1767 – The Importance of Established Leaders with Reggie James

Josh (00:00:05) - Hey there, thoughtful listener. Would you like consistent and predictable sales activity with no spam and no ads? I'll teach you step by step how to do this, particularly if you're an agency owner, consultant, coach, or B2B service provider. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create more than $10 million in revenue. Just head to up my influence.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 up my influence. Com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you. With us right now it's Reggie James. Reggie, you are the founder of Digital Clarity. You are found on the web@digital-clarity.com. Reggie, thank you so much for joining us.

Reggie (00:01:11) - 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.

Reggie (00:01:19) - 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 me.

Josh (00:01:33) - 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. So congratulations on your longevity.

Reggie (00:01:48) - 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 a war wounds, if you like getting to where I am today. But it's been quite an interesting, um, road that I've travelled 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, I 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.

Reggie (00:02:30) - 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.

Speaker 3 (00:02:39) - Mhm.

Josh (00:02:40) - 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.

Reggie (00:02:50) - Indeed. So we started life off as one of the first Google search agencies here in Europe. And we grown to be one of the biggest. And 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 am 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 the great. So about sort of three years ago, we moved from being a broad based, B2B, B2C kind of business and move very much into the B2B tech space.

Reggie (00:03:41) - That's really the core clients that we serve CEOs, CMOs of companies of medium to large sized companies or companies who are smaller but are very ambitious and looking to grow. And 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 organisations that we speak to, they say, hey Reggie, my marketing is 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 and we follow our process that we've developed over those 22 years, we have now a process that looks at the business as a whole. So we have a holistic view. And what we do is we help our companies define their value to the companies that we work with and where the digital footprint is within that, and then beyond that digital footprint as well.

Reggie (00:04:57) - 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 3 to 6 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 ten X where they are today. And that's what we try and share. We 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.

Reggie (00:06:08) - So that's what we do.

Josh (00:06:09) - 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 five 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?

Reggie (00:06:33) - Absolutely. Josh. So the 95 five rule was a huge amount of research done by a number of universities, a number of sales and marketing institutes, and predominantly by LinkedIn. And they found some startling research which had started happening before the pandemic. And certainly it was accentuated during the pandemic and 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 by the way, you and I, by 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.

Reggie (00:07:26) - And a lot of the companies that we talk to are trying to be something that they're not, and we bring them back into, who are you really? What is the core of this, and why did you start that business all those years ago? The 95 five 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 or 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 what McKinsey coined McKinsey, who are a management consultancy firm. Um, for those who don't know, but they, you know, go into organizations and they, they are getting a little bit of slack recently, uh, after Saturday Night Lives, little sketch on them.

Reggie (00:08:24) - But what they do is they define the term called the omnichannel. You have to give your buyers different touchpoints that allow them to engage with you and when they're ready to buy. So 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 playbook, or they listen to your podcast, which will lead on to another topic that I could talk to you about, which is the 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. These 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.

Reggie (00:09:30) - 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 five 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 those customers and giving them what they need, not bombarding them with stuff they don't need. If I download a white paper from your website or I fill in some content and download something, it means I'm interested in that topic, in 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. You've got 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 omnichannel that I touched on very briefly.

Reggie (00:10:25) - Josh is about creating online communities now where even companies, we deal with different sized companies, but it allows your potential prospects, your customers to buy off you online, and 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 exist 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 products 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 your in your title about influence. And that's the really key commodity today.

Josh (00:11:23) - 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.

Josh (00:11:32) - 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. Um, and also to, you know, to your earlier point, you're talking about, in fact, the call right before this call was someone that I talked with over a year ago. 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.

Josh (00:12:32) - Listen, you've kept in touch with me over the past year.

Reggie (00:12:34) - I'm ready 100%, Josh. And, you know, I think we're both in agreement. We're both sort of seasoned, uh, 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 the entrepreneurial journey, if you like, and still going through it, you know, it never really ends, but it just changes and it changes with, you know, dare I use the term I that's brought a new dimension to things I even up till a year ago, 18 months ago, people really weren't talking about it. People talking about Web3 and NFTs.

Reggie (00:13:27) - Remember those, um, and all these other things. And it was that kind of you know, this is the world we've got and they will happen. I remember when the.com boom and bust was beginning to happen, and it was my first job. I remember getting a job at, um, in sales at, 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. Yeah.

Josh (00:13:52) - You worked for Ziff Davis.

Reggie (00:13:54) - I was at Ziff Davis. And, um, Ziff were very much pioneers. They coined the phrase we believe in technology. Oh, yeah. And we were part of the, um, the Ziff Labs team. We 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 with the journalist teams over here printing and and that was invaluable because you could see very seasoned journalists.

Reggie (00:14:25) - And I was on the advertising side, understanding how the the two worked 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 and isothum 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 these things really happened. But yeah, the importance of a narrative, the importance of actually having depth in things is very, very important. Absolutely. Yes. Ziff Davis, AltaVista, for my sins, all these other things. It was actually, uh, oddly enough, Josh, when online was moving forward, it was the guys and girls who are 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, in the marketing agencies and all the advertisers.

Reggie (00:15:33) - So they were the ones that help monetize what was banner advertising back in the day. And they did it in a cost per thousand model, because the cost per CPM, because they understood a way of actually because at the time nobody knew how to monetize it was actually Yahoo actually said this. We can't use air time type, um, TV type advertising per slot, 32nd 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 essentially 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. Yeah, the TV ad or radio ad that they all played their part. So they're all into interlude.

Josh (00:16:22) - Reggie, we just have a couple of minutes left. Your website is digital-clarity.com. Who should be reaching out to you? Um, you know, specifically what would be an example of a maybe an ideal potential client or customer or someone that that you know, that if you were an engage with, you likely could help them solve a lot of big problems pretty quickly or efficiently.

Reggie (00:16:43) - 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, uh, SMB companies who are looking to grow, and they are companies who are normally in the tech space, normally in the 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 as any other companies. So really they are our ideal customers, uh, managing directors and CEOs of companies who, on the smaller SMB side, are looking to grow and are looking for that that next jump and 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 a very close.

Reggie (00:17:55) - So you know, those companies who are 4 to 5 years old should not feel afraid to reach out and at least have a conversation with us.

Josh (00:18:05) - Yeah, yeah. Your website digital clarity. Com what do they click on. What do they do.

Reggie (00:18:11) - So go to digital hyphen clarity.com. Or you can come to info at Digital Life and Clarity. Com and put my name in there. But 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 will be put together a top ten mistakes that CEOs make within marketing, and how they can sort of address and try and fix them. And 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.

Josh (00:19:06) - With Reggie James. Thank you so much for joining us again. digital-clarity.com Reggie it's been great having you.

Reggie (00:19:14) - Thank you so much Josh. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

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