{"id":6828,"date":"2019-04-03T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T19:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/?p=6828"},"modified":"2023-11-07T15:27:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T23:27:51","slug":"customer-acquisition-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/business-and-marketing\/customer-acquisition-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming a Customer Acquisition Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The thought of becoming a customer acquisition expert never really occurred to me; I vividly remember sitting in an MBA classroom at the University of New Hampshire on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, when a guest speaker told our class that we should really consider a career in sales. He had a big-wig job, an impressive resume, and an expensive suit. \u201cSales is, in most companies, where the money is,\u201d he told our class. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a room of aspiring venture capitalists and CFOs, the message fell largely on deaf ears. \u201cCustomer acquisition?\u201d I thought to myself. “Sales is for car dealers and people who want to spend the rest of their lives as a slave to their quota… not for me.”<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broader marketing was more appealing to me; I knew that my writing background would prove useful and that buyer psychology\u2014why and how people choose to buy certain products or services\u2014was interesting to me. Still, my younger self wasn\u2019t overly enthused; I envisioned a career in marketing as a gloried version of a craft shop, creating flyers and pumping out taglines.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But everything changed for me on the morning of May 10, 2010\u2014my first day at a \u201creal job.\u201d I\u2019d signed on to lead marketing at a small software startup in Boston, and as I followed the CEO to my new desk in the middle of a shared office space with dingy gray carpets, he turned to me and said, \u201cCustomer acquisition, that\u2019s the name of the game. We have a product in the market and people are signing up for it; your job is to make sure that even more people do and marketing is how we\u2019re going to make that happen.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He left me with a manilla folder of health insurance forms, then faded away into his office.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game on.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Path to Becoming a Customer Acquisition Expert<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since that day, I have spent my career learning, studying, and practicing new ways for startup companies to acquire customers. I\u2019ve led marketing teams at three companies and <\/span>founded my own<\/span><\/a>, landed a business on the Inc. 5000 list of America\u2019s fastest-growing private companies<\/a> five years running, managed millions of dollars in marketing spending, and presented marketing plans to the most prestigious venture capital firm on the planet. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve made more than my fair share of mistakes along the way, too. I mention these things because I\u2019m a pretty regular guy\u2014I didn\u2019t go to an Ivy League school or get a 1600 on my SATs. Hell, I was an <\/span>English<\/span><\/i> major who was pretty apathetic about customer or user acquisition in general, remember? But through a combination of self-education, <\/span>great mentorship<\/span><\/a>, and trial and error, I was able to learn the tools of the trade and find my way into a career that I love. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some tips to help you do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debunking Common Misconceptions<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I want to start by giving a tip of the cap to Brian Balfour, a very talented marketer who wrote <\/span>a fantastic piece about this topic in 2013<\/span><\/a>; his post has been a tremendous resource and was very much the inspiration for this post. My intention here is simply to share a bit of my own story, as well as some areas where my opinions differ a bit from his\u2014but all-in-all, his post still rings as true today as did back in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, as evidenced by my journey, you don\u2019t learn digital marketing<\/a> or customer acquisition in college\u2014you learn by doing. If you take nothing else away from this post, you must find a sandbox environment where you can practice real-world digital marketing skills. For me, I was basically forced to sink or swim; I realized that first day on the job that I was in way over my head. I had been given free rein to try whatever digital channels I wanted, but at the time I didn\u2019t even have a personal Facebook or Twitter account.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your sandbox can be your own business, helping a friend with theirs, launching a website, or creating a blog or YouTube channel\u2014the key is you need some sort of web property that you can drive traffic to and learn to build an audience. I decided to launch a blog\u2014a sports blog actually\u2014for no other reason than it was something I knew a lot about and could write about frequently. I wrote that blog consistently for three years. Almost all of the digital strategies that I employed at work I tried on my own blog first. It was a safe place to mess up and make mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first six months, as I tried to teach myself <\/span>search engine optimization<\/span><\/a> (SEO), were particularly maddening: zero visits one day, four the next, 10 the following day, then back to none? I <\/span>had<\/span><\/i> to be doing something wrong, but I kept hacking at it. Eventually I started to get real, sustainable traffic and develop a small but loyal audience. And then my little blog led to bigger opportunities, and I was offered the role of featured columnist at <\/span>Bleacher Report<\/span><\/a>. All of a sudden I had weekly assignments and got to see the inner workings of a large national publication. The point here is we all start small, and little steps snowball into bigger opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve mentored aspiring digital marketers (including students in Springboard\u2019s mentor-led digital marketing bootcamp<\/a>), one of the most common misconceptions that I\u2019ve heard is that there\u2019s a \u201cright way\u201d to approach a specific marketing problem, that there\u2019s an answer that the experts would know that the student doesn\u2019t. Nothing could be further from the truth\u2014there are no \u201cright answers\u201d in digital marketing, so stop looking for them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further reading, check out here what digital marketers really do<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, students often feel held back\u2014either in terms of their results or when they fail to land a job\u2014by their lack of experience with specific marketing technologies. Don\u2019t sweat a lack of expertise in any given tool; if you can learn to use one email marketing or analytics tool, you can learn to use any of them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find yourself like me, refreshing your website or blog and pulling your hair out when your traffic isn\u2019t growing, come back to these simple steps and you can be sure that you\u2019re plotting the right course:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Find yourself a sandbox. <\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Learn to use whatever tools are accessible to you.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Seek out people and companies that are great marketers and study their work. Better yet, keep a <\/span>swipe feel of the good stuff<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Learn to run marketing experiments where you can fail fast and learn quickly. Test, learn, then repeat.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Next, let’s look at what you should learn, and what you shouldn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

    An Alternative to the T-Shaped Marketer<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    An SEO company called <\/span>Distilled<\/span><\/a> introduced the idea of a \u201cT-shaped\u201d marketer, which has been a popular concept ever since. The general idea is that every marketer should have some foundational skills, but then develop a much greater depth of expertise in one particular area. In a nutshell, it\u2019s a case for specialization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"t-shaped<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    (Source<\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I absolutely agree that all marketers need to have a solid foundation in topics like behavioral psychology, analytics, positioning, and user experience design. And make no doubt about it, specialization can be a great accelerant to career growth; it can be hugely beneficial if you go into consulting and it\u2019s probably the right thing to do if you find yourself deeply interested in one particular discipline of digital marketing. It\u2019s common that T-shaped marketers ride their area of specialization into a marketing leadership role\u2014if you work at a company that acquires customers primarily through SEO and you\u2019re the SEO expert, it\u2019s only logical that you\u2019ll find yourself getting promoted.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But I strongly disagree with the notion that \u201cgeneralists\u201d are useless in most work environments\u2014in fact, many of the most successful marketing leaders that I know are generalists. They know more than enough to be dangerous with all the channels and strategies that they have at their disposal, they know which levers to pull and when to pull them, and they understand how each marketing channel works in tandem with the others. In my experience, the superpower of the generalist is that they are much stronger on the foundational skills and marketing fundamentals than most T-shaped marketers\u2014you can have all the channel-specific expertise in the world, but if you don\u2019t understand the buyer\u2019s motivations or your product\u2019s positioning, or you\u2019re targeting the wrong persona, it won\u2019t matter. More marketing campaigns fail for these reasons than for lack of channel-specific expertise.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Think of it this way: marketing \u201cfundamentals\u201d does not mean that these skills are easy to come by or master. For example, I think it\u2019s much more difficult to develop true expertise in positioning and branding than it would be to master all aspects of Facebook advertising. Talk to any professional golfer, swimmer, or basketball player and they\u2019ll tell you that their success is more directly attributed to doing the fundamentals of swinging a golf club or shooting a free throw better than anybody else, rather than mastering some more advanced moves. And where do they turn when the pressure is on? Back to their fundamentals.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Becoming a T-shaped marketer is a great option, but it\u2019s not the only one.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Choosing Your Battles<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Back at that first job out of college, I soon found myself getting stuck\u2014I would often want to make changes to our website that required the help of a designer or developer to implement. I went to my mentor, <\/span>Nancie Freitas<\/span><\/a>, and said, \u201cNancie, I need to learn HTML and CSS so I don\u2019t keep getting stuck when it comes to making changes to our website. Do you have any resources you\u2019d recommend?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Her response caught me off guard. \u201cGeoff, Geoff, Geoff,\u201d she said, shaking her head at me. \u201cMarketing is big enough as it is and that\u2019s not going to be your strength. Don\u2019t bother.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While I was taken aback, Nancie\u2019s point has stuck with me\u2014if you try to be a master of everything, you\u2019ll be a master of nothing. To this day, I don\u2019t write code<\/a> and I\u2019m not a designer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As you start on your own path to becoming a customer acquisition expert, make a conscious decision to learn the skills and channels that are both of interest to you and in line with your natural talents and abilities. Be deliberate about identifying skills and channels that you\u2019re going to punt on and bring in help in these areas as needed.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As you make your own decisions about specialization, it\u2019s definitely helpful to learn skills or gain expertise in new marketing channels that are just beginning to emerge and grow. It can also be very helpful to focus on specific problems, industries, niches\u2014what Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin call \u201cnailing your niche\u201d in their book <\/span>Predictable Revenue<\/span><\/a>. This could mean anything from helping charitable organizations get their first 100 donors to being a marketing consultant like <\/span>Wes Bush<\/span><\/a>, who very specifically helps software companies better leverage free trial or freemium products to drive their customer acquisition strategies. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s start by looking at the marketing fundamentals I think any aspiring customer acquisition expert needs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Marketing Fundamentals<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Ideal Customer Profile and Persona Development<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Identifying your ideal customer profile and developing personas is perhaps the most foundational skill on this list\u2014if you\u2019re not targeting customers who are a good fit for your product or service, it\u2019s going to be nearly impossible for you to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ideal Customer Profile Framework<\/span><\/a>, by Lincoln Murphy<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Facilitating Innovation and Organization Wide Integration of Personas<\/span><\/a>, an original study published in The Design Journal<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Behavioral Psychology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    A deep understanding of behavioral psychology is a marketing superpower that I don\u2019t think is talked about enough, particularly in business-to-business environments. The reasons and motivations for someone stopping to buy an ice cream cone are dramatically different from why someone would buy a home or an enterprise software product. I think that too many companies are looking for B2C or B2B or industry-specific expertise when hiring marketers; if you understand behavioral psychology, you can market almost any product or service effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thinking Fast and Slow<\/span><\/a>, a book by Daniel Kahneman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Contagious: Why Things Catch On<\/span><\/a>, a book by Jonah Berger<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Future of Marketing Is Behavioral Psychology<\/span><\/a>, by Christian von Uffel<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion<\/span><\/a>, a book by Robert B. Cialdini<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Positioning and Branding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019m using positioning and branding as a catch-all that also includes skills like identifying your product or service\u2019s value proposition as well as identifying the messaging you\u2019ll use to communicate in a way that resonates with potential customers. Ultimately, both positioning and branding are about trade-offs\u2014how are your product, service, and brand differentiated from your competitors? This is one of the hardest skill sets to truly develop well\u2014and often one that many marketers who choose to specialize in a specific channel don\u2019t understand well enough.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Lean Brand<\/span><\/a>, a book by Jeremiah Gardner with Brant Cooper<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind<\/span><\/a>, a book by Al Ries and Jack Trout<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discovering New Points of Differentiation<\/span><\/a>, from the Harvard Business Review<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    User Experience Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    I think that user experience design is one of the most underrated skills that aspiring marketers need to develop; it\u2019s intricately linked to almost everything you\u2019ll do from designing landing pages<\/a> to optimizing customer-onboarding sequences to writing ad copy. UX optimization is one of the most effective tools that you have at your disposal that can improve the results of all your marketing campaigns without requiring additional budget.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Useronboard.com<\/span><\/a>, UX teardowns of popular digital products<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Springboard’s UI\/UX Design Bootcamp<\/span><\/a>, a self-paced, mentor-led online bootcamp<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Funnel Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The customer acquisition funnel is a common framework that marketers use to think about the customer acquisition process from end to end\u2014identifying blockage points in your customer acquisition process is key to consistently improving your customer acquisition results.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Customer Acquisition: Maximizing Your Funnel<\/span><\/a>, by David Skok<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How Marketing Funnels Work<\/span><\/a>, by Neil Patel<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Copywriting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Communication is at the heart of everything we do in sales and marketing\u2014it\u2019s tough to be successful without learning to write persuasively.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Neville Medhora\u2019s Kopywriting Kourse<\/span><\/a>, an online course<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    25 Inspirational Resources for Copywriters<\/a>, from Unbounce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conversion Rate Optimization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Conversion optimization is a universal skill that impacts every customer or user acquisition channel or experiment that you run. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SaaS Landing Pages in 2017: Our Analysis of 100+ Top Businesses<\/span><\/a>, from the ChartMogul blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Definitive Guide to Conversion Optimization<\/span><\/a>, written by Neil Patel and Joseph Putnam<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pricing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    A core marketing fundamental that often isn\u2019t given the attention it deserves is learning to price your products and services effectively. Few decisions have a more direct influence on customer acquisition… and revenue growth.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A Quick Guide to Value Based Pricing<\/span><\/a>, from the Harvard Business Review<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3 Types of Pricing Strategy<\/span><\/a>, by Patrick Campbell<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Statistics and Analytics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    I know this is an uncommon opinion, but I think too much is typically made of the quantitative abilities you need as a digital marketer. I\u2019m not saying quantitative skills aren\u2019t important\u2014of course they are\u2014but you certainly don\u2019t need a degree in data science to excel at customer acquisition. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Most digital marketing metrics are fairly easy to calculate and understand, and most of the marketing technology that you\u2019ll use will readily surface the metrics that you need\u2014website visitors, conversion and retention rates, churn data, etc. You need to learn to interpret what this data means and how to act on it more than you need to learn rigorous data modeling. And you need to understand basic concepts like statistical validity\u2014if you launch a marketing experiment and one out of the first two visitors to your website converts to a customer, you need to understand that this doesn\u2019t mean your website will continue to convert leads to customers at a 50-percent rate because your sample size isn\u2019t large enough.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In larger organizations with a greater volume of products and customer acquisition-related data, the need for greater quantitative ability definitely increases, but you\u2019ll typically have dedicated personnel with these skills on your team. Put it this way: I have intermediate quantitative aptitude and I\u2019ve never felt that my own statistical or analytical ability has held me back from being successful as a marketer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Learning the basics of conversion tracking and Google Analytics is the right place to start, then half the battle is simply using consistent measurement strategies and focusing on getting your metrics to trend in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Google Analytics for Beginners<\/span><\/a>, a free course from the Google Analytics Academy<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to Get a Professional Grade Google Analytics Setup in an Afternoon<\/span><\/a>, from GrowthLab<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Key to Mastering Marketing Attribution? Aim for Consistent Imperfection<\/span><\/a>, from Adweek<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Intro to Business Analytics<\/span><\/a>, a free Springboard course that uses an Airbnb case study to improve analytics skills<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Basic Programming<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If you already have programming skills, by all means you should wield those to your advantage\u2014they\u2019ll be useful to you particularly if you work for a technology company. If you don\u2019t have these skills or a serious leaning toward computer science, I\u2019d suggest you punt on learning to code. I think it\u2019s generally more effective to instead build small growth-hacking teams that include a designer, developer, and marketer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Channel Expertise<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    While I\u2019ve made my case for the value of the marketing generalist, developing deep channel expertise comes with many merits. By specializing in a particular marketing channel, you\u2019re able to narrow your focus in terms of what you need to learn, allowing you to plot a more direct path to becoming a subject-matter expert. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Developing this level of expertise makes it easier to position yourself as a go-to resource for people in need of your skills, and can also make it easier to landing speaking engagements and other opportunities to position yourself as a thought leader. When your name becomes synonymous with a particular problem or skill set, your personal brand reaps the benefits. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here are some useful resources to help you learn some of the more common digital marketing channels that you\u2019ll have at your disposal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Virality\/Word of Mouth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Viral Marketing Is Not a Marketing Strategy<\/span><\/a>, from Andrew Chen<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content<\/span><\/a> an online course offered by the University of Pennsylvania<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Paid Search<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Google Ads Fundamentals<\/span><\/a>, a Google course <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Advanced Google Ads<\/span><\/a>, a LinkedIn Learning course<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Paid Social<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    How to Write Facebook Ads That Convert<\/span><\/a>, from the Databox blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to Run Linkedin Ad Campaigns<\/span><\/a>, from HubSpot<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to Use Twitter Ads Like a Pro and Get the Most Out of Your Budget<\/span><\/a>, from the Hootsuite blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A Marketer’s Guide to IGTV<\/a>, an introduction to Instagram TV<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SEO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The Beginner\u2019s Guide To SEO<\/span><\/a>, from the Moz blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 3 Easiest Link Building Tactics Any Website Can Use to Acquire Their First 50 Links<\/span><\/a>, from the Moz blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Search Engine Optimization<\/span><\/a>, a free course exploring how to optimize a site for organic traffic and teaching how to track and measure results<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SEO Best Practices, from the Springboard blog<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Intro to Search Marketing<\/span><\/a>, a free course that teaches the basics of SEO through project-based work<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Social Media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing<\/span><\/a>, from Jeff Bullas<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Social Media Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide<\/span><\/a>, from Neil Patel<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Social Media Marketing Training and Tutorials<\/span><\/a>, from LinkedIn Learning<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Content Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide<\/span><\/a>, from HubSpot<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Advanced Content Marketing Guide<\/span><\/a>, written by Neil Patel and Kathryn Aragon<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Email Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing<\/span><\/a>, from HubSpot<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    17 Email Scripts That Have Helped Us Grow Our Business<\/span><\/a>, from the Groove blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PR<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Dear Public Relations Professionals<\/span><\/a>, from The Hustle<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to Write a PR Pitch That Gets Noticed, Not Ignored<\/span><\/a>, from Sujan Patel<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic<\/span><\/a>, from the Campfire Labs blog<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Your Path to Becoming a Customer Acquisition Expert<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I hope that the resources shared in this article are useful to you as you look to sharpen your own customer acquisition skills. A final resource worth mentioning is Springboard\u2019s Digital Marketing Career Track<\/a>\u2014it\u2019s an intensive, self-paced, online course that covers the fundamental and channel-specific skills mentioned in this post. Students get access to 200+ hours of curriculum, weekly meetings with a professional marketing mentor, and a real $10,000 Google AdWords budget to spend on behalf of a non-profit organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now get out there and find your sandbox\u2014your career as a customer acquisition expert is right in front of you.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since you’re here…
    <\/strong>Interested in a career in digital marketing? Get started today with our     free digital marketing learning path<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The thought of becoming a customer acquisition expert never really occurred to me; I vividly remember sitting in an MBA classroom at the University of New Hampshire on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, when a guest speaker told our class that we should really consider a career in sales. He had a big-wig job, an impressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":6911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"marketing_tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-and-marketing"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6828"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50923,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions\/50923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6828"},{"taxonomy":"marketing_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/marketing_tags?post=6828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}