How to be the “go-to” company in your competitive market Ft. Theresa Lina (Inbound Success, Ep. 157)

How can any corporation — large or small — own their competitive market, commission more, and, at the same time, build a customer base that perfectly affection it?

This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Theresa Lina, best-selling author of the book Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More, and Have Purchaser Love You For It, talked about the Apollo method — information systems that she says is the secret to standing out as a brand.

Theresa’s method is simple and actionable, and something that any companionship were applicable, and in this episode, she breaks down the details and talks about why so many companies get onto wrong.

Resources from this incident 😛 TAGEND

Connect with Theresa on LinkedIn

Buy the book

Visit the Apollo Method website

Check out some of the other riches Theresa mentioned:

Tour ecorner.standford.edu

Stu McLaren’s website

Salesforce’s Trailblazers community

Theresa and Kathleen recording this episode

Transcript

Kathleen( 00:15 ): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I’m your multitude, Kathleen Booth. And this week, my patron is Theresa Lina, who is the author of the number one Amazon bestseller “Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More and Have Customers Love You For It.” Welcome to the podcast Theresa.

Theresa( 00:35 ): Thank you, Kathleen. I’m so happy to be here.

Kathleen( 00:37 ): Yeah, I’m truly interested to speak with you. First of all, I adoration the topic of the book. I represent, who does not want to be the GoTo and likewise have their purchasers enjoy them and be able to charge more and all the things that you mentioned in the claim?

But too you have a really interesting background and assortment of things that you do. You’re not only a diary writer, you’re a consultant. You are a teacher. You’re involved in Stanford university and improving parties about marketing. I wonder if maybe you could take a minute and talk a little about your background, how you got to where you are today and all of the different things that you’re have been engaged in today.

Theresa( 01:13 ): Okay. Yes. So yeah, my, my primary emphasis throughout my job has been policy and sell in the tech and mostly in the technology space and chiefly B2B. So I’ve studied sell and new technologies at university. And then I have a job with Accenture coming out of college and depleted many years with them and was in both the customer on the client side. And then later cured start the industry marketing program there.

And I had a global manufacture commerce character for one of the business parts that I facilitated start with the partner in charge at the time. And we proliferated that to be over $ 850 million in a very short period of time with all organic growth, which was really incredible. It was an incredible travel. And now that business unit is a multibillion dollar business unit.

Theresa( 02:14 ): It’s massive inside the company. And then I set off on my own. I, part of me, I had, I sort of wore two hats. I had one company that was an educational entertainment company for children, which was a personal project. And then I started a strategy and marketing consulting firm and worked with Accenture and other patients with that.

And then over era, there were many epoches when I went back inside to become chief marketing officer and manager approach policeman for a couple of different business, which restrained me sanded because as a consultant, it’s so easy to think you have all the answers and,

Oh, everything’s straight forward, only do this and you’ll supplanted. And of course we all know, any of us who’ve spent experience on the inside, life is very different when you’re, you are well aware, dodging the bullets every day inside a company.

Theresa( 03:08 ): And one of those stints was during the dot com rise and fall. And so I lived through all of the dot com bust and the 9-11 and all of that. And then another stint was through the great recession.

o you know, I unquestionably know what it’s like to go through these hard times as somebody on the inside. And then I also have been involved at Stanford for a bit over 15 years now in numerous faculties, both in improve with their own outreach to their alumni and their communities and stakeholders.

And then too I facilitate I’m on the teaching team for some directions and one of their ministerial ed platforms at the business school. So I wear quite a few hats and then I have, I still have my consulting firm.

Kathleen( 03:59 ): Now let’s talk a little about the book. Be the go-to. What does that mean?

Theresa( 04:03 ): Yeah, so, you are well aware, one of the, the, the great problem that I was running into with my own business and that I was running into with companionships that I was working for and with purchasers is that customers or clients started putting pricing stres on us because they weren’t picturing what seen us unique and different from anybody else they are unable to work with.

And it was really frustrating because this was happening like say in my contingency with patrons that I had had for a very long time who knew me, who knew our duty, they, the government has they knew well a quite different and the room we are also able perform and that we produced a lot of value.

And more they still would say, yeah, yeah, but, you know, we could go over here and get the same work for less money.

Theresa( 04:51 ): And it was really frustrating. And meanwhile, I knew that there were business out there, Accenture, the one I, “the organizations activities” I have have helped start within Accenture. We were a high perimeter business getting paid very well for what we were doing.

And I was on the telephone with one of my subcontractors one day who know about a friend of hers who was charging $50,000 a epoch for what she was doing. And “shes had” less knowledge than we did. And we, you are well aware, it was, it was incredible. And so I actually became fascinated by this. What is it that performs some firms able to charge so much more than everybody else?

And they can command these fee tolls. They hardly ever have to compete for work. They are there the first name that comes to mind when individual has a particular issue or problem.

Theresa( 05:41 ): And so I certainly wanted to understand what the recipe was. And a good deal of the ordinary answers weren’t in themselves enough having the best product , not enough having great PR or great market visibility , not enough you know, the, the inventory exactly extended. So I did a, I did a lot of research and interviewed a lot of clients and executives and other beings out there in the marketplace.

And I came up with what seems to be me to be the recipe for my own business. And then as I wrote it down on a plane, on to Chicago, one day, literally I was jotting it down and I realized, Oh my God, all of my patients need this. This is, this is it. “Its what you” do. And that became what I pointed up dubbing as the Apollo method for sell dominance.

Because later I came to realize that the latitudes between what the Apollo space program had be done in order to positioned a gentleman on the moon actually were very striking compared to what a company needed to do to achieve sustainable differentiation and busines a leading role in, you are well aware, a applied market.

Theresa( 06:54 ): So that was the genesis of all of this. And the essence of what the book is about. I mostly wrote down the methodology. I’ve said, I demand this to be something anybody can go off and do. It’s terribly step by step and actionable so that you don’t need me to do it.

And it’s not a big pitch piece to get to the upsell. It’s you can go off, spoke the book, and if you do what it says, you are eligible to, you can have a, make a miraculous gap in your profit margins and your longterm sustainability in a, even in a very competitive space.

Kathleen( 07:33 ): I’m sure everybody who’s listening is thinking the same thing I am, which is, tell me more about this Apollo framework. What exactly does it imply?

Theresa( 07:45 ): On the surface it’s so simple, and it approximately reverberates reviling because it’s, it’s very straight. It’s very simple, but of course, when you dive into the details, it gets a little richer with some of the subtlety of what you need to do. But a good deal of it is bringing together patches that a good deal of companies do go out and do.

There are some things that I, I see missing, which is why I did feel compelled to write the book, because I just was not checking it discussed out in the market. So there are four chapters or four segments, and I present them in a chronological order in the book, but you can do bits and pieces.

You can attract from different parts depending on where you are with your business. So the four stages at the high level are launch, ignite, navigate, and accelerate. So open is where you decide what it is you’re going to be known for.

Theresa( 08:35 ): You decide not just what product or offering are we going to put out into the market, but what, what do we want to own? What question do we want to make full ownership for in the market where we are really the, the foresee governors around that problem.

And we are the ones advancing progress in that area for world markets. We have a vision for what the market needs to do and what will solve this problem. And we are in it for the long haul to to guide the market along. So that’s, so during that chapter, you decide what markets, what busines or business you’re going to focus on, what you want to be known for.

And then you develop your point of view on that problem. So what’s why is it a problem? Why is it a pressing problem and what needs to be done about it?

Theresa( 09:24 ): And then you define, or you hypothesize or define your unique, what your unique approach to solving that question is soon to be. And then you put your stake in the dirt and say, by golly, we own this. You might do it with a big launch event. You might do it with a press statement, with a, with an ebook, whatever it may be.

So that’s your open. Then ignite is where you take that point of view and you go out and your, your goal is to lead a shift in the markets around that issue, around that point of view, around that question and what needs to be done about it.

And of course your approach, but on a, at a higher level, it’s actually more about taking the market forward. So you see Tesla doing this with electric cars, you know. They have their, they have their higher purposes.

Theresa( 10:16 ): We want to accelerate the adoption of electric car technology in the marketplace. We actually believe deep that the world needs to move to electric car technology. And so when they talk about themselves, a good deal of what they talk about is electric car technology, what we need to do to make the industry forward.

You know, they, they talk about their gondolas to a limited extent, but it’s actually that, that bigger message and a key in the ignite time is that you’re getting other power broker in the market to embrace your, your your point of view and your purpose.

And so they become evangelists on behalf of the members of you as well, out in the marketplace on your behalf. So the goal is to get that impetu leading and certainly pass the market forward. We participated Mark Benioff do this with salesforce.com.

Anybody who’s watched that floor unfold over the last 20 times looked him take a point of view, which said, we have got to get the world off of this expensive set software that takes months, or if not, years, to install and millions of dollars, you know? We need to kill software.

Theresa( 11:24 ): He literally had a a logo, the Ghostbuster style logo that said, you are well aware, get rid of software. And so when he would go out to conventions, he would not talk about the Salesforce technology. He talked about the it is necessary placed all countries of the world in the mas. And at that time, this was incredibly controversial.

And a lot of people didn’t think it was going to be ever embraced. Because at that time you didn’t dare leant patron, your most precious corporate data in the mas , no way would anybody do that. So he was an example of somebody who really went out and started a whole new movement in the marketplace.

So that’s the goal with ignite. The third phase is navigate, and this is where you have to walk the talk you have to deliver on your hopes. So this is where you actually make your offering to market.

Theresa( 12:19 ): You sell and marketplace your give, you get your beings on board. This is what parties ordinarily associate with the business. But the big difference is that you have a unique offering that is more than only a product. It’s a genuine solution, so that you’re, you’re delivering a result.

You’re not just selling purposes or peculiarities. You’re delivering outcomes for the customer that really change their business and actually solve their problem. And we can talk about more, talk more about that later, if you require, because it’s an important distinction between what, what a good deal of corporations need to be doing to truly be of high value and justify those higher expenditures versus the lane they do it today.

And then the fourth chapter is accelerate. You is therefore necessary to invariably, even no matter how peculiar you are in the beginning, beings are going to come out and start facsimile you, especially as you become successful.

And the market is going to change. The world-wide is going to change around you. So accelerate is all about stick ahead of the market and changing and changing with the market. So those are the four key, the four phases.

Kathleen( 13:29 ): So I have a cluster of questions. You mentioned at the, well, let me back up. The first one is, in all countries of the world of market, I feel like there’s a lot of fus right now about the notions that parties refer to as list creation.

And and there’s, you are well aware, the book “Play Bigger, ” which is on that. And there’s, there’s a whole multitude of other records in that cavity that this sounds a great deal like that. Can you talk about like, is, is that really what this is? Are there differences?

Theresa( 14:01 ): There are differences. There are differences. Yeah, I actually don’t, I know, Christopher and I have had a conversation. He’s a collaborator in Silicon Valley and we have a lot of reciprocal friends.

And I know that, that I know that they have a very strong, the authors of that work have a very strong point of view around list invention. And a lot of people talk about it. I personally don’t believe that you have to go out and create a new category. In numerous roads, Salesforce did not create a new category.

They, they did it differently. They did the same thing that Siebel and other salesforce automation business were doing. They, they did the same thing, but in another, peculiar course that solved a very particular problem. So my, my perspective is that the key is focusing on the problem. What, what trouble are you solving for customers?

Theresa( 15:00 ): What, so it’s, and it’s more around come through here with a unique approach that solves that trouble in a awfully, very high value way. So you do, I don’t believe you have to go. There are many, many companies that have massive success that don’t go out and create an entirely new category, and some advisers would even counsel you against was just trying to do that because it’s extremely expensive and you’re trying to really change, basically modification the market.

And yes, it’s doable. And I know Blue Ocean talks about those as well, to a certain extent, but it’s, it’s not necessary. The one big difference with my journal is that you can apply this to any business , no matter what chapter they’re in.

It could a solopreneur could go out and implement this for themselves, and a person trying to figure out their busines could, who could apply this, or any produce syndicate within a big company, or the company across the board. You know, it can really be applied at various strata. So it’s not about list creation.

Kathleen( 16:10 ): I’m glad you’ve explained that because, and I’ll just share, it’s interesting. I have a point of view on this because, you know, I’m in a lot of different groups of CMOs and heads of marketing. And I feel like every single person I talk to says, they’re creating a new category.

Kathleen( 16:27 ): And at the risk of violating my clean-living content rating on Apple podcasts. I just think that’s bullshit. Every single company can not be creating a brand-new list because then every single company would be in a category of one. Like, it’s exactly, it’s virtually get ridiculous how common it is.

Kathleen( 16:46 ): And I do think there are fellowships that are genuinely doing it, and I think there’s a lot of hullabaloo behind that, but that, you are well aware, I kind of like teed this up. I didn’t tell you I was going to ask you that question, but, but I wanted to have that discussion because I just, I certainly do think it’s become almost ridiculous that it’s like, if you’re today’s marketer, you have to create a category, right?

Theresa( 17:07 ): Yeah. It too various kinds of depends, you know, you can define the word category and I approximate in a lot of different ways you know, I feel with Play Bigger, they have a great perspective and you can do that and have massive success. And with enough uppercase and enough subscribe and natural resources behind you you can definitely implement their strategy.

They talk about some huge stuff in that book. I’m by no means denigrating what they talk about, or it’s simply that I don’t feel that’s the only way to go out and have extraordinary success and and have a tremendous impact.

And, you know, my focus is more on how do you go and have you know, deliver outcomes to a planned of clients that are going to view you as, you know, the review manager and the torchbearer in their, in their world.

Kathleen( 18:04 ): Yeah. So I like that. I like that you have a focus on making this accessible, accessible, I should say, because I think that that’s one of such issues when people talk about list formation is it feels like you need to be VC backed and, you know, it’s, it’s a whole different play.

Theresa( 18:21 ): It’s expensive.

Kathleen( 18:21 ): It is. It’s very expensive. It’s a long game,

Theresa( 18:24 ): Right?

Kathleen( 18:26 ): You mentioned at the beginning that it’s, that this might seem like a big duh, but the reality is most firms are not doing these things. And so can you just take a minute and speak to why you think that is?

Theresa( 18:38 ): Yeah. You know, it certainly perplexes me. I developed this 20 years ago and I I’m dazed that nobody has already come out and come up with it. To me, it was, you know, it’s almost like writing down the chocolate chipping recipe, chocolate microchip cookie recipe that grandmothers have been making for eons.

But so when I firstly came up with it, I actually noticed some defiance in world markets. I foresee I was a little early and talking to parties about this because it was pre-internet and they couldn’t see how same they wished to other fellowships. As the expert consultants, I’m traveling around, I’m is speaking to lots of different people.

It’s like Gartner, you know, the working day long. They talk to companies and every company that feet in and sounds like the last one, but to the company themselves, they, you know, they didn’t read each other.

Theresa( 19:29 ): So they couldn’t tell. Now that , now that digital marketing in particular has sort of introduced everything online corporations, I conclude managers even now more receive, they used to be very shielded from how much they examined and sounded like everybody else. And that’s no longer the case.

So I actually realise even last year, motive I’ve been trying to talk myself out of having to write this bible for years, I’ve started and stopped anticipating, Oh, well, I don’t think we needed it. You know, I’ve been talking about Play Bigger coming out.

And with the path they talked about that record before it was published, I imagined, I had a conversation with Christopher on the phone and after hearing him, I visualized, well, I picture their journal might be the same as mine. Maybe I don’t need to write this. And it came out and I realized , no, it’s still not quite the same.

Theresa( 20:18 ): And last year I anticipated, Oh my God, you know, we, we need it now more than ever. And so because fellowships, they’re there, there are a lot of, they do some of the parts, but they don’t fairly thrown the bits together properly.

And then they’re really missing the boat fully in other areas like, like a point of view, you know? Very few firms have an overarching, true-life dream leadership point of view about the market and where the market needs to go.

They have a point of view about themselves and their product and how their produce operates and why. But you should be able to make your concoction out of it completely and talk just about where the market is going, what the problem is and what they need to be doing about it, independent of your company.

That’s genuine estimate lead. So that’s one of countless examples of things that companies are, are missing the boat on.

Kathleen( 21:19 ): Yeah, I think that’s, to me that’s so important because I feel like it’s that first step where probably 90% of their own problems are. And I think you made the fingernail on the principal, which is that everybody thinks they are differentiated. Like, candidly, I intend, if “youre talking to” any purveyor, they’re not going to say I’m doing a appalling task and I’m copying everyone else. Like they’re going to give you their pitch and their ethic prop, and they’re going to feel like they’ve done that.

Kathleen( 21:43 ): So I repute maybe it would be helpful if you spoke a little bit more about actually what it means to have that point of view, because I’m not sure that parties listening are going to understand, like, what does that look like when it comes to life?

Theresa( 22:02 ): Okay. Yeah. So in the book, I have a particularly prescribed theme frame that I conceive companies should be using, peculiarly if you are a solution to a problem. And what most technology corporations, most B2B your public has more of a B2B focus.

Kathleen( 22:19 ): No, it’s, it’s not, it is kind of all over the place, but I tend to talk a lot about B2B only because that’s where my focus is.

Theresa( 22:28 ): And a great deal of, I see a great deal of it, it used to be interesting. It was so consumer and B2B were such completely different swine in the past and they still are somewhat different, but it’s interesting how something much same they are now than they, than they ever know, or in terms of how you do your commerce, but the point of view. So the content framework is this. It’s three segments. That’s why there’s a problem, what needs to be done about it and how you’ve uniquely solved the problem. So why, what, how. So the point of view is the first two. It’s why there’s a problem in the market. So it’s not just that there’s a problem. It’s why is it a problem? What’s the fallout from the problem? So for example, with me, I would say, you are well aware, the problem is most corporations don’t adequately differentiate themselves in a way that’s going to be sustainable over time.

Theresa( 23:20 ): And this was a problem because it leads to slumping margins over day. It leads to price located race. When your clients can’t insure what spawns you different. And over day, companies have to compete on premium. They have to lower their prices. Boundaries come. They have fewer and fewer dollars to invest back into the business and back into their future and in marketing.

And eventually they go out of business. I necessitate, we say, find with agencies all the time. I signify, there’s some of the worst offenders and failing to differentiate. So, so what should they be doing about it? They need to come up, you are well aware, they need to have a unique approach to a problem that they own in the marketplace.

So that would be for me, my what. So I can talk the working day long about those issues and all, all what companies are facing and what they need to be doing, et cetera, and never once talk about me or my, my company’s works or, or even my book.

You know, I can go all day long time on that point of view about what needs to be happening. So every company ought to have that for themselves. They ought to have that very strong perspective.

Kathleen( 24:38 ): You mentioned Salesforce earlier, which is a great example, and I enjoy that story of Mark Benioff staging a scoff dissent with his signed. And are, are there any companies, maybe some more recent examples of companies that you think are doing that really well, that, that first step in your four step process?

Theresa( 24:57 ): Well, I contemplate for sure you know, I like to use Tesla because I see again, they’re kind of a textbook because they have taken such a peculiar approaching to solving a problem that people have been talking about for a very long time, which is how do you get electric car technology to be embraced? I don’t fantasize parties realize that I have the year in my work, but electric car technology has been around since like the opening of the 20 th century.

I planned, we’re talking over a hundred years of electric car and the, and you know, gas and electrical were sort of developed at the same time. And then gas took off and electric got left in the dust. So but you know, Tesla has this, this very you know, Elon Musk. I imply, he’s a great example for all of his businesses.

Theresa( 25:42 ): You know, his businesses start with a higher purpose. You know, SpaceX, you know, wants to determine opening, walk more accessible and most practical. The Boring Company, you are well aware, he wants to solve the traffic problem. You know, he, the work requires easier, better ways to get gondolas off, you know, to get across town.

So, you know, those are examples. You know, REI, well, that’s not a recent example that these, you are well aware, I, I tended in the book, I tended to study business that have been around for awhile. The entire extent is being sustainable. You know, I belief, you know, I know you talk, talk about HubSpot a lot in your podcast and, you are well aware, I think they’re a good one.

The, the new challenges with that company is that it’s a little broad the room they talk about what needs to be done, but if they just were to focus on the, and they speak, you know, of course emphasis is on inbound, but you are well aware, with them, I’d love to see a more focused message around, you know, what’s wrong with the acces most business approach their inbound marketing and what needs to be done about it.

Theresa( 26:58 ): That would be an example of an opportunity, you are well aware, for them to get more clear about passing service charges, even though they have done a great job of producing the charge in elevating the approach to digital sell, coming parties to be more integrated in how they do it and being more sophisticated and make it, realizing it more accessible to more companies.

Kathleen( 27:22 ): Yeah. Now I think it’s interesting that you have your second gradation as ignite because it is, you know, it’s one thing to have your point of view, but if nothing knows about it, it’s the tree that fell in the forest. Right?

Kathleen( 27:35 ): So talk me through what that ignite gradation looks like or should look like, or how a company should approach it.

Theresa( 27:45 ): Yeah. So a key thing is is, is understanding the role of power brokers in an industry. So a great deal of companionships, a lot of marketers, I study don’t quite appreciate this, and they certainly don’t leverage this to their full advantage.

So every single industry or every market has literally a handful of people who know everybody, are respected by everybody in that market. They, their tentacles contact, I, I nicknamed them tree trunks with enormous spring plans, because that’s how you can be taken into consideration it.

You just see one person standing there, but subterranean unbeknownst, you know, because a great deal of ages you don’t even know how far reaching their network is, but there’s this vast network and they all talk to each other and interact with each other.

So one of the keys to get traction is getting those powerbrokers converted over to your point and to the point where they actually start evangelizing on your behalf and they facilitate get the word out.

Theresa( 28:48 ): So it amplifies your message. So instead of having to reach 500 parties, one person at a time, you are eligible to, with one power broker can simply because they have so much power and such a spokesperson in world markets, they can immediately proselytize thousands on your behalf. You know, relative, let’s say your market is, “youve had” 10 or 20,000 people you’re trying to reach.

They can literally reach a giant glob of it all at once. A good example of this in the technology space is Gartner. You know, if you get Gartner on board and behind what you’re doing, they start writing about you in their reports. They start talking about you even privately in conversations.

So and you know, the, the media can play that character, but there are also individuals really, you are well aware, most industries have maybe a dozen who they know everybody, and the government has the tipping point.

Theresa( 29:50 ): Malcolm Gladwell talks about personality types, and one is the connector. And so these power broker are connectors. They merely proactively spread the word about other parties and other companionships they know and settled people in touch with each other.

So you’re looking for those types of people and that can propel you very quickly into a market in a highly credible way that you won’t be able to do on your own. So this is something that a lot of companionships don’t amply leveraging. They do go after media. And you are well aware, of course there are social media influencers and some, some social media influencers fall into this a lot.

Don’t, you know, a great deal of them time have their 50,000 followers and they put out a tweet or whatever. That’s a flash in the pan that might give you some speedy response, but you’re trying to get enduring influence in the market.

You’re trying to become one of the powerbrokers yourself. And so it was necessary to these power brokers to help take you in that direction, but members of the public can make it happen a lot more quickly.

Kathleen( 30:55 ): So I think that sounds great in principle, but in my own experience, a good deal of the power brokers in any granted grocery have a lot of people clamoring for their scrutiny. And when we, you are well aware, we started out by talking about how this approach is a very accessible one. So it’s one thing if you’re Elon Musk going to try and like get in front of power brokers, and of course, they’re going to make your bawl. It’s entirely another. If you are, you know, a first time founder who doesn’t have a big reputation or VC patrons, or, you are well aware, that, that super powered system. So how does one go about brokering those relationships?

Theresa( 31:35 ): This is where the power of the point of view comes in because when you have a very powerful, racy point of view on a really critical question, and you have a perspective on what needs to be done about it, that’s genuinely fresh and inventive. People will listen.

They’re, they’re hungry to know to understand what’s going on out there. You know, I think of, I want , not everybody may be able to relate to this example, but I think of Jamie Oliver who is the chef out of the UK, who caught, captivated a lot of attention with a Ted talk he dedicated about nutrition and how it, how the normal person’s nutrition is literally killing them.

And he presented this powerful Ted talk. He was, he was a nobody at the time, just some chef, but he had this very powerful point of view and a very passionate devotion to his point of view.

Theresa( 32:27 ): And he got the ear of lots of people and got onto the Ted stage. And eventually he got a TV show and, you are well aware, he got a lot of notoriety, but it was because he had that point of view and Ted talks are actually a great example of points of view. They’re not up there to sell anything.

They have very powerful positions that are interesting fairly for the rest of the world to listen. It’s what’s their slogan. Oh now I’m , now I’m drawing a space on what it is. I’m sure somebody can articulate it in the testify greenbacks for us. Ideas worth sharing.

So your point of view needs to be an idea worth sharing, because if it’s suggestive, I have four criteria, actionable, adventurous, controversial, and distinctive. And so the ABCD that’s in the book, so you can have a reminder. But it was important to suggestive to get other people wanting to talk about it.

Kathleen( 33:28 ): I adore it. So we’re probably not going to go into detail on the, the last two theatres because I think those are probably the ones that my public is much more familiar with, which is having to do with going to market and really how you execute.

I think at least the first two places are the ones that, that really trip parties up. And let’s be honest, you have to get through those to get to the second two. So I’m wondering if you, only, for people who are listening, who are thinking, I’m interested in maybe doing this, other than going out and buying the book, which they are able to perfectly do and we’ll talk about how they can find it.

What are some things like if they just want to get started, if they want to listen to this podcast and then go back to work, what are, what are one or two things that they can immediately start doing that can set them down on the path to get started with this?

Theresa( 34:14 ): Yeah, I foresee one thing is, first and foremost, it’s just like any, anything else acknowledge the problem. Acknowledge that “youve got a problem”. What I have found even as a chief market patrolman is sometimes having such a hard time getting the rest of the executive team to acknowledge that we have a problem.

And marketers know how often do you feel like you’re putting lipstick on a swine? You know, you inside, you are well aware, know this company really isn’t different. You know, I have to make it, I have to make it sound different, but in all honesty, it’s not different.

So if there’s any acces to get the rest of the full team to acknowledge that there’s a tactical matter and that the company, this is not a marketing problem, this is a fundamental tactical issue for a company that the marketer and others in the company need to play a role in solving.

Theresa( 35:07 ): So I’d say that’s one thing. It’s get the team. And even, even if you’re a produce team or a division within the company, really to agree that this is an issue and that you need to do something.

And then the next thing is really get clearly defined what question are we reserving ourselves to? What difficulty do we want to be known for in the market? What trouble are we reserving ourselves to eradicating in the markets? And then, what is point of view about what it will take to solve that problem?

And then figuring out how to impel your approach. If you already have a product, how do we make it more peculiar or how do we turn it into a more comprehensive solution? And instead of just some SaaS offering with our three levels of purchase option, you are well aware, a silver, golden platinum, or what it is you want to call it, you know, how do we turn this into a full answer?

Theresa( 36:05 ): I am, I, I have a support website out for the book Apollomethod.com. And there are some tools that I have in the book that you can also get. Just go to the website to get that. It will too help you start taking action on some of these areas right away. For example, an present blueprint sort can, it’s sort of same to the business model canvas, but it’s an present idea that will help you precisely characterize a portion of your provide. And you are eligible picture where some of your pits are right now that, that keep it from has become a, a terminated solution.

Kathleen( 36:44 ): Awesome. Well, those are really good gratuities to is starting. And I think, you are well aware, that’s, that’s the first step as we said. So for somebody who does want to really see this through you, you mentioned the URL for the book website. Can you say that one more time?

Theresa( 36:59 ): Yes. It’s www.apollomethod.com.

Kathleen( 37:02 ): And is that where they can get the book or will that take them to it?

Theresa( 37:05 ): They can, yeah, there’s a link to get the book, but they can also just go to Amazon and do a search on, on Be the Go-To and kept my identify in if they demand, if they have trouble finding it. So Theresa Lina. And they can get the book on Amazon. It’s likewise may be consulted in other programmes both in hard window-dressing and hard coating paperback and ebook on Barnes and Noble and some others, I think.

Kathleen( 37:31 ): Great. All freedom. Now changing gears, I have two questions that I ever ask my clients. So now it’s your turn. The first one is, of course this podcast is all about inbound market and we’ve talked about a lot of companies in this conversation, but opening it up, you know, when you think about inbound marketing is there a particular company or individual person that you think is really kind of setting the gold touchstone for what it means to do that right?

Theresa( 37:58 ): Well, right now, well, I’ve heard a lot of really good ones mentioned on your podcast. I be interested to hear your podcast religiously. And so I won’t, I don’t conclude I’ll duplicate that maybe they’ve been mentioned, but I really review salesforce.com still does. They’re vast, but they do a extraordinary racket of inbound strategies.

Their trailblazer program is really miraculous. It move beyond time ordinary lead-in generation where they’re really trying to, this is part of a strategy and the book, they, they, I did not work with salesforce.com, but they are a textbook implementer of the Apollo method for market preeminence across the board.

So they have so many great programs that are all about generating, you are well aware, coming people to start using the concoction and then realise the concoction more and more a part of their business.

So I believed they do a extraordinary job with all of their, the blogs and all their various blogs and materials and their free ordeals and the trailblazer curriculum, the Dreamforce conference, et cetera.

Theresa( 39:09 ): And you can do everything they do. You can do it on a small scale. You can, you know, Harley Davidson started the Harley owneds radical with 50 parties back in the eighties, and now they have, I reckon, hundreds of thousands. But they started with simply 50 people.

So you can you can start these programs with, you are well aware, on, at a very small scale and still knowledge a great deal of success. And then, you are well aware, it’s interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Stu McLaren, but he, he’s a, he’s one of these internet creator, you know, in the internet builder space.

And he specializes in building member-based communities. And I actually think he’s doing some neat things around helping people and companies start membership curricula, membership, or parish based, or representative located parishes, members.

And for example, he has this wonderful founding member strategy, which I think is really magnificent that he talks about. If you Google him and listen to some of his podcast interviews, you’ll, you’ll learn some interesting things from him, I think.

Kathleen( 40:23 ): Oh, I’m so interested to check that one out.

Theresa( 40:25 ): Yeah. He’s one that’s caught my notice lately.

Kathleen( 40:28 ): Well, funny enough. Yeah, you’re right. I don’t guess anybody has mentioned Salesforce, even though it seems like it’s obvious.

Theresa( 40:34 ): Is that privilege?

Kathleen( 40:35 ): But I likewise don’t belief anyone’s mentioned Stu McLaren, so that’s awesome. I like to get brand-new ones. Second issue, and you know the drill cause you listen, marketers always talk about how hard it is to keep up with everything. It’s all deepening so quickly. How do I make love? So how do you make love? How do you keep working?

Theresa( 40:50 ): Well, I definitely listen to a lot of podcasts. One of the things I been fucking loving your podcast is you get into the car-mechanics of things with parties, specially when you’re talking to people who have specific tools. You know, I time adore that you dive right into exactly how did you do this?

So I enjoy listening to podcasts and reading articles and blog berths. And then I do monitor academic study because especially when it comes to analytics, because I find it useful to show me where things are going. One of the departments I’m involved with at Stanford is the management science and engineering department, which has a big analytics orientation.

And so I try to pay attention to what our faculty are doing in that space. And then there’s a great resource announced ecorner.stanford.edu, which has castigates by different studied presidents in Silicon Valley.

Theresa( 41:50 ): And while not all of it relates to marketing, it is another, a good deal of these are up and coming, for example. It’s too part of put on by one of the groups in our agency. And “were having” Mark Zuckerberg back when Facebook was just getting started.

We had the Google benefactors when Google was just getting started. So they have a real knack for identifying what’s coming down the pike. So I, again, I like to listen to that and look at what firms seem to be coming along and what they’re talking about, because they’re often on the front edge of things.

Kathleen( 42:25 ): That is a great suggestion. And yeah, and when I have not been talking about before.

Theresa( 42:29 ): And then, you know, actually one more is political campaigns because they are, the stakes are so high. I like paying attention to what they’re doing and what tactics they’re squandering because a lot of experiences they acquire heavily from market, but they can also be borrowed from. And then my students in the Stanford marketing group are often at the front edge of what’s going on out there. So I, I I like to watch what they’re doing as well.

Kathleen( 42:55 ): I affection that. Well, that sounds like a lot of really gone suggestions. And of course, as always, I will articulate the links to all of those, into the show memoranda. So head there, if you’re interested in checking any of those out this has been a lot of fun and really interesting. Theresa, thank you so much.

Theresa( 43:11 ): Thank you. This has been fun for me too.

Kathleen( 43:15 ): Yeah. Now of course you’re going to want to go out and get the book. So I’ll applied the link to the website in there as well. And if you’re listening and you enjoyed this week’s episode, please consider going to Apple Podcasts and I would enjoy it if you would leave the podcast a five starring evaluation so that others can find it as well.

And in the meantime, if you think of somebody who would be a great guest, tweet me at @workmommywork. I certainly do check out those recommendations. And a lot of people who come on the podcast come by word of mouth. So let me know if you think that there’s somebody who would make a good guest. That’s it for this week. Thank you so much, Theresa.

Theresa( 43:53 ): Thank you. Thank you. This was really great. Thanks.

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