Given the popularity of our last video clip we are releasing another clip of Scott’s interview with Brent. In this slightly longer piece Brent addresses the question of what to do if the buyers felt like they had all the content they needed to make a purchase decision and all sales reps were trained on Challenger. How could you still compete?
To view the full interview with Brent Adamson please click here.
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Back in September of 2019, CEO, Scott Gillum, had the opportunity to sit down and interview VP, Brent Adamson. Brent is a distinguished Vice President at Gartner, and a published author with a lot to say about the case between sales and marketing.
During this interview, Brent dove deep into the idea of Challenger as a sales and marketing methodology. These newly released clips are a major highlight to what Challenger is, and isn’t, and how the idea of it has changed over the years.
In part 1 of the clip, Brent goes forth with debunking the idea of Challenger as a ‘sales methodology’, why it should be looked at as more of a ‘go to marketing’ model, and why sales and marketing need to be co-owning the idea of challenger marketing.
In part 2, Brent continues his dive into Challenger Marketing and how marketing and sales needs to focus on the customer in a different way.
Are the customers overlooking information, do customers know more than sales and marketers, or do we need to be telling them what they miss?
To view the full interview with Brent Adamson please click here.
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Just one month into 2020 and we already know that 50% of the sales force isn’t going to make their sales objectives for the year.
In fact, that number has been on the decline for the last 5 years, and one likely reason is that what customers are buying and what you are selling are not aligned.
Here are Scott’s top 3 tips that you can implement now so that you meet your sales objectives in 2020:
Get feedback from your team
Make sure you have 2 whys
Give the customer a vision of the future
Find out more on why these three things are so important to the success of your sales objectives here:
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by Katie Weisz Estimated read time: 1 Minute CEO, Scott Gillum, had the chance to be a guest on “AQ Blog and Grill” with host, Alan Quarry. As Alan states on his website, the show “dishes up food for thought on entrepreneurship, branding, startups and more in this video-based weblog.” In this episode, Scott shared more on the building of Carbon Design Co., how he has built consulting success around the idea of “working differently”, and how Carbon delivers value-based services thanks to the team and a “smarter not harder” approach. Follow the conversation here:
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The following is an excerpt from an interview on Superbcrew.com
Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Carbon Design?
We address a set of business problems that clients have historically pursued through relationships with management consulting firms or marketing agencies.
What’s different is the way we approach these problems. Rather than starting with the assumption that we have just the right IP, just the right methodology, or just the right team, we start with the assumption that none of that might be the case. That leads to a different business model, and very different client experiences – from beginning to end.
How so?
Clients can bring us in as early as they want – especially, when the nature of the challenge is still up in the air. Since we draw on a broad set of experiences, but don’t have anything we need to sell, we’re a trustworthy helper to facilitate problem formulation and solution ideation.
Then, if execution is needed, we can look into our network of freelancers, boutique firms, side-giggers, and design a delivery model that works for that particular solution.
So what exactly does Carbon Design do?
We’re definitely a thinking partner. Our approach is to help our clients look at problems from a more varied set of perspectives. And we do frequently provide a spectrum of marketing services from go-to market strategy and brand development to creative asset development. But, because we got rid of the burden of staff cost and the overhead of a traditional agency or consulting firm, we can offer clients agility and good value, and still run a profitable business.
How does your approach differ from any of the “Let us find a specialist for you” platforms?
If you need an uber, it probably doesn’t matter all that much who’s driving. If you need help with innovation, it absolutely does. So we’re not a platform – or at least not in the sense of some sort of algorithm-driven matching of supply and demand.
We execute projects and provide the right people and the right fit for the task. We can do that because I personally know every one of our specialists and know them quite well. I know what they can do, what they’re great at, and what areas they’re not suited for.
Look: Assembling a skilled team for a tight-focus and probably time-critical job isn’t something an algorithm can do well, any more than it’s something that can be solved by a large agency putting people with “free time” (an odd term for someone who’s time is billed—and marked up—by the hour) on a job simply because they’re “available.”
We get to know the client as well as the client’s problem. Then we bring in the people we know will be best-suited to the job.
What are people saying about their experience with Carbon Design?
Here are three verbatims I recall that might be helpful in painting that picture:
“You guys ask the right questions.”
“ I hired you because this problem wasn’t ready for me to give to my agency.”
“Thank you, we learned a lot.”
Generally the feedback usually falls in two camps. The first, is related to our operational flexibility – a kind of “Ocean’s 11” approach to building executional teams. And the other has to do with our mental flexibility – we’re seen as creative thinkers who bring out that same quality in our clients.
A few patterns are emerging: We tend to be championed by people well-placed in the sales and marketing organization, but we find ourselves speaking with CEOs, more often than we expected. .
Our clients know they have an issue. It’s why it hasn’t been solved that starts our journey. In our experience the obvious problems are typically an iceberg with a large amount of complexity under the surface. Our focus is to get inside the heads of organizations and audiences, to understand the WHY, not only of the problem, we’re brought in to solve, but also the WHY of the resistance.
We tend to connect with people who don’t shy away from complicated challenges, and who appreciate the role of experimentation as a method of learning about them.
And – we seem to be on a streak of connecting with people that are trying to do things that are genuinely new.
What are some of the key challenges you are helping clients solve?
In healthcare, we’re working with an organization to develop more effective means of reaching and influencing high-risk patients.
With one of the world’s leading environmental design and engineering firms, we’re helping to invent an entirely new category in housing (and all the infrastructure related to housing).
For the food service industry we’re working to redefine and re-educate the industry and its customer — on the sources of outbreaks in restaurants.
In the software as a service space, we’re helping an exciting machine-learning brand develop their brand positioning and go-to-market strategy.
I will say that in all these cases, it was our work in helping with understanding the root cause of the problem itself that was critical in the outcomes obtained in execution. .
What are your plans for the future?
We want to give talented people a chance to change they way they work.
Obviously we want to continue to grow as a business, but one of requirements we placed upon ourselves when we created Carbon Design, was that we would walk the same walk that we talk.
So our growth plans and our growth curve with luck—will be as natural and sustainable and as liberated as our approach to our talent. Don’t look for us to have vast, shiny office spaces and expensive back-office staffs any time soon. Or ever.
Do look for us to scale up as opportunity (appropriate opportunity) presents itself. We’re already a global operation that does things better.
Industrial Revolution. Digital Revolution. Work Revolution.
I’m not entirely joking.
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Did you know, that until recently restaurant owners only cared about the cleanliness of the food prep area? Most customers, and owners, assumed that if someone got sick after dining out it was because of food poisoning. That was until Carbon Design and Challenger Inc. helped “challenge” the norm by showing owners that half of the outbreaks in a restaurant were caused by people to people transmissions.
Now owners know where the “hotspots” are, and as a result, restaurant are cleaner than ever. Grab your face mask and enjoy a safe night out, but you may want to avoid the raw oysters 😉.
CASE STUDY
How do you do it? By giving clients and users what they want. Using the remaining budget that was to be used to update the site with the new branding we designed and built an entirely new site on a new platform. But audience needs are constantly evolving so the work never stops. Our team continues to audit performance and make improvements.
As a result, the two-year journey has paid off with the site being named #1 in the industry. Even more importantly, their key priority areas (site search, attorney profiles, etc.) were ranked in the outstanding category. Proving that excellence is a journey not just a destination.
CASE STUDY
It’s not unusual to find companies referring to their relationship with clients as “partnerships.” It’s common to find client logos on vendor websites. But how often do you see an agency or consulting firm’s logo on client websites? If you visit www.evepark.ca – that’s exactly what you’ll see.
Carbon Design, represented side by side with, a global architecture powerhouse, a world-class designer, and the project principal: the innovative green-tech engineering firm, S2E Technologies Inc. Under S2E’s leadership, these firms are inventing a new consumer category – one that integrates bold new ideas about housing and transportation – and radically resets the carbon footprint of both at the same time.
