005 Bill Staikos (Medallia) on Moving Up the Maturity Curve Through Evangelism

Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute

Have you ever put yourself in your client's shoes? Have you ever seen it from their perspective? Have you ever let your community drive the agenda?
Today’s guest is Bill Staikos, SVP/Evangelist & Head of Community Engagement at Medallia. Bill joins Ethan Beute and shares how it is important to walk a mile in the buyer’s shoes - something he's done because he's been the buyer. Bill also discusses how he managed the relationship between his company and his own media property, Be Customer Led. Don’t miss the advice Bill gives on how people will reach out based on his content and ask to learn more about his company. Bill tells the listeners to not keep them to themselves, share them!

Takeaways:

• The primary role or responsibility is evangelizing the problem the company is trying to solve through its product or service.
• Bill realized that getting into the problems his customers face every day, including our organizational design is sometimes farther afield than the immediate problems.
• Most companies aren’t solving problems or solving them the right way. So Bill used his background to create content to help people think about it or realize the benefits.
• In order to grow his company, Bill dedicated 30% of his time to working with clients, assessing their level of maturity, where they want to go, how to get there, and what it means to get there. Focusing your time on these important things can improve your relationship with your clients.
• Bill learned that building trust, community, and engagement, and providing platforms for people to come together for conversations where they can all learn from peers and each other can help gain a better relationship with your clients and community.
• An important question to think about when wanting to better understand your customers is what problems are they facing at different stages and how are they growing and evolving up the curve.

Quote of the Show:

• “Letting your community drive the agenda is really important. There is so much learning from it.” (14:04)

Links:

• Bill Staikos on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BStaiks
• Bill Staikos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becustomerled/
• Be Customer Led Podcast: https://becustomerled.com/
• Medallia: https://www.medallia.com/

Ways to Tune In:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/wd8_7XT-B50
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a1ac6eea-f0ab-4546-a3ff-80b4f7a05fd9/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute