Inbound 2014 was a great show with interesting seminars, influential speakers and insightful social events. But amidst all this there were some truly inspiring sessions. Here we have listed a few sessions that inspired us and many other people.
“Stay Foolish. Stay hungry!” – Steve Jobs
Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist of Canva
The convention started off with no other than Guy Kawasaki. The former chief evangelist of Apple in his keynote talked about Lessons that he learned from Steve Jobs.
-
Customers cannot tell you what they need. They will want a cheaper and a better product. If you keep listening to customer demands, you may never revolutionize and innovate a product that world has never seen before.
-
Challenge the big: You need to come out of your comfort zone and keep challenging to grow.
-
Value does not equal price: Steve proved with his products that value if you can show value to the customers, and then they are ready to pay the price.
-
A players hire A+ Players: Often A people hire B people so they can control them. Then that B player hires a C player, and so on. Eventually, it leads to doom for the organization. So hire people better than you. If you are a CEO, then hire someone for sales who is better at sales than you.
“Great leaders will never sacrifice their people for numbers!”
Simon Sinek, Author
Simon talked about work-life balance and how essential it is in building a great company culture. Here are the key points which you should adapt in your work environment:
-
We are all social animals and we react to the environment we are in.
-
If we trust people, we can sleep at night or expect work to get done.
-
Endorphin (the runner’s high) masks physical pain – laughter or exercise releases them.
-
Dopamine is the feeling you get when you accomplished something you set out to do.
-
Serotonin is the feeling of pride and status, public recognition for accomplishments.
-
Oxytocin the feeling of trust, love, friendship and warmth.
“We all want to grow”
Dharmesh Shah & Brian Halligan, Co-founders, HubSpot
Dharmesh and Brian talked about the 3 P’s that form the basis of growth.
-
Perspective:
Technical: Growth does not happen overnight, it needs strategic planning. To drive exponential growth, you need leverage. Inbound Marketing can give you leverage.
Sales: The sales playbook is broken. The sales person no longer has all the power. Consumers listen to Google and online reviews.
-
People:
Technical: To get good at growth, you will need to attract and retain exceptional people. Corporate culture will help you get there.
Sales: The profile of the sales person has changed. Earlier sales people were opaque, sharp-elbowed extroverts, now they need to have shared minds, be transparent and ambiverts.
-
Platform:
Technical: With a Frankenstein system (patched together platform), you will end up working for the monster and not the monster for you.
Sales: Finally a CRM that works for you: A platform that enable sales.
