In this episode, Michael Herren, Director, Global Customer Engagement Program at Illumina, shares strategies to deepen partnerships with sales teams and create strong evangelists. He advises to understand sales structures, motivations and pain points, then prioritize the desired outcomes of the partnership. Whether it’s the guidance you provide, tools you offer or ‘rules-of-engagement’ you define, make working with your team as frictionless as possible. Sales engagement must be earned!

Highlights

• Embrace Challenges to Achieve Measurable Successes
• Define Clear Sales Engagement Outcomes
• Understand Sales Structure, Motivations and Pain Points
• 7 Key Sales Engagement Strategies
• Share Key Tools and Collateral
• Develop an Effective Communication Plan
• Define Clear Rules of Engagement

Resources

• 7 Engagement Strategies & Rules of Engagement
• “The Power of Moments” by Chip & Dan Heath
• “The Art of Gathering” by Priya Parker
• A Bit of Optimism - Simon Sinek
• A Good Hang - Amy Poehler

Guest Thought Leader

Michael Herren, Director, Global Customer Engagement Program, Illumina

Michael leads a world-class team dedicated to delivering strategic, story-driven experiences that strengthen partnerships and drive business growth. With over 18 years of experience in the biotechnology, life science, and diagnostics industries, Michael brings a unique combination of technical expertise, operational excellence, and customer engagement strategy to his leadership role.

In our latest episode, Emre Ozbek, Executive Managing Director at BICEP Solutions, shares how customer-facing programs can build repeatable, intelligent systems that free up their best talent to focus on what truly matters: creativity, strategy, and connection. He digs deeper into his ‘touch it once philosophy’ and the ‘lazy approach’, a principle of profound efficiency rooted in automation. Emre advises teams to avoid ‘managing what you measure’, and instead ask ‘why’ to ‘eliminate’ unnecessary metrics and ‘illuminate’ your data. He also suggests how to change our mindset related to AI including the practical step of selecting one small process, then ask ‘why’, and either eliminate or automate. An important takeaway for listeners is the realization that the process of leveraging business intelligence is more accessible than we may have imagined.

Highlights

• The ‘touch it once philosophy' and the ‘lazy approach’
  • A long term strategy, take time to ‘sharpen the saw’
• Auditors review past data, strategists use the data to look to the future
• ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ - understand the data before you automate
  • Leading vs lagging indicators
• Avoid ‘Manage What You Measure’ - ‘vanity vs actionable’ metrics
• Ask ‘WHY’ and ‘ELIMINATE’ unnecessary metrics
• Utilize data across customer facing programs: Executive Sponsorship, briefings, meetings at events, CABs, etc.
• Build in processes to keep systems up to date and reliable (i.e. integrate HR employee database into scheduling and CRM tools)
• Automate to spend time for relationship building, critical thinking and creativity
• AI: how to shift from a ‘Fear mindset' to a ‘Partner mindset'
• Start small, start now - strive for clarity over quantity

Resources

• Book: Measure What Matters by John Doerr
• TED Talk: The Beauty of Data Visualization by David McCandless
• HBR Article: Ensure High-Quality Data Powers Your AI by Thomas C. Redman

Guest Thought Leader

Emre Ozbek, Executive Managing Director, BICEP Solutions

Emre is a business and data strategist with a simple but powerful philosophy: if you have to do something more than once, it should be automated. He calls it his "lazy" approach, but it's a principle of profound efficiency that has guided his 30-year, multi-national career helping some of the world's top companies solve their most complex operational challenges.

His journey has taken him through enterprise architecture, business consulting, and innovation leadership across a range of industries. This unique cross-sectional view revealed a universal truth: most businesses are stuck solving the same problems over and over, wasting valuable time and frustrating both employees and customers.

Today, Emre channels this passion through his new company, BICEP Solutions, providing Business Intelligence for Customer Engagement Programs. He now helps program leaders apply the lessons learned from running a world-class customer engagement program, complete with briefing centers, innovation labs, and executive sponsorship, to their own organizations.

In our latest episode, Bryan Hobbs, Executive Briefing Manager at Zoom, provides lessons learned from his years of designing and implementing technical demonstrations for industry leading companies like Cisco, Symantec, Google Cloud and Microsoft. From identifying viable spaces and deciding who to partner with, to confirming what products/services to showcase, it is important to build for the short term and plan for the long term. Bryan also shares best practices for overcoming the unique challenges faced when installing in regional locations.

Highlights

• Visioning, the Art of the Possible
• Designing technical demo spaces for a variety of visitors
• Demo elements: wow factors, humor, addressing challenges
• Build in flexibility, see products/services working, leads to faster decision making
• Consult with Internal and External teams including industry partners
• Elements to consider: budget, size of space, content, exec involvement, roadmap
• Define scope and work with partners for alternatives (budget)
• Lessons learned for regional demos

Resources

• ‘Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work’ by Ginny Clarke
• ‘REVOLOGY’ by Todd N Williams about Tom Scapello
• ‘From Good to Great’ by Jim Collins

Guest Thought Leader

Bryan Hobbs, Executive Briefing Manager, Zoom

Bryan is a dynamic leader with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of technology, people management, and business processes. Bryan consults with businesses to refine their processes and harness the power of strategic partnerships. His career began at Cisco where his love for technology and customer engagement was established. Fostering strong partnerships has been key to his repeated successes during his leadership at Symantec’s Experience Center and to building groundbreaking hybrid experiences at Google Cloud’s Executive Briefing Center. Recently, as Director of Immersive Experiences at Microsoft, Bryan led teams in creating interactive, immersive customer experiences while mentoring high-performing individuals.

In our latest episode, John Morley, Principal of John Morley Co and CEP Innovation Coach with GoProBriefings.com, shares how EBCs/CEPs are the ultimate innovation engines within organizations, driving new value through fresh insights. From his years managing the EMC EBC Program and work in Design and Innovation, John outlines numerous ways to position and deliver EBC-as-a-Service, seen as a business and the complete value differentiator it is.

Highlights

• Design Thinking - desirable, feasible, viable
• Value Proposition Canvas - customer wants to achieve, what’s in their way?
• “Brokering” experiences - framework designed within EMC Program
• EBC-as-a-Business - program intention, business model canvas, innovation
• EBCs/CEPs are Innovators - new value from new insights (example: VCE)
• 3 Types (Horizons) - revenue, transformation, futures
• EBCs/CEPs - reduce cost and complexity for sales teams
• Design - identify, codify, make repeatable
• Codify: 5 elements of strategy, design offering, streamline operations

Resources

• ‘Move Fast, Break Shit, Burn Out’
• ‘Design a Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation’
• ‘Innovation Accounting: A Practical Guide For Measuring Your Innovation Ecosystem's Performance’
• Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs

Guest Thought Leader

John Morley, Principal of John Morley Com, CEP Innovation Coach with GoProBriefings.com

John helps forward-looking leaders and organizations rapidly realize exponential value through the investments they have already made – in their existing people and resources. He focuses on generating net new value by looking beyond problems to reimagine the impact we can create when we reframe challenges as opportunities. John’s expertise lies in being an intrapreneur and program leader, where he leverages his skills in innovation, design, data science, and AI to resolve complex challenges. He credits what he works on now to the skills and the relationships he learned to value and grow while working in CEPs.

In our latest episode, Mary Stratton, Senior Manager of CXO Experiences at Rubrik, shares how she set her vision for her small program and through data-driven reporting solidified executive support and expanded her program. From setting clear parameters like requiring VP-level and above attendees, and requests be tied to SFDC Opportunities, to developing an all inclusive reporting dashboard to address executive level care-abouts, she has been laser focused on improving deal closure and driving pipeline. Mary partnered with Marketing Operations to build this dashboard using data from multiple platform tools which helped justify her HQ center upgrade and the addition of a new team member. She also highlights her latest adventure of taking on executive meetings at trade shows and conferences as well as ‘EBCs on the Road’. Mary is an inspiration in our industry and happy to meet with those who seek her council on demonstrating value through reporting.

Highlights

• Rubrik’s CXO Experiences - 3 modalities
  • Briefing Program
  • Meetings at Industry Shows / Events
  • EBCs on the Road
• Challenges faced while launching the Briefing Program
  • Build network, connect with resources
  • Leadership buy-in
  • Build trust, create sales champions
• Building Executive Support
  • Critical: Articulate your program's impact on the business
  • Using tools/integrations: BriefingSource, Salesforce, Tableau
• How to collect data needed for Reports
  • Leverage Briefing Management Platform
  • Work with Marketing Ops Team
• What metrics to build into Dashboard to showcase impact
  • Address Marketing and Sales organizations careabouts
  • Target metrics for C Level Personages: CEO, CRO, CSO, etc.
  • Individual win rate percentage for opps using briefings vs not
  • Account Type Breakdown (existing customers vs prospects vs partners)
  • Closed Won vs Closed Lost opportunities
• Reporting allowed for program expansion
  • Headcount, Center upgrades, tools, etc.

Resources

• “We Can Do Hard Things” Podcast
• “We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life's 20 Questions” by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle

Guest Thought Leader

Mary Stratton, Senior Manager of CXO Experiences, Rubrik

Having led the Rubrik Executive Briefing Program for more than 2 years by herself, Mary has worked extremely hard to build upon the foundational aspects she inherited when joining the company in 2022. From finishing an ‘in-progress’ physical Center to rebuilding a program that was dormant for more than a year, she’s demonstrated the value that her executives and sales team have come to rely on to support them in closing more business.

Prior to Rubrik, Mary cut her teeth in the briefing world at the Rackspace Technology and AppDynamics Briefing Programs where she learned from strong mentors about the importance of both the strategic and tactical aspects of managing a program and reporting on every metric possible. Today, Mary has expanded her program to support global briefings beyond her Palo Alto headquarters and has added executive meetings at top tier tradeshows/conferences to her plate. She is married and mom to 3.5 year old twins.

In our latest episode, Bram Jonker, Principal Evangelist at Miro challenges program teams to think differently and offers a number of new approaches for designing memorable experiences that allow customers to feel safe, heard, and want to build a long term relationship. From inviting external thought leaders to engage with customers and assigning specific roles to internal attendees, to employing an abundance mindset and implementing AI to support more effective facilitation, teams can truly focus on, listen to and delight their customers.

Highlights

• The Role of the EBC - visitors feel safe, heard and come back
• Not Repeating the Same Process - think differently, plan for unique return visits
• Making the most of Opportunities with Customers - empathy, listening
• Gather Feedback After Briefing - search for ways to improve, constantly innovate
• Invite External Thought Leaders - spark change, drive impact
• Building Trust with Account Team - MDC facilitation, specific roles for each attendee
• Employ AI in all Briefings - AI for admin functions, facilitator focuses on customers
• Abundance Mindset - shift from limitations of scarcity mindset, set bar higher
• 'Hug Your Customers' - authentic moments to show you care

Resources

• ‘Why an abundance mindset is key to getting hybrid work right’ by
  • Dr. Brennan Jacoby, Founder, Philosophy at Work & Bram Jonker, Principal Evangelist, Miro
• ‘Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results’ by Jack Mitchell

Guest Thought Leader

Bram Jonker, Principal Evangelist, Miro

Bram’s focus is on cultivating collaborative relationships with key executives from leading multinational corporations to define the future of work. He engages with industry thought leaders to co-author thought leadership articles and deliver impactful presentations to diverse audiences. Additionally, Bram collaborates closely with Miro’s Account Executives, leveraging his network to expand their market presence and support the sales cycle effectively.

With a background in the consulting sector, Bram developed his skills over seven years at Deloitte, where he led teams dedicated to Technology and Innovation both internally and in collaboration with customers. Furthermore, his entrepreneurial spirit led him to found and successfully exit three data analytics companies within the healthcare domain.

Bram’s passion lies in driving change through innovative approaches to work and the strategic implementation of disruptive technologies for digital transformation within large enterprises. He is dedicated to building enduring partnerships and leveraging insights to help organizations differentiate and thrive in competitive markets. One of his key strengths is his ability to translate marketing visions and strategies into actionable plans that deliver tangible results.

In our latest episode, Traylor Woodall, CEO and Founder of Fivestone Studios, shares how working in the film and TV world has informed unique approaches to working with clients in the briefing world and beyond. He ‘opens the kimono’ on how supporting creativity and collaboration helps to establish and maintain a unique culture that makes space for artists to grow and thrive - what he calls ‘Bad Math - the power of 1+1 = 3’. Traylor is very honest about the transition that he is making as CEO, to not be the center of every decision while continuing to live the company’s values, celebrating team members inside and outside of work, and listening to everyone’s ideas.

Highlights

• Space for artists to grow and become ‘creative warriors’
• Learnings from motion packages for TV networks, ad agencies and large brands
• Approaches to creativity and collaboration with clients
  • Storytelling - the narrative thread
  • Motion Design - transform static assets into motion toolkits
  • Brevity - tell the story with simplicity and focus
• Culture that embraces creativity and collaboration
  • A space for ‘Bad Math’, where 1+1 = 3
• Supporting your team
  • Manage client expectations
  • Talk about life outside of work
  • Unlimited PTO
  • Rhythms of connection
  • Honoring your team outside the company
• Protect the culture
  • Repeatable processes that don’t rely on the CEO
  • Weekly direct 1:1s with all leadership
  • Demonstrate good culture in public

Resources

Experiences outside the briefing world can provide fresh approaches when working on EBC projects

• Vanderbilt Medical Center art installation
• Take-over of Times Square for Kia
• Partnership with Escape Game called Cosmic Crisis

Guest Thought Leader

Traylor Woodall, Founder and CEO, Fivestone Studios

Traylor is a lifelong storyteller, artist, musician, and experience creator. His journey began with a traditional degree in graphic design, but during a college internship he discovered a passion for motion graphics. Fast forward many years later, Traylor now serves as the CEO and Founder of Fivestone Studios, an integrated production company that blends design, technology and storytelling to create visually rich narratives across a wide range of channels.

At Traylor’s core lies his steadfast belief in the power of creative culture and collaboration. He’s always on the hunt for Bad Math - the power of 1+1=3. Even after 25+ years in the industry, Traylor lives for the moment when a creative idea comes together that is greater than the sum of any one individual’s ability or effort.

In our first episode, post the GACEP Spring Conference, Pete Riddell, Executive Creative Director with Derse, shares his gift for human storytelling while offering key ways to stay connected and inspired in today’s noisy world. It’s no surprise that Pete’s moving LinkedIn posts were the ‘inspiration’ for this conversation. From helping us to be more mindful of where we focus our energy and creating opportunities for ‘conversational jazz’ with kindred spirits, to how we center ourselves and take a moment before we respond or participate with others, Pete showcases the joy of savoring connectedness by turning people into storytellers. Be curious, listen, contribute positively to our society, make kind gestures, lift others up, make lasting memories… so many Peteisms.

Highlights

• Connection: Check in with friends - how are you doing (daily rating 1 to 10)
• Inspiration: practice conversational jazz with kindred spirits - who to reach out to
• Being better stewards of our time - unsubscribe from social apps
• Remind ourselves of memories - scroll through personal photos instead
• Centering ourselves: Being mindful in the moment - doing smallest of things
• When you think of friends and family: reach out, text, call, send hand-written note
• We have agency to choose how we respond or participate
• Humble pebbles to put on the scale - contribute in this noisy world
• Curiosity - ask questions that turn people into storytellers

Resources

• ‘This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life’ by David Foster Wallace
• ‘This is Water - Commencement Speech’ by David Foster Wallace
• ‘Dartmouth College Commencement Speech’ by Mr. Rogers

Guest Thought Leader

Pete Riddell, Executive Creative Director, Derse

Pete is the beating heart of Derse’s Customer Experience & Storytelling team. Their mission: to help Derse’s clients tell their best stories … as engagingly as possible. Pete has remained a perpetual student while growing Derse’s experiential practice over his 20+ years. His work includes novel engagement strategies on behalf of IHG, Charles Schwab and Cencora while spanning a broad range of industries, including healthcare, tech, automotive, financial services and hospitality (among others).

A gifted writer, storyteller and thought leader, Pete has presented, authored content and facilitated workshops at ExhibitorLive!, ABPM (now GACEP), HCEA Connect, Event Tech (now EMS), and also with/for Derse clients. He and the CX team love sharing inspiration and trends with clients and kindred spirits in this Golden Age of experience design.