Business Ideas For Smes And Start Ups

The first podcast of 2019 is a solo podcast focusing on sales, media and podcasts. The last few months I have cut out pretty much ALL media from my life and taken control of what I DO listen to....podcasts (Rich Roll, Michael Gervais, Dan Carlin, Irish History, Blindboy Boatclub...and Bill Burr...) Audio books are starting to work for me again and I'm having a go at speed reading...courtesy of Tim Ferriss Sales focus in this podcast is on prospecting and why front loading the effort will pay dividends when it really matters. Will get back to the conversational format next week - in the meantime, thanks for listening in. Paul

Marketing has never been more complex than now. Channel proliferation. Social unconformity. Decreasing attention span. Big data. Small data. And then there is the myth of the 'Brand Story.' That is to say the myth that a brand story is anything more than just a poor mans sales pitch. A good brand story stands out for all of the right reasons - check out my podcast with Park Howell Shift Control Episode 17 - Park has it down to a very fine art and a set process. Check out www.businessofstory.com There are some people who just get it and Dave Linton is one of those At a recent seminar on the future of marketing in Belfast, I had the pleasure of listening to Dave, CEO of Madlug tell his remarkable 'brand' story. So compelling was it that I emailed him immediately to try and get him on the podcast. And here he is - his story is right in the sweet spot of everything the I believe to be good about marketing and the art of storytelling. Enjoy - and if you do enjoy, please share.

Ireland and in particular Belfast are neither recognised nor acknowledged as centres for excellence when it comes to watchmaking. That may soon change if Hans Enoksen has his way. Serial entrepreneur Enoksen has created a very beautiful brand in Enoksen Watches, collaborating with Big Motive, one of Ireland's digital design studios. After a high profile launch in Belfast in the summer, Enoksen has now partnered with Alexandra Cousteau, grand daughter of Jaques Cousteau, on an environmental project Oceans 2050. The conversation in this episode goes wide and deep on a number of topics - resilience, design, the environment and gives an insight into the non-tech start up world. Hans can be reached on www.enoskenwatches.com - check out his story on the podcast and the beautiful watches on his website.

After growing a success web design business in mid 2000s and a product buy-out in 2012, Paul McKeever is back with his latest venture Continually, an online sales/customer service platform that helps businesses manage and assist better, online customer enquires. A serial entrepreneur, with a passion for business and learning, Paul is an exceptional story teller - this podcast is about his journey from web design to his latest venture and the lessons he has learned along the way in business and in life.

The 3rd time guesting on the podcast, Damian is back on talking about his latest best-selling book, The Barcelona Way, Unlocking the DNA of a Winning Culture. Through the lens of Pep Guardiola and one of the most successful sporting teams in world soccer, Damian gives an insight into what makes an authentic and winning culture within high performing teams - in sport and in business. He shares the meaning of the acronym 'BARCA' and gives anecdote upon anecdote to help show the importance of vision, dealing with change, repetition and the OODA loop and an indication of the character required to drive home the change and to be part of the unit. Damian is a Professor of Psychology and publisher of 12 books as well as being a consultant to Scottish Rugby.

Episode 29: Stendhal Festival by Shift Control

A high percentage of our work this year has been in training rather than marketing or brand strategy. Over the last number of weeks we have begun work with some major businesses across a variety of sectors, including construction and logistics - both could be considered as bell weather sectors - if they are building and moving then things are ok. When they stop building and moving , there's trouble, right? Businesses are investing in training and up-skilling staff but there is no guarantee that training or coaching will work - there are many factors at play which determine ongoing success. In this solo podcast I look at what needs to be in play for a successful coaching outcome.

Most of the time sales people are focused on short term outcomes and look inwardly towards their own needs and wants over those of the customer. There has been a widely accepted move away from features and benefits to outcomes - seeing the world from the perspective of the buyer is the most important thing where the key is to understand the consequences of which to build a cogent argument around.

“Sponsorship is the future of business” Jackie Fast, Pinpoint: How challenging the norm is the only route to success in selling sponsorship. Only someone who has successfully navigated the choppy (and occasionally murky) waters of sports marketing and sponsorship can make that claim with any confidence. As Fast points out in her book, advertising and marketing has changed. Media consumption and channel proliferation has made it harder for brands to fully engage with their audiences but if advertising has changes then it is fair to say that sponsorship has also changed. A logo on a shirt is never going to be enough. In fairness, it never was. There is greater demand on sports properties to demonstrate something beyond “equivalent media value” and greater pressure on brand owners and managers to make their sponsorship money work. Jackie Fast sold her sports marketing business, Slingshot Sponsorship having worked with Sir Richard Branson, Spotify, IBM, Renault, Haymarket Consumer publishing and Shell.

Is "Practice" part of your sales process? How many of you spend time in 'rehearsal' preparing questions, answers, eventualities and outcomes for those big sales presentations? In fact, not just those big presentations but for everything you do? There are examples everywhere of those people who take the time out to prepare hard for the main event. In a previous Podcast with Damien Hughes, he described how Pep Guardiola would spend 7 hours preparing for a 20 minute team talk. Benjamin Franklin was renowned for preparation in his writing. Do you make practice an integral part of your preparation - please, get in touch and let me know what you think.

So, you all set for GDPR? The much talked about but not always understood changes to the 1998 Data Protection Act kick in on 25th May 2018 As the way we store and transfer data changes so too does the legislation protecting customers - non-compliance could be costly. In this podcast, I talk to Orlagh Kelly, Barrister and CEO of Briefed - the go-to GDPR training and compliance consultancy in the North or Ireland. Over the last number of months, Orlagh and her team has been working closely with hundreds of businesses across the UK and Ireland implementing procedures and de-mistlfying legislation - in the podcast she gives valuable insight into the impact of the legislation on SMEs, how you need to prepare and the impact it has on businesses using email and telephone data for business development. For more information, visit briefed.pro or email Orlagh directly on info@briefed.pro

Delighted to welcome Damian back - last time we spoke we in May this year and much has happened in the intervening months. Damian has been working with Scotland Rugby Union, English Rugby League and is in the middle of publishing ANOTHER book - this time on Barcelona FC and what we can learn from their "culture" and how those learnings can be applied to sport and business. The previous podcasts with Damian have proven to be incredibly popular - he is a Professor, consultant coach and an author and more importantly he's incredibly interesting and a fantastic guest. Enjoy

Telephone sales is a much maligned business development tactic yet is undergoing something of a renaissance and when blended with a clearly defined digital strategy, tic an be very powerful. This solocast offers 7 tips on how to up your telephone sales game. For more information visit www.shift-control.co.uk

Over the last few weeks and in collaboration with no less than 4 clients, I have experienced first hand the challenges businesses are facing when recruiting sales personnel. Regardless of sector or position, it's not getting any easier. What are the challenges facing your business and where do you see the answers coming from - millennials AKA "The Trophy Generation:" or the over 50s...too old to train them, right?

SOSTAC® is a marketing planning framework used by business professionals globally and was voted in the Top 3 Business Models worldwide in the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Centenary Poll. The architect and brains behind SOSTAC® is PR Smith, marketing consultant, mentor and coach, public speaker and author of best selling digital marketing books including. Digital Marketing Excellence and SOSTAC® Guide to The Perfect Digital marketing Strategy. in this episode PR breaks down SOSTAC® into the easy but highly effective stages, discusses the importance of 'internal" actions and gives some valuable advice for all marketeers on the importance of credibility over visibility. Check out www.prsmith.org and www.sostac.org

A pleasure to get to interview Oliver Lennon, current CEO of Syndeo and driving force behind Speechstorm, local start-up success story. In this episode Oliver shares some valuable insights into the world of tech start-up, the importance of self belief and how the world of sport has influenced him in business, through transparent leadership and teamwork - empowering and enabling those who work along side you. Whilst Oliver despises the label "entrepreneur" he evidently thrives in an environment where the odds can be seriously stacked against you. Brilliant backdrop for the recording at the Ormeau Baths - the co-working space in Belfast. And great coffee at Root and Branch too.

According to Dave Trott, everyone is turning into a story teller these day and suggests it maybe a bad thing - check out his brilliant blog (www.davetrott.co.uk). He makes a valid point but I would argue that storytelling has never been more important when it comes to your brand and your business.

Trust is the accepted currency of any relationship - personal or professional. It is critical in building meaningful relationships but there is more to it than simply trying to be-friend someone. This short podcast covers some thinking on how to better create trust in sales and business development.

Powerpoint has been around for a little over 27 years and in that time, little has changed in terms of functionality, usability so Microsoft must be doing something right. This podcast looks at the different ways we absorb information and questions why it is important to at least try to integrate audio, visual, kinaesthetic and digital methods in presentations for maximum effect.

Easily one of the best books I have read on business development and sales in a very long time. Blending cutting-edge research in social psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics, The Science of Selling shows salespeople how to align the way they sell with how our brains naturally form buying decisions, dramatically increasing their ability to earn more sales. The Science of Selling reveals an evidence-based approach that connects the dots between science and situation salespeople face every day to help them consistently succeed.