How a B2B Podcast is the ULTIMATE Smarketing Solution - with Rick Lambert

right arrow Do you struggle with the balance between sales and marketing? 
 
When you set out to build your personal brand, it’s not uncommon to face challenges. Video content and messaging have incredible power to strengthen your niche expertise—or keep you on the sidelines. It can be a tough balancing act. eyes
 
That’s why we sat down with Rick Lambert, CEO of Sell To Win and In2communications, and host of The Smarketing Show. 
 
His take on how marketing and sales can serve one another, help professionals find their lane and build successful brands is exactly what we needed to hear when we recorded this episode.
 
We know you’ll be inspired too. fire
 
If you’re ready to take the next step in starting your own video podcast, check out our latest episode. oncoming fist: medium-light skin tone 
 
 
 
Main Takeaways:
gem stone In today’s B2B landscape, professionals need to have a mix of marketing and sales
gem stone Learn to grow your personal brand with video content
gem stone Find the theme that will mark your personal brand and simplify your content
gem stone A video podcast will automatically increase your ICP coming through your pipeline
gem stone Find your niche by studying your competition and maximizing your message
 
Timecodes:
alarm clock 00:00-08:57 | Professionals need to understand sales and marketing
alarm clock 08:57-12:02 | Video is THE way to grow your personal brand in the digital landscape
alarm clock 12:02-17:33 | Your personal brand influence will grow when you invest in video
alarm clock 17:33-27:29 | Why aren’t more professionals investing in their video content?
alarm clock 27:29-31:35 | A video podcast helps you strengthen customer relationships for the long run
alarm clock 31:35-35:16 | Learn where your competition is going and find your lane
 
 
Quotes:
speech balloon “Video acts like no other vehicle—it makes you become top of mind at point of need.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “I bring on guests to my show because success leaves clues for the audience.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon There’s a distinct difference between marketing and sales—marketing is letting people know what you have, and sales is getting rid of what you have.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “Today's B2B sales professional needs to be a hybrid between a sales person and a marketing person.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “Perfection really is never going to be achievable—just get it out there.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “Either you're going to move forward with your personal brand, or you're going to be a spectator and let others move forward.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “You’ve got to think about who the person is you want to be seen by your customers.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “The shows create awareness for your audience.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “Awareness boosts consideration rates and drives lead generation, which is the business model to shows.” - Rick Lambert
speech balloon “Scale your touchpoints with key relationships.” - Kap Chatfield
 
 
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Reach out to Rveal Media:
 
Connect with Rick
 
210501_RM_B2BP_Ep_How a B2B Podcast is the ULTIMATE Smarketing Solution - with Rick Lambert_QG2
 

Full transcription: 

Kap Chatfield  00:20

Hey gang, welcome back to B2B Podcasting. I'm your host Kap Chatfield, CEO of Rveal Media. And this show is meant to help B2B brand leaders understand the most effective and elegant way to do sales and marketing for their brand and we call it show marketing. And that's why I have this very special guest with us today to talk very explicitly about the power of sales and marketing, what he calls and what the industry calls smarketing. His name is Rick Lambert, he's the CEO of Sell To Win and In 2 Communications. And he's also the host of The Smarketing Show. He's a guy who's living it, he's he's doing it for himself for his brand. And now they're also doing this for their customers and their clients, they're helping them produce shows that help align B2B sales and marketing, in a way that I don't think has ever been done before. So I'm super excited to have Rick on the show to talk about the power of show marketing for smarketing. Rick, thanks so much for joining us today.

 

Rick Lambert  01:13

Hey, buddy, great to be on today. Congrats on being a three time father. Doesn't, doesn't even show in your eyes, there big guy. oh, man. I got I got two of my own. I know, you know, I report to two little people right now, like you report to three.

 

Kap Chatfield  01:29

That's right. Last night was a really rough night for us. So I'm really grateful that you're saying my eyes aren't giving away that it's, we're still in the infancy phase of him entering the family, but it's been great man. And I'm grateful that dude, I know that you're a busy guy as well, I'm thankful that you could jump on the show with us today. And I know that you're gonna bring a lot of value to our audience, your content on LinkedIn is fantastic. I've been loving the content from The Smarketing Show as well. You're clearly a thought leader in this space. And so to really kind of set the stage for who you are, what you do, and really kind of just show, demonstrate the authority that you have in this space. Please explain to us what Sell To Win is, what you guys are doing with that and what In 2 Communications is?

 

Rick Lambert  02:12

Sure so so, you know, I was a sales guy, actually, I'm a Canadian guy, I grew up in the Toronto marketplace, wanted to play in the NHL, and obviously by the fact that I'm on your show today that didn't quite work out for me. I started, you know, as a sales guy with the Xerox Corporation, I went there because I thought I was gonna get great training. And I progressed through, I won some sales awards, was fortunate to get great coaching in that company. And I always wanted to run my own business. And so fast forward 22 years ago, I started a business called Sell To Win dot com. And I did it because candidly, I thought, speaking openly, there was a lot of retired people that had come from the sales profession, that were talking about concepts that were a little outdated. And, you know, I'd pay 1000s of dollars to bring in a speaker or a sales coach or whatever. And, you know, we'd start the program at nine o'clock, and by 9:10, my guys would be saying, "hey, Rick, is lunch included today?" and I knew I'd already lost them. So I started coaching sales forces on what I'd done as a sales rep, as a sales manager. My last corporate role was as a VP of sales, we were a $30 million tech reseller. And so I saw how technology was really starting to influence not just kind of what people were doing with business, but the sales methodology. And so I've been coaching, you know, 1000s of people to attend our live events. And by the way, I don't call them sales training, I call them sales practices, Kap because I think, quite honestly, to move into a sales team and run a, let's say, a one day session, and tell them, "you're going to do sales training", that rolls a lot of eyes, especially with the tenure people. And, you know, coming from my sports background, I'm a big believer of repetition of execution, you know, breeds, you know, you don't have to think about what you're doing type of thing. And so, you know, about 12 years ago, this thing, I don't know, if you've got it, where you are called the internet came along, and I was like, "Whoa, we better take a look at that". And I was already using a lot of multimedia in our programs, because we do something I call corporate enterTRAINment, okay? Because we've all been slide slapped to death in these corporate presentations. And so I was using multimedia you know, comedic clips, all that kind of stuff to like to have fun. And people would be in my audience and come up to me afterwards say, "Hey, Rick, can you can you do a website? Or can you do social stuff?" And I'd say, "well, he's an entrepreneur", I said, "Yes, we opened In 2 Communications, and we specialize in inbound marketing full stack". You know, and you know, I've got two full-time very talented video guys so we've been big on video for a long time, which parlays into kind I think we're talking about today is this emergence of video within the sales and marketing mix. And so you know, as we talked briefly off camera, you know what I think my company does, not just me I've got very talented people around me, is we sit on both sides of what I would call the sales side of the business. And we also are very in tune with the marketing side of the business. And you know, as we head into 2022 and beyond, I would say that today's B2B sales professional needs to be almost a hybrid between a sales person and a marketing person as well. Even If COVID hadn't hit, you know, we need to think about that right now.

 

Kap Chatfield  05:27

I want to, I want you to go deeper into that. Explain what you mean by a salesperson being not just a salesperson, but also having a marketing mindset. Why is that important? And if you can, in your answer, I'd love for you to talk about how you see video being a really important component of that.

 

Rick Lambert  05:44

Sure. So I'll give you a Canadian quote, okay? So there's a guy named Wayne Gretzky that scored a lot of points in the NHL, sorry, it's a Canadian example. But you know, he always is quoted as saying, you know, "Don't skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going". And so, you know, with our sightlines, working with hundreds of sales organizations, you know, in the b2b sector, specifically, we we're not in the b2c space, I'm seeing certain trends happen. And when COVID hit, all of a sudden, everybody had to immediately be a video seller. And that was just the Zooms or the teams or whatever platform you're on. And it really messed up a lot of experienced salespeople, I mean, the millennials, Gen z's, they were kind of good with it. But the tenured seller that was moving a lot of the revenue, it really hurt a lot of them. So when I talk about how, you know, video, in particular, has has kind of come into, I would call it a mandatory part of a sales profile. We're now coaching our clients right from the recruiting phase, to ask the candidate to send them a video, because we know video's going to be part of this sales reps, whether it's their persona on social media, communication with customers, etc. And just last week, the Xerox Corporation had me go down, very appreciative. I was the guest speaker at their huge conference, they brought in all their top salespeople from across the United States. And they did two days of we'll call it product and application kind of coaching. And on the third day, which I thought was really wise of them, is they brought me in at the end, and I did a brand new program or launch called LinkedIn Video Bootcamp. And so I had a bunch of tenured sellers and at the beginning of the event, I showed a spreadsheet on who had posted a video, Kap in the last 60 days. Now it was the numbers were the same year to date. Okay, so as we sit here, you know, we're in October 2021. Not one person had posted a video, like a self selfie type of video, now, they may have posted corporate stuff. And so within a couple hours, I explained, you know, why LinkedIn, I'm big on LinkedIn, by the way. And thank you for your kind words on my posts, by the way. You know, the one thing I would tell viewers right now is, you never know who's watching your videos. And I say that in a good way. LinkedIn, it's a known fact that there are the least amount of content creators, versus we'll call it viewers, versus any other social platform. And that's why we think what you're doing with shows and we're trying to do with our customers, is bring customers through video. Anyway, within two hours, you know, they were able 70% of them actually had a video captured, I showed them kind of what to say and how to say it, etc. Keep it short, stupid, you know, but they'd actually got video up and I find once people do it once or a couple times, they understand the velocity of what a personal like a one to mini video can do, or in your case, a show. And, you know, that's why I think what you guys are doing is really ahead of the curve and we're feeling the pull as well from our customers to do more video in a in a show or podcast type format.

 

Kap Chatfield  08:57

I love, ah man I am I'm really impressed that you guys are doubling down on that. And I'm also kind of blown away because for me, I have a filmmaking background. So my whole world has been content creation and now I'm seeing that there's this like kind of land of opportunity on LinkedIn because not a ton of people are doing it and so it's really cool that you're you're looking at, "okay, how do we train these sales sales guys to start thinking about, you know, building a brand?" I want to ask you because some people are like, "you know, I don't really feel comfortable on camera, I feel more comfortable writing". There's a lot of opportunity to write posts on LinkedIn and that can be very effective as well. But specifically video, why do you think video is such an important medium for people that are trying to build a brand and particularly in your example, sell a product?

 

Rick Lambert  09:46

Well, so we've been doing this for a while right? Coaching people, producing corporate videos. We have the studio, all the lights, all that stuff, and what I think most people and companies underestimate is the value and you know, this being, you know, a video professional you said your background is the the appetite for raw video now, I would argue in many cases trump's what we've produced for years, which is the corporate, you know, well framed person on camera mic'ed, no glitches, no ums, no ahs, no mistakes. And so what we're finding that the video is doing for people, specifically salespeople is it's building what you referred to, I think, a second ago, their personal brand. And and although this may not be new to some of your viewers, you know, I would ask, you know, take a look at the people in your sales organization and ask yourself like, are they still touting the company first? Because in my you know, I'm 55 as you record me today, I know I look a lot younger. But you know, when I started back in my days with Xerox, it was all about Xerox was this and then it was the product was this, but now we're seeing it down to the individual level, and they need to build a brand. So why video? You know, if a picture's worth 1000 words, okay? What is the video worth? I mean, you can hear the person, you can see the person, your viewer already knows right now, "Hey, would I trust this guy, Rick, does he fit with our culture?" Sure. He's too old, he's perfect for our people, etc. And I just don't think that, look, we produce hundreds of blogs, emails, all that stuff, right? Through our agency and the one piece that can consistently drives the ROI is video, in every case, engagement. And that's why we're so big on helping people at the individual level, not just company level, get act get more active on video, because as I said, I had, you know, roughly 50 people and only one guy had posted a video, including corporate videos in his LinkedIn kind of lane, which we would argue is the watering hole for b2b customers.

 

Kap Chatfield  12:02

Yeah. Big time. I'm curious, what have what have you seen personally, before we start talking about your show, we'll get to that in a second. But what have you seen personally with your own brand, just from doing organic content consistently? Because I see you got like, you're just using your iPhone or whichever mobile phone you're you got smartphone, you're just doing a very simple video, sharing something very short, sweet to the point, concise messaging, but you're doing it consistently. Not super high production value, but you're building a brand, you're getting your face out there. Have you seen any sort of results? As far as new connections, new opportunities come from you building your own personal brand? That has let me just make this caveat too, because you're building a personal brand, not necessarily attributing it to, to your company, have you seen the company benefit from you building a personal brand?

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Rick Lambert  12:56

Yes, yes. And yes. So so, you know, I came from shooting a lot of videos in a studio with the appropriate lighting, with soundproofing, you know, teleprompter, all that kind of jazz. And, you know, Kap, I thought as a sales coach on my Sell To Win side, for me to be, I need to be right on the front lines with the people I'm trying to coach and doing the latest things and failing myself, so I understand, you know, what they're up against. And so I think it was, you know, December 31st, 2017 and I had, you know, a Canadian lubricator in my hand there as my new year's commitment. Right? I was gonna double down on LinkedIn. And, you know, we started to shoot some videos in the studio, and I just found that production was slowing me down. And my point is that fast forward to today, you know, thanks to the talented people on my team, I can cut pro videos easily. I have a studio, yada yada, but I cut raw ones just because I think they're more impactful, they're more personable. They're more quick to quick to basically get them out there. And I say that in a sense to encourage your people that some people overthink it, they think they need a certain type of camera, they need a certain type of lighting, they need a certain type of yada yada and look if you watch my videos on LinkedIn, they're not perfect. I posted one yesterday I had a bobble, and I said hey look, I just made a bobble but my point is, you know perfection really is never going to be achievable. Just get it out there and as a guy once told me, you know, "Ricky don't overthink things, just just do them 7 out of 10 times you'll be right and three times you'll be wrong the seven will makeup for the mistakes. But personal branding like you know, I you know my name or my personal brand, i'd like to think I had a little bit before I got going on video. But, you know, I see a lot of people that maybe didn't you know, I've done over 1000 paid speaking events for corporations and so somebody will say, "Oh that guy you know, he's got some momentum, we'll call it, getting in." And and I would argue counterflow like I've seen people that are just, you know, there's a saying in hockey, "throw your heart over the boards and your body will follow". Okay? Throw your heart over the boards and your body will follow. And that saying comes from, you know, playing hockey and I was a young kid playing against tougher bigger teams. And you know, we were a little intimidated, same as some people are to go on video. And sometimes you just got to get out there on the ice and try it. And the results for me have been great, but I see so many people that you know, because of their frequency of video, and you know, something I'm sure we'll talk about is not promotional stuff so not saying, "Hi my name is Rick Lambert with Sell 2 Win dot com. You know, I can immediately drive your sales results up without..." you're gone. Right? You tuned me out. But there is magic in educating and I would argue a very subliminally promoting your brand and or yourself with top of funnel people because as I talk to our clients about what I think video does, like no other vehicle is it makes you become top of mind at point of need. 

 

Kap Chatfield  16:13

Wow, that's great. 

 

Rick Lambert  16:15

All right.

 

Kap Chatfield  16:17

You got to, first of all, you have a whole arsenal of hockey quotes. I'm really loving that hopefully, we can include some hockey visuals and, 

 

Rick Lambert  16:26

I can shift to American sports too. I went to University of New Hampshire, I was really so I got I got all my American lines too, if you need them.

 

Kap Chatfield  16:32

I'll just throw out this, this thing out there, kind of unrelated to the topic of the show, hockey, I had a girlfriend in high school, I wasn't a hockey fan until I met her, she was a big hockey fan. She is she and I are not married, I'm I'm really grateful that it didn't work out, honestly. But she took me to my first live hockey game. And I'm telling you, if you've never been to a live hockey game, it will change everything for you. It is the most exhilarating sport to watch. And you just got to go in person. I mean, when somebody first of all, it's so fast paced, the hitting, the checking the sounds, when your home team scores, and the lights go on. And it's like, Ah, dude, it's just this crazy, explosive experience. So please do not shy away from the hockey references. I'm a big fan of them. So,

 

Rick Lambert  17:20

I can tell you, you know, making a mistake on video is nothing like taking a fist in the left side of your head when someone disagrees with your actions on the ice. So it's all relative, right? Anyway.

 

Kap Chatfield  17:33

Absolutely. So you got you went to the school of hard knocks with hockey, you can handle any sort of content creation blunders, and you're doing such a great job with it. I want to, I want to dive into the show that you're doing because you're not only creating micro content, which is kind of safe. I mean, as far as like you put you shoot a video, you post it, if people don't like it, you haven't committed to this, this kind of epic journey. But when you start a show, you're basically announcing to the world, "hey, I'm I'm investing time, I'm investing resource, I'm committing to the long game with a story with a specific narrative". And that's what you did with this marketing show. And I think looking at it, The Smarketing Show, based off some of the guests that you've had on, it's looking like a huge success. But there's probably a day of humble beginnings when you started it. So what what made you want to start doing The Smarketing Show and tell us a little bit about that conception process.

 

Rick Lambert  18:25

So, you know, we, we thought we had a lot of good ideas, we understood that the show had to be educational, and not promotional. And you know, if anyone watches any episode of The Smarketing Show, you know, you'd be lucky to find us pitching something we offer, although, you know, we talk a lot about questions that that our target audience would have or topics that may be of interest to them. And to your point, we bring guests in, and actually, you know, if you if you did the talk time of me versus a guest on the show, even though, in case you can't tell on this show, I don't mind talking the time. I really find that, you know, I may talk 25% Because really, it's all about the guest, and I think success leaves clues. And the people I bring in are strategically selected because they have they have an angle that many cases I don't or I believe in something and rather than hear it from me, I want the audience to hear it from somebody else. The other thing too, I found Kap, is that, you know by selecting guests that are in different circles of influence, and here I go into marketing terms. It's going to put me in their swirl of contacts that I might not otherwise be in. And you know, we found that when a guest does a show, you know and we do a really good job, our production team you know, stepping it up beyond kind of a normal you know, piece and it's an asset for the guests. They can then share with their community and or share with their customer base. That's really a low pressure, high value asset. Specifically, we shot a show a little while ago. And that client is now using that show as a prospecting asset as an initial kind of, you know, brush of what is happening in this industry and what the challenges are and how someone might be able to think, start to think about solutions. And oh, by the way, if they watch even a portion of that show, all of a sudden, that company, my guest, is going to be top of mind to get get get you know invited to participate. 

 

Kap Chatfield  20:45

Brilliant. What have, what have you seen in regards to starting this show? What have been some of the obstacles that you start you needed to overcome? I mean, you've been doing content creation for a while, so maybe it was a little more second nature to you. But I'm thinking about the b2b brand leaders who are thinking about starting a show. And maybe there's all these reasons to hesitate. You know, they're fearful of what production level they need. Are they other guests going to be interesting? What are some of the obstacles that you needed to overcome and explain to us how you overcame those?

 

Rick Lambert  21:17

Okay, so let me bring into last week's session. So here I am, Rick Lambert hosting the LinkedIn Video Bootcamp, and I got a bunch of tenured sellers, very talented people with great relationships, by the way, with customers. And not one of them, with the exception one, had posted a video. So you talk about apprehensions all that stuff, okay. So I always use the analogy with people of doing your first video, your first show is kind of like going to a pool party. Okay, Kap, and I don't know what they're like down where you are. But up here, when people are going to a pool party, you get invited to a pool party, you may bring your bathing suit, but you're not sure if you're going in the pool, okay? Maybe you leave it in the car, maybe you got it on with your nice polo shirt or whatever you wear it. But you get to the pool party and inevitably, you know, some things happen and one person goes into pool and another person goes in the pool. And we've probably all experienced this where we ourselves went in the pool when we weren't expecting to go in there. And my point is, when you get in the pool, and start shooting videos, it's gonna feel pretty good. And so I think the biggest apprehension people have is they don't want to make a mistake, and they don't want to damage their personal or their company brand. And well, I just think that's the bottom line. Otherwise, why would these people, in my case 50 tenured salespeople, elite sellers, okay? Why would they not use video? I mean, I had a stat in my presentation, like why video? I thought why even tell him? Like, it's so obvious why video, you know? But I think people I think they just don't want to embarrass themselves. We did a program with Canada's Harvard, okay? It's called the ivy business school in Canada. It's the top school in Canada. We coached hundreds of their MBAs in on the topic of personal branding. And the number one question we got, number one question around their personal brands was, what should I post? And we suggested a video path. You said, I'm posting on a regular basis, I think you need to post, our run rates, just so you know, and I have a LinkedIn Bootcamp for salespeople just to get them up and pedal on the bicycle. And we suggest three to five posts a week. And I would argue in that mix, you should have at least one video a week, at least one video. And there's a methodology we coach on what to talk about, but the best reps, they have almost like themes, and I don't know I'f I digressed from your question, that but I think they have themes and companies could use this with their show. So maybe it's a show once a week, once a month, whatever. But, but I think there needs to be some theme base to it. So for example, if you're an individual, you know, I've seen top reps, what they'll do is like "Motivational Monday", you know, "Turn it up Tuesday", you know "Wind it back Wednesday". So in other words, those themes help them come up with ideas because I think people, number one are afraid to go on camera and make a mistake. We find it all the time. We shot a company yesterday on video boom as soon as the camera goes on everybody can't talk. It's like so like anything playing hockey, being a dad, changing your first diaper three kids ago, like we all don't do it perfect right away. But you know, you got to make a decision as a company as an individual. Like, either you're going to move forward with your personal brand, or you're going to be a spectator and let others I think move forward. And it's irrefutable. What you're doing for companies with shows, what we're starting to do with companies more and more for shows. At the individual level the appropriate use of video, so for me personally, again, you know, I always suggest to our clients like, stay away from politics, stay away from foul language, stay away from anything that can put you in the proverbial penalty box.

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Kap Chatfield  25:18

Dude the hockey references or just flying! I love it.

 

Rick Lambert  25:22

Well, yeah, it sounded like you're a big hockey fan, by your overview, by the way, but anyway.

 

Kap Chatfield  25:27

Oh, yeah. Speeding proverbial penalty box. That's good. Yeah.

 

Rick Lambert  25:31

So So yeah, I played the minor Pro and Tennessee, all they wanted to see was fights. They didn't even care if we had skates on. 

 

Kap Chatfield  25:38

I love that. 

 

Rick Lambert  25:40

Sorry. You know, I forgotten I apologize, your question. But, you know, I think people don't do it just because, you know, they, they surround themselves with people that don't want to do it. And you know, we're the average of the five people we hang around with the most in our life. And I think you got to follow people online. Like, I think your posts are great, they're, they're organic, they're spontaneous, they have a point. And I just think you got to think about who the person is you want to be seen by your customers. And I'm fully respectful people don't. But if you look at people online, doing something you feel comfortable with, I would just kind of learn from them and mimic the best of different people follow them? Well, lastly, I've had the chance to work with people that have been on TV with video. And, you know, I would suggest that before you step into this, this forum, I would strongly suggest, whether you're an individual or company, get with somebody that understands what they're doing. Because if you have a good plan at the beginning, strategy, how you're going to capture, what how you're going to distributed it, you know, what's the point, all that stuff, I think you would change your results miraculously versus if you're not schooled in this, and a little bit of coaching up front. We sponsored a baseball team one time, here's your American analogy for ya, little kids. And I had a kid that never played before. In his third time up to bat after striking out two times he hit the ball, his parents leaped to their feet and what'd the kid do? He took off for third base. No! Don't go to third! So people don't know, they don't they don't know what they're doing. And so I think coaching, you know, from an organization that's done it before for others is really critical, really critical.

 

Kap Chatfield  27:29

So you're you guys are doing this for your customers. Now, I'm sure your customers are starting to see some success from it. And it all comes back from you guys are basically a living case study, you're doing this with your own show, The Smarketing show. And really the point of the show, as we you know, your whole brand, it's so clear that you're helping sales and marketing really align better, especially in a digital landscape where the line for what's marketing versus what's sales, it's been so blurred because your audience, your customer, they're educating themselves about your brand, they're going to your website, they're essentially interacting when they interact with your content, your marketing content, they're interacting with the sales reps, so to speak, before they ever talk to a sales rep. So you have to have that mindset of how do we create content that begins that conversation in a way that doesn't repel them, but draws them in, and then when they're ready to buy, we're ready. We're right there. So you guys are clearly doing that. I want to hear if you have any quantitative slash qualitative results in regards to how your show is actually growing your business?

 

Rick Lambert  28:33

Yeah, and we have those, you know, to your to your comment about what we think is our unique value proposition is I believe there's a distinct difference between sales and marketing. Okay? And the best definition that I share with audiences marketing is letting people know what you got sales is getting rid of what you got. Okay? And with all due respect to your viewers, that may be marketers, I think very few marketers, very few really understand sales. And I would argue very few sales leaders really understand today's marketing landscape and vice versa. So that's where the term "smarketing" comes up, because where sales and marketing meet. Now to your point about ROI. There's all different ways to measure a show. Viewers, you know, comments. You know, we distribute ours through social, it's with threaded within our blogs, it's threaded through our email campaigns. We use it specifically as a pre meeting thing. Hey, here's a show on this topic that you might want to take a look at and it walks the buyer, I would say to step three of the 10 cycle, maybe buying process so they understand, "Oh okay, those are good questions I should be asking about what I need on a website or how to implement new hire onboard training". But I can tell you Kap, like we started our show a couple years ago, and like within the first six months, we drove six figures plus, in in revenue. And the reason I believe is because what the shows do for people is they create awareness. Of course, it's a digital asset that's evergreen, you can hang wherever on your site or wherever. They can be used as a sales kind of communication piece, not a brochure and a product video. And then what happens is you're going to see consideration rates. So we've seen dramatic increase in our pipeline. And what's funny is people when they come in, they, they don't always say, "Hey, I saw your show", they'll ask about something that you offer. But then when you get into the conversation, it's actually the fact that they saw the show, and they triggered something in their mind. So awareness is number one. And we triggered that, and we watched that sort of, through just you know, views and all that kind of jazz, but consideration would be added to our pipeline, then actually lead gen and conversion. So yeah, we've had multiple clients. And this is the other thing, I believe it's the power of social media, and why shows are so relevant is because, you know, I'm a little older than you. And if you're a tenured business leader, right now watching, think of all the relationships you have and all of your people have with all of your customers, and how often do you actually touch those relationships that you've had over time. And I don't know of another way to scale and touch those customers. So you're so they're aware of just, "Hey you remember me? To you're educating them on the newest things. And again, it's very simple awareness, boost consideration rates, and drive lead generation that that's the business model to shows. And we've got the ROI, big time to support it.

 

Kap Chatfield  31:45

That's awesome. I love I love that perspective about scaling your touchpoints with key relationships that you have, because with the internet, I mean, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. We've talked about this on previous episodes, because some some b2b brand leaders are concerned, "Well, you know, in my industry, nobody's really doing that. That's not how we do marketing or sales in my industry". But in it doesn't matter what industry you're in, you go anywhere, you see people have this device, this phone device, and they're they're consuming content. And so people are connected, it's just a matter of understanding, "hey, who is your audience, what's going to be valuable to them?" And creating content that best serves that audience and as you said, kind of moves them down that pipeline from awareness to consideration to lead gen to conversion. And so you guys are clearly doing it. Rick, we're coming to the end of our episode here, so I want to just give you an opportunity to just let our let our audience know, for people who are interested, "hey, I want to start following Rick on LinkedIn, I want to check out his website, check out his company and I want to check out The Smarketing Show. Where's the best place for people to find each of those things?

 

Rick Lambert  32:50

So So I close on that if, I thank you. The only the only last thing I would add is, you know, when I do sales coaching events, one of the questions I ask is, how many of you have visited your top three to five competitors, you know, website and what they're doing online in the last 90 days? And dramatically, a lot of people don't look at what their competition are doing. And I would suggest you do that. And oh, by the way, if they're not doing something like I think the spirit that we're talking about today, that could be a big lane for your business, it's wide open, because this is where the pucks going, this is where I'm sold. Sorry. So if someone has some spare time Kap, and they've got nothing else to do, and they want to check out this Canadian guy, of course, you know, I'm tripled down on LinkedIn, I believe that's the watering hole where people connect on LinkedIn, The Smarketing Show I produce every Thursday, believe it or not, I'm just in production right now of the top 10 videos on LinkedIn that people want to see. So I'm doing what we're talking about today. Nice. But those would be the two spots. Of course, our websites sell to win.com. And In 2 Communications is my digital marketing agency. And I just think it's great what you're doing, by the way, you guys are ahead of the market. And I think people that connect and give themselves the time to understand what you're trying to do, because it's not within the normal marketing mix. But I think that's the breakthrough opportunity for your viewers. 

 

Kap Chatfield  34:11

Well, the fact that you're doing it proves to me that we're on the right track, because you guys are absolutely crushing it. So really appreciate you.

 

Rick Lambert  34:18

We'll follow you everywhere big guy. I'm telling you, what you're doing is the right thing for sure.

 

Kap Chatfield  34:24

Cool. I appreciate that. We feel good about it. And obviously based off of what you're doing, we're seeing similar success with our show, what you're doing for your customers, what we're doing for our customers. We believe in this concept, the show marketing model is it's here to stay. I think it's truly the future of B2B marketing, and sales, frankly. So, Rick, we're gonna include all those links into the show notes. If you're watching listening and you want to check out his company Sell To Win, In 2 Communications, his LinkedIn profile, and also The Smarketing Show. We'll have links for all of that show notes description. Check it out, give him a follow. You won't regret it. Rick, thanks so much for joining us on B2B Podcasting today.

210501_RM_B2BP_Ep_How a B2B Podcast is the ULTIMATE Smarketing Solution - with Rick Lambert_QG3

Rick Lambert  35:01

Swesome buddy, thanks for having me.

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