Unlocking the Power of Connection: How B2B Brands Can Leverage Communities for Growth
Join Latané Conant and Sean Whiteley as they discuss how B2B brands can leverage communities to build stronger connections with their peers and customers, ultimately driving growth, building trust, and amplifying their brands within target audiences.
Hello everyone and welcome. I'm Sean Whiteley, co-founder of Qualified and I am
very pleased
to welcome Latine Conant, CMO of Sixth Sense. Latine, thank you so much for
joining us today
from Chicago.
Sean, I'm so happy to be here. This event seems to be going awesome. I love all
the
energy in the chat and everything you guys got going. So it's an honor to get
to participate
in it.
Well, really lucky to have you today. I know how much you have going on. So we
're going
to jump into it today in this conversation. I'd like to talk about a topic that
I know
is near and dear to your heart. We're going to talk about the importance of
building community
in the B2Mee marketing world today and how companies can really build stronger
connection
with peers and customers. And Latine, I never know where to begin with you. So
let's start
out with a softball, something. Look, I know this is a question you get all the
time because
the idea of building out a big community, it can be daunting. So where do you
even start?
Relationships. I mean, the core of a community is people that care a lot. And
so, you know,
you start with solid relationships. And in every community, there's like the
heart of
it. And usually those are like the original participants. And so I think just,
you know,
creating that heart and making sure that's really, really solid. And it is
about heart.
It's about love and it's about wanting to make other people successful. And so
starting
with that. And then I think the other thing is, you know, a lot of people say,
well, this
is who I sell to. So this is who I want my community to be. And it's going to
be this
person, this type of people and that type of people. But it's like, well, why
do those
type of people want to get together? And the reason that you need community is
typically
there's an unmet need in the industry or an unmet education that is not out
there. And
so actually the more alike your community members are in that unmet need, the
more valuable
the community is. So I think people mistakenly think big. Oh, it needs to be
huge. But to
be honest, some of the most successful communities are very, very small. And
you know, I think
about probably what I think is the best community in the world is an
organization that's been
around for forever called YPO. And it's designed, it's young presidents
organization. You know,
you have to be a president of a company, it has to be I think 100 million plus.
And you
have to be young, you have to be under 40. So they're really serving this niche
of young
people that are running these huge companies and kind of maybe don't know what
they're
doing. And their forum groups are like eight people. And you know, I think
about like my
father in law, who is now 75. And he still meets with his forum group every
month. Most
of them don't have businesses anymore. They're all retired. So luckily, but
they still meet,
right? And so that's that heart. And they have this common bond that not a lot
of people
have. And so I think that's like, like to me, you find that that and really
develop
that core group. Yeah. And you, Lanny, you've got so much experience in this
area. You sort
of when you talk about it, you kind of have these core values, right? And one
of the things
I've heard you talk about is when you're building community, you want to build
a community that
people want to be a part of. And you talk about the difference between audience
and community,
which I really like. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah. So a lot of people have a big audience. And that's great. Right. So they
have a podcast.
They have tons of people that follow them. They maybe have a webinar series and
lots
of people show up and people ask questions and, um, or they wrote a book or
this or that.
And then they have these big audiences, which is a great thing, right? But that
's not a community.
That is an audience because the difference is in the community, the members are
actually
the programming, right? So the members drive the programming, the members drive
the content,
right? Their sharing, their expertise is the content, right? It's not show up
to a show.
It's show up to participate, you know, to answer somebody's slack in a time of
need,
to pick up the phone when someone has a real challenge and needs to talk. And
so it's much
more multi way than an audience, which tends to be one way. And so that's what
you got
to really think about. Okay. The community is my content. So how are they
contributing
and how are they driving, you know, all of our programming and, and how we run.
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And you, you know, one of the things you talk
about, which
I sort of immediately went to the word sweat equity, but you talk about the
hard work and
the dedication and the long hours and the passion that goes into like really
building
a community well. Can you talk about some of like the common mistakes people
make when
they set out to build a community and they kind of, it just doesn't go the
right way.
Can you talk about some of the common mistakes you see?
So I think not having a heart is the first mistake, right? Like anybody can set
up a
Slack channel, you know, anybody can throw up some zoom meetings. You have to
have that
core group that really cares. And, and I think that the leaders of the
community have to
really, really care and have the right personality for it. You know, we were
talking about, you
said, Oh, why didn't you do this at a peer? Yeah. And I said, well, if I would
have done
it at a peer, yeah, Glen White, and I probably should have, but it wouldn't
have been me
leading the community would have been Glenn Weinstein because he represented
our people,
you know, and he actually has the right personality to do it. You know, when I
think about we
have a BDR leader community, it's not me showing up in that community. It's
artists
because he is a BDR leader and he cares and he gets it, right? And he
understands the
ins and outs of that role. So I think that if you want to start it, just make
sure the
leader has the highest degree of empathy for that audience and can be not just
an organizer
of the community, but a real participant. I think that's, that's like really,
really
important. I would say to never go it alone. Like as a brand, you know, the our
communities
are six cents owned. But I'm very thoughtful about making sure they're not our
communities
per se, right? That that we always have a great partner. So CMO Coffee Talk is
one of
our most successful communities. And Matt Heinz is a huge part of that heart.
He's like
the left ventricle, right? He's like a major part, you know, of our of that of
that heart.
We couldn't have done it without doing it together and without him. I think
about our
empowered CMO community, which is our women's CMO community and, you know, Kate
Bullis could
not have done it with without her. And so picking the right partner, and it
does it.
It again, think about who cares as much about this type of person or this type
of struggle
as you, right? I mean, Kate is an executive like Uber, Uber executive search
person. And
she just cares so much about women's CMOs. She was perfect to partner with that
for
empowered. So so I think you never go it alone. And the vetting of the partner
is not money.
It's not it's how much do they care? Yeah, Landon, when you when you said Glen
Weinstein,
for those people who don't know, when I when I saw you kind of in your first
role as a marketing
leader, you worked at company called the Pirio, which was a leader in
professional services,
largely service cloud implementations, you know, great, great executive team.
And you're
right, Glen Weinstein, the COO, he would be the perfect guy to be that heart of
that
community 100%. I get it. So look, obviously communities are powerful and it
takes a lot
of hard work. It takes a lot of implementing the core values that you've been
talking about
today. What are the what are the benefits? Like, you know, why do people like
yourself work
so hard, so many tireless hours to do this? What is what is sort of the core
benefit that
you receive from something like this? So one of the things that I talk about,
you know,
most of our communities are free or free-ish, you know, if it's a retreat, then
you know,
maybe they got to pay for the hotel or whatever. But and so I talk about this
is free, but
not free. And and the not free aspect is if you are a customer and things aren
't going
as well as you'd like, I call me like I want to call, you know, I want an
opportunity to
fix it because I know I can't. If you, you know, you don't have to go out and
buy if
you don't need six cents right now. Okay, but I want you to at least know what
six cents
does. And if you're looking at, you know, that that type of, you know, you have
that pain
or that need, like, I want the opportunity to win, right? I want to be on the
short list.
And so it's like that confidence check, that's what I say, like I want, I want
to feel like
I can, you know, you know, I get a shot, I still have to earn the shot. So it's
not going
to get you the deal, but it but it certainly should get you a shot and it and
you're trading
in trust. So, you know, trust is the currency that you create with the
community. And my
hope is that then they say, well, gosh, if we go with six cents, I'm going to,
I have
a direct line to call that knee. I might not have that with someone else. And
the thing
about trading in the currency of trust is you got to deliver it then, right? So
, you
know, trust takes the stairs and to earn and it takes the elevator, you know,
to lose.
So it's about really, you know, creating and establishing and trust in an
organic way.
And I mean, it's interesting. I just got off a call. We're, we're, we're, we're
big in
a Mia right now and we were going through our strategy and, you know, we have a
very focused
where we use our own, we drink our own champagne. So we have a thousand
accounts must win, you
know, a segment of a thousand counts ideal ICP counts. And it's all about how
do we penetrate
this a thousand. And, and the my leader and amia said, well, well, when we
looked at our
closed one 30% or in coffee talk last year. It's amazing. So that's the benefit
. You know,
is, is that the, you know, the relationship and like, you know, I got a call, I
was heading
home from San Francisco two Fridays ago, I got a call from a an empowered CMO.
I need
help getting your, I know it's end of your quarter. I need help getting this
through,
give me some talking points. I got to go to my CFO, but I understand it's the
end of
your quarter, right? And, and you've come through for me. And so I'm going to
come
through for you. And, and people get that. That's like, like businesses are
about relationships.
And so that's what it, that's what it earned it. You earn the right though. You
have to
earn that right. Yeah, I look at that. I mean, no one's earned that trust more
than you. I've
seen how long you've done this and how, how dedicated you've been. So if anyone
can ask
to get the deal through at the end of the quarter, I'm sure to.
Latany, any, any parting words for, for our pipeline summit attendees today, we
really,
again, appreciate you spending some time with us. And, you know, obviously
anyone who's seen any
of your communities can immediately start to see the power and the passion and
the
connection that, that is created within the heart of those communities. Any,
any parting words for
our audience today? I think that there is a universal law, I guess, that I
believe in.
That every time you give, you don't necessarily know how it's going to come
back, right? But
every time you give a little bit of yourself and your learning, and you impart,
you know,
some nugget of wisdom on someone else, you will get it back. Right. And so I
think
whether it's an established community, whether or it's, you know, just a group
of people that you
love to learn from, you know, the biggest, it's, it's hard, but then the
learning. And, and this is a
hard game that we're in. It's a hard game. And the playbook changes all the
time.
And so to me, the value of community, and we, and we were joking about LinkedIn
learning,
there's no LinkedIn learning class for exactly what's happening right now in
our, you know, in our,
in our businesses. And so the best way is to learn in real time. And it starts
by sharing, right? You
share, you share, and then you're going to get that back. And I think the more
authentically you share,
the better. And so we have, we have a rule for all of our communities, which is
another YPO thing,
which is the 4% rule. So 96% of your life, work and personal, you can go and
talk to anybody.
You can go to the block party. Oh, yeah, the yard, the rabbits are eating my
tulips again,
whatever, right? But then there's the 2% that's the real highs that you can't
share,
because it would seem like boastful or weird, right? And then there's the 2%
that are the real
lows that would scare people to death, especially when you think about what we
do and the stakes
that we play in. And that's what you use your community for, is that 4%. It's
not to talk about,
you know, the, the, the, the casserole that you're making, you know, for Easter
Sunday or the best
cheese grits recipe. It's, you know, it's about that super, super high that you
couldn't tell
anybody and the super, super low. And it's so enriching to be able to, to share
that.
And so that's what we try to focus on. That's great. Latine, again, thank you
so much. This has
been really valuable. Knowing you, you're running right onto another meeting
after that story.
Again, really appreciate the time. And I hope to see you in person soon.
Yeah. Thank you guys. This was fun.