High-Level EXP Process
Thought leadership has evolved from a one-way broadcast to conversation and community. It requires authenticity, having a point of view, and delivering something of value. Value can come in the form of insights, inspiration, imagination, help — even entertainment.
Kevin Marasco, CMO, Zenefits
2021 LinkedIn Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study
The exploratory call (EXP) is the first opportunity for you to build rapport with the interviewee. Since we ask the same questions to everyone, we want to ensure each interviewee's contribution to the publication is unique. We share a summary of their interview as well as some suggested follow on questions you can ask them, also a soundcloud link to the interview.
You essentially conduct a follow up interview focusing on them and their answers and industry challenges, avoid talking about your solution.
Following your EXP call we draft their One Pager and forward to both you and the interviewee ahead of the One Pager Review Call (OPR), during which you will run through their One Pager with them, finalising it or discuss final changes required.
To conclude the OPR call, you say - "Before we wrap up, would you be open to a follow-on call where I can share how we're helping organisations similar to yours solve XYZ?" This could be an invitation to a workshop - any follow on offer of value. The TechPros.io team can assist with booking these.
What is an EXP call?
A 20 - 30 minute conversation between a senior representative of your organisation and an interviewee within 10 days of their interview taking place. It is recorded and takes place on Zoom - you receive an invitation and show up on the day.
What are the benefits of the EXP call?
The Network Sunday service has been commissioned to help your organisation establish a dialogue with senior professionals within your target accounts to explore whether there could be a sales opportunity and to learn more about the account situation. The by-product of this is a content publication. The immersive process wins credibility with your buyer participants and 'oils the wheels' for continued discussion, potentially regarding how your solution can assist a problem they may have. The EXP calls provide an opportunity to help the writer produce a strong 'One Pager' interview write up which the interviewee will love, this is by drawing out more insights and anecdotes. As a result of a valuable and enjoyable experience, interviewees make an effort to champion you and your company within their own organisations if they see a potential fit.
What prep work must I do beforehand?
Listen to the whole interview if you have time and read their interview brief and follow on questions,. You can stream/play the interview from Soundcloud. The more effort you put into the preparation the more value you and the interviewee will get from the conversation.
What’s the agenda, how do I initiate the discussion?
Follow these steps:
Thank them for their contributions and let them know you have listened to their interview with interest. Mention that you were interested in what they had to say about XYZ. Ask them questions you prepared earlier to get them talking about two or three specific issues/topics and debate these a little, make sure they do most of the talking.
If there are clear challenges being discussed that you can help with, we suggest holding off on selling - keep the agenda focussed on their interview write-up for now.
Let them know that you will follow up next week to go through their One Pager (we arrange this for you), it will be sent a few hours before your One Pager Review (OPR) call with them.
How do I pivot the conversation to explore interest in further dialogue?
Having built rapport in the EXP call following the above approach, you can move the conversation towards your solutions, or better still an offer of value e.g. an educational workshop in the second (OPR) call once it is clear the interviewee is happy with their One Pager - the 'value exchange'. After confirming they're satisfied with their One Pager, you can transition to discussing how your solutions align with the challenges and priorities they've shared.
Then ask if they would be open to a follow on call to learn how your organisation is assisting companies ABC with XYZ.
Since the interviewee has had a great experience you will find they will be open and willing to meet you to learn more about your solution. See the interview with Tom Gatten of Growth Intelligence at www.networksunday.com for more info.
Some useful tips to follow EXP call:
EXP Call Examples
- Prepare well for the EXP call. Take the time to listen to the recording and make notes on their initial interview write up and have specific questions written down that you plan to ask them - this will massively increase the chances of a positive outcome for you and for them!
- Explain the process - i.e. you are asking some follow on questions to uncover some anecdotes that will help the writer produce an interesting and differentiated One Pager.
- Focus the entirety of the EXP call on the interviewee's answers, it will likely become apparent if there could be a sales opportunity but hold back on the temptation to start selling.
- EXP Call Examples 1-4 are the correct way to go about these calls and Examples 5-6 on the other hand are the wrong way to approach them.
- The sales rep in Examples 5 & 6 opens up these calls by talking for several minutes about her company's credentials. Unfortunately, the result is immediate expectation misalignment and disengagement.
- Contrast the above to Examples 1-4 where the representative focuses on the interviewee and their insights right from the start.
- When executed well, there is a sense of a relationship evolving, a door has been opened, some common ground identified, and an intention to continue dialogue given the all-around positive experience from the interview and EXP call.
“When you’re buying a B2B service, a lot of what you're buying is the quality of the relationship you have with the people.”
Tom Gatten
CEO, Growth Intelligence
A Market View One-Pager example
