Thought Leadership with Mitchell Levy and Michael Procopio, Episode 24: May 29, 2014

Thought Leadership with Mitchell and Michael

In this episode, Mitchell and Michael share insights with #thoughtleader Kurt Shaver (@kurtshaver or @salesfoundry). Kurt spent 20 years in the corporate sales world before finally establishing his own company, The Sale Foundry (http://www.thesalesfoundry.com), a professional consulting firm that helps social corporate clients learn social selling skills to grow their business. Since then, he has been working with organizations to help them sell the way that today’s buyer’s buy – through social.

Kurt ShaverKurt believes that to be a #thoughtleader, you need to be in the game. A #thoughtleader cannot be standing apart, high up on the ivory tower and approaching everything academically. The real #thoughtleader must be in the trenches to actually experience whatever topic it is that they are talking about. Commenting on the Thought Leadeship Funnel (http://www.thinkaha.com/thought-leadership-funnel), from a perspective of someone who has been in sales for years, Kurt considers the engagement part is the most critical because this is the part where a sales person actually moves from brand awareness to an actual dialogue with the prospect which indicates the beginning of the sales cycle. And because the engagement piece in the funnel can also be one-to-many-to-one, Kurt says it is important to always be conscious about response time and to make the response in a timely manner. The response time of course depends on the kind of research you’d want to do before actually responding so that the engagement will progress towards winning a future advocate and onward to having an advocate. Michael notes that, with social media, having a one-to-one conversation has become entirely different because now everybody gets to see what your response is to a person’s question.

In the interview, Kurt shares some of his techniques in teaching companies maximize the full potential of social media platforms like Linkedin and build the social selling skills, starting from the manager up to the sales agents. He also expounds on the four fundamental areas in social selling that companies nowadays need to learn and implement to achieve corporate success.

Kurt is also excited about his THiNKaha App Book which is due for release within the week and will be seen on http://AhaAmplifier.com, and calls this a milestone and a big opportunity for him and his company. 

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.
Here are a couple of aha moments from the episode. See more in the “Aha Moments from Thought Leader Life” books available in the THiNKaha App:http://AhaAmplifier.com/.
• It’s only in the social era that an individual can actually be a worldwide publisher. @kurtshaver
• The difference with one-to-many-to-one conversation on social media is that everybody gets to read or see that conversation. @michaelprocopio
• Always be conscious about delivering good service because now, with social media, everybody’s watching. @kurtshaver


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This episode was sponsored, in part, by THiNKaha.com, helping experts become thought leaders.

You can connect with Mitchell at MitchellLevy.com, @HappyAbout on Twitter, or join his Thought Leadership Best Practices Group on LinkedIn; and with Michael at MProcopio.com, on Twitter:@MichaelProcopio; or LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MichaelProcopio.

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Posted by Michael Procopio on 05/29 at 02:58 PM

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