We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, ALTAVI. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit ALTAVI at www.altavi.com 

In this episode, we talk about Digitial Reinvention and my guest is Steven Jameson, Managing Partner at ALTAVI. Most organizations are familiar with the concept of digital disruption and as a result of businesses being disrupted, it is probably time to design your reinvention strategy.

We started by talking about the difference between digital reinvention and digital disruption.

Steven then shared some examples of companies and people who have reinvented themselves.

You'll hear why is it important that strategy and digital investment must be aligned.

To support your digital reinvention, learn what people and talents you need.

Finally, Steven talks about how a company can get started and deliver on a digital reinvention approach.

Enjoy the interview!!

About Steven:

Steven Jameson, Managing Partner at ALTAVI. Steven brings 23 years of expertise in leading transformation with a focus on the sales organization across a wide range of industries, such as energy and telecommunications. As managing partner at ALTAVI, he has solved complex sales operations challenges requiring cross-functional and cooperative management of human resources, information system & business process redesign, and change management. 

Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenjjameson/

Digital Reinvention with Steven Jameson, ALTAVI

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, ALTAVI. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit ALTAVI at www.altavi.com

In this episode, we talk about Solving the Alignment Dilemma. Sales, Marketing & Customer Service coming together as One Team is critical to the customer experience, but how do you make it work. I talked with    Neil Williamson, Director of Marketing at Cox Media Group to get his take on our topic.

We discussed the following:

The consulting work that Neil does with clients to help them understand their client persona, set the marketing strategies, referee between departments on occasion who don’t understand current marketing/sales approaches.

Neil shares his thoughts about some of the challenges facing companies from solving the alignment dilemma.

We also talked about suggestions for organizations who are still struggling to make alignment work and what they can do they get started.

Finally, Neil talked about what they are doing at Cox Media Group.

About Neil: 

As Director of Marketing I'm tasked with:

** Creation and execution of all external marketing for 
•	News 95.5 and AM750 WSB
•	97.1 The River
•	B98.5
•	Kiss 104.1

**Development of all client marketing research projects.

**Providing in-house marketing and creative expertise for Cox Radio Atlanta's senior sales teams. 

**Generation of advertiser solutions via marketing strategy facilitation and idea generation. 

**Direction of external marketing efforts (outdoor, organic digital, paid digital, TV spots, contesting, etc. for the top billing radio cluster in the Southeast.

**Development and Oversight of internal monthly/annual employee recognition awards system.

Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-hondo-williamson-a8b87122/

Solving the Alignment Dilemma with Neil Williamson, Cox Media Group

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, ALTAVI. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit ALTAVI at www.altavi.com

This interview with Dale Tuck, Head of Strategy, Planning and Channel Development at Atlanta Applied Artificial Intelligence is a follow up to our local event on the topic in May. Dale was one of our speakers.

We started off by discussing Dale's definition of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in its simplest form. In the early days of any tech movement or shift, there is always confusion around the meaning of the terms associated with that movement.  Always helps to have an understanding of how new terms are defined.

There is huge potential for disruption with AI/ML, but it seems that many people fear AI/ML more than other tech shifts in the past.  I asked Dale for his perspective on how he responds to those fears.

For those companies trying to embrace AI/ML, we discussed a good first step to starting that journey and best practices associated with trying to implement AI as a first step.

We know that today AI is already affecting sales in ways that help sellers to be more productive. I asked Dale how he thought AI/ML would affect sales in the next 5, 10 or even 20 years.

Enjoy the interview!

About Dale:

As head of Strategy, Planning and Channel Development for Atlanta Applied AI, Dale has the great pleasure of working with Atlanta business leaders, a group of world class IT professionals, as well the high demand team from GDED, to explore the value of Artificial Intelligence and help seperate the hype from reality. 

Atlanta Applied AI was founded in June of 2017 with the goal to accelerate the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence within Atlanta Enterprises and prepare our City’s Workforce for an A.I. Future.

Connect on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-tuck/
Website: https://atlanta.ai/

AI and the Impact on Selling With Dale Tuck, Atlanta Applied Artificial Intelligence

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, Altavi. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit Altavi at www.altavi.com 

My guest in this interview is Marva Bailer, Global Director Leadership and Executive Engagement at Splunk. She was one of the winners of this years 2018 TAG Sales Leadership awards. And, Marva will be one of our guest speakers at our August 23 TAG Sales Leadership/Marketing event. If you are in Atlanta, REGISTER for the event here http://bit.ly/2MwaBjE

During the interview, we discussed:

Benefits to interdepartmental alignment.

Some of the challenges hindering organizations from solving the alignment dilemma.

Marva's suggestions for what organizations who are still struggling to make this work can do to get started?  She also talked about what she and other leaders at Splunk have done and are doing. 

Listen and enjoy the interview!!

About Marva:

Marva Bailer, Splunk, Director Global Field Success Leadership & Engagement. Marva values winning with integrity and mutual success through personal relationships and ongoing executive and personal learning/development. To fuel with 40% Y2Y growth she has an expanded role at Splunk, Director of Field Success coaching leaders and executive engagement. She joined Splunk in 2014 to expand the Southeast region. In 2016, region was recognized as the fastest growing region in the World. 

Marva is an executive board member at non-profit Techbridge. B.A. Communications, University of MD & M.S Carey School of Business, The John’s Hopkin’s University in Organizational Development and Change Management. 

She lives on Lake Lanier with her husband Don and Cavalier/Dog Amanda. They have two grown children Patrick 2017 UGA Graduate, Heather, UGA Senior.

Website: www.splunk.com
Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvabailer/

Bringing Sales and Marketing Together as One Team with Marva Bailer, Splunk

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, Altavi. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit Altavi at www.altavi.com 

In this episode, our topic was a hot one being debated constantly in the salesphere... Is Cold Calling Dead? My guest is Andy Mercer, Andy Mercer is Regional Sales Manager, North America - SMB West at SecureWorks. At our 2nd annual TAG Sales Leadership awards earlier this year, Andy was our sales leadership winner for the Medium company size category => $50 to $500M annual revenue, so congratulations Andy!

These are the questions we covered in the interview:

Is Cold Calling Dead and if not, then why cold call in today's era of digital everything? 

What is the difference between a good cold call and a bad cold call?

What does good preparation for a call look like?

Does it make a difference WHO you are calling?

Is Cold Calling an Art or a Science?

Listen to the interview to hear Andy's answers to these questions and more!

About Andy:

Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtmercer/

Andy Mercer is the Inside Sales Manager for SMB West at SecureWorks. Andy has over 12 years’ experience in Sales, Leadership, and Operations. Prior to joining SecureWorks, Andy ran sales and catering for over 58 fast-casual concept restaurants holding sales quotas in excess of 2.2 million dollars (ACV) and running a team of over 45 direct reports. Andy has lead dedicated National Account Teams as well as various roles on the Marketing Advisory Committee and Social/Culture Committee. In high school, Andy was Senior Class President, Captain of the Baseball and Soccer Teams. Andy studied at the School of Theater, Film, and Television at University of California, Los Angeles where he won an award for his documentary short film, A Reason to Believe (2007).

Is Cold Calling Dead with Andy Mercer, SecureWorks

We would like to thank our podcast sponsor, Altavi. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit Altavi at www.altavi.com

In this episode, I talked with Jim Berryhill, CEO and CO-Founder at DecisionLink about Value Selling and why that is so important in sales today. As Jim says, "We should not expect high performance in our sales organizations if we as sellers don't understand the business case, and the economic value of our solutions."

I kicked off the interview having Jim tell me more about why he felt he needed to create DecisionLink to support the concept of value selling.

Then, we got into the following questions:

1.	We hear a lot about value selling, there's even a sales training company with that name. Should value be limited to the sales process, or should it be associated with the entire customer relationship? 

2.	What are some industry metrics related to customer value? Is it sales productivity, or more than that?

3.	What's so special about your ValueCloud technology, and what do you mean when you say ValueCloud(r) is an "enterprise-class platform"?

4.	I asked Jim to tell me more about some of DecisionLink's customers, as they have incredible customer logos such as VMware, Caterpillar, Equifax. But I wanted to know if the ValueCloud solution was just for big enterprises or could smaller companies use the solution as well? Hint: the answer is yes!

5.	So in addition to sales, DecisionLink enables companies to become "value enabled enterprises". That sounds like a massive undertaking, I asked Jim if that was true. Hint: It isn't!

Finally, Jim and I talked about our last TAG Sales Leadership Society event in 2018 being held on November 7 at Atlanta Tech Village from 6-9pm. DecisionLink recently became a sponsor of the TAG Sales Leadership Society and is the host of our event, which is followed by a Bourbon Tasting on the rooftop of the ATV. Learn more about the incredible agenda Jim and his team put together and to REGISTER by visiting: http://bit.ly/TAGSalesNov2018

About Jim and DecisionLink
www.decisionlink.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrberryhill/ 
Phone: 800-670-8301 

Jim Berryhill, CEO & Co-Founder, DecisionLink Corporation. Jim founded DecisionLink after senior leadership roles at CA, Siebel Systems and HP Software. “I spent 30 years in enterprise sales and sales management where alignment to customer business objectives and the quantification of that value was super elusive. Looking at customer survey statistics, it is clearly a challenge for selling companies. We should not expect high performance in our sales organizations if we as sellers don't understand that business case, and the economic value of our solutions. So, John Porter and I founded DecisionLink to build an enterprise-class business application to solve that problem. We’ve solved some tremendously difficult problems and had great customer-partners participate in our journey. We’re not done, but DecisionLink ValueCloud® is the first enterprise-class application platform for the critical ‘customer value’ business function.” 

DecisionLink ValueCloud™ is the first enterprise-class value application, enabling sellers to be “smart about accounts and specific about value”. ValueCloud™ automates the ability to quantify, articulate and defend competitively differentiated value. In minutes ValueCloud™ produces a variety of assets such as ROI detail, Challenger scripts, competitive differentiation, pitch decks, and more. The result: bigger pipelines, executive engagement, improved close rates, lower discounts and reduced churn.

Selling Value with Jim Berryhill, DecisionLink

In these podcast conversations, we talk to Atlanta leaders in sales and sales operations about the challenges impacting sales organizations, and share strategies for turning challenges into opportunities for greater revenue growth.

Thanks to our podcast sponsor, ALTAVI. Elevating Sales Operations and Simplifying Sales Enablement, your consulting partner for implementation and integration. When you are thinking of Configure Price Quote, Contract Lifecycle Management or Customer Relationship Management, think ALTAVI! Visit ALTAVI at www.altavi.com