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I Was Just Interviewed by The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast

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Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast Interview

 

I was just interviewed by Josh Elledge of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast.  Josh is an ex-Navy guy who is an expert in influencer marketing.  I would love it if you listened to the podcast.

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Listen to the Interview

 

14 Years of Inbound Marketing and Sales Experience

My book, "How to Dominate Any Market - TurboCharging Your Marketing Sales Results", is what brought me to this Podcast.  This worldwide best seller provides a step-by-step blueprint of how to set your business up for success and to completely dominate any market.

 

How To Use Google Keyword Planner Tool Tutorial

Nine Books Planned - Three Produced So Far

 

Over my many years as both an entrepreneur, and Senior SAP Industry Principal, as well as almost 30 years of Aviation experience, I've consistently encountered what I was able to group into nine major challenges for every business owner.

 

Digital Transformation - A Process

Many terms come into vogue and the business news outlets are always ready to promote them.  These terms and concepts go through what has been defined as the hype-cycle, often without any real meat behind the words.  After having helped many, many businesses launch, from zero, as well as take many existing businesses to new heights of performance, I've come up with what I believe is a very straight forward explanation of digital transformation.

 

Infusing Every Business Process With Digital Information

Every business, big or small, including my own business, is composed of a series of interlocking systems, which all go toward executing a business process.  Many of those business processes, especially lead generation via your website, and sales execution, which can be either online, offline or a combination of both, if configured properly, generate a river of data.  Business leaders must not only establish the systems to make all of this happen, they must also be able to absorb and interpret this flood of information.

 

Own Business Modelled On SAP Professional Services

 

As it happens, prior to founding my business, I was the Senior SAP Industry Principal for Professional Services covering all the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).  Professional Services covers a wide variety of industries, including Lawyers, Accountants and most importantly, large global consultancy firms, such as Accenture, IBM, KPMG and SAP itself.

 

IT Systems Should Work Hard, Not You

 

The SAP Professional Services Industry Specific Solution provided me with a solid business process model to knit together a digital based entrepreneurial operating system, before it was known as that.  It's how you build a hyper-scalable business model.

 

Starts With Knowing What You Sell

One of the huge insights I've uncovered is that many, if not most business owners, struggle to define exactly what they sell, whether it is a product or service.  That's what led me to write the second of my nine book series, "Knowing What You Sell - The Key to Dominate Your Marketing". 

 

Key to Conversion Rate Optimization

Someday, Artificial Intelligence might be able to tell you both what to sell, and what you actually sell.  In the meantime, you and I have to rely on our expertise.  Once you have your lead generation system established on the web, you will start to generate some performance data.  Successful marketers, especially digital marketers, learn the concept of Always Be Testing and the broader concept of data driven Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO.  It's impossible to do this unless you have a thorough and deep understanding of what you sell and to whom you sell it to.  This last part, the Whom, is also known as knowing your Buyer Persona.  When you combine deep insight about who buys what from you, you had the foundation in place to Scale Sales.

 

High-Performance Sales System

 

The third book in the series, "Solving Your Growth and Revenue Problem" provides a complete strategy and methodology for setting up a high-performance sales operation.  I help you model a sales force, show you how to set up realistic, yet challenging Sales Quotas, perform realistic Sales Forecasting, and how to size your Sales Team to meet your Goals.

 

Inbound Marketing Strategy

 

Soon to be released, tentative title "How to Develop and Implement an Inbound Marketing Strategy" will delve deep into just what Inbound Marketing is, whether it is the basis for the right marketing strategy for your business, and what you can expect to spend on your Inbound Marketing System as well as on-going marketing efforts.  Every successful entrepreneur must master marketing, and for many types of businesses, entrepreneurial success using an Inbound Marketing Strategy is a key part of successful marketing mix.  Get it right, and you could be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

 

Owning a Small Business is Hard Work

 

The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures. More narrow definitions have described entrepreneurship as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often similar to a small business.  It is very hard work to image a business model and then bring it into existence.

 

Managing Risk Successfully is Key

Every business, from one man sole proprietorship to giant corporation, faces risks, every day.  These can range from competitors attacking your market, to customer displaying fickle behavior, to government regulation putting your business at risk.  You will often hear, "no risk no reward".  That's true, as far as it goes.  But there are plenty of ways to identify risks, and minimize their impact on your business venture, while maximizing profit.  

 

Business Financing - A Source of Success or Weakness

One of the most common sources of business failure is running out of capital.  While some entrepreneurs are lone players struggling to get small businesses off the ground on a shoestring, others take on partners armed with greater access to capital and other resources. In these situations, new firms may acquire financing from venture capitalists, angel investors, hedge funds, crowdfunding, or through more traditional sources such as bank loans or friends and family.  Regardless of where you get funding for your business, you must have a enough business acumen to set up an organizational structure to achieve long term success.

 

Demonstrate Growth Potential

 

If you can demonstrate a high growth potential for your business, a venture capitalist and other potential investors may offer capital in exchange for receiving equity in your company. The challenge here for many entrepreneurs is the trade-off between retaining control and growing as fast possible to take advantage of blue ocean opportunities, which exist in every business realm.

 

 

A Key Business Resource

 

We wanted this to be a key part of your journey.

 

Enjoy the Podcast

 

While we cover a lot during this podcast, I think you will get a lot of value out of it.  There are almost 600 other podcast available from Josh.  Successful entrepreneurs are always learning. 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
Balanced Scorecard Consultant

He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

View All Articles by Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

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