Microlearning on the go: 6-packs of Closing Time, the show for go-to-market leaders Uncategorized by Val Riley April 10, 2024 Depending on where you live, it’s either Spring or Fall, but either means mild weather and opportunities for outdoor fun. As you’re out and about, you may want to use that time to improve your go-to-market knowledge and stay up to date on the latest trends. This season, take Closing Time with you. Closing Time is the podcast and YouTube Show designed for go-to-market leaders. With episodes around 20 minutes or less, Closing Time dives deep into one topic to give you actionable takeaways from prominent leaders in sales, marketing, customer success, and more. According to the American Journal of Medicine, the attention span of the typical adult learner wanes after 15-20 minutes, so the bursts of micro-learning delivered by Closing Time are ideal for professionals in go-to-market fields. The team at Insightly selects guests based on their knowledge of go-to-market areas, trends in the marketplace, and topics that you need to know to have a seat at the table. The list of episodes includes thought leadership concepts, deep dives into recent research, and practical, how-to guides that listeners can put into practice immediately. As we celebrate the 100th episode of Closing Time, it’s a good time to look back at some luminary episodes and divide them into groups for various roles. Let’s explore 5 curated collections of episodes for professionals in different disciplines of go-to-market. The CSO Collection – Chief Sales Officer Is it time to build a BDR/SDR program? Are you ready to lead your team through the next economic downturn? These are questions CSOs ask themselves all the time. In this six pack, hear from Sam McKenna of #samsales on the economics, metrics, and resource allocation data that can help you decide if and when a BDR/SDR function is a good fit. It’s in episode 8: How do you know if you need a BDR/SDR program. Mike Weir of G2 talks about leading teams when economic conditions are rough by continuing to create environments that focus on development plans, coaching and advancement. This collection has technical CRM experts talking about getting your tech stack right from the start, and advice on compensation from a leader in sales recruiting. CSOs will be on the edge of their seats! Also included in this collection: Episode 16 with Amy Volas: Latest trends in sales compensation Episode 63 with Vanessa Hunt: Choosing the Right CRM: It’s an Art, Not a Science Episode 64 with Mike Topalovich: Do legacy CRMs need a reality check? Episode 87 with Ann Handley: AI-Driven Authenticity: How Sellers and Marketers Can Use AI to Foster Genuine Connections The Sales Manager Collection Let’s roll up our sleeves and get close with our sellers. In this collection, we get hands-on with the coaches who are in the trenches, having weekly pipeline meetings, and coaching AEs/BDRs/SDRs every day. They are the hype men and women, keeping the team pumped and excited to sell, sell, sell. Now, are we selling against a competitor or against the status quo? Sales advisor Jen Allen-Knuth talks about the cost of inaction in episode 38: 3 Ways to Defeat Your Buyer’s Status Quo. So if we get a sale, can we upsell/cross sell? Hannah Ajikawo of Revenue Funnels shares tips to help increase ACV – the metric that keeps most sales managers up at night. Also included in this collection: Episode 24 with Amy Volas: How to get (and keep) a job as VP of Sales Episode 28 with Amy Volas: How to Reduce sales turnover: Your hiring process Episode 39 with Tyler Lessard: How to get your sales team to adopt video selling Episode 59 with Derek Grant: Top 5 ways to Improve your sales cadences. New research! The Account Executive (AE) Collection Step right up, sellers! This collection is for you. You’re working the phones, personalizing emails, following up with leads, and generating pipeline. All this while you’re keeping the CRM updated every day. You also know that selling is a craft and you constantly need to keep your skills sharp. In this collection, we turn to Udi Ledergore from Gong where they analyzed mountains of data and came up with call openers that work, terminology around pricing discussions, and even permission to use a few ‘colorful’ words now and then. Learn all about it in episode 74: How to make your next sales call better. Tyler Lessard of Vidyard chimes in on episode 37 with unique ways to use video throughout the sales process – ahead of the demo, as a demo follow-up, and even when delivering a contract. Also included in this collection: Episode 10 with Doug Landis: 5 Discovery Call Tips to Help Buyers Overcome the Status Quo Bias Episode 22 with Ravi Rajani: 4 ways build authentic rapport & connection over Zoom Episode 30 with Sam McKenna: 5 steps to turning a referral into a win Episode 58 with Chris Orlob: SaaS Demo Best Practices: How to Crush Your Next Demo Call The Marketer’s Collection Talk about a lineup of luminaries. This collection contains episodes featuring Shama Hyder, CEO of Zen Media, Katie Foote, CMO of Drift, and 2x founder Rand Fishkin. Explore topics that are top of mind for markers like attribution, ABM, and branding. In episode 25, Katie Foote talks about the new ‘conversational marketing’ category and how Drift is putting it on the map. Shama Hyder walks you into the dark social funnel in episode 14, talking about how people research privately on social media before they initiate a sales process with your team. Also included in this collection: Episode 62 with Anna Furmanov: Early Stage Startup? 11 Startup Marketing Initiatives to Help You Grow Faster Episode 68 with Rand Fishkin: Bouncing back after the death of marketing attribution Episode 81 with Dale Harrison: Does Brand awareness work in B2B? Here’s how to prove it does to your CFO Episode 86 with Brendan Hufford: Efficient Growth: Using Marketing Sprints to Grow Faster while Spending Less The Sales Ops/Rev Ops Collection We didn’t forget you, operations folks! So many episodes of Closing Time talk through the importance of the sales operations and revenue operations teams and how they link marketing and sales teams together. Getting the right tech stack, maintaining it, and getting leads into the hands that need them…operations teams are our anchors. Sales strategist Chris Walker has been on two Closing Time episodes talking about how to refocus and reshuffle sales teams to focus on metrics that drive wins. In part one, episode 69, he talks about the difference between demand capture and demand creation. In part two, restructuring your sales funnel is on the table. Also included in this collection: Episode 3 with Todd Caponi: Salespeople Ruin Everything: Building a tech stack that works Episode 46 with Eddie Reynolds: The 5-step RevOps model for high-growth teams Episode 49 with Keith Rabkin: The 4 Keys to Successful Sales Proposals Episode 90 with Josh Fedie: How to Optimize the B2B Buyer Experience and Improve Wins Rates in 2024 New this year: Closing Time Customer Spotlights Closing Time recently expanded its format to include the Closing Time Customer Spotlight. You’ll hear directly from an Insightly CRM customer on how they are using the platform to achieve key metrics in their business. The inaugural episode of Closing Time Customer Spotlight features CEO Frank Gray III of NeuLine Health. Frank talks about how his company was using Insightly and then searching for a HIPAA-compliant platform to help with additional processes. During their discovery, they realized that they in fact did not need to add another platform; rather, they doubled down on their use of Insightly and customized their Insightly instances to meet the needs of their three healthcare businesses. Hear Frank’s story in episode 94 entitled How healthcare business, Neuline Health, uses a HIPAA-compliant CRM. Explore more episodes of Closing Time Customer Spotlights by visiting the Closing Time page. Time to hit the road Grab one or more Closing Time six-packs and hit the road. Take your micro-learning with you on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Or watch on YouTube. CEO insights | Customer relationships | Marketing trends | Sales management | Sales team Val Riley Val Riley is a tech marketer with more than 20 years of experience. She specializes in Content Marketing at Insightly and previously worked for a marketing automation platform as head of Product and Content Marketing. Also known as The Decaf Marketer, Val is a regular contributor on LinkedIn.