Getting Sales & Marketing on the Same Page

Are you struggling to align your sales and marketing teams?

In today's episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Brady Jensen, the founder of Aggregate Insights, who is an expert in aligning sales and marketing.

Brady shares his journey from sales and marketing to founding Aggregate Insights and offers valuable insights into the crucial need for sales and marketing alignment. Discover how involving buyers in your market research can transform your strategy, the pitfalls of relying solely on customer feedback, the limitations of AI in understanding ideal clients, and the crucial role of authentic storytelling.

This episode will equip you with practical strategies to bring your sales and marketing teams onto the same page and propel your business forward. Stay tuned for an engaging conversation filled with actionable advice and valuable resources.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Insights on getting Sales & Marketing on the same page
Why primary market insights matter
Why Sales & Marketing need a single source of market truth

LISTEN NOW:

WATCH NOW (and check out the Resources and Episode Highlights below):

RESOURCES:

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The Influence Alliance — A business-building community for changemakers who want to build a sustainable and scalable business they love.
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Are you struggling to be known as a trusted authority in your industry? Book a time to chat with Annemarie.
You can connect with Brady through: Website | LinkedIn |Email

Jump Straight to these golden nuggets:

04:18 Marketers and sales need market validation for ideas.

08:08 Mixed bag: companies, sales, marketing, leadership, challenges.

10:09 Frequent turnover and assumptions impact business confidence.

14:20 Analyzing win/loss data reveals buyer insights.

17:02 Importance of third-party feedback in business interviews.

20:26 Outliers as customers may misrepresent majority. Markets shift.

24:05 AI's limitations in personalizing human interactions.

30:31 Curiosity essential for insight and understanding.

32:22 Encourage curiosity and listening in consumer interactions.

34:54 Align sales, marketing through primary market conversations.

KEY TOPICS:

Topic: Aligning Sales and Marketing

Recognizing the trust deficit
Brady's background in sales and marketing
The foundation of Aggregate Insights to address the trust deficit
Validating marketing ideas
Importance of gaining trust and collaboration between sales and marketing teams
Emphasizing the need for insights from actual buyers in the market

Topic: Understanding Buyer Feedback and Perspective

The value of customer feedback in reducing churn
Understanding that happy customers may still be at risk of leaving
Warning against using only customer advice for positioning and messaging
Highlighting the impact of market shifts on buyer preferences
Avoiding assumptions and internal storytelling in launching products and services
Seeking feedback from current clients through a third party for deeper insights
Involving buyers in market fit and product/service development

Topic: Limitations of AI in Researching Ideal Clients

First-Party data collection
Emphasizing the need for collecting first-party data
The risk of AI-generated content becoming generic and indistinguishable

Topic: Authenticity and Trust in Marketing

Importance of authenticity and trust
Emphasizing the importance of authenticity in marketing and customer interaction
Using genuine customer data in creating effective marketing messages
Impact of mistrust and lack of direction
The negative impact of mistrust and lack of clear direction within an organization
Standoffs and constant turnover of leadership roles

HIGHLIGHTED QUOTES:

The Importance of Market Validation: “And they [marketing teams] tend to go off the rails and do whatever they think has worked for them in the past.”

— Brady Jensen [00:04:28 → 00:04:30]

Sales and marketing dynamics: “Sales and marketing should be extensively the closest relationship within an organization, but sales leadership know that they've got a certain amount of time to make this work. Marketing leadership know they do as well. And if they don't, somebody's head's gonna be on a pike, and they have to and they don't want it to be theirs.”

— Brady Jensen [00:08:56 → 00:09:20]

Viral Topic: Company Struggles and Market Fit

Quote: “What do you need from someone to buy from them? What are the things that you value so that we can build the right service or product? And without them weighing in, it's simply a guess on everyone's side.”

— Brady Jensen [00:10:56 → 00:11:00]

Sales Strategy: “But what these people will share, if you will ask, and, and are curious about it, is all of the different pieces that you didn't you weren't able to see even if you were the person selling this opportunity?”

— Brady Jensen [00:14:48 → 00:15:01]

The Importance of Buyer Feedback: “In fact, a lot of these conversations start because we ask them to give us their time so that next time they're out evaluating this particular service or product. That they will at least have 1 vendor in the market who's taken their feedback directly into the process.”

— Brady Jensen [00:15:44 → 00:17:01]

Customer Engagement: “I would much rather have a customer who is feeling like we're on the right track, but they've got some complaints. They've got some things they want us to work on. They're very engaged. Those are the types that I feel very com comfortable forecasting whether or not they're gonna stay with the with the organization.”

— Brady Jensen [00:19:30 → 00:19:48]

Viral Topic: Understanding Customer Base

Quote: “The problem often lies in the fact that they're an outlier because they are your best customer. They don't represent your average customer. and maybe more importantly is because markets shift, and the types of buyers who are attracted to a given company's offer shift over time as the early adopters are replaced by majority, buyers, the early adopters, who are oftentimes your first best customers are the ones that are gonna tell you to go talk to your buyers and tell them you're gonna change the world and it's gonna revolutionize things because that's what they're interested in.”

— Brady Jensen [00:20:26 → 00:21:05]

The Future of AI and Competitive Advantage: “The only real area, I think, as AI improves that you're gonna get, competitive advantage or foothold is by first party data, data that no one else has, data you can't find on the Internet because you got it yourself in a conversation with these live human beings who have varying tastes some interesting backgrounds and ways that they speak that no matter how good AI gets, it's going to be widely available to everyone.”

— Brady Jensen [00:23:10 → 00:23:30]

The Limitations of AI in Personalized Interaction: “AI is gonna change a lot of things, but it's not gonna change the way that people interact with each other, and you can't get the nuance through an AI response that you can get from the conversations where you can gather the information so that your buyer says when you sit down, you start talking to them, your buyer thinks to themselves, this one's the one that gets me.”

— Brady Jensen [00:25:17 → 00:25:24]

The Power of Curiosity: “You have to be curious enough to ask for them to tell you more. You need to be curious enough to ask why, to dig three layers deeper than the first answer so that you have not just the answer, but the motivations and the psychology behind it and all those sorts of things.”

— Brady Jensen [00:31:05 → 00:31:22]

About Brady:

Brady is a versatile professional who's navigated the worlds of tech sales, product marketing, and entrepreneurship. Notably, he was named Inside Sales Rep of the Year at Jive Software, showcasing his innate sales talent. Yet, Brady's passion for product marketing was always constant.

His career journey unveiled a glaring issue: a trust deficit between sales and marketing teams, stemming from a misalignment with external market realities. In response, Brady founded Aggregate Insights in 2018.

You can connect with Brady through: Website | LinkedIn |Email

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