Voice of Value | Sales | Marketing | Leadership | Business

In part two of this podcast episode, Stanley McChrystal, Former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, Bestselling Author, and Founder of the McChrystal Group, dives into personal stories and experiences on leadership growth and evolution.

In part one of this podcast episode, Stanley McChrystal, Former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, Bestselling Author, and Founder of the McChrystal Group, shared with us invaluable lessons on what leadership is and how to manage imminent transformational changes in your sales organization.

Bestselling Author, Speaker, and High Tech Company Advisor, Geoffrey Moore, discusses his jihad with executives to put a second pipeline in their CRM systems around outcome selling.

CEO and author J.B. Wood believes that with the right data, you can put the right offer in front of the right buyer at the right time with a high degree of accuracy. Has he discovered the recipe for the perfect sales moment? On today’s Voice of Value episode, we continue our conversation with J.B. where he describes a new customer engagement model his company TSIA calls LAER – Land, Adopt, Expand, Renew. A frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, and transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, J.B. explains this four-stage maturity model and gives you the secret to a never ending cycle of building accounts. That cycle is based on Process, and that’s what owns today’s customer. J.B. also describes the Consumption Gap that exists in many B2B relationships and explains that success happens when supplier and customer outcomes are aligned. World-class companies are transitioning from a transactional model to a LAER model. Listen to today’s episode to understand why. J.B. Wood is president and CEO of the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. An author and frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, and transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, J.B. is redefining the Sales process in the age of cloud and managed services. KEY TAKEAWAYS [1:57] J.B. says we can accomplish amazing things by caring deeply about something that we used to consider the customer’s responsibility -- adopting the value of the asset. [3:15] What did Amazon teach us? With a high degree of accuracy, and with the right data, you can put the right offer in front of the right buyer at the right time. That’s the perfect sales moment. [4:40] Listen to J.B. define LAER. [10:13] When asked, “Who owns the customer?” the answer has always been the salesperson. But J.B. says that is changing. Who owns the customer now? Listen here. [21:16] LAER cuts across every customer-facing task, so who owns the responsibility for redesigning the go-to-market model? At some companies everyone wants to own it, and at other companies no one wants to own it. Listen to why J.B. thinks it’s essential that the right person owns this architecture. (CROs and CCOs, get your resumes ready.) [24:16] J.B. says there are still a lot of people who shy away from the discussion of business outcomes. J.B. believes there will be more contractual relationships that rotate around outcomes in the future, and more outcome-based incentives. [26:28] J.B.’s passion is around insights and research. Here he explains the Consumption Gap, which he says exists because the incentives of the suppliers and the incentives of the customers are not lined up.

If a lot of the pre-sale is being handled by Marketing, and a lot of the post-sale responsibility is falling on the Customer Success Manager, is that the end of selling? Author and CEO J.B. Wood says it’s not, but there is a radical transformation happening in the B2B Sales process, leaving a compressed, but extremely important role for Sales. A frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, and transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, J.B. explains the new conditions for success in Part One of a two-part Voice of Value episode. Today’s customers can self-serve a lot of the information they need before they ever talk to Sales. With so many credible voices in the mix, what’s the role of Sales today? Who will win tomorrow’s deals? Spoiler alert: it won’t be the company that answers the most questions in the RFP. J.B. says the company that wins tomorrow’s deal will be the one who educates the customer to outcomes they didn’t know about today. The Sales professional must understand the key conditions for success, which are the conditions for mutually agreed upon outcomes by which both parties will be measured. He says if you are in Sales, you need to shift from being heads down around your own product, to being heads up around your customer. In this episode, J.B. explains how the modern Sales process is about setting the conditions for success and creating a partnership that will work. J.B. Wood is president and CEO of the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. An author and frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, and transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, J.B. is redefining the Sales process in the age of cloud and managed services. KEY TAKEAWAYS [4:03] If a lot of the pre-sale is going to the Marketing folks and a lot of the post-sale responsibility is falling on CX and Service, is that the end of selling? J.B. says it’s not. [6:42] What does the self-educated customer want to learn from Sales? They want to talk about what J.B. calls, “The Last Mile.” [7:54] There’s not one market for your product, there are lots of markets today, especially in technology. J.B. explains the Myth of One Market. [14:30] J.B. defines At Risk Revenue. See why he thinks it’s such an important concept for as-a-Service companies today. [15:41] The Sales process should be about setting the conditions for success. Getting the contract signed is just a piece of a much broader puzzle; it’s no longer the endgame. [17:10] J.B. thinks the RFP should RIP. Find out why. [18:52] Who will win deals? Hint: it’s not the company who answers the most questions in the RFP. [21:46] J.B. describes the new world of selling. [23:43] Do you have to be industry-specific to be viable in today’s business world? J.B. thinks “verticalizing” is inevitable.

Category creator and philanthropist Keith Krach followed his true north, his values, to tremendous success. In three different industries, he not only built a new company, but he built a new category. The B2B commerce and digital transaction pioneer has applied his high school sports experience of preparation, practice, and teamwork, and the values of courage, respect, and integrity that he learned from his college fraternity to every aspect of his life. In the latest Voice of Value episode, Keith explains how when you put the right team together and you fight for the same Noble Cause, the magic happens. That team needs to be clearly focused on the most important mission, which is the customer’s success. Keith believes in surrounding yourself with experts who have different views than you, and that “group think” is always better than “individual think”.Once that team is together, search for a value proposition that has a big impact on the bottom line and that no one else is doing. The objective is not just to create the category, but to be the category king. Along the way, don’t lose sight of the fact that Customer Value Management is at the heart of everything because you measure your long-term success by your customer’s success. When you are a sustaining resource for your customer, your network becomes part of your value proposition. Category creator and philanthropist Keith Krach took his strong Midwestern values to Silicon Valley and not only built new companies, but built entirely new categories that changed mechanical design, B2B commerce, and digital transaction management. KEY TAKEAWAYS [8:36] Keith gives us a peek into his playbook for building a resilient company and creating a new category. [10:07] Five team rules, according to Keith. [11:49] Keith defines “A Noble Cause” as putting the company before your self-interests. [13:14] How does Keith know when it’s more than a great business; it’s a potentially new category? [19:42] Mentorship is powerful but underutilized in business today. Keith talks about the value of both having and being a mentor. [24:56] How does Keith make decisions? He says if you surround yourself with great people, it’s a lot easier. [26:14] What is the new currency in business? Listen to why Keith believes speed is a competitive weapon.

Do you look as good online as you do offline? If your professional digital profile doesn’t represent you as someone your buyers would want to engage with, it’s time for a digital makeover. In the latest Voice of Value episode, Social Selling Guru Jill Rowley explains that Social Selling is much more than using social channels to sell; it’s about leveraging our social networks. Jill gives us tips to increase our social network bank accounts by making Digital Deposits that are valuable to our clients, contacts, and partners. Jill lives the ABCs of Social Selling, which are Always Be Connecting (and Curating) Content. She says Social Selling is one of the most important tactics a salesperson can employ, but it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the industry today. Social Selling Guru Jill Rowley is a Social Selling evangelist, keynote speaker, and strategic business advisor. She has spent more than two decades focused on Social Selling, Digital Sales Transformation, Marketing and Sales Alignment, and Sales Enablement. Key Takeaways [4:05] What is Social Selling? (Hint: it’s not the same as Social Media.) Jill gives her definition here. [6:27] Jill dreams in networks. With every conversation, she’s thinking about how she can connect the person with whom she’s speaking to someone else, or to an idea, or to a company. [6:52] Jill tells us how to look for clues on LinkedIn. [10:30] What are Digital Deposits? It’s a simple as sharing something or liking something someone has shared. If you are taking more than you are giving, you are overdrawing your social bank account. [12:42] Be the best advocate of and for your customer. Your best salespeople are not on the payroll; they are your customers. [13:37] Listen to Jill’s personal story of how she built intimacy and cultivated a relationship online with the Vice Chair at GE. [15:36] You need to look as good online as you do offline. Does your professional digital profile represent you as someone with whom your buyers would want to engage?

Ever channeled your inner Jedi to mentor your clients? The art of storytelling can be a powerful leadership tool. In this episode, we talk with Silicon Valley entrepreneur and communication expert Nancy Duarte, Principle at Duarte, Inc. as she tells us how to harness the power of storytelling in business communication.

We are wired for empathy. It is critical in all of our interactions--including conversations with customers. In this episode, we explored this topic of empathy with Brent Adamson, Principal Executive Advisor at CEB now Gartner.

In this episode, Steve Silver compares sales, marketing, and customer success to a relay race: marketing begins the race by warming up a lead, passes the "baton" to sales, who passes it onto customer success. But this model, Steve says, is the old way. We're experiencing a transformation, where marketing, sales and customer success no longer interact in a sequential manner, running the customer journey one after the other. Instead, it’s evolving to work like a rugby scrum: all three organizations running concurrently, supporting each other toward the common goal of retaining and growing the customer.

Trust is a critical factor in building high-impact and lasting customer relationships. But sometimes, trust can be elusive. Have you ever wondered why it's easy to build trust in some relationships, while in others, trust is more difficult to establish? To learn more about the neuroscience of trust, we invited author and researcher, Paul Zak, onto the podcast. Paul is the author of Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies. Through the lens of neuroscience, Paul studies how to improve business outcomes. In this episode, Paul shares: --The importance of oxytocin, a chemical that moves us to care about others --The types of positive interactions that release oxytocin --Environments where we're less likely to release oxytocin --And, why his nickname is "Dr. Love"

As a Captain at the Kansas City Police Department, Charles "Chip" Huth has addressed high-risk situations that most of us confront only in movies and crime television. But it hasn't all been Hollywood glamour. In his early days as captain, Chip's squad received the most complaints for search warrants in the department--even though they were executing proper behavior. Chip talks to Voice of Value host Chad Quinn about how a mindset shift eliminated search warrant complaints for six years, led to his team mixing baby bottles during a house search, and why he now turns the barcodes up for the cashier at Target. Read more of his story in The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute.

What can business leaders learn from an FBI hostage negotiator? Chris Voss is here to tell us. As a former FBI hostage and kidnapping negotiator, Voss has stories that could compete with the best crime and detective TV shows. Voss grew up in a small town in Iowa and was inspired by the cool demeanor of detectives in the police force who could handle negotiations with poise and calm. For 24 years, Voss worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation leading international crisis and high-stakes negotiations. After his time at the Bureau, he went on to apply his expertise in negotiation to the business world. He teaches business negotiation in the MBA program at University of Southern California and Georgetown University and is the author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended On It. Voss talks to Voice of Value host Chad Quinn about how to uncover a black swan, why getting someone to say "that's right" is the key to negotiation, and how to discover the decision maker and deal killer in business conversations.

Starbucks' SVP of Channel Development, Glenn Hartman, has built a successful career in leadership—from a 25-year stint at P&G where he led 3,000 people to his current role at Starbucks. But the force behind his impressive credentials is a passion for helping others reach their full potential. Known as “Coach Glenn” by his friends and coworkers, he applies a lifelong love of sports—both as a student-athlete at Yale and a coach of football, baseball, and soccer—to his unique leadership approach. His investment in Starbucks partners (employees) translates to their customer relationships, also. Glenn says that “all great customer experiences begin with creating a great employee experience.” He talks to host Chad Quinn, Ecosystems’ President and Founder, about his life mantra to “live, love, and leave a legacy,” his experience meeting farmers in Costa Rica, and his journey to becoming a Starbucks Coffee Master.

Partner at Bain & Company, Eric Almquist, shares his research published in Harvard Business Review, "The 30 Elements of Customer Value." Almquist's research hypotheses originated when he noticed a trend: companies were delivering many aspects of value---beyond financial value---that were critically important to customers. Borrowing from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Almquist structures elements of value in a pyramid, from "functional" elements all the way to "social impact" elements. Companies with multiple elements of value have greater customer loyalty and grow revenue at a faster rate than companies with just one element of value, according to this research. From his passion for photography and Leica cameras, to his research on the value of Amazon, BMW, and British Airways, Almquist shares what it means for companies to move beyond financial value with the lens of holistic value.