030 Jill Rowley on Community, Customer Centricity, and Catalysts for Change

Today’s guest is Jill Rowley, GTM Advisor & LP at Stage 2 Capital. Jill joins Ethan Beute to share how she began leveraging social networks not for direct selling, but to nurture relationships and connections that eventually lead to sales conversations. 

Jill was a pioneering evangelist in organizations like Salesforce, Eloqua, and Marketo and offers advice in this conversation on creating value and mutual benefit in every interaction – with individuals and within your broader ecosystem. She shares the story of being recruited for an evangelist role and reveals a mistake she made in the process.

Takeaways:

• The most important role of an evangelist is to ignite, inspire, influence, and enlighten those around them. In essence, evangelists act as potent catalysts, driving transformative change, building trust with people, and introducing solutions they believe in.

   

• The nature of human-to-human experiences defies easy quantification. While certain tools assist in attempts to measure interactions, reliance on these instruments has become excessive. Success in fostering human relationships most often eludes measurement. With advances in technology, the challenge of quantification is bound to intensify.

   

• LinkedIn is obviously more than a mere online resume, but that wasn’t always so obvious. Jill recognized its networking power early on and adopted it as a tool alongside others she was using in a sales capacity. Her success set her up as a social selling evangelist before most people were using that language.

   

• Sales success does not hinge on the product itself, but on how effectively you contribute to your client's success. By prioritizing the success and satisfaction of your clients, you’re assuring a longer relationship and sustainable growth.

   

• Shift your mindset from selling a product to actively solving a problem for your customers. This transformation is the key to building lasting relationships and long-term success. As time progresses, the true value lies in your network—your net worth is tied to the strength and depth of your connections.

Quote of the Show:

• “We’ve gone too far measuring the things that are easily measured and not remembering that it’s about humans, trust, and relationships, which are a lot harder to measure.”

 Links Related to This Episode:

• Jill Rowley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillrowley/  
• Orange Theory: https://www.orangetheory.com/en-us 
• Stage 2 Capital: https://www.stage2.capital/ 
• Jill Rowley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jill_rowley 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6aTpnfzIh8Y 

Chief Evangelist is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/