Leadership Clarity & Revenue Breakthroughs with Jasz Joseph

Welcome to the Behavioral Profit, the podcast

where leadership behavior meets bottom line results.

I'm your host, Debbie Longo, executive behavioral

coach. Each week, we unpack the mindsets, habits,

and cultural shifts that... turn teams into high

performing profit driving powerhouses. So you

could lead with purpose and win with people.

I have a very special guest today, Jazz Joseph.

She is a revenue strategist and founder of a

HubSpot consultancy that helps B2B companies

turn complex systems and misaligned teams into

clear revenue driving operations. With over a

decade of experience in digital marketing and

sales, Jazz brings a non -fluff lens to growth.

helping leaders simplify their tech stacks, align

cross -functional teams, and build strategies

that drive results. Today she joins us to talk

about the behaviors behind business growth, what

gets into the way of clarity, and how leaders

can build cultures that move with purpose. The

first question is, how does a lack of clarity

show up in team behavior or revenue performance?

It's a great question. So it can show up in a

variety of different ways. As you'll often see,

duplicated were. missed handoffs, or an overreliance

on tools like Slack or email for clarity. So

whenever you start to see teams becoming reactive

instead of strategic and operating from a place

of stress, that's usually when I come in. So

from a revenue standpoint, if leads are falling

through the cracks, deals are stalling out, or

your messaging is inconsistent, marketing activities

usually fail to support those sales. goals. And

it's rarely a talent problem. It's usually a

clarity problem. So when leadership can be really

clear with their team about how do we treat our

leads? What is the amount of time that needs

to happen from a conversion to the first time

we reach out? What is the messaging that we use

during the sales process? When those roles and

priorities are really clear, that's when we start

to see performance increase. You're focusing

a lot on goals. and how people perform. When

I do coaching, that's very similar because that

not only increases positivity, that will eventually

increase sales and profits, which is really the

goal here because we want to be able to help

companies to grow. And whenever leadership is

able to really clearly articulate those goals,

that trickles down. And that's when you can feel

confident that your marketing team is going to

do... their job, your sales team is going to

do their job, they're going to be aligned in

working toward that one goal that leadership

has outlined for them. People are not working

in silos. And I have a podcast, Goal Making.

Not only will it help a company grow with sales

and profits, but they take that attitude and

behavior that they learn from coaching and carry

it home. They carry it to their social life.

If it's work from home or in person, how much

time does that employees spend with their peers.

If they're working a 40 hour work week, they

spend 40 hours. Then let's say they have a child,

they come home from work or they finish work.

The child goes to bed an hour or two later. They

have quality time two days a week. Let's say

they work Monday through Friday, and then they

have Saturday and Sunday off. They're spending

more time with their work peers and their bosses

as opposed to their family. Who's going to influence

more? the people you're spending more time with

or the people you spend less time with. You spend

so much of your time in the workplace. So when

you can feel like you're contributing to a greater

goal and you have a good relationship and things

are clear, like the amount of stress in your

life just decreases tremendously across the board.

There's a lot of people that I know. that say

they can be open more with people that they work

with rather than their own family. That is so

much to do with that company culture, which to

your point, it starts at the top and it just

trickles out. Any way that we could increase

performance and revenue, it's all gonna help

the company. The next question is, how can executive

teams connect team dynamics and internal habits

directly to revenue? I think this question...

really boils down to a very simple answer. Teams

that meet regularly, use shared dashboards, have

very aligned definitions of success, are more

likely to close deals. So most executives are

tracking pipeline numbers, but they're not tracking

how their internal behavior of those conversions.

And when I talk about internal behavior, I'm

talking about things in delays that lead follow

up, poor CRM habits, unclear campaign goals.

So if your team is not following up with leads

in a timely manner, if they're not Cleaning up

the data in the CRM and tracking what they're

doing and ensuring that all of that data is correct,

the email addresses, the phone numbers, the lead

statuses, etc. Then you're not going to be able

to have the big picture discussions that we're

talking about, where you can meet and you can

clearly identify what is our team doing, what's

working, what's not working, where do we need

to prioritize our time and our energy moving

forward in order to hit these goals. When leadership

is able to... that alignment and clarity, it

trickles down. So whenever we have shared priorities,

it reduces that internal friction and it increases

momentum. Teams that have really solid internal

rhythms, and when I say internal rhythms, I'm

talking about things like regular team meetings,

feedback loops, good review processes. So you're

not sitting wondering, am I doing a good job?

Or I feel like I'm doing a good job, but this

person is saying I'm not. Having that total clarity,

from a feedback and review process standpoint

is going to help teams identify opportunities

fast and act on them in a more competent manner.

Oh, I feel about my team and how I want to create

less greed and less ego in order to care about

my and my workers, even my coworkers. And that

will increase positivity, productivity, and therefore

not only increase There's a lot more here that

we're talking about. Internal habits, just like

you were explaining, when I help companies, I

show them how to grow. And this is a process.

It's about learning a whole different way of

doing business, conversing with people, hiring,

enforcing job duties. That person is changing

to being a very positive leader. The next question

is, what are the most common behavioral breakdowns

between sales and marketing? teams. I think one

of them is speaking different languages. So marketing

is often talking in terms of campaigns and branding,

and sales is often talking in terms of deals

and dollars. And if we are not able to accurately

blend those two, then there's going to be frustration,

there's going to be animosity, the teams are

not going to be able to work together. My best

performing organizations that I work with have

very aligned sales and marketing teams. What

does that truly mean? It means that marketing

is speaking sales as language, not really the

other way around, but marketing is tying all

of their initiatives to deals and dollars. At

the end of the day, that should be our primary

driver of success is revenue. Are we closing

deals? Are we generating revenue for the company?

Marketing needs to be thinking in that way as

well. Oftentimes what this looks like is in terms

of qualified leads. So, I see qualified lead

means something different to marketing than it

does to sales. Maybe we have a webinar or an

ebook. There are people that are finding it on

social media, they're downloading the ebook,

they're watching the webinar. Well, marketing

is spotting themselves on the back saying, we

just generated all of these qualified leads.

Sales go sell to them. And sales are getting

these and they're like, these people don't even

know who we are. They attended one event. Like,

these are not sales ready. leads. And so when

there's not a shared definition of what is a

qualified lead, what makes a lead ready to go

from marketing over handed off to sales, again,

that's when, like, the breakdown, the animosity

starts to occur. So it's really important that

these teams work in tandem and they're not siloed.

We shouldn't be having marketing having a meeting

talking about what they're doing and sales not

be included in that meeting when they can work

together and understand each other's role. That's

when real momentum starts to hit and marketing

starts to understand these are the specific thing

that sales needs from these contacts in order

to accurately be able to sell to them. And then

sales starts to appreciate, okay, marketing is

bringing me these really amazing leads that I

can even sell to. And that's when we start to

be able to work together and really see that

flywheel move at a faster pace. the supervisor

or the executive think that they are going to

get leads and they have no leads and then they

say have quality leads because the ultimate goal

is to do the action. But on the behavior side,

what if They say that they are going to succeed

and they are getting clients from these leads.

Or they would say, I have clients, even though

they don't. Let's say they have a whole bunch

of leads and they're not even good, but they're

going to say, I have clients from these leads,

even though they don't. And this is the type

of stuff I do when I do coaching because the

mind controls what's going on in my environment.

So this is one way to take negativity out of

the equation. They could say these might work,

they might not. That's not saying it's a hundred

percent positive. that these are quality leads.

And when I say that, it's happening now, even

though it's not. Nothing's happening. That is

saying that I want this to happen. If I say I

have a job and I don't have a job, I go to the

interview, I go through the whole process right

before I go on the interview, I say, I don't

think I'm going to get this job. What kind of

message is that sending? This is just another

way of thinking about it because I want to always

think... that my company is going to advance.

My company is going to be the company that's

going to succeed, that's going to do well, that's

going to reach the stock market, all these different

things. And if I think, I don't know if I'm going

to get clients or not, doesn't it help me advance

my company? I think you hit the nail on the head

in terms of confidence and feeling competent

and confident as you're going to market, whether

you're in a marketing role and you're trying

to get leaves or you're in a... sales role and

you're trying to close those leads. If you don't

feel confident in your process and if you don't

have the right tools in place, then it's not

going to work. There's a lot of foundational

work that needs to happen on the front end before

we can even start talking about this handoff.

The next question is, how can leaders build shared

accountability without creating more tension?

I think one of the main ways that I see this

done accurately is through your tools. As you

mentioned, I run a HubSpot consultancy. For me,

that means HubSpot, but that could be any CRM

or tools that your team is using. And having

shared dashboards or scorecards so everybody

can see that progress in real time keeps everything

objective and not personal. As leaders, we never

want to come to the table and say, you're not

doing good enough. If we have shared dashboards

and scorecards that everybody on the team had

visibility into, Then we can come to the table

and have a strategic conversation without pointing

fingers to be able to say, marketing, you're

not driving enough leads because we set this

goal and this is where we're at. Or sales, you're

not closing enough revenue because we wanted

to hit this number of revenue and we're only

at this number of revenue. When there's that

ambiguity, that's when I see a lot of tension.

So if we just say salespeople go south, they

will, but what do you need them to do? Who are

they selling to? What is the messaging? How much

do they need to sell? Same thing on the marketing

side. If we just say marketing, go get us leads.

Are they getting the right kinds of leads? Are

they warm enough for sales to sell to? To me,

clarity and visibility is the biggest way to

avoid tension. If everybody understands exactly

what the goal is and is on the same page with

it, then you're going to be able to move forward

in a really productive way. Feedback has to be

a part of the culture. can't only be a reaction

to mistakes. It has to be a part of the regular

rhythm. Leaders on a regular basis, whether that's

in weekly meetings, quarterly meetings, whatever

makes sense for your team, feedback should be

normal, both positive and negative. That should

be a normal part of your process. It shouldn't

be a situation where feedback is only coming

at you from a negative lens when you've done

something quote unquote wrong. And then on the

flip side, when should be celebrated. Whenever

teams are able to share that credit, they share

responsibility as well. So whenever you do hit

those revenue markers, you generate the lead,

sales closes the deals, celebrate that from a

whole team standpoint and give everybody the

credit and make them feel like they're really

a part of this bigger thing. And that really

helps contribute to, again, that ongoing growth

and motivating them to keep going. I was in sales

for a long time. We used to have hang. Say positive

things about the employee in front of a group.

in front of the other employees and say negative

things, like if you need to tell the employee

what they did wrong or you need to enforce job

duties, that should be said one -on -one. And

then we used to make a big deal out of it. We

used to say, oh yeah, this person did this. Isn't

that great? And all of these things create positivity.

And not only does it increase sales and profits,

it reduces tension. And that is... how to run

a business where it's really going to succeed

in a hundred different ways. And one of the reasons

why I have this podcast is just to show the executive

and business owner that. And if that's attractive

to them, if they decide that they want help,

either with you or with me, then they will seek

the person out. I don't want to charge for it.

I want to give this information to educate people,

to let them know that all these different topics

and subjects here that we're talking about that

are all intertwined in all these questions that

we just talked about, that's gonna create a company

that's really gonna succeed and do well and be

in existence for a very long time. And that's

the legacy that the person is gonna leave. Not

only they're gonna leave like a good 401k or

a pension to their family, but this is what they're

gonna stand for. But sometimes, It could be where

the executive or business owner needs to put

food on the table for their family. They need

money for gas. Their company is not doing good

because of all these things that we just talked

about in these four questions. And they don't

eat because their kids have to eat. The company's

not going to last too long. And we're trying

to avoid that. So we're talking about all these

different behaviors and all these different ways

that a company can do better than what it's doing

now. So the last question is, how does tool and

system overload affect team behavior and leadership

decision making? Too many tools create confusion

about where to find information, who owns what,

how to execute quickly. And something that I

see a lot of businesses come into that can be

problematic is searching for that magic tool

that they think is going to fix all of their

issues. And you and I both know that a tool is

not going to fix anything if you don't have the

right strategy and salvation in place. And oftentimes

they come into these organizations and they just

have so many tools. We have a tool for this,

a tool for that. None of them are being used

appropriately. None of them are optimized. There

is way too much lack of training happening. Nobody

really owns them or understands what to do with

them. And the teams are just overwhelmed. They're

overwhelmed with data, notifications, and oftentimes

that just turned into, I can't trust these tools

because they don't know how to use them, I can't

trust that the data inside them is correct, and

so I'm just going to not use the tools, I'm gonna

go rogue. And so the fix is not more tech, it's

better usage. Most teams do not need more tools.

They need better governance around the tools

that they have. They need better documentation.

If one person owns that tool and they leave the

company, what happens? Do you have the documentation

so you can onboard somebody new to that tool?

If we want our sales team or our marketing team

to be using a specific tool, then we need to

arm them with the training so that they can use

that tool appropriately and in the way that we

want them to be using it. I think I think it

all just boils down to put the tools away at

first, and let's talk big picture. Let's talk

strategy. Let's talk foundational business building.

And once we're crystal clear on where we're trying

to go, what we're trying to achieve, what those

goals are, maybe we onboard to one or two tools

to help us get there while keeping that North

Star metric in mind. It's a physical world. And

I want to have things that are going to solve

the problem. I have this microphone. but gonna

do any good for me if I don't put it in front

of me even though I need the microphone. But

even though I have the tool, that doesn't mean

anything really if I don't know how to use it.

Your point is use one or two or don't use any

and start off with nothing. If I'm given 20 tools

before I start the job, then I'm gonna depend

on those tools. It's like a child with toys.

Because if a child has a lot of toys, the mother

gets them everything they want, then the child

is gonna rely on those toys. It's the same thing

with the employee and a boss. Are they gonna

be dependent on those tools? Focus on the physical

part of the world. That's just the reality. You

can't change that. But I don't focus on that.

I focus on the mental and the mind changes everything.

I'm able to use tools or do anything that I need

to do physical, as long as... my mind is trained

to think that way. But if it's not... Then what's

going to happen? Am I going to know what to do?

Am I going to know how to use those tools? Or

even if my boss gives me job duties or asked

me to do something, a program on the computer

or something with advertising or marketing, I

need to learn that. I have a question about computers.

Are computers really used the whole entire time

that people are training or are they teaching

them how to function? even just a little bit

without the computer. I think in tandem with

what you're sharing, now we're seeing this rise

of AI, artificial intelligence, and a lot of

people are leaning on that in the same way that

they lean on their tools. And so, again, it's

do you have the foundation in place? Are you

using ChatGBT to do everything for you? Or do

you have a solid foundation and a strategy that

then you're feeding into AI to help you work?

faster in a more efficient manner. So I think

computers, it's the exact same thing. Do you

have that foundation in place? Do you have that

human element? And then are you utilizing the

computer to get you faster to that goal? Or are

you using it as a crutch? because you wouldn't

be able to get there without it. I can use AI.

What is that doing for the future? Is there anything

that you would like to say in closing? Thank

you for having me. I think we talked a lot about

different ways to help your sales and marketing

teams achieve those goals and using tech, how

leadership can get involved from a more strategic,

higher level way. to help their teams get to

those goals in a faster manner. So thank you

for having me. You can visit my website, which

is Ray, J -A -S -V -R -A -E .com, or you can

connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm very active

on LinkedIn. So Ray Joseph, tell me that you

heard from me on the podcast. And yeah, I would

love to meet you.