The Revenue Rockstars Series continued with a live-streamed session hosted by SharpSpring Head of Revenue Greg Bond and featuring advice from Seth Godin, marketing industry pioneer and bestselling author. This session, “Modern Marketing: Organizing for Growth,” focuses on what growth really looks like for today’s marketers and how to achieve it by being trustworthy and operating with integrity. In this blog, we’ll outline some of the key highlights and takeaways from Seth’s insightful session.
If you’d like to watch the webinar in full, you can check it out here. Be sure to sign up for our full Revenue Rockstars Series, running through January 2022, here.
We’re thrilled to help attendees learn more about how revenue rockstars grow revenue throughout the entire marketing funnel in this new webinar series. Through the live sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to attend each show and participate in Q&A sessions. And we’ll share key takeaways on our blog, like these notes from our session with Seth Godin.
Seth Godin on why attribution isn’t everything
So a fairly well-known company just sold for $12 billion. And one of the ways they got that exit was by sponsoring every podcast they could get their hands on for three years. And there was no useful attribution in that because no one who’s driving their car or working out at the gym is going to stop what they’re doing and start typing in an attribution code. What was actually happening wasn’t direct marketing, which is measured, and you can look at your attributions. It was brand marketing. What is your story? What do you stand for? And it’s that posture, that posture that comes from confidence and generosity. That’s what makes brands for the future. It’s what built brands of the past. And just because some people are having short term success with spending a dollar and making two, it’s not steady. It doesn’t scale.
Seth Godin on claiming the high ground
Anyone can now build a store online for, like a dollar, and can pretend anything. You buy things even from famous online retailers, and you have no idea where they came from. So everyone’s on high alert. And then on top of that, marketers have lost the benefit of doubt by spamming us and scamming us and hustling us. And so the question is, can you claim the high ground? Can you carefully state things that are actually true? Can you learn to see people in the short run? You will not get as many sales as the person who’s running around picking pockets. But in the long run, they’ll be gone and you’ll still be here.
Seth Godin on what cake mix can teach us
So when cake mix first came out, it was for “everyone,” and the way it worked is, you took the cake mix, you added water, you put it in the oven. And it didn’t sell. And then they figured out they should take out the eggs and the oil. And in order to make cake mix, you need to add the eggs and oil. And sales went through the roof. Because you know who it was for? A busy homemaker who didn’t want to be told that she was so busy she couldn’t make a cake for her family. And giving that person, trusting that person enough to find the eggs, find oil and mix it together properly was magic because now that person felt seen. They were saying, I’m still a homemaker, even if I’m working.
And that is transformative because if you trust your customer by seeing who they are, they are more likely to feel seen and trusted and more likely to trust you. So when I tell you about the smallest viable audience, what I’m saying is not make your business small, I’m saying make your business specific.Â
Seth Godin on authenticity
Authenticity is nonsense. Your customers do not want you to be authentic. Maybe your spouse does, but that’s about it. When we buy something, when we follow someone, when we listen to something, we don’t want the authentic version of them. We want the best version of them. If you were to go out and buy the new Taylor Swift album, you don’t want to know that it’s not that good because she had a cold that day. You want the best faked version of Taylor Swift that is available at this moment.
What do we sound like when we sound like us? How can we sound more like us? Howard Schultz famously shut down Starbucks a couple of years ago for a day to train everybody. Well, do the math. You could have just trained them in three shifts and not shut down. Why shut down? Because you’re going to send a message, and the message to send to your people is the same message you sent to your four year olds on a trip. Don’t make me pull this car over again. Right? What we’re saying is if we don’t sound and smell and feel like Starbucks, we got nothing. So we shut the whole place down to remind us what it is, what it even means to be us.
Seth Godin on thought leadership
Actual thought leadership means that I can imagine being in your shoes. I can imagine the industry that you work in, and I would like to speak up. Saying some things that other people will disagree with about how we can make things better for us. And I will do that in the hope that you will echo what I said. And you will echo what I said because it will make your life better.
And if those things start to happen, I will be seen as a thought leader because I just made it safe for you to speak up. And everyone on this call is smart enough to do that, and most of us have been brainwashed to not do that because to do it means you have to say something that people will disagree with. Thought leadership is: I have a point of view, and it might not agree with what you think you want. But if you think about it, you might come around to believe that it’s in your interest.
Seth Godin on having the last word
You know, marketers always want to have the last word and we never do. The customer always has the last word.Â
Revenue Rockstars is for marketing agencies and SMB owners looking to help their sales and marketing teams work together to better focus on revenue instead of vanity metrics. If you want to grow your revenue, we invite you to register for our series and add the dates to your calendar to attend the live streams and Q&As.
Marketing industry guru Jay Baer helped us launch our Revenue Rockstars Series with a live kickoff, you can watch the event here.
If you missed Mickey Locey’s session, “Beyond the Pitch: Rock Star Moves to Not Only Win Business But Deliver on Your Promise,” you can watch it here.
Check out Karl Sakas’ session, “What CMOs Say When You’re Not In the Room… and How It Can Help You Grow Your Agency,” here.
Check out the SharpSpring Agency Partner Panel session, “From a Seat at the Table to Running the Table: How Modern Marketers Are Winning Revenue,” here.
If you missed Matt Koeppel and Todd Lebo’s session “New Research: Why Your Results are Lacking & 3 Key Strategies for Success,” you can find it here.
Watch Ann Handley’s full session “Writing for Response and Revenue” here.
Don’t miss Seth Godin’s full session here.
