Now That's a Marketing Podcast!: Recent Episodes
Tony Compton
Cranking it up for those wearing 1000 Marketing Hats: Hard-Hitting Experience, Perspective and Opinion in Three Minutes.
My story about attending a senior-level business conference, and the appearance of three of its exhibitors. Who were paying to be there.
Who are CMOs and CEOs who permit poor exhibit performance?
Or the investors bankrolling it?
You' re investing time and money in trade shows, conventions, conferences, and industry events. But not everybody respects that.
Do you know somebody is bankrolling your company presence at that show?
What are you getting for that money?
Event speakers must breakthrough show clutter.
Event producers must provide a meaningful audience experience to enable that breakthrough.
Event sponsors must compete for attention, manage expenses, and measure results.
In one way or another, everybody is paying to be at that event.
Or didn’t you know that?
It’s the Monday morning after your last trade show.
Stand up and tell your investors what business goals were accomplished.
And you’d better have more to share than that smiling picture.
I’m going to tell you exactly where you can stick your podcast.
Your company podcast.
At trade shows and events.
You have to know what you’re talking about in the aftermath of your events, trade shows, conferences, conventions, user groups, partner events, exhibit hall booths, lead gen activities, event sponsorships, sales opportunities, and budgets…
Especially if your CEO knows how to stay ahead of the marketing spin in the aftermath of any event.
There are times when the marketing department will do more for themselves, their colleagues, their partners, and their employer’s bottom line by remaining quiet in key business situations.
This is important for sales and marketing alignment.
Listen Up!
You and I are reading more and more about the importance of sales and marketing alignment.
So pull the car around and buckle up!
I’ll tell you how to get it done.
Not in years, in 30-minutes.
The consumer education on payments and mobile payments is sparse.
Consumers and payment options are in a commoditized mosh pit.
Imagine influencing the customer experience from the drive-thru menu to the payment window.
Want me to want to use a specific form of payment?
Get to work.
I want in on the moment of payment-decision making.
So should broadcast radio, and so should everybody operating in the ever-expanding mosh pit of payments.
In broadcast radio, frequency sells.
My drive-thru payment scenario about influencing the payment experience is repeatable at scale 24/7/365.
An audience awaits.
For those selling broadcast radio advertising and marketing wondering what to do with their terrestrial signals in search of new sources of untapped revenue... Stay Tuned…
For those seeking go-to-market differentiation with payment tech solutions needing to separate themselves from the burgeoning competitive landscape beyond crowded industry events and “Do I really have to sit through another 60-minute financial tech webinar?” … Listen Up!
The B2B tech sector drips with sales and marketing opportunity because it’s saturated with security blanket visions of they way things used to be.
B2B tech leaders should crave marketing and sales enablement innovation.
Broadcast radio, is a natural fit to deliver exciting solutions and unprecedented results.
Disrupting and differentiating every step of the way.
If only broadcast radio sales and marketing were as innovative and creative as they used to be.
Broadcast radio has missed, is missing, and continues to miss media’s massive sales, marketing & tech revenue wave. On a national, regional, and local basis.
What does that mean? Broadcast radio needs immediate new sources of substantial advertising and marketing revenue.
And they’ve been sitting and standing in front of radio … for years.
I’ve read about technology that claims to help public speaking skills. I’ve seen sales enablement technology that could assist. I’ve glanced at artificial intelligence technology that may act as a virtual trainer.
And I’m in favor of using tech to prepare your physical, vocal, and content-supported quiver to be effective on any stage or in any performance venue.
But sooner or later you’ll face a live or on-demand audience, and that audience may or may not be on your side.
So I have to add the famous quote from former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Differentiating your media content starts with preparing your people.
Their public speaking and presentation skills.
Take note of the business world around you, right now. We’re all on-camera. We’re all behind microphones. Streaming media is everywhere. You and I have to address live, in-person audiences. Hybrid. Virtual. Remote. Recorded.
Yet in advance of producing any media content… in advance of your next public speaking, sales, demo, video, podcast, or trade show booth gig you’re given next to no communication coaching.
Differentiate your media content by preparing your people with superior communication skills.
For those running internal new media ventures emphasizing the creation of sales and marketing and company content, listen up! There are a couple of things I want you to know.
A recent New York Times article stated that companies are now spending ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ on audio/video equipment, its installation and usage, and the design of new studio space in order to meet the demands of more corporate content — while saving significant money in the process by not outsourcing media production to external agencies.
But… grab your pen and an envelope.
Somebody, somewhere about two weeks after the end of your next quarter will be asking… "What did we get for spending that money?"
Here’s where the calculations begin, the marketing party ends and the lack of marketing respect digs in.
It's your choice.
Three days of motionless sales kickoff chair-sitting or AI-driven content and customized active participation to fire up your team.
Here’s my blueprint for one active sales kickoff week.
The sales, marketing, content development, and enablement ground under your feet has cracked wide-open over these past weeks and months by Artificial Intelligence-driven solutions.
By the time you finish listening to this, the chasm will have widened.
I was spending time with ChatGPT, and... content, at the snap of a finger.
Your sales kickoff, now obsolete.
Marketing’s Last Stand has just been shattered.
Enabling Sales has changed, forever. Artificial Intelligence saw to that.
The enablement challenge is way beyond providing content.
Sales must be enabled for the post-pandemic, multichannel world of market interaction.
Sit in front of your computer, and its camera and microphone. Tell me your company story. Your value prop. Anything you want! Make like I’m a prospect interested in what you’re selling. But no slides. No demo. Just you.
What’s that?
But you said you’re enabled.
Sales-enabled.
There'll be those who will balk at using radio for tech marketing and sales. They’d prefer to remain in the tech mosh pit of carbon copy GTM plans that produce the run of the mill non- creative, less-than optimal business results.
But radio drips with opportunity for those tech companies seeking to produce extraordinary results from creative, sales-oriented approaches to the market.
So I’ll keep repeating the message about tech using radio, because frequency sells.
Somebody, somewhere is claiming to be a marketing leader at their company, while their people are out there giving it their all at public speaking and presentations - but undercutting their brand, credibility and reputation.
Marketing leaders get their colleagues ready. They help.
Funny how most business people still don’t listen or learn about presentation and public speaking skills — technical or otherwise.
Funny how your marketing can be crushed...at the coffee shop.
Is anybody at your company bringing the marketing heat? That sales and marketing competitive edge?
Or are you oblivious to the very real possibility that your people may not want to be part of another hive of marketing worker bees - heading for the exit because you and your company are incapable of providing depth and meaning to marketing work?
Set that marketing pace, and be a great marketing leader.
Beyond sales, where does your marketing get its victories?
If you don’t compete on stage, on camera, behind microphones, in exhibit halls, on webinars or your website, on social media, with the analysts, partners, academics, and customers...where do you declare your wins, and losses?
Figure out where and when to claim marketing's victories!
Experienced marketers know how to plan for the end of the month, quarter and fiscal year well in advance of Day One. They navigate through holidays, enjoy earned vacation time, know their audience segments, their buyers and influencers, and important dates.
But, for those unfamiliar with marketing's end of the quarter reporting requirements who say such things as "What happens at the end of the quarter?" "What's marketing supposed to do?" That's not good.
On the last day of the quarter, marketing should be declaring victory.
The first 48 hours after your trade show should have a dedicated lead gen, marketing and sales follow-up. But that’s not all, and your work extends beyond 48 hours.
Listen, and you'll stop wondering why I’m so passionate about marketing’s work before, during and after any event.
You just wrapped your latest business event. Congrats! You now have 48 hours to make or break that event. To get the most of out your next event, the work starts in the immediate aftermath.
Here’s what you need to do.
It’s business event season. Again. But far too many investors rely on far too many out-of-touch CEOs, who lean on free-spending CMOs on wasteful trade shows, events and conferences.
This is nothing new. What’s new is this test. A new test, from experience.
Because it's the investors' money.
Marketing should challenge sales presenters under extreme - but fun - team building business conditions using innovative communication exercises.
But the techniques don’t have to stop with sales.
Marketing can apply communication stress tests throughout your company and get everybody ready to go to market.
For marketers who want their sales people to take one step closer to the winner’s circle, consider this stress test!
Upend cozy presentation routines at your company, and introduce the Presentation Stress Test.
Throw down the challenge to sales.
The results will be eye opening. The transformations will be even better!
Today's immediate sales and marketing opportunity lies in speaking to - and influencing - audiences in ways nobody else can. In new and differentiated ways, across all channels of market interaction.
We’re undervaluing that area of business. And marketing needs that competitive edge.
Having the right approach to hiring and nurturing your company's talent goes far beyond marketing.
The Great Resignation affects us all.
Now, so many are looking for depth and meaning in their professional lives. Experience in marketing has provided me with these valuable lessons learned, but they apply to every aspect of any organization - beyond just the marketing department.
You’ve seen marketing talent lost. But, that talent may be an all- star starting lineup.
In a red hot job market, it presents the question... Are You Able to Recognize Marketing Talent?
Talent and content for video has taken center stage, and the associated communication skills are now paramount. It’s not just storytelling. It’s not regurgitating marketing content. It’s understanding the shifts in business practice.
We’re now competing for live audiences, on-demand viewers, news and entertainment seekers, while engaging with those seeking to get out of the house after the pandemic…
This, for marketing, isn’t easy.
The Microphone is Always On! It means that any microphone is to be treated as if it’s always on. As if somebody’s listening. As if somebody may be recording what you’re saying. Without you knowing about it.
Once it happens, it’s too late. And your marketing can suffer.
For those investors seeking a unique way to professionally challenge and test the employees at your portfolio companies, you’re welcome to take on this marketing exercise.
In fact, start with your CMO and the marketing team. You’ll be able to assess the results in minutes!
It’s product marketing that must lead the effort in differentiation. In a business world filled with commoditization. And product marketing can’t be successful working off an outdated playbook.
Your entire public speaking and presentation communication skill set must be effective for any audience interaction channel, at any time.
Your sales, marketing, executive, and alliance partner teams are going to need the Product Marketing Gauntlet.
This podcast is about your voice. Your speaking voice. Your voice has never been more important. Welcome to the most important sales and marketing tool you now have.
A laptop filled with content doesn't fully enable a sales person. Nor does it automatically ready anybody on your front-line team for public speaking engagements or their corporate presentations - across any channel of market engagement.
The audience is listening, and filler words will give away your lack of voice prep and practice. A solution to eliminating filler words lies within...
Beyond tech. Beyond content. Learn who and what are the most important components to your event's success!
Don't automatically sign up for that next trade show or industry event! Here are 10 alternatives for sponsoring or exhibiting at that trade show, convention, conference, or industry event.
If you think you have to spend any of your marketing money and event budget at any one particular trade show, convention, conference or event...Stop! You don’t.
(The Inaugural Podcast!)