We just released new episodes of The Bill Matassoni Show, Season 2 (23 episodes overall). Below is a small excerpt to give you a preview...

"There's a lot to be said for developing hybrid value chains to reach both social and economic goals.

I bring this up for a reason: I am not impressed with Corporate Social Responsibility efforts by companies.

They don't do much.

I don't see any evidence of impact or staying power.

I don't think it helps the company in its core business, and if it's not helping a company with its core business, it's going to go away.

It's not going to last.

I don't get a sense of commitment, whereas hybrid value chains will help governments."

- The Bill Matassoni Show. Season II
Episode 23

"Everyone thought the strategy practice
would help set McKinsey apart.

Yet, it was the organizational design practice
with partners like Tom Peters who got things going."

Bill had the benefit of a wonderfully varied career in marketing (and strategy) for over 50 years. You can imagine what being able to access 50 years of experience as a senior leader in some of the top organizations in the world, including as a senior partner at McKinsey and BCG, can do for you and your business. 

In season II of The Bill Matassoni Show, we're back in this wonderful house. This is the house that Bill and his wife, Pamela, bought about 30 years ago. It's a classic mid-century modern house that Philip Johnson designed. It looks like a Bond house in some ways.

Bill is back to share some of the best marketing and business strategy secrets he picked up along the way.

By far, the biggest theme of Bill's career is how do you sell ephemeral things.

How do you sell the soft stuff? Because Bill’s career, not by plan, has been selling soft stuff. He headed marketing for United Way of America. How do you sell philanthropy? More importantly, how do you sell secondary demand for philanthropy? It's easy enough to get somebody to give. But how do you go after the bigger givers who think seriously about philanthropy?

Bill’s first job out of Harvard Business School was to sell people on treating their high blood pressure. How do you convince people to treat a disease that’s not curable? Treat a disease that requires behavior change (no salt, lose weight, maybe give up some of their favorite foods, all those things), and keep them on that regimen. That's a tough sell. You learn how to sell high blood pressure treatment, you learn how to sell, you learn how to market. 

Bill was worldwide head of marketing and publications (including McKinsey Quarterly), and brand, as a partner at McKinsey for 18 years. And later for six more years at the Boston Consulting Group.

How do you sell top management on strategy consulting?

How do you sell million-dollar engagements? Engagements that cost three, four, or five hundred thousand a month. What are you selling?

And then later on, after Bill retired from McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group, he joined a firm called Tapestry, which really figured out how to use marketing in multi-stakeholder environments. It's one thing to use marketing in somewhat simple markets where there's a company, there's a competitor, and there's a customer. But what happens when you have all sorts of other players, regulatory agencies, government, and patient advocates, all those players are in the system, too. Can marketing work there? Bill thinks it can. And the experiences Bill had in the last part of his career proved that to Bill. 

All of those things, to Bill, are ephemeral things. 

Whether or not you sell blood pressure treatments, if you learn the principles of how to sell ephemeral things, just imagine how much easier it is to sell whatever else you might be offering.

So, Bill had an increadible career, and you can have a front-row seat to learn from Bill. 
 

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The Bill Matassoni Show Season 2 (Insiders & Legacy Members)

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