Lochhead on Marketing
093 Are You Making This Sales Training Mistake?
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In this episode, let’s talk about sales training slash sales enablement. Companies make a very big mistake on sales training. Christopher shares his thoughts about that mistake and how not to do that.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
092 How To Manage Digital Reputations w/ Josh Greene
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It is super important to know how social media and the online-world itself work, especially if you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur. This holds true because we are living in a digital-first world, where you can search for anything on the internet. Managing your digital reputation is indeed challenging and sometimes complicated.
So today our guest, Josh Greene, CEO of The Mather Group, explains how search engines work and what you can do to optimize them for your benefit.
Positive Google Outcome
Christopher asks Josh what he would advise him to get a positive Google outcome. Josh says that if you are doing a lot of “leading” in an industry, that will ultimately lead to good results in the search engines. For those who are not quite famous, he advises “sending Google a signal” to treat their content a certain way. Entrepreneurs should post and write about themselves (bio) so search engines can recognize them.
“If you write books, if you start a podcast, if you have a Twitter feed that lots of people find useful, or if your videos are getting lots of views, all of those things play a big role in what’s showing up in the Google search results.” – Josh Greene
Google Search Ranking System
Having a common name is hard when you’re trying to get a sweet spot for yourself in a search engine. Christopher asks Josh what are the highest order bits in terms of teaching Google to rank yourself. Josh says that the first thing you could do is take inventory of what your assets currently are and focus on your digital presence:
“That’s a nice part for people who are very active in their field and sort of well respected because there’s a sort of equivalent almost in terms of how Google’s algorithm is viewing things.” – Josh Greene
Social Media Platforms
Social media marketing is one of the easiest ways to promote a product or a business. Christopher asks Josh how to decide which social media platform to use if he’s only going to invest his time in one or two of these. Josh says that he should consider asking himself first if it plays to his strengths and who’s the audience he’s trying to reach with it.
“So, it could be that you’re a fantastic guitarist. Instagram is a nice format for showing off your guitar playing chops. Twitter can be useful because you can curate news to a particular audience that might be following you. And if you’re in a particular corporate role, sometimes LinkedIn can be really useful because you don’t need to publish a ton to get a lot of eyeballs on something.” – Josh Greene
To know more about how to manage digital reputations with Josh Greene, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Josh Greene is the CEO for The Mather Group, a digital agency, that helps companies manage how they’re found online, through Wikipedia and Search Engine Optimization, and drives targeted high value leads for B2B companies.
Prior to The Mather Group, Greene was the VP of Marketing for both 1-800-PACK-RAT and Zippy Shell where he was responsible for all marketing including online, offline, and the launch of national television campaigns.
Prior to 1-800-PACK-RAT, Greene was the Vice President of Member Services for Shop.org where he oversaw membership recruitment and retention initiatives.
Additionally, Greene collaborated with NRF’s government relations staff to execute policy and advocacy strategies on behalf of Shop.org members.
He also served as a liaison to Shop.org’s Policy Advisory Group, developed industry initiatives, and managed Shop.org’s Ray M. Greenly Scholarship fund.
Greene joined Shop.org from Discovery Communications, where he was director of online marketing and business development.
At Discovery, Greene oversaw online marketing, direct response television, corporate gifting, and partner programs for DiscoveryStore.com.
Prior to Discovery Communications, Greene was director of e-marketing for Time Warner Cable and director of e-marketing for Road Runner.
He’s been a frequent speaker at industry events including ad:tech, SES, Channel Advisor’s Catalyst conference, and others.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
091 The Marketing Multiplier Effect
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On episode 90, we talked about how complexity is the enemy of revenue and how to shave the marketing dog down. Now let’s talk about what we do once we shaved the dog down. We talk about the powerful marketing execution concept called the multiplier effect. The concept means taking our precious marketing dollars and getting maximum impact for them.
“Imagine you’re going to make a $10,000 investment in some kind of marketing initiative. The question is how do you make it feel like a hundred or a hundred thousand dollar investment? How do you make it feel like a million or a million? How do you make it feel like 10?” – Christopher Lochhead
Disconnect in Departments
Once you “shaved the marketing dog down,” you’ll be down to a fewer number of marketing executions. However, there is also a downside to this cut-down. Companies often find a disconnect between the different departments. Christopher addresses this disconnect in this episode.
“Legendary marketing makes people feel like the company or the brand is a person. Everything from that person is authentic to them. That is to say, it’s, it’s rooted in a true North and all of their actions are deeply coordinated and effective.” – Christopher Lochhead
Have A Few, Clear Target/s
Christopher advises marketers to have a few, clear targets to have a more effective marketing campaign. After this, he encourages marketers to have the multiplier effect mindset.
“So here’s how the mindset works. Every execution must multiply the value of every other execution. After you shaved the dog, it’s critical to pick an anchor execution for your campaign or your lightning strike.” – Christopher Lochhead
CMOs Should Tie Everything Together
The CMOs job is to tie it all together. Christopher advises CMOs their duties and what are the interesting questions to ask when looking at a particular marketing execution.
“How does this tie? That is to say, how does this execution multiply the value of the anchor execution? How does this tie and remember, just to underscore it, there can only be one anchor.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more about the marketing multiplier effect, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
090 Complexity Is The Enemy of Revenue: Why It’s Time to Shave The Marketing Dog
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If you’re currently doing a big initiative, say a new product launch, a new campaign, a sales kickoff or a lightning strike, let’s talk about why you are also, most probably, making a huge mistake. Shit sometimes, gets too complex and we know that complexity is the enemy of revenue. So on this episode, let’s talk about why it’s time to shave the marketing dog.
Doing Too Much
There’s 99.9% chance you are doing too much in marketing. Christopher candidly shares that sometimes in life, it is not about winning the activity. For contests, as a matter of fact, there is an inverse relationship between activity and results.
“I see this a lot in marketing, a lot of activity, a lot of moving, a lot of bands, bouncing and dancing, and there’s stupidities in marketing today. I hear stuff like, ‘Oh, you need to be everywhere. You need to be on every channel. You need to be putting out 200 pieces of content today across every channel.’ That stuff is ridiculous. All that stuff is bullshit.” – Christopher Lochhead
Where To Shave The Dog
Whenever Christopher is doing anything marketing related, he loves to pose the question, “where do we shave this dog?” He encourages every marketer to do a forced ranking of all the activities and choose top 3 (or more) that will guarantee the same level of results from doing a couple.
I learned everything I know about design from a couple of legendary designers and one of them is John Bielenberg. He’s an incredible business and corporate marketing designer. He has a perspective, he calls thinking wrong. The idea is this, when you do anything creative, ask yourself ‘what is 180 degrees from what everybody else would do? What is wrong? What would be the wrong way to go do this?’” – Christopher Lochhead
Activities That Multiply Outcome
Christopher also shares another thinking of pursuing activities that multiple the outcomes of another former activity. One should always ask, “does this component of our plan, materially multiply our chances of achieving the outcome we want from this marketing activity?”
“Shave the dog. Shave that doggy down. Practice getting everything out. Consider getting even more radical.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more why Complexity Is The Enemy of Revenue and Why It’s Time to Shave The Marketing Dog, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
089 The Future Needs You
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Just because it turned January 1st and we’re into a new year doesn’t mean anything is going to change unless people make it change. We are all in a cocoon time and it means that we, as marketers, entrepreneurs and category designers can design the future of our choosing.
The Future Is Not Like The Weather
Christopher poses his observation on some people and how they comment about the future. Some people wish to have a better 2021 but do not think about who is responsible for positive change to happen.
“I think it’s important to underscore that the future does not just happen. It’s not like the weather. People make things happen. The seminal question for all of us is: what kind of future do we want to design?” – Christopher Lochhead
The Future, From A Business Perspective
Christopher thinks, from a business perspective, that most definitely someone from your category is doing something. They may be working on or beginning to implement something to get to a different future.
“Someone in your category is examining new business models and ideas, new emerging technologies, new product strategies, looking at problems in new and different ways. As a result, discovering potential to either redesign your category or launch a new adjacent category that could change the game dramatically in your space.” – Christopher Lochhead
The Future, Designed By Legends
In this episode, Christopher cites some noteworthy, legendary entrepreneurs who did massive actions to design their future. He cites Allie Haverstraw, who did extraordinary efforts to help small businesses. He also talks about Eric Jorgensen’s legendary story of triumph over extraordinary despair. Lastly, he talks about the main man of 2021 himself, Eric Yuan of Zoom Technologies.
“What do I hope you take from examples? This, now, is our time. Those of us who are in a position to make a difference, can make a giant difference because the future needs you, regardless of how you can make a difference. Now is the time in spite of all of the misery that many of us, myself included have been through over the last year or so. I say there’s never been a greater time to design the future of our choosing.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more about why the future needs you, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
Year End Message From Christopher
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This is Christopher and I just wanted to take a little moment to share a couple quick things with you.
First, just big thank you. Thank you for making me and our entire team part of your 2020.
The second thing, I know it’s been a horrible year for many of us, for me and my family, it’s been the most horrible year of all.
I also want you to know that I thought about quitting a lot this year, both podcasting and writing. Knowing that you were there, if you sent email or tweets or LinkedIn messages or just knowing you were there, has made a big difference.
I didn’t know (when I started writing and podcasting) how much the friendships that I would develop with our listeners and readers would mean to me. Even if we’ve never met or exchanged a message, I just want you to know how much I appreciate you.
Thank you because for the last 15 months, it’s really been the worst time of my life. Having you with me has made a giant difference. I know you being there has made a giant difference to our entire team. So thank you so much.
I also wanted to share a little piece that I put on social media, for those of you who might have lost someone. So I’ll just read that to you quickly.
If you have an empty chair, this holiday, I’m truly sorry. If you have an empty chair, this holiday, please know that your family does not cry alone. And if you do not have an empty chair this holiday, please remember to tell your friends and family how much you love them.
In times like these, it really calls for inspiration and who better to turn to than Winston Churchill. So I thought I’d share this quote with you.
If you will, as a toast to 2021, without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.
So I’m going to grab hold of this Macallan 12. I have a little squirt and say, thank you. Bless you. Here’s to 2021.
088 What Kind of Human You Are Determines What Kind of Marketer You Are
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Steven Kotler has written one of the most important books of 202, The Art of the Impossible. One of the things discussed in the book is human evolutionary motivations. As a result, Christopher believes Steven has uncovered a key learning point for marketers, entrepreneurs and category designers. That is: the kind of human you are determines what kind of marketer and category designer you are.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
087 Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product, right?
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“Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product.”
Says an ex-CEO/Software Engineer who found himself wrapping his company around the lamppost, with his entire executive team leaving, and his investors getting f*cked up. In spite of many stories like this, there are still a lot of people in Silicon Valley (and in the business world in general) who believe the best product wins and that marketing isn’t worth very much.
So in this episode, we dig into a research project involving one of the world’s greatest violin players and the Washington post. They prove that the power of category design and marketing is actually, almost everything
Everything Else is Bullsh*t
Most CEOs believe the best product wins. In fact, the CEO we previously mentioned also told Christopher “we make shit and we sell shit and everything else is bullshit.” Christopher narrates his personal experiences with various non-believers of the power of marketing and the importance of category design.
The Social Experiment
In 2007, legendary violinist Joshua Bell partnered with two time Pulitzer prize writer, Gean Weingarten of the Washington Post. The premise is Bell would play in Washington D.C. Metro Station and Weingarten would film and analyze what will happen.
This was an experiment about context, perception and priorities.
“Here’s what you need to know about Joshua Bell.. He has been called an internationally acclaimed virtuoso. Joshua regularly plays to massive sold-out crowds. Audiences hang on his every note. When he plays the violin, he tends to make a thousand dollars a minute.” – Christopher Lochhead
The Results of the Experiment
Bell played with his handcrafted $14 million violin. Weingarten wanted to know if people will be moved by the music of this master? If they were, how would they value the music that he was making? The results will shock you.
“The perception of your product or service is your product or service. Joshua plays and get paid a thousand dollars a minute because they’ve been told that he’s legendary. When people aren’t told that he’s legendary, hardly anybody gives a shit. So as marketers and category designers, we must never forget. We are in the perception, manufacturing business.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more if marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
086 Are You Wasting Your Career?
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According to the January 2018 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person changes jobs 10 to 15 times within their career. If you take it from that perspective, if you’re 25 years old and you are serious in your career, you still get seven chances to do something legendary in your career before you hit the big 6-0.
So in today’s episode, we ask, are you wasting your career?
Make Every Career Count
You get a very few chances to do something legendary, so make them count. Mike Maples of podcast Starting Greatness says “start or join a company worthy of your talent.” Christopher adds that a lot of people make the mistake of trying to sell themselves to a company, instead of you evaluating the potential of a company.
“Most people look at this backwards. They look at things like the salary, title, who their boss is going to be, the health care plan, vacation time, the commute. I’m not saying all those things aren’t important. They are important. I would start or suggest you start to look, ‘is this company. designing and dominating a giant space?’” – Christopher Lochhead
Work For Category Queens
Choose the best and the pioneers in their own space. That’s how you can make money out of your career. First, you get the job security and assurance that the company is here to stay. Secondly, most companies offer stock option for long term employees, which enables you to build wealth.
“You have to ask yourself, is this company, the leadership, the founder, the CEO, the CMO, the head of sales, the head of engineering —do they have what it takes to design a legendary product company and category at the same time and become the category queen?” – Christopher Lochhead
Find Ways To Earn Horizontally
Wise people take a job where they are getting paid to work and they convert that cash into investments. Over time they build a real nest egg. Christopher believes that it is important to find a career that enables you to gain investment opportunities. These investments can later on earn passive income for you.
“Convert sweat for cash into an investment that sweats for you.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more if you are wasting your career, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
