E171: How the pandemic has changed small businesses with Yelp’s Gary Kagan
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Gary Kagan is the Regional Director of Partner Sales at Yelp. He has personal experience in selling directly to SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise businesses.
As the first rep on the ground, he helped build the Channel sales segment from $0 to what is now a meaningful revenue line for Yelp. He now oversees teams and works with product, customer success, and operations to assist partners in successfully selling and optimizing Yelp’s products.
Episode highlights:
- Yelp’s view of how Covid has affected small businesses.
- How small businesses pivoted, and how some specific niches were hit.
- The difference between businesses that dropped marketing and businesses that doubled down on it.
- How Yelp advertising and the partnership program work for businesses.
- How you can combat negative reviews.
- How hotels can leverage restaurants for exposure.
- Best advice ever received: To listen and work to repeat it back.
- Habit that contributes to success: Default to action.
- Recommended tools: Audible
- Recommended book: The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz
- Run time: 33:43
Links:
- Yelp Economic Report
- Profitable Digital Agencies FB group
- LinkedIn – Reach out for a free audit
- Partnership program
- Audible
- The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz
Quotes:
- “I saw people pivot very quickly.”
- “We’ve seen many partners change their business on a dime.”
- “We’ve seen traffic bounce back….to pre-covid times.”
- “The coasts are where we generally see a lot of traffic.”
Takeaways:
- An estimated 55% of businesses that closed from quarantine are permanently closed.
- Businesses that work together can recommend each other on Yelp.