Florence Ralston is an Account Manager for MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland. Rory is vice chairman of Ogilvy & Mather & has one of the most popular advertising themed episodes on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast.

 

Florence has the important role of helping to develop and shape the MAD//Masters programme ensuring the best learning experience possible for all their participants.  With over 5 years experience across the events and exhibitions industry, Florence has substantial sales experience while also working across a diverse range of marketing and operations teams. This includes large global event organizers such as Informa, Ascential, Clarion, UNLEASH and TechEx Events with a proven track record of executing effective event marketing strategies. 

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1. You’ve previously worked across some of the biggest event brands like UNLEASH, DMWF, Money20/20 and TechEx. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about attracting and converting audiences in today’s digital-first world?

 

Having had the opportunity to work across diverse industries and with varied target audiences, the most significant lesson I’ve learnt is everyone communicates differently. A decade or two ago, when most professionals had dedicated work phones, direct calling was often a fool proof method of contact. Today, this is rarely the case; many individuals are uncomfortable receiving calls on their personal numbers until trust has been established. For example, social media is a major part of many marketing professionals' daily life, you’re much more likely to get a quick response from them over LinkedIn than hearing back from a call.

 

If however, you’re looking to get hold of your fellow sales professionals and business owners, picking up the phone is still the best way to go, we’re much more comfortable on the phone as calling is part of our day to day work. Literally communicating effectively not only benefits your audience and brings them on board, it’s also such a morale booster personally, spending hours calling dead numbers can be so demoralising.

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2. From working with MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland, their programmes look to combine academic rigour with real-world case studies. What’s one powerful idea from their programmes that you think digital sales leaders could apply immediately in their day-to-day work? ​

 

MAD//Masters is a treasure trove of useful lessons and learnings from Rory’s decades of industry leading experience, it’s almost too difficult to pick just one! A powerful idea that resonates with me is the emphasis on selling effectively over efficiently. Digital sales are inherently fast-paced, and often, in our eagerness to close a deal, we rush and sacrifice valuable rapport-building.

 

My most fruitful sales and relationships have consistently resulted from taking the time to fully understand clients and tailor my strategy to their specific needs. Building genuine rapport and making someone feel valued is unparalleled in its effectiveness; while it may be slower in the short term, it cultivates loyal, returning customers who become advocates for your business among their peers.

 

3. You’ve specialised in shaping delegate journeys for high-profile events. How do you see the principles of audience experience translating into digital sales strategies for B2B companies? ​

 

A significant part of a successful audience experience is high quality, on-the-pulse content which provides guidance and a deep understanding of what the audience is facing. I’m still in touch with many of my old delegates over LinkedIn, most of whom hadn’t heard of the event when I first contacted them and now return year after year bringing their peers with them. This can be mirrored in digital sales strategies for B2B companies through having a deep understanding of industry affecting current events.

 

Whilst working with DMWF in 2021, we brought in speakers from TikTok just as it had become a major disruptor in social media marketing. Being personally on top of current TikTok marketing strategies meant I could match the excitement of potential attendees and knew of the challenges they were facing when it came to implementing TikTok  into their company’s digital marketing. People attend events to learn about current trends and solutions relevant to their field of work, businesses will want to work with companies that do the same. Matching a potential client's excitement and having an excellent, on-the-pulse understanding of their field from the get go is a strong strategy.

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4. You’ve balanced hands-on marketing with frontline sales. What’s one way digital sales teams can bridge the traditional gap between marketing and sales? ​

 

Marketing at its core is made up of three main pillars: data, behavioural science and creativity, gaining a solid understanding of how to weaponize all three to best reach and know the customer base could revolutionise any sales teams’ strategy. Our course MAD//Masters is for the digital sales professional just as much as it’s for the marketer. Rory teaches participants how to get in the mind of the customer throughout the journey from unknown to prospect to loyal and returning customers. 

 

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5. MAD//Masters is built around insights from leading UK advertising icon Rory Sutherland who is the vice chairman of Ogilvy & Mather. What’s one insight you’ve seen his participants light up about, and why do you think it resonates so strongly in a digital sales context? ​​

 

The “ask five whys” strategy is an excellent insight from Rory and MAD//Masters. The best way of explaining this in a digital sales context is that if you ask why once you may be able to offer a solution to your prospects problem that works. However, if you inquire deeper, you may find an oblique cause to that problem that both yourself and the client may have not otherwise uncovered. From here you can offer them a better and longer lasting solution that your competitor most likely isn’t aware of.

 

​6. You’ve run diverse campaigns across social, email, and website platforms. What’s the one online channel you think digital salespeople underutilise when trying to close deals?​ 

 

 WhatsApp! I’ve lost count of the amount of times I haven’t been able to get hold of someone until I try their WhatsApp. It’s such a simple idea but so effective. Familiarity builds trust, people are much more likely to pick up a call from someone who they can see the profile picture and name of over a call from an unknown number. Additionally, in a world where everyone’s on the go it’s the best way to get a quick response.

 

7. Unlike traditional advertising training, MAD//Masters blends behavioural science, and commercial strategy. How do you see this multidisciplinary approach giving participants a competitive advantage in the digital sales landscape?  

 

Behavioural science connects data with creativity, our course teaches participants to use all three to innovate better and be brave enough to think differently. Our feedback really shows this, here’s a quote from one of our alumni “Everything you learn on the course can be put into practice the very next day and because of this I saw a 50% increase in acceptance of my sales proposals within 4 months of completing the course. I would recommend this to everyone”  - Commercial Director at Maze Media. What resonates so strongly is that MAD//Masters teaches participants to dare to think differently, we give them the edge on their competition that only Rory’s experience of 30 years changing the world’s leading companies can offer. 

 

8. From working across live events and digital campaigns, where do you think the “human touch” matters most in the AI data driven digital sales cycle? 

 

I’m going to take from both my experience and Rory Sutherland’s teachings in our MAD//Masters course in answering this question, he put words and theory to what I already instinctively knew. Studying research methods in my political science degree at university also backs this, working with and analysing data has been a large part of my life from university to my career. Data is based on the past; it is incredibly helpful to predict outliers and trends, however, if we base everything off what we already know, we may miss what we don’t.

 

Rory uses the worker bee analogy to explain this, bees are methodical, they send the majority of their worker bees to areas where they know nectar is, this is based on previous experiences. However, some worker bees fly away from the group in a random direction, at first this may seem like a waste of energy, sometimes they won't be successful but sometimes they will find a previously unknown field of flowers that secures the hive's future growth. Rory adds, exploit what you know, explore what you don’t, if we rely solely on AI data we may miss new unknown and untapped emerging markets.

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9. If you were advising a founder trying to grow their audience and online sales pipeline today, what’s the one digital sales habit you’d tell them to prioritise?

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Following on from my previous answer, I’d prioritise creativity and exploration in sales pitches. Earlier on in my career, I worked short stints at two companies who trained their staff to know a pitch off by heart and recite it like robots. This pitch was based on what the founder or sales director has found to work for them and they decided it was a one size fits all. Not only did this technique limit the company’s growth, it bred toxicity in the workforce. The sales executives who were the most successful were the ones who discreetly deviated from the written pitch and used their creativity and personality.

 

Eager to toe the line, I kept to the script and found little success. Instead give pointers of what has worked well in the past whilst encouraging the digital sales team to learn and explore will not only motivate them, it will create strong and more personable sales pitches whilst opening you up to new opportunities. As Rory says, the opposite of a good idea could be another good idea, sticking to a script based on what's worked in the past could bring you success and some growth but allowing innovation and new ideas will find you angles you hadn’t thought of and areas of opportunity you didn’t know existed. 

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10. Do you recommend any useful digital sales tools or platforms that can help professionals raise their online sales expertise?

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I’d recommend BuzzAi and any solid LinkedIn automation tool. They’re excellent tools to quickly build your network and hone your pitch. It’s a great way to attribute data and behavioral science learnings to sales as you can test different strategies, selling points and tones of voice. A word of warning, do not lean too heavily on them, they’re amazing tools but not miracle workers, the constraints of LinkedIn connection limits do still apply, although you can add multiple campaigns at once the more you add it will slow down outreach. 

 

 

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