At a Glance
Timothy Hughes, Co-Founder and CEO, DLA IgniteFocus Areas: Social, Sales, Personal Branding, Marketing Thinkers360 In-Depth Profile & Portfolio: Timothy (Tim) Hughes Books: Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers Highlighted Content: Why you’re letting revenue slip through your fingers on social media, #TimTalk – Inform, inspire interview tips unpacked with Kim Chandler McDonald. Thinkers360 Leaderboards: Announcing the Thinkers360 Top Voices EMEA 2024, Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Sales 2024, Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Personal Branding 2024. |
Thought Leader and Influencer Interview
Thinkers360 thought leader interviews profile prominent members of the Thinkers360 community who embody the power of ideas in their work. In this edition, we speak with Timothy (Tim) Hughes, Co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite, a company specializing in digital transformation and innovation. With a background in technology and business strategy, Tim has a proven track record of helping organizations adapt to the evolving digital landscape. His expertise lies in guiding companies through change, leveraging data and technology to drive growth and efficiency. Under his leadership, DLA Ignite has established itself as a leader in providing tailored solutions that empower businesses to thrive in the digital age. Tim is passionate about fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration within his team and with clients.
Tim is the author of the book “Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers” which is available on Amazon.
Tim is featured in Thinkers360’s annual leaderboards: Announcing the Thinkers360 Top Voices EMEA 2024, Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Sales 2024, and Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Personal Branding 2024, to name just a few.
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Thinkers360: Tell us a bit about your background and areas of expertise
TH: I’ve been in new business sales for the last 25 years. I’ve had roles as an individual contributor (IC), in sales leadership and I was on the board of a large US software business. 19 years ago I started by journey in social media, which has enabled me to write 3 best selling books about social media and how to use it in business. In all 3 cases, I have written books to enable sales people and leadership to drive revenue from social media usage.
“Social Selling – techniques to Influence buyers and changemakers – 2nd edition” is available on Amazon worldwide, you need the one with the yellow cover.
I started DLA Ignite 7 years ago with my business partner, Adam Gray. This is my second start-up and we help business transform to use social media to create pipeline and win more business with the use of social media. This is not about how to put flowers on your profile, this is a book about how to win business with social and get you business on a growth trajectory with social.
As one CEO said to me ” this is the first book on social media I’ve read where I’ve actually seen the steps from creating pipe to closing business. All through social”. I should point out we do this without spamming people, with any automation and without the need for any salestech.
For example, our SDRs get an average of 10 meetings a week, the good ones get 25 meetings a week, we also have a next step conversation rate of 34%. This is exponential when compared to cold calling or sending spam email.
Thinkers360: What are your current responsibilities and what’s a typical day look like?
TH: I am the CEO of DLA Ignite which means I set the strategy and culture of the business. As the leading social selling business globally, a lot of what we do is measuring and experimenting with social, so we continually pushing the barriers forward. It also means that what we talk about is not based on opinion but based on science.
A typical day will include modern day prospecting, even though I’m the CEO we have a keen prospecting culture in the business. As a business we get all of our customers through social selling. We have never placed an advert, we have never made a cold call and we have never sent a spam email, we don’t need to.
It will also involved meeting prospects and clients, I am still called upon to work with some clients as we get their team(s) to be high performance social selling teams. It only took us 2 years to become global and we have people in America, Canada, Australia, South America France and the UK. This means that our global clients get the same process rolled out but with localisations. For example, networking in Japan is different from networking in the US.
Our social selling methodology has been certified by the Institiute of Sales professionals (ISP), which means we have the only certified social selling program in the world. We have also become the “digital” enabler of the ISP, which opens a lot of opportunities for us.
Thinkers360: What’s the favorite part of your current role?
TH: We run internal training for our team(s) on Monday and Tuesday and it’s great to hear what has been innovated in the previous week. We are very proud that the two competitors we had when we started out are no longer in this business. We out innovated them.
Thinkers360: How do you utilize Thinkers360?
TH: Thinkers360 is a place where influencers (with a small i) hang out, it’s a place to get away from the noise of some of the other social media platforms and focus, exchange ideas and have conversations with our thought leaders. I’m a great believer that everyday is a school day and it’s great to learn from so many great thinkers.
Editor’s Note: See Timothy (Tim) Hughes Thinkers360 In-Depth Profile & Portfolio.
Thinkers360: How do you like to work with brands who wish to engage you as a thought leader?
TH: I work with brands who are looking to develop themselves as leaders in the space. Brands who know that there is little gained from going to market and saying “buy my product because we are great”, after all businesses say this. The mistake people make with influencer marketing is that brands work on a “paid media” basis, that is we will get an influencer to say “buy my product because we are great”. No wonder influencer marketing has a bad name, it’s just more corporate propaganda and people just turn away.
I work with brands who want to take an “earned media” approach, where buyers will walk towards the brands because we demonstrate the brands expertise in the market.
Thinkers360: What’s your main advice for upcoming thought leaders?
TH: My advice for any thought leader is two things, 1. It’s about consistency, you need to turn up everyday and 2. You need thoughts. There are so many “thought leaders” regurgitating, what has been said before. Being an influencer isn’t about being somebody else, you need to be yourself.
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