The Winning Combo - Marketing & Sales Success Plus Personal Development Podcast

Welcome to The Winning Combo - Marketing and Sales Success Podcast with  Vijay Damojipurapu and Keith Washo. In our combined 35+ years experience doing marketing and sales in the tech industry, we made many mistakes and learned from the best.  Join us as we share actionable insights so you realize success faster as you create that elusive winning sales and marketing rhythm in your company. Quick fun laugh:  - Unbreakable comb - Sales contest Quotes: - Inspiration from KFC  - Popular management belief   Real world stories: - "My first pitch deck" rookie mistake as a product marketer - Pitching Creative prodikeys keyboard on QVC Key insights and takeaways: - It boils down to "Empathy": marketing's emapthy for sales; sales' emapthy for customers; company's empathy for its customers - Liking effect: if you want to influence someone, get them to like you   Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewinningcombo/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: “Success at anything will always come down to this: Focus & Effort , and we control both.” - Dwayne Johnson Personal Story and Lessons: John shares the story from early days in his career where he was thrust into the role of managing an entire AT&T store due to unforeseen circumstances. It was stressful and incredibly overwhelming. Takeaway - Never be afraid to jump into with both feet.  Take a step back, take control and just focus on the next step.  Closing Takeaway: Always have a plan to execute on. Plan your day, plan your week. Boil your plan to the steps you need to take and plan your day down to the hour. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." - William Gibson Personal Story and Lessons: Business world is not completely rational. Dan shares a story of how one little change to the copy of an email campaign translated to a big jump in open and click and signup metrics. "We don't always know what is going to work and it's probably not the thing that we predict". Balance between customization and automation for campaigns. Closing Takeaway: The only thing you can actually control is your time and what you do, you can't control the outcome.  Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: "What got you here isn't always what is going to get you there" Personal Story and Lessons: Selling the Vision vs selling the product. Ben realized his marketing team was good at creating pitch deck and other collateral to sell the vision but needed to ramp in how they enable sales to close deals. Sales enablement curve - I can explain your product >> I can sell with help >> I can sell by myself >> I can close on my own   Closing Takeaway: As a product marketer, you need to learn to speak the language of product and sales. You need to take on metrics that you can effect. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: "You are either part of the solution or are part of the problem" Personal Story and Lessons: Don't be afraid to be a contrarian. Listen to Jim's story of how he took a bold approach and came to be known as a connector and community builder for entrepreneurs. Jim practices the Gary Vee principle of "Jab, Jab, Jab,  Right Hook" - give value first before asking for a sale. Closing Takeaway:  "80% of wining is just showing up". If you are committed, your persistence will comes across and it's only a mater of time before others see what you have to offer.  Resources: https://91omg.biz/ Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: "Do not ask what do you want to do with your life, but ask rather what do you want to have done with your life" Personal Story and Lessons: Listen to Jeffrey's personal story and how he came up with the Stiletto Principle.  When we are trying to achieve our sales and marketing goals, focus is so critical rather than spread yourself too thin. Closing Takeaway:  "Just Do the Work!" You can read and learn all about marketing and sales BUT what you ought to be doing is get on the phone, send emails, experimenting a marketing campaign. It's ok to acknowledge and accept you don't want to do it but you just have to do it! Resources: www.jeffreytobin.com Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote:  "If you fail to prepare, you just prepared to fail" Personal Story and Lessons: Elliott shares a story of how he did a $72M transaction in 45 seconds. The reason the deal was signed in 45 seconds is because of the trust the client had in Elliott. It was not a sales process but a relationship that was built that enabled Elliott to help his client buy something! Takeaway - Don't try to be a "salesman" be genuinely concerned about your client and their ask. Closing Takeaway:  Elliot's secret for how to be successful in selling something to someone - the BICEP system that he coined.  B - BUZZWORDS, your client keeps using  I - INTELLIGENCE, do your homework about the client C - COMMUNICATION, communicate in a way that your client likes to receive it E - EXECUTION, you better deliver, you better fulfill what your client is expecting from you P - PERSISTENCE, never ring the bell, be relentless, never give up Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote:  "Good is the enemy of great." - Jim Collins Personal Story and Lessons: Sandeep and his team had to quickly pivot and host one of their flagship global events with attendees from more than 75 countries. Key learning - ensure same brand experience for your virtual audience, tools for analytics and security, virtual speaker room for good speaker experience. Empathize with your sales teams who are evolving how they build relationships with buyers and dealing with non-strong intent leads taking longer to close.   Closing Takeaway:   When one of your initiatives succeed, don't just celebrate the success. Peel the onion, dig deep down and get to the essence of the tactics and the context that led to the success. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: “It's not how much money you make, it's how much you keep" - Robert Kiyosaki Personal Story and Lessons: When you are starting a business, keep in mind that it's OK to pivot. Joe shares a story of founders pivoting from B2B SaaS to a platform for consumers around crypto trading analytics. Key takeaways- you always need to project you need more time, more money. It's going to be lot harder than you think to get this going and to onboard customers.    Closing Takeaway:   Trust your gut. Key to building relationships - put yourself out there, be kind and provide value to the people you meet. Those relationships are the foundation to build your future. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: “The One Thing" daily habit to filter out the noise and focus on what matters most Personal Story and Lessons: Arnab shares a story around change management while rolling out a major pricing structure for Pure Storage's product portfolio. The challenge was to ensure minimal impact to existing customers and get buy-in from their global channel partners and sales teams. Key lessons learned: Transparency and holding yourself to high standards   Closing Takeaway:   Understand the risk-reward equations during decision making. Risk-reward equation changes as your company grows and that's when speed and quality of your decisions matter. At the same time, your ability to listen and empathy matter.  Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: “Copy is not written. Copy is assembled.” – Eugene Schwartz Personal Story and Lessons: It's tempting to stop at a single data point instead dig, empathize and get to know the people behind the metrics. That's where the real insight lies! Joel goes behind the scenes of how he helped an online business in UK realize additional $165,000 in revenue with less than 15 minutes of copywriting work.  Closing Takeaway:  90% of copywriting has nothing to do with writing. It's about researching, listening, doing what it takes to empathize with your customer. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote: "Everything Happens for a Reason" Personal Story and Lessons: Perry shares a story that happened very early in his music industry career and how it turned out to be a humbling experience. That incident left such a strong impression on Perry and he continues to do his own shipping at work , despite being in a senior exec role. Key lesson - " Pay attention to the details making sure the job you want to get done, gets done and in a way you want it to get done" .  Closing Takeaway:  Authenticity + Consistency. If you are not authentic consistently, you won't win in person life or work situations. Here's how you can create this habit - ask yourself "is this how I would interact/act/say it with my closest family members?"  After all, sincere intent behind business relationships is the key for marketing and sales success. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote:  "When selling, if you want to want to get a response, be worthy of a response" Personal Story and Lessons:  Deep insight from Sean's experience of selling and building his company - only work with people and individuals that are aligned with your values and vision. Whenever Sean hired people or did business with customers who weren't aligned with his core values of authenticity and integrity, things fell apart down the line and fairly quickly too.  Closing Takeaway:  Daily journaling is a MUST - gratitude, self-reflection on how you could have acted or said differently to create a better version of yourself during  those moments. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote:  "It doesn't matter if SDRs are under marketing or sales. We are all one team working in concert to generate revenue" Personal Story and Lessons:  During the current COVID-19 pandemic where many businesses have been hit hard, it's important to forgive yourself, be a hands-on operator no matter what your title is and invest in relations. Now more than ever, companies, leaders and its people shouldn't lose faith.  Closing Takeaway:  Do not say that you are going to do something and then fail to follow through. Meet fear with action. Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast

Power Quote:  "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin Personal Story and Lessons:  Too much expertise is the enemy of creativity. More knowledge does not always lead to better decisions. Gopi points out that founders of Uber, Google, PayPal, AirBnB were all industry outsiders who challenged traditional thinking in the industry. As a result, they created massive global impact products that generate billions of dollars in revenue.  Closing Takeaway:  Invest in your product during these slow market conditions so you can delight your customers. Ask early for a purchase decision if you are selling to enterprises.   Follow us on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningcombo/ Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Winning-Combo-105826354160436/ Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ComboPodcast