1767 – The Importance of Established Leaders with Reggie James

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. million in revenue. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you.

0:58with us right now it's reggie james reggie you are the founder of digital clarity you are found on the web at digital dash clarity.com reggie thank you so much for joining us it's my absolute pleasure josh and can i just say i'm delighted to be on this actual event with you i've heard so much about you. I've seen some of your podcasts and heard some of your stuff. So all the different things that got us here, all the connections, all the various other things, I'm absolutely delighted. So yes, thank you very much, Josh, for having us. It's my joy to have you. And I also want to issue a congratulations to you, nearly 22 years in business with Digital Clarity.

1:45So So congratulations on your longevity. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's been quite a journey, Josh. You know, it's the entrepreneurial journey, a lot of ups and downs. And that's just with this business. So I've got a lot of war wounds, if you like, getting to where I am today. But it's been quite an interesting road that I've traveled. And yeah, and still going, as they say. So it's been quite what somebody called me the other day was a veteran in the industry. And I didn't know how to quite take that. But I think in a world where, you know, you can do a half day course on LinkedIn and suddenly you're an expert.

2:21I think there's a lot of people who are looking for a lot more substance these days. And I think that's what some of the people who've been around in my era, he says, but also keeping up with all the latest trends. So, yeah, but thank you. Yeah. 22 years. When you put it like that, it's been quite a I've earned my stripes, as they say. So, yes. Well, likely you've impacted the lives of lots of people, lots of great companies. So please give us an overview of what you do with Digital Clarity. Indeed. So we started LifeOff as one of the first Google search agencies here in Europe, and we grew into be one of the biggest.

3:00And as I say, we were traditionally known as a digital marketing agency, which in the broadest term is now very commoditized. There's a lot of people, if I am a buyer of digital marketing services, or if I'm a CEO or a CMO of a medium to large company, it's very difficult for me to determine who's good and who's not, because everyone says they're great. So about sort of three years ago, we moved from being a broad based B2B, B2C kind of business, and moved very much into the B2B tech space. That's really the core clients that we serve. CEOs, CMOs of companies of medium to large size companies, or companies who are smaller, but are very ambitious and looking to grow.

3:55And historically, we were very much in the search space. So people had challenges and finding themselves on Google and various other things. But the reality was that it's not so much of what you do on social media. It's not so much on where you appear on Google. It's all about understanding the value that you bring to your customers. And many organizations that we speak to, they say, hey, Reggie, my marketing's not working, or I'm trying to do some stuff on LinkedIn, I'm not getting enough leads, or I'm getting no leads or the bad quality leads. And really, when we deconstruct that, we follow our process that we've developed over those 22 two years, we have now a process that looks at the business as a whole.

4:43So we have a holistic view. And what we do is we help our companies define their value, the companies that we work with, and where the digital footprint is within that, and then beyond that digital footprint as well. So everything from understanding who they are, the value proposition that they have, their price points, who the customers actually really are, the messaging that they share with those people. And really, rather than going for the prey and spray or whatever that terminology is, we really hone in and have a very focused strategy and game plan that we put together for our clients. And providing that they do and implement some of the things that we ask them to do and we work very closely with them and their teams they start seeing results over a sort of three to six month period and they really change and that's the core difference between companies who go round and round and don't really break through to companies who break through and become very successful who go from x amount of turnover to 10x where they are today and that's what we and share.

5:53We try and share our experience to help companies do that. So it's not just the media you use. It's take a step back before you look at the media and look at the channels that you're using and define a very clear game plan. So that's what we do. You know, so I love the thought leadership that you've been creating. And one thing that I'd really love to have you talk about is, is kind of the 95-5 rule, talking about buyers who are in market versus not in market. Can you explain a little bit more about that and why this is an important concept for us to understand? Absolutely, Josh. So the 95-5 rule was a huge amount of research done by a number of universities, a number of sales and marketing institutes, and predominantly by LinkedIn.

6:45in. And they found some startling research, which started happening before the pandemic. And certainly it was accentuated during the pandemic, then after the pandemic, and exists today. And that is quite simply, within the B2B marketplace, the line that has blurred very much, there is no B2C or B2B anymore. As we traditionally know it, it's all very much human to human. And the way we buy, the way you and I buy, the way we're going to buy anything is we evaluate, we look at things, we look at the brand, we look at trust, we look at authenticity. And a lot of the companies that we talk to are trying to be something that they're not.

7:33And we bring them back into who are you really? What is the core of business? Why did you start that business all those years ago? So the 95 buy rule means that 95 % of people who are engaging with you, they are not ready to buy. They're very much in the discovery phase. They're evaluating you. They're looking at what you do. And they may not even re-engage with you. You may not even hear or see them for about three months, six months, a year, two years. They will only buy when they're ready to buy. and you know there's another thing that leads on to this which is that what mckinsey coined mckinsey who are a management consultancy firm um for those who don't know but they you know go into organizations um they are getting a little bit of slack recently uh after saturday night lives little sketch on them but what they do is they define the term called the omni channel you have to give your buyers different touch points that allow them to engage with you and when they're ready to buy.

8:37So rather than sell, people want to be warmed up. And then when they're ready, they'll come for, if you're selling software, they'll ask for a demo. And sometimes these customers come out of nowhere. So only 5 % of your customers are in play, ready to buy. So when somebody engages with you or they download a white paper or a playbook or they listen to your podcast, which will lead on to another topic that I could talk to you about, which is a thing called dark social, things that aren't readily measurable, which is something that we're looking to do a hell of a lot more of, and actually look at the measurement of brand.

9:11These are, when you add all of these things up, you realize that really the customer is in control. And what you have to do as a great business person is give them the tools they need to make their mind up on why they should buy you and all of those things. It's not a case of, you know, you're not a second hand car salesman. The minute they walk on the lot, trying to sell them something that they don't want. So this is the 95.5 rule. It's 5 % of people are ready to buy. Most of the customers who engage with you are not. They're evaluating you. What you need to be doing is nurturing those customers and giving them what they need, not bombarding them with stuff they don't need.

9:54If I download a white paper, Josh, from your website, or I fill in some content and download something, it means I'm interested in that topic and that subject. It doesn't necessarily mean I want to buy from you. Might be six months down the line, I'll say, hey, I've been watching you. I've been looking at you quite a lot. I might want to buy from you. But all I want is that information that you very kindly put together. And that's what it's all about. So this is the way people buy. And the Omni channel that I touched on very briefly, Josh, is about creating online communities now where even companies we deal with, different size companies, but it allows your potential prospects, your customers to buy off you online.

10:40And they can actually put an order in, they can ask for a demo, they can do it all passively. And that's what it's all about. So these are all these different things that are beginning to happen and all culminating in the new what they call buyer community that exists today. There's even committees now that get together and they discuss products, which you have no ideas going on. So people are actually discussing your organization's product and services. So it's the stuff you don't hear, the listening, the sentiment, the value people put on your product or service. That's what it's all about. So, yeah, it's all about, well, very much like in your title about influence.

11:20And that's the really key commodity today. Yeah. By the way, from your lips to God's ears, everything that you just said, I am like nodding away. Because, you know, and this is why established leaders tend to generally do okay, because they've been out there. You know, I would imagine, Reggie, with 20 years under your belt, you know, we could do some searching. and we're probably going to find 20 years track record of your impact in the world. So if we think about then what goes into a buying decision, I think savvy buyers in the B2B world, they're going to do a little bit of due diligence. That's really important.

12:00And also, too, to your earlier point, you're talking about, in fact, the call right before this call was someone that I had talked with over a year ago. So I'm just there anytime someone comes into my world, I'm there to be 100 % in service. What's the greatest value that I can give you today based on where you're at? May or may not be the right time for you to pull the trigger on our services, but I'm still going to show up in a positive way. And I'm going to stay active and engaged in their world because that's exactly what this guy said. Listen, you've kept in touch with me over the past year.

12:34I'm ready. A hundred percent, Josh. And I think we're both in agreement. I mean, we're both sort of seasoned business people, marketers, and, you know, we've got life skills that I think a lot of people may not have. And it's really having that empathy, that understanding, and really, you know, we've got two of these and one of these. And it's that ability to listen and try and understand and share and impart some of that knowledge. And that's where the real value is for those customers. And, you know, we've been through the entrepreneurial journey, if you like, and still going through it. You know, it never really ends, but it just changes.

13:14And it changes with, you know, dare I use the term AI. That's brought a new dimension to things. Even up till a year ago, 18 months ago, people really weren't talking about it. People were talking about Web3 and NFTs. Remember those? And all these other things. And it was that kind of, you know, this is the world. we've got much and they will happen i remember when the dot-com boom and bust was beginning to happen and it was my first job i remember getting a job at um in sales that uh i mean you're far too young to remember it but it was uh in those days of of lycos aol and yahoo those early you worked for ziff davis i was at ziff davis and um ziff were very much pioneers they coined the phrase We believe in technology.

14:02Oh, yeah. And we were part of the Ziff Labs team. We launched PC World in the UK. VNU was a big Dutch publisher as well. These were the days of, and, you know, my life started very much in the print. We had the journalist teams over here, print team. And that was invaluable because you could see very seasoned journalists. And I was on the advertising side, understanding how the two work together. the importance of content of narrative of all these different things it wasn't just about here's a product try and sell it you know stack them high son the amount of research people did buying pcs servers networks cables all those kind of things back in the day and the credibility ziff and other companies you know pc mag all these other they were really pioneering companies and that's how how those things really happen but yeah the importance of a narrative the importance of actually having depth in things is very very important absolutely yeah Ziff Davis, AltaVista for my sins all these other things it was actually oddly enough Josh when online was moving forward it was the guys and girls who were very much in the publishing world who understood cost per thousand models the cpm models they understood they had the relationships with the advertising agencies and the marketing agencies and all the advertisers so they were the ones that helped monetize what was banner advertising back in the day and they did it in a cost per thousand model because the cost per me league cpm because they understood a way of actually because at the time nobody knew how to monetize it was actually yahoo who actually said this we can't use airtime type um tv type advertising per slot 30 second slots this that and the other we did it on impression based eyeball type page impressions and that's how that model came about and it's actually yahoo as well you have to thank for actually when you see an ad people clicking on it that changed the world because you could actually see when somebody actually clicked on an ad, a TV ad or a radio ad, that they all played their part.

16:20So they're all into it. Reggie, we just have a couple of minutes left. Your website is digital-clarity.com. Who should be reaching out to you? Specifically, who would be an example of maybe an ideal potential client or customer or someone that you know that if you were to engage with, you likely could help them solve a lot of big problems pretty quickly or efficiently? Our core audience is very much B2B. And we normally deal with the founders or CEOs of companies of varying sizes. So on one side, we deal with companies who are 50 to 200 and up. And on the other side, we deal with very ambitious, smaller SMB companies who are looking to grow.

17:05And they are companies who are normally in the tech space, normally in the business to business space, but they don't primarily have to be in tech. Most of the challenges they have are very much the same as any other companies. So really, they are our ideal customers, managing directors and CEOs of companies who, on the smaller SMB side, are looking to grow and are looking for that next jump and are having challenges right through to other companies who are much larger, but are also looking for their next phase as well. The interesting thing is, Josh, that they're actually quite similar. They have different type of challenges, but some of the things they're looking to achieve are very close.

17:55So, you know, those companies who are four to five years old should not feel afraid to reach out and at least have a conversation with us. Yeah. Your website, digital-clarity.com, what do they click on? What do they do? So go to digital-clarity.com, or you can come to info at digital-clarity.com and put my name in there. And if anyone wants to reach out or if there's any show notes or whatever on there, what I'd like to do is I've prepared something based on my influence thing today where we put together a top 10 mistakes that CEOs make within marketing and how they can sort of address and try and fix them.

18:41And we've put a package together. So if anyone's interested, I would love to send that. It's free of charge. There's no selling. It's something they can read in their own time. And I'd love to share that with any of your audience. As I say, it's predominantly aimed at B2B tech CEOs and CMOs, but it's available to all budding entrepreneurs and business people. And I'd love to share that with you. Reggie James, thank you so much for joining us. Again, digital-clarity.com. Reggie, it's been great having you. Thank you so much, Josh. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

19:22Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com slash guest. If you're a listener, I'd love to shout out your business to our whole audience for free. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or join our listener Facebook group. Just search for The Thoughtful Entrepreneur in Facebook. I'd love, even if you just stopped by to say hi, I'd love to meet you. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day.

20:06Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful entrepreneurs. Hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes each day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.