A Meeting of the Minds: 6 Takeaways from ISA’s 2018 Sales and Marketing Conference

Who’s Brella? What’s a Vidyard? Why should we obsess about a “uniting idea”? And just what do customers really think?

Sales and marketing leaders from ISA firms gathered in Tysons Corners, Virginia, this October to find answers to all these questions and more at ISA’s 2018 Sales and Marketing Conference. They not only learned from some of the leading thinkers in sales and marketing today, they had the chance to try out some new tools, pick up some strategic tips and share experiences with their industry colleagues. And with the helpful nudge of Brella (more on that in a minute), they came back to their offices with a broadened network of trusted colleagues to turn to for advice throughout the year.

But don’t just take our word for it. We asked participants about some of their most valuable takeaways and favorite features of this year’s conference. Here’s what they told us.

Everything You Wanted to Know about GDPR, But Didn’t Know to Ask

If there’s one message Ralf Wolter would like all ISAers to take away from his two-part webinar series on General Data Protection Regulations  (GDPR) compliance, it’s this: Digital freedom ends where user freedom begins.

Wolter, who’s the founder of High-Performance Consulting & Coaching, kicked off the series with a high-level overview of the new E.U. regulation, including some background on how it came into being and how it affects ISA firms.

Your Top 10 Takeaways from ISA’s 2018 Annual Business Retreat

It’s only been a few months since we left the desert skies of Tucson and the ISA community at the 2018 Annual Business Retreat, but if you’re like most of us, that respite from the whirlwind seems like it was an eternity ago.

As we know, learning doesn’t last without a reinforcement, especially when you already have a very full plate. So hopefully, you’re keeping connected with your ISA colleagues — directly as well as through avenues like the LinkedIn group and the upcoming C-Level Forum — because they’re your trusted source of ongoing inspiration, advice and ideas.

People are still talking about that moment. It was the final day of the ISA Annual Business Retreat, and members sat anxiously awaiting the marketing audit from Equiteq’s Pat Webb, eager to see how the different firms’ value propositions and messaging stacked up. Who would stand out? Where might inspiration come from? What glimmer of insight would be picked up from Pat’s face or tone as she reviewed the different messages? (And, deep down, won’t everyone be impressed with my firm’s work?)

No one was expecting what actually happened.

Busy Is Best--Says Who?

“I’m just so busy.”

It’s like an auto-reply message we’ve all turned on in response to the question, “How are things?”

How are things?! Ugh, it’s so busy. There’s much going on. So much to do!