929 --> 00:42:45.400 Ethan. That's awesome. I love the answer, and a really good 656 00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:49.840 tip in there too for folks that are thinking about raising some money and it 657 00:42:50.039 --> 00:42:52.559 really is an opportunity and a gift, even though you might not feel that 658 00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:54.800 way when you're in the position. Like, seriously, I really need that 659 00:42:54.920 --> 00:43:00.750 cash. How about give me a mention of a company that you really respect 660 00:43:00.789 --> 00:43:04.389 for the way that they deliver for you as a customer? Oh Man, 661 00:43:04.510 --> 00:43:08.469 I mean there's there's so many right, but there is. There is a 662 00:43:08.550 --> 00:43:14.420 salad place. I don't know if they've spread outside of Minnesota yet, but 663 00:43:14.460 --> 00:43:17.380 they're called green and grain. I think that it's just a Minnesota company right 664 00:43:17.420 --> 00:43:21.699 now. I'm telling you, man, these these people have it down. 665 00:43:21.900 --> 00:43:23.860 Every time I go in there to order to salad, all everything is perfect, 666 00:43:23.900 --> 00:43:28.570 everything smells amazing, everything is clean. I'm a bit of a Germaphobe, 667 00:43:28.610 --> 00:43:30.690 so I have a hard time eating out, so restaurants need to be 668 00:43:30.809 --> 00:43:34.650 clean for me and I love when I can see the food being prepped even 669 00:43:34.690 --> 00:43:36.889 better, and that's kind of the way this is. It's like Chipotle, 670 00:43:36.889 --> 00:43:40.329 a, only all salad stuff. Green and grain doesn't absolutely incredible job. 671 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:44.639 Awesome. I will look for them in my travels. They are not here 672 00:43:44.760 --> 00:43:47.320 in Colorado right now to my knowledge, but I'll look them up. Cool. 673 00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:52.119 Thanks to hey if I'm sure people enjoy this episode, enjoyed the energy 674 00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:55.590 obviously the knowledge that you bring. If someone wants to follow up and connect 675 00:43:55.630 --> 00:43:58.989 with you, Josh, or with sales reach, where would you send people? 676 00:43:59.389 --> 00:44:01.349 Yeah, I'd love it for anybody to send me a connection request on 677 00:44:01.429 --> 00:44:06.909 Linkedin. I love connecting with people on Linkedin and having meaningful connections. They're 678 00:44:06.989 --> 00:44:10.139 having conversations there. You can always reach out through sales reach DOT ioh as 679 00:44:10.219 --> 00:44:13.980 well. We have a like a said drift bought on there that you can 680 00:44:14.019 --> 00:44:15.460 talk with me or anyone on the team, or you can just fill out 681 00:44:15.460 --> 00:44:19.900 the form on there as well. But linkedin is is the best way if 682 00:44:19.900 --> 00:44:22.900 you want to have a conversation or get more involved in what we're doing here 683 00:44:22.940 --> 00:44:25.849 or vetted out for your company some reach out to me on Linkedin or the 684 00:44:25.889 --> 00:44:31.449 website awesome. Look for Josh Feedi and Ethan butte on Linkedin. Add a 685 00:44:31.530 --> 00:44:35.690 note to your request. It just makes us so much easier to say yes. 686 00:44:36.489 --> 00:44:38.519 Just a little bit of context goes a long way, and so, 687 00:44:38.599 --> 00:44:42.840 Josh, I just so appreciate your time. This is absolutely a pleasure for 688 00:44:42.920 --> 00:44:45.800 me and sure listeners are going to enjoy it too, and I hope you 689 00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:47.599 have a great afternoon. I hope you do two and thanks so much. 690 00:44:47.679 --> 00:44:51.400 This have been an honor being on this podcast, honestly. So thank you 691 00:44:52.309 --> 00:44:57.429 for you founders out there. What great advice from the founder of sales reach 692 00:44:57.510 --> 00:45:00.349 at the end of that episode when he gave his investors a shout out. 693 00:45:00.630 --> 00:45:04.550 That was Josh feedy of sales reach. My name is Ethan Butt I welcome 694 00:45:04.630 --> 00:45:09.940 your direct feedback about these conversations. Email me, Ethan etch an at bombombcom. 695 00:45:09.980 --> 00:45:14.539 Hit me up on Linkedin. I'm pretty sure I'm still the only Ethan 696 00:45:14.739 --> 00:45:19.619 butte Bee ute at a note to that connection request and let's get into linkedin 697 00:45:19.699 --> 00:45:22.530 messages together. Or, of course, you can learn more about this episode 698 00:45:22.610 --> 00:45:30.170 in every other one by visiting bombombcom slash podcast. That's bomb bombcom slash podcast. 699 00:45:30.489 --> 00:45:38.639 Thanks for listening to the CX series here on BTB growth. Is Your 700 00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:43.679 buyer a BTB marketer? If so, you should think about sponsoring this podcast. 701 00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:46.760 BB growth gets downloaded over a hundred and thirty thousand times each month and 702 00:45:46.920 --> 00:45:52.030 our listeners are marketing decision makers. If it sounds interesting, Sin Logan and 703 00:45:52.110 --> 00:45:53.590 email logan at sweet fish, Mediacom