When you’re attempting to persuade, do you emphasize the positive aspects of your offering or the potential loss of not taking action? This negotiation concept is called “prospect theory,” and today’s guest is an expert. Literally.

Calum Coburn is the Director and Vice President of The Negotiation Experts, a training and consulting firm that enables sales teams to drive measurable profit improvements. 

On today’s show, Calum and Brian discuss the finer points of “prospect theory,” along with how to start building the foundations of trust as soon as your prospects see your web copy.

What The Data Says About Turning Marketing Leads Into Sales with Sammy James. Sale's is a conversation, so how can you expect to sell if that conversation never happens, or doesn’t happen fast enough? On today’s show, Brian chats with Sammy James, CEO and founder of Speak2Leads, automated lead response and follow-up tool. 

What would it look like if you could give your digital brand a human voice? On today’s Landing Page Optimization, we brought in Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn, the world’s leading podcast hosting site.

The Cluetrain Manifesto for a New Generation | Tara Hunt Part 2. Listen in to Part 2 of Brian Massey’s conversation with Tara Hunt, CEO of Truly., as they continue to discuss the Cluetrain Manifesto. You can check out Part 1 by dialing back one episode in this feed or visit our show page for a full list. You can also hear Brian’s reading of the full Cluetrain Manifesto on this feed. Tara is a digital marketing "native" (meaning she’s been working in digital since 1992, not that she’s a millennial) with over 19 years of experience, the author of one of the first books on how the social web is changing business, and a professional public speaker. She has also created and executed proven digital and social strategies across multiple industries.

You kids get off my lawn! And Other Things Old Marketers Say | Tara Hunt. Contrarians. They're trouble. At least they're trouble in structured organizations. They are the "But maybes" in your "Of courses!” They come up with exceptions to your rules.

It's hard for businesses to find a place for contrarians. But, when they do find their place, the results can be incredible. Think Steve Jobs: He was kicked out of the company he founded before returning to it at a desperate hour.

n this episode of LPO, we’re talking to BJ Fogg, Ph.D., author and founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University. His new book, "Tiny Habits," has turned business management lessons into a program for individual behavioral change.

After almost four decades, I believe the best choice for another shot at a conversion is still that quaint old communication medium: email.

Email still can't be beat for rich content, for conversations that feel one-to-one, and for getting another shot at a future customer. It's the original social media platform.

Liz Willits is a self-professed email marketing nerd, and the Senior Content Marketing Specialist at AWeber, one of the ‘OG; email services. She has worked with some of the most successful marketers in the world to help them with their email marketing strategies.

Liz doesn't think you're sending too much on email, and she's got the data to prove it. If we're not sending too much on email, then what's keeping our email from being more productive? Listen in to hear her take.

Resources and links discussed:

Connect with Liz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-willits/
Learn more about AWeber: https://www.aweber.com/
30-day Trial of AWeber: https://www.aweber.com/order.htm
AWeber Smart Designer: https://www.aweber.com/email-templates-smart-designer.htm
Follow Brian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bmassey
Learn more about Conversion Sciences: https://conversionsciences.com/

"CMOs are abdicating their strategic position in their businesses."

Just when I was marveling at how much CMOs really must do for their brands, Laura Patterson, President of VisionEdge Marketing, said the above statement that stopped me in my tracks.

Laura has been focused on performance marketing and the proper use of data since before it was "cool,” and if anybody knows what's going on with CMOs, it's her.

A few weeks later, I was on a panel that brought up the Fornaise Marketing Group study. This study states that of the 1,200 CEOs polled, 80% of them did not trust and were not impressed by the work done by marketers. By comparison, 90% of them trusted their CIOs and CFOs.

I did some additional research and found more incriminating news. Forrester recently reported that "dozens" of major brands had eliminated the CMO position altogether, brands like Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's, Taco Bell, and Netflix.

I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Was I part of the problem, focusing on just one channel? And why does Laura believe CMOs are losing their seat at the table in the c-suite? Listen in to find out.

Resources and links discussed:

Connect with Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurapattersonvem/
Learn more about VisionEdge Marketing: https://visionedgemarketing.com/
Check out the Fornaise Marketing Group study: https://www.fournaisegroup.com/ceos-do-not-trust-marketers/
Follow Brian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bmassey
Learn more about Conversion Sciences: https://conversionsciences.com/

"Marketing needs to generate more leads," says sales.

"Sales needs to follow up on the leads we're sending them," says marketing.

Sales and marketing: two functions that are critical to a business’s success. And from the first time something was sold, sales and marketing have worked independently.

This gulf, this canyon, this gaping sinkhole between sales and marketing has been around for a long time. That’s where Chris Wallace (@ChrisWallaceIVG), Co-Founder and President of marketing consulting firm InnerView, comes in.

In this episode, you’ll hear Chris’ solution on how to bridge the canyon between your marketing and sales teams. Listen in.

Resources and links discussed:

Connect with Chris
Learn more about InnerView
Check out the brand transfer score blog
Follow Brian on Twitter @bmassey
Learn more about Conversion Sciences

Having a true understanding of your target customer is the first step in building an effective marketing plan.

How are they spending their time? Are they able to use the time they have to focus on their area of expertise? And do they have an interest in doing even better work?

Come to think of it, we could ask these same questions of ourselves. It’s a full-circle approach that leads to better clarity about our target audience, enabling a more robust and focused marketing strategy.

In this episode, Josh Thomas, Director of Marketing at Outbound Engine, shares how these three pillars inform their marketing strategy while also serving as the marketing solution for the customers.

Listen in as Josh breaks down the dichotomy of marketing Outbound Engine’s marketing software solution.

People like funnels because they provide us with some sense of progress in our marketing efforts, but the marketing funnel is under attack, especially in the B2B lead generation space.

Carman Pirie (@pirie) is the co-founder of Kula Partners, an agency built to help leading manufacturers digitally transform marketing and sales to deliver more leads, close more prospects, and grow their competitive edge.

The solutions that purport to step into the funnel's place come with their own baggage. The more interactions with someone, the more likely they are to be a prospect, right? However, this approach treats the funnel more like a swarm of flies. People seem to swarm around our content until, finally, and unpredictably, they qualify for a call.

Carman believes there's something better than a funnel or a swarm, and his agency delivers that something better.