In this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Steven Perchikov, founder & CEO of Art of Sales Academy. Steven shares his passion for helping businesses create their own unique message that helps leads go from zero to interest. He explains the sales approach, processes and strategies they have in place – from performing vertical work to sales training. He works around the principle that it is better to heavily rely on strategy and empathy than on technological automation. Steven shares practical advice on how businesses can scale faster without cutting ties. He recommends experimenting, using cool features, improving your profile, and doing a thorough analysis of your target audience to curate the perfect post that converts. Steven and his team also do email marketing, but most of their conversions come from LinkedIn messaging.   Key Points from the Episode: Common Mistakes and Strategies Marketers Make Understanding the Idea of Scalable Personalization How Does Content Figure Into B2B Sales Today   About Steven Perchikov: Shortly after graduating from college, Steven learned the importance of being scrappy. The recession had just hit and there were few opportunities for new graduates to find traditional employment. Meanwhile, he was confused and lost. Now he sees it as the boost he needed to get into entrepreneurship and find a deeper calling. Steven learned all he could about technology, online marketing, sales strategy and started applying it to his own businesses. He started a successful brick-and-mortar digital marketing agency and experimented with dozens of other online ventures. It was through this experience that he began working with high-growth tech startups over 10 years ago. Since then, he has worked and learned from amazing founders, salespeople, consultants and agencies. Steven has helped over 100 clients generate tens of millions of dollars cumulatively through his approach to Linkedin, cold emails, sales and communication. He emphasizes a consultative approach that brings value to every customer interaction and conversation. This means focusing less on cookie-cutter tactics and more on critical thinking and value creation. He believes a data-driven, goal-driven approach is a must for founders and sales leaders.   About Art of Sales Academy: Art of Sales Academy is a consultancy and a catalyst designed to help startups and agencies scale. They create systems to fill businesses’ pipeline with qualified conversations and train teams to move deals from first call to close. Their services include outbound campaigns, brand stacking, technology implementation and sales training.   Tweetable Moments: 03:56 - "Personalization is the other side of the coin where people think you have to write every message by hand, do that kind of business development, and that's going to work too. That's going to get you calls and opportunities and sales, but it takes forever, and it's a very slow process." 07:30 - "Generally, busy people don't want a million articles sent to them dancing around the bush."   Apply to be a Guest on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur: https://go.upmyinfluence.com/podcast-guest Links Mentioned in this Episode: Want to learn more? Check out Art of Sales Academy’s website at https://www.artofsalesacademy.com/ Check out Art of Sales Academy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/art-of-sales-academy/about/ Check out Chriss Gwinn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-gwinn-cfa-96383b26/ Check out Steven Perchikov on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-perchikov-9217529/ Check out Steven Perchikov on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StevePerch Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!   More from UpMyInfluence: We are actively booking guests for our The Thoughtful Entrepreneur. Schedule HERE. Are you a 6-figure consultant? I’ve got high-level intros for you. Learn more here. What is your #1 Lead Generation BLOCKER? Take my free quiz here. Want to learn more about all the podcasts managed by UpMyInfluence? Opt in here.