ValuClarity

Dr. Amy Czyz (pronounced “Chez”) is an eye doctor turned consumer product entrepreneur. We discussed how she operated her medical practice with patients at the core…and how that became a great foundation for her newest venture: Intent, a vehicle for helping people be their best throughout the day…that looks like a set of beverages engineered for balancing the wake/sleep cycle. Amy doesn’t call her business a circadian rhythm beverage — she knows it’s about that customer outcome. It’s brilliant, and I predict that focus is going to serve her and her company well.

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Tyler Hayzlett is the Chief Marketing Officer of the C Suite Network (www.c-suitenetwork.com), where he is in charge of marketing strategy and execution for a the world’s largest B2B media network, and for a membership organization devoted to growing members’ businesses. We talked about making sure that marketing focuses on customer outcomes, and on building a tribe of followers to close loops in customer feedback, innovation, service and more. He also teased his organization’s new e-book (https://click.c-suitenetwork.com/the-insider)!

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Chris Van Timmeren is the head coach of the ACHA national champion Hope College Hockey team. You probably haven’t heard of Hope College… just like you haven’t heard of a lot of small companies who have carved out dominance in their niche. Chris talks about recruiting (a combination of sales and hiring), and how he approaches his competitive environment (here’s the concept, here are some optional actions to take, but players need to read and react). Most interestingly, he talks about how his players have changed over the 22 years he’s been in charge, and how his management style has had to change in order for him to stay on top. Thanks Chris!

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Kara Goldin is the founder of Hint Inc…as in Hint Waters. Now, the company has expanded into sunscreens, lip balms, deodorants. Through the founding of her company until now, she’s learned lessons on entrepreneurship that she shares in her book, “Undaunted”. As I read it, her focus on improving peoples’ health was the purpose at every stage, and the principle that guided her decisions. We talked about how combining her curiosity, drive, creativity, and outsider’s perspective with that focus on Hint’s value was proved to win in an unlikely product category.

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Fares Ksebati (pronounced “se BAH tea”) and MySwimPro came on my radar when they were pre-revenue and I was a mentor at the accelerator whose wing they were under. I’ve had a seat to their growing and maturing through some tumultuous years, and I’ve watched as the value focus has become more robust through the years. Now, MySwimPro isn’t just a training app for adult swimmers (the #1 such app in the world), it’s a community of dedicated members, all trying to co-create a better experience that improves performance, physical health, mental health, and enjoyment of a group of like-minded people. That community has become a strategic advantage.

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Michelle Cirocco has been a key executive at Televerde for many years. Currently, she’s the chief social responsibility officer. At Televerde, that’s not a fluff title. Televerde’s mission is social responsibility, in the form of providing great customer value by employing highly committed, dedicated, motivated people as outsourced lead gen, sales, and marketing experts. When you hire a superior class of BDR or SDR, you deliver better business results…and oh, yeah: you build careers for people who really appreciate them. What a virtuous cycle! Thanks, Michelle.

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Nikolaus Kimla founded and leads PipelinerSales, a full featured CRM solution built for sales person success first. Thus his software drives salesperson utilization by rewarding use for great selling, not forcing compliance, the way many CRMs do — the ones built for sales manager monitoring first. We talked about incorporating methodology into CRM, and a great innovation: opening the environment up to ALL of the roles that touch a customer, especially in a key account management scenario. I was impressed with the salesperson-first focus: one that gives sales managers the benefit of reports based upon high system utilization. Thanks Nikolaus!

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C. Lee Smith leads Sales Fuel, a company that helps sales organizations build sales capability in talent, hiring and coaching. Lee has written several books, most recently “Sales Credibility”, to help sales forces build that credibility foundation. We had a great discussion talking about how he focuses his company on client outcomes, and invests the greatest resources on clients who he can deliver outcomes to most effectively and profitably. HIs focus on profitable customers is a great one. Give it a listen.

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Aric Faber heads SalesPage Technologies, a software and solutions company serving part of the financial services industry. His software competes with the likes of the big four consulting firms, down to DIY efforts by IT departments. SalesPage differentiates based upon customer focus…and Aric describes his business as “growing our clients’ business by helping them understand THEIR customers better”. Aric and I had a great conversation about wrapping your entire company around a customer to have expert-to-expert relationships at all levels, and how he leads an organization to superior customer outcomes.

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Steve Sundberg leads MedTorque, a company that machines precision instruments for surgeons. One of the finest leaders I’ve ever met, Steve is highly attuned to pointing everyone in his company toward expanding customer-perceived value. As you can imagine, we’re kindred spirits, and we had a great conversation about value, how COVID has affected his business, key employee retention, and more.

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