December 12, 2024 • 19 mins
Today we discuss GTM strategies to scale with Garrett Jestice, a fractional CMO for early-stage companies.
We discuss what works for early stage companies in terms of channels, messaging, and positioning. We cover some great case studies including creating a community to scale.
As we navigate the shifting tides of marketing towards 2025, we unravel the significance of aligning strategies with customer preferences. Through a compelling case study we explore the advantages of channel optimization by reallocating resources from underperforming tactics to powerful partner relationships.
Garrett also emphasizes the crucial role of a clear and compelling website in converting visitors into customers. His practical tips will guide you in unifying your team's marketing message, ensuring your digital presence is as impactful as your face-to-face interactions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Eric Eden (00:02):
Today we have a very exciting topic we're going to
be discussing.
It's how you can grow throughcommunity, and we have the
perfect marketing guru to helpus talk through that.
Garrett, welcome to the show.
Garrett Jestice (00:16):
Thanks, eric, great to be here.
Appreciate you having me.
Eric Eden (00:19):
So why don't we start off by you sharing just a
little bit about who you are andwhat you do?
So why?
Garrett Jestice (00:25):
don't we start off by you sharing just a little
bit about who you are and whatyou do, you bet so.
I am a former B2B software CMOwho now does consulting
full-time.
So I work with early stage B2Bcompanies to really help them
grow.
A lot of what I focus on isgo-to-market strategy, so
helping them figure out andunderstand who their customers
are, how to do messaging andpositioning that really
resonates, how to pick the rightchannels to be able to find
(00:48):
that audience.
So, again, spent the lastdecade or so in mostly early
stage B2B software companies andhad some awesome experiences,
one of which I'm excited to talkto you about today, but really
enjoy now being able to workone-on-one with early stage
companies and help them grow.
Eric Eden (01:06):
Awesome, yeah, early stage companies going from zero
to one is a very excitingchallenge and it's not for the
faint of heart, but we're readyto be inspired.
So why don't we start off byyou telling us a story about
some of the best marketing thatyou've done in this area?
Garrett Jestice (01:24):
telling us a story about some of the best
marketing that you've done inthis area.
One of the best pieces ofmarketing I guess you could say
campaigns.
That was an extended campaignthat I had a chance to be a part
of was in my last full-timerole, so let me give you a
little context.
So I was the CMO at an earlystage HR software company and we
sold HR software to mostlysmall businesses.
Often there was a solo HRperson at those companies.
(01:48):
They were kind of the entire HRteam doing all of it and our
software kind of helped supportthem.
So we had a small team, smallbudget, and we wanted to find a
way to really engage thataudience.
One of the things we noticed isthere was a lot of online
search traffic for HR terms.
Right, people were wanting toknow, especially in these small
(02:10):
businesses.
They wanted to learn what allthese terms mean in HR.
Right, and we knew we couldcapitalize on that.
But with our small team andlimited budget we weren't.
We didn't.
We couldn't go after it fastenough, right, and so we got
creative, we brainstormed and wecouldn't go after it fast
enough, right, and so we gotcreative, we brainstormed and we
talked to some of our, ourcustomers, and we really found
(02:34):
you know a couple of thingsright Small business HR people,
those solo HR practitioners.
They wanted some sort ofcommunity because they were
isolated in their company as thesolo HR person.
They wanted a way to connectwith others and learn from
others and also share theirexpertise.
You know there's so manydisciplines within HR and they
they often were experts in oneor two of them, but they wanted
to learn from an expert that was, you know, expert in something
(02:55):
else.
And so, anyways, we we put allthat together and we launched a
free community for smallbusiness HR folks.
We call it HR Mavericks, andthe whole idea of the community
was sharing your knowledge tohelp everyone get better.
And so we did a lot of our ownkeyword research to identify the
right terms.
(03:15):
People could sign up and pickfrom our list of terms and then
participate in multiple ways.
They could write an article forour HR encyclopedia that we put
up there.
They could participate in apodcast episode or a panel
discussion that we had, you know, with a handful of others and
then help us create content tokind of share the knowledge.
(03:36):
There was also a Slackcommunity that was part of it
and people got excited aboutbeing involved.
So the cool part about this is,you know, we were able to engage
this community, allow people tohave that feeling of giving
back much more quickly andaffordably than if we would have
tried to produce all thatcontent on our own right.
We ran some numbers at onepoint it was about the eighth of
(03:58):
the cost of hiring a full-timewriter, because really we just
rewarded people with free accessto the community and occasional
gift cards and giveaways andeverything else.
So you know, we were able tomore than 10 X traffic to our
website, to this HR encyclopedia, just over the course of a
little bit of over a year.
We're able to build this bigcommunity of people who are
(04:19):
really involved.
I mean over a hundred thousandimpressions on social media, you
know at the time.
So, anyways, had a lot of reallygreat um results from it and it
was a really fun campaign towork on.
That was kind of a mashup of afew different things and
obviously couldn't have done itwithout the awesome team that I
had.
We were a small but mighty teamof just a few of us, but you
(04:39):
know that team plus thecommunity is what really made it
successful.
Yeah.
Eric Eden (04:44):
That sounds like a really creative approach,
because today it's probablyharder than ever for startups to
do a go-to-market, because alot of the channels that people
have relied on in the last 10,20 years are evolving in ways
that are probably not helpful toa lot of founders, in the sense
(05:06):
of, like advertising is gettingdramatically more expensive.
Seo is very competitive, as anexample, and so you know you
can't just even if you have themoney, you couldn't just throw
it at it.
So to find a way to beguerrilla, to grow through
community, is it's pretty greatright.
Garrett Jestice (05:25):
Yeah, I mean it was amazing and again I can't
take credit for it.
You had someone on my team whoreally had the initial idea and
we kind of ran with it andworked together and tweaked
things and it ended up beingjust an awesome initiative.
Eric Eden (05:40):
That's great.
So let me ask you more broadly,when you're working with
clients today about how tocreate a go-to-market plan for
their startups, what are acouple of the key themes that
you coach people on, of what youhave to do to be ready to go to
market and then start doing themarketing?
Garrett Jestice (06:03):
Yeah, it's a great question and I'm so glad
you asked.
When I think about go-to-marketstrategy, especially for early
stage B2B companies, there'sreally four core foundations
that make up your go-to-marketstrategy and they're pretty
intuitive.
As I described these, you'reprobably just going to nod and
say, yeah, of course, but Ithink that the hard part is
actually understanding and beingaligned with your team on these
(06:25):
four core foundations, andthat's really the key to
building an effectivego-to-market strategy.
So I guess I'll preface, beforeI share these two, with saying
you know, go-to-market strategyreally is just your plan for how
you reach, sell to and satisfythe right audience with whatever
you're offering.
Right, could be a product,could be a service, whatever it
(06:47):
is right, but the goals thereare happy customers that produce
good revenue right, and so ithas to be a collective team
effort.
So, going back to kind of thosecore foundations, there's
really are four.
So the first is your audience.
Do you really truly understandwho your best fit customers are,
who you should focus on?
Most early stage companies focuson too many.
(07:08):
Right, you start by selling toanyone and everyone who will
give you money, but eventuallyyou have to bring that back
together.
You have to focus to reallybuild momentum.
And so your audience is numberone.
Number two is what you'reoffering, and so, as you
identify the right segment tofocus on, it can help you hone
in the right solution to offerthem.
They might not care abouteverything you offer all of your
(07:29):
services or all of yourfeatures, right.
They might only care about aportion of that.
Figuring out how to price andpackage it is also crucial.
So that's number two.
Number three is really yourmessaging and positioning,
especially for your website andlike your sales pitch for in the
B2B environment, right.
And so knowing how to clearlycommunicate the value and
describe what you do so someonegets it and it really resonates
(07:50):
with them is key.
And then number four isfiguring out those acquisition
channels that you should focuson.
Too many early stage companiesapproach, you know, marketing
and sales.
New customer acquisition isjust throwing spaghetti at the
wall and seeing what sticks,just doing random acts of
marketing.
And really, when you start withthat audience, that customer,
in mind, then it really helps.
(08:11):
You know exactly which channelsyou should focus on and go deep
in.
Eric Eden (08:16):
Yeah, I agree those are four great foundations for
people to think about, like,okay, we're ready to start
taking this out there andgetting customers on it.
Is there anything that peoplehave to do before they even do
those four things, though?
Garrett Jestice (08:32):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think that there's really likethree stages that most
companies go through, and sostage one is really about
selling to learn, or oftenpeople refer to it as finding
product market fit.
What you're really trying to doin the earliest stages is sell
to customers who will give youmoney and help them be
(08:53):
successful with your product orservice, and I think that that's
actually the most importantthing to really do.
Phase two is where you start toreally invest more in marketing
and that's where those corefoundations come into play.
But phase one is really aboutjust learning what works, and
the best way to learn is byselling and fulfilling, helping
customers be successful andsatisfied.
(09:14):
So that's really, I think, thekey of where you get started.
If you're not nowhere to start,just start reaching out to
people who you could sell to andtry pitching it, because the
process of doing that you'lllearn who's the right audience,
you'll learn what's the rightmessaging, you'll know what the
right offer is and how to findthose people.
So really I think that's thevery first step, is it just
(09:34):
comes down to a lot of hustleand sometimes founder magic, if
you will.
You just got to start sellingand satisfying customers, and
through that process you learnwhat works.
Eric Eden (09:45):
I love it.
That's the first step to being,I think, customer obsessed is
just to get out there and starttalking to people about it and
being open to people's feedback.
I have learned this lesson manytimes over myself is, when
you're going out, if you'retalking to people who are not
your ideal customer profile andtrying to get feedback from them
(10:06):
, that's often the best way tojust get lost in the woods
forever.
Garrett Jestice (10:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a great way to learn right?
You know like sometimes youhave you need to have those like
failure pitches to learn.
Man, this is not the rightaudience or this is not the
right way to to describe what Ido, right.
Eric Eden (10:25):
Yeah, and so I think , a lot of talking to the ideal
customers, coming up with theideal messaging and positioning,
like you were saying, a lot ofthe customers will tell you what
that messaging and positioningshould be.
If you show it to them, you gettheir feedback and even use
(10:47):
their words in it Sometimes.
I think that's the best way,because when people love it,
they'll tell you and they'lltell you what the user story is.
They'll tell you this is why Ilove it, because I used to do
this, this and this and it wasso painful.
And now with this, you know Ican do it like this.
And a lot of times they'll sayif you could only do this one
(11:08):
extra thing for me, that wouldmake it a grand slam.
And I think that's the sort oflike feedback founders really
can do great with right.
Garrett Jestice (11:37):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think, just to
build on that, eric, one of themore tangible ways that I've
found that to be successful isreally good go-to-market
strategy is about replicatingsuccessful customer like a
customer case study, right, likethat's what your sales pitch is
.
Hey, let me tell you about thisclient I worked with.
This is the problem that theyface.
These are your alternativesthat they considered, this is
(11:58):
what we did for them and theseare the results that we got and,
as you can see there, theresponse to the person you're
talking to, as you kind of walkthem through, that it'll either
really resonate or they'll beable to say, well, my situation
is a little bit differentbecause of this or that, and
that gives you really goodinsight on how to hone in that
messaging right.
Eric Eden (12:17):
I love the replication idea.
That's really great.
I love the replication idea.
That's really great.
What are some more efficienttips for growth when you're at
the earlier stages, when youdon't just have a lot of money
to throw at it?
Garrett Jestice (12:31):
I think the key thing is just to focus right
Again.
In the earliest stages it'sabout selling and fulfilling and
that helps you know, give youmore confidence in as you move
into that second phase of whereto start spending money.
To grow right, selling is aone-to-one activity.
A lot of times it can just bemanual, grunt work.
(12:51):
It's cheap, but it takes sometime and that's what you invest
in.
And then, once you have soldsuccessfully and have satisfied
customers, then you know how todo marketing, which is more
one-to-many right.
You replicate that best fitcustomer that you've already
found.
So simplify, focus, focus onthe stuff that is most crucial,
which is just selling andfulfilling.
Eric Eden (13:26):
Now that we're just about wrapping up 2024 and going
into 2025, what marketingchannels do you think are
performing the best and what doyou see in store for next year,
cause it seems like a lot ofresults across marketing
channels are evolving.
What are your thoughts?
Garrett Jestice (13:36):
Yeah, it's such a great question.
I'm so glad you asked itbecause I think that in order to
know which marketing channelsto focus on, you have to start
with your customer.
You have to start with thatbest fit customer and figure out
what channels they turn to whensearching for solutions like
you offer.
And I say that and it sounds soobvious, but very few companies
(13:58):
actually do that right.
A lot of times we take achannel first approach and we
think about where are ourcompetitors and where do I need
to be?
And I need to be everywhere andI need to do SEO and I need to
do be on LinkedIn and I need todo this or that.
But really, when it comes downto it, if you talk to a handful
of your best fit customers, youquickly identify the channels
where you need to focus.
Let me give you an example.
(14:24):
I worked with a client a littlewhile back and they were a small
B2B agency, so they soldservices to businesses and they
were investing a lot in SEO andtrying to drive organic traffic
to their website.
So in interviewing some oftheir customers, we found out
that everyone that we talked tonever searches on Google for
solutions like theirs.
It was unique.
(14:44):
I think most businesses likeassume that that's the case and
it's true, but this segment thatthey were serving rarely did
that.
Instead, there were a couple ofother sources they went to you
know partners that they workedwith.
They'd go to them for referralsor some other trusted sources
that they'd go to, and so thatwas one of the ways that we
identified hey, you used allthis money.
(15:05):
You've been investing in Google.
Let's reinvest it in makingsure that these partner
relationships and these othersources you're showing up there
consistently.
So, again, it really juststarts with your customers, and
I think it's different for everybusiness in terms of what works
best.
Eric Eden (15:22):
Yeah, I think more than ever, some people are
saying maybe I won't look it upon Google, maybe I'll look it up
on TikTok or Instagram or inChatGPT, and so I think looking
to where people are looking forinformation as a starting point
is a good shout, andfundamentally, a lot of the
(15:44):
sales and marketing efforts comeback to the company's website
right, and that's really thefront door of the business.
These days.
That's where a lot of the magichappens.
What sort of advice do you giveclients about having websites
that that convert?
Garrett Jestice (16:02):
I actually believe that one of the best
ways to get your team aligned onwhat your go-to-market strategy
is again, we've talked aboutgo-to-market strategy some today
and the different components ofit, but the best way to do that
is by updating your website.
The act of actually updatingyour website forces you to think
through who is our audiencethat we really want to target?
(16:24):
How do we pitch our offering?
How do we message that clearlyto them right?
How do we price and package?
And then, ultimately, how do wedrive more traffic to that
website across these channels?
And so I think that the keything is making sure that you
know, as you go through aprocess of updating your website
, that it's clear and that youbring in different perspectives
(16:45):
across your team, and so thatyou get people aligned on that
process, it doesn't have to beoverly complicated.
There are a lot of really goodwebsites that are just one page
websites, right, and you cantotally do that.
There are best practices forwhat to include and how to tell
the story right.
So you have all those differentcomponents, and so you know
I've actually done a lot ofresearch in that space.
(17:07):
I work with a lot of clients ontheir websites, and so if
anyone's listening and isinterested in that, I have a
couple of resources I can sharewith you.
That kind of walks through thedifferent components of what you
should include on your website.
So feel free to reach out to me.
But yeah, I would say yourwebsite is a key piece in
helping you get aligned on whatthat go-to-market strategy is
across your team.
Eric Eden (17:27):
More so than ever, probably.
I think people now are moreopen than ever before to let me
just go look it up onlineinstead of calling, instead of
going to check out things inperson.
People will expect that it'llbe there, and it'll be there in
a compelling way.
So I think that's a great placeto start, and I love the idea
(17:48):
using that to focus the messagewhen you're really sitting
through and thinking throughwith the team.
If you can't communicate itclearly on the website, you
probably can't communicate itclearly in a call right Exactly,
exactly, yep.
You probably can't communicateit clearly in a call right
Exactly, exactly, yep, awesome.
Well, I will link to yourwebsite and your LinkedIn so
people can get in touch ifthey'd like to learn more about
(18:09):
any of these areas, and thanksso much for being on the show
today and sharing your story andyour insights.
We appreciate it.
Garrett Jestice (18:17):
Thanks so much, Eric.
Thanks for having me.
Today we have a very exciting topic we're going to
be discussing.
It's how you can grow throughcommunity, and we have the
perfect marketing guru to helpus talk through that.
Garrett, welcome to the show.
Garrett Jestice (00:16):
Thanks, eric, great to be here.
Appreciate you having me.
Eric Eden (00:19):
So why don't we start off by you sharing just a
little bit about who you are andwhat you do?
So why?
Garrett Jestice (00:25):
don't we start off by you sharing just a little
bit about who you are and whatyou do, you bet so.
I am a former B2B software CMOwho now does consulting
full-time.
So I work with early stage B2Bcompanies to really help them
grow.
A lot of what I focus on isgo-to-market strategy, so
helping them figure out andunderstand who their customers
are, how to do messaging andpositioning that really
resonates, how to pick the rightchannels to be able to find
(00:48):
that audience.
So, again, spent the lastdecade or so in mostly early
stage B2B software companies andhad some awesome experiences,
one of which I'm excited to talkto you about today, but really
enjoy now being able to workone-on-one with early stage
companies and help them grow.
Eric Eden (01:06):
Awesome, yeah, early stage companies going from zero
to one is a very excitingchallenge and it's not for the
faint of heart, but we're readyto be inspired.
So why don't we start off byyou telling us a story about
some of the best marketing thatyou've done in this area?
Garrett Jestice (01:24):
telling us a story about some of the best
marketing that you've done inthis area.
One of the best pieces ofmarketing I guess you could say
campaigns.
That was an extended campaignthat I had a chance to be a part
of was in my last full-timerole, so let me give you a
little context.
So I was the CMO at an earlystage HR software company and we
sold HR software to mostlysmall businesses.
Often there was a solo HRperson at those companies.
(01:48):
They were kind of the entire HRteam doing all of it and our
software kind of helped supportthem.
So we had a small team, smallbudget, and we wanted to find a
way to really engage thataudience.
One of the things we noticed isthere was a lot of online
search traffic for HR terms.
Right, people were wanting toknow, especially in these small
(02:10):
businesses.
They wanted to learn what allthese terms mean in HR.
Right, and we knew we couldcapitalize on that.
But with our small team andlimited budget we weren't.
We didn't.
We couldn't go after it fastenough, right, and so we got
creative, we brainstormed and wecouldn't go after it fast
enough, right, and so we gotcreative, we brainstormed and we
talked to some of our, ourcustomers, and we really found
(02:34):
you know a couple of thingsright Small business HR people,
those solo HR practitioners.
They wanted some sort ofcommunity because they were
isolated in their company as thesolo HR person.
They wanted a way to connectwith others and learn from
others and also share theirexpertise.
You know there's so manydisciplines within HR and they
they often were experts in oneor two of them, but they wanted
to learn from an expert that was, you know, expert in something
(02:55):
else.
And so, anyways, we we put allthat together and we launched a
free community for smallbusiness HR folks.
We call it HR Mavericks, andthe whole idea of the community
was sharing your knowledge tohelp everyone get better.
And so we did a lot of our ownkeyword research to identify the
right terms.
(03:15):
People could sign up and pickfrom our list of terms and then
participate in multiple ways.
They could write an article forour HR encyclopedia that we put
up there.
They could participate in apodcast episode or a panel
discussion that we had, you know, with a handful of others and
then help us create content tokind of share the knowledge.
(03:36):
There was also a Slackcommunity that was part of it
and people got excited aboutbeing involved.
So the cool part about this is,you know, we were able to engage
this community, allow people tohave that feeling of giving
back much more quickly andaffordably than if we would have
tried to produce all thatcontent on our own right.
We ran some numbers at onepoint it was about the eighth of
(03:58):
the cost of hiring a full-timewriter, because really we just
rewarded people with free accessto the community and occasional
gift cards and giveaways andeverything else.
So you know, we were able tomore than 10 X traffic to our
website, to this HR encyclopedia, just over the course of a
little bit of over a year.
We're able to build this bigcommunity of people who are
(04:19):
really involved.
I mean over a hundred thousandimpressions on social media, you
know at the time.
So, anyways, had a lot of reallygreat um results from it and it
was a really fun campaign towork on.
That was kind of a mashup of afew different things and
obviously couldn't have done itwithout the awesome team that I
had.
We were a small but mighty teamof just a few of us, but you
(04:39):
know that team plus thecommunity is what really made it
successful.
Yeah.
Eric Eden (04:44):
That sounds like a really creative approach,
because today it's probablyharder than ever for startups to
do a go-to-market, because alot of the channels that people
have relied on in the last 10,20 years are evolving in ways
that are probably not helpful toa lot of founders, in the sense
(05:06):
of, like advertising is gettingdramatically more expensive.
Seo is very competitive, as anexample, and so you know you
can't just even if you have themoney, you couldn't just throw
it at it.
So to find a way to beguerrilla, to grow through
community, is it's pretty greatright.
Garrett Jestice (05:25):
Yeah, I mean it was amazing and again I can't
take credit for it.
You had someone on my team whoreally had the initial idea and
we kind of ran with it andworked together and tweaked
things and it ended up beingjust an awesome initiative.
Eric Eden (05:40):
That's great.
So let me ask you more broadly,when you're working with
clients today about how tocreate a go-to-market plan for
their startups, what are acouple of the key themes that
you coach people on, of what youhave to do to be ready to go to
market and then start doing themarketing?
Garrett Jestice (06:03):
Yeah, it's a great question and I'm so glad
you asked.
When I think about go-to-marketstrategy, especially for early
stage B2B companies, there'sreally four core foundations
that make up your go-to-marketstrategy and they're pretty
intuitive.
As I described these, you'reprobably just going to nod and
say, yeah, of course, but Ithink that the hard part is
actually understanding and beingaligned with your team on these
(06:25):
four core foundations, andthat's really the key to
building an effectivego-to-market strategy.
So I guess I'll preface, beforeI share these two, with saying
you know, go-to-market strategyreally is just your plan for how
you reach, sell to and satisfythe right audience with whatever
you're offering.
Right, could be a product,could be a service, whatever it
(06:47):
is right, but the goals thereare happy customers that produce
good revenue right, and so ithas to be a collective team
effort.
So, going back to kind of thosecore foundations, there's
really are four.
So the first is your audience.
Do you really truly understandwho your best fit customers are,
who you should focus on?
Most early stage companies focuson too many.
(07:08):
Right, you start by selling toanyone and everyone who will
give you money, but eventuallyyou have to bring that back
together.
You have to focus to reallybuild momentum.
And so your audience is numberone.
Number two is what you'reoffering, and so, as you
identify the right segment tofocus on, it can help you hone
in the right solution to offerthem.
They might not care abouteverything you offer all of your
(07:29):
services or all of yourfeatures, right.
They might only care about aportion of that.
Figuring out how to price andpackage it is also crucial.
So that's number two.
Number three is really yourmessaging and positioning,
especially for your website andlike your sales pitch for in the
B2B environment, right.
And so knowing how to clearlycommunicate the value and
describe what you do so someonegets it and it really resonates
(07:50):
with them is key.
And then number four isfiguring out those acquisition
channels that you should focuson.
Too many early stage companiesapproach, you know, marketing
and sales.
New customer acquisition isjust throwing spaghetti at the
wall and seeing what sticks,just doing random acts of
marketing.
And really, when you start withthat audience, that customer,
in mind, then it really helps.
(08:11):
You know exactly which channelsyou should focus on and go deep
in.
Eric Eden (08:16):
Yeah, I agree those are four great foundations for
people to think about, like,okay, we're ready to start
taking this out there andgetting customers on it.
Is there anything that peoplehave to do before they even do
those four things, though?
Garrett Jestice (08:32):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think that there's really likethree stages that most
companies go through, and sostage one is really about
selling to learn, or oftenpeople refer to it as finding
product market fit.
What you're really trying to doin the earliest stages is sell
to customers who will give youmoney and help them be
(08:53):
successful with your product orservice, and I think that that's
actually the most importantthing to really do.
Phase two is where you start toreally invest more in marketing
and that's where those corefoundations come into play.
But phase one is really aboutjust learning what works, and
the best way to learn is byselling and fulfilling, helping
customers be successful andsatisfied.
(09:14):
So that's really, I think, thekey of where you get started.
If you're not nowhere to start,just start reaching out to
people who you could sell to andtry pitching it, because the
process of doing that you'lllearn who's the right audience,
you'll learn what's the rightmessaging, you'll know what the
right offer is and how to findthose people.
So really I think that's thevery first step, is it just
(09:34):
comes down to a lot of hustleand sometimes founder magic, if
you will.
You just got to start sellingand satisfying customers, and
through that process you learnwhat works.
Eric Eden (09:45):
I love it.
That's the first step to being,I think, customer obsessed is
just to get out there and starttalking to people about it and
being open to people's feedback.
I have learned this lesson manytimes over myself is, when
you're going out, if you'retalking to people who are not
your ideal customer profile andtrying to get feedback from them
(10:06):
, that's often the best way tojust get lost in the woods
forever.
Garrett Jestice (10:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a great way to learn right?
You know like sometimes youhave you need to have those like
failure pitches to learn.
Man, this is not the rightaudience or this is not the
right way to to describe what Ido, right.
Eric Eden (10:25):
Yeah, and so I think , a lot of talking to the ideal
customers, coming up with theideal messaging and positioning,
like you were saying, a lot ofthe customers will tell you what
that messaging and positioningshould be.
If you show it to them, you gettheir feedback and even use
(10:47):
their words in it Sometimes.
I think that's the best way,because when people love it,
they'll tell you and they'lltell you what the user story is.
They'll tell you this is why Ilove it, because I used to do
this, this and this and it wasso painful.
And now with this, you know Ican do it like this.
And a lot of times they'll sayif you could only do this one
(11:08):
extra thing for me, that wouldmake it a grand slam.
And I think that's the sort oflike feedback founders really
can do great with right.
Garrett Jestice (11:37):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think, just to
build on that, eric, one of themore tangible ways that I've
found that to be successful isreally good go-to-market
strategy is about replicatingsuccessful customer like a
customer case study, right, likethat's what your sales pitch is
.
Hey, let me tell you about thisclient I worked with.
This is the problem that theyface.
These are your alternativesthat they considered, this is
(11:58):
what we did for them and theseare the results that we got and,
as you can see there, theresponse to the person you're
talking to, as you kind of walkthem through, that it'll either
really resonate or they'll beable to say, well, my situation
is a little bit differentbecause of this or that, and
that gives you really goodinsight on how to hone in that
messaging right.
Eric Eden (12:17):
I love the replication idea.
That's really great.
I love the replication idea.
That's really great.
What are some more efficienttips for growth when you're at
the earlier stages, when youdon't just have a lot of money
to throw at it?
Garrett Jestice (12:31):
I think the key thing is just to focus right
Again.
In the earliest stages it'sabout selling and fulfilling and
that helps you know, give youmore confidence in as you move
into that second phase of whereto start spending money.
To grow right, selling is aone-to-one activity.
A lot of times it can just bemanual, grunt work.
(12:51):
It's cheap, but it takes sometime and that's what you invest
in.
And then, once you have soldsuccessfully and have satisfied
customers, then you know how todo marketing, which is more
one-to-many right.
You replicate that best fitcustomer that you've already
found.
So simplify, focus, focus onthe stuff that is most crucial,
which is just selling andfulfilling.
Eric Eden (13:26):
Now that we're just about wrapping up 2024 and going
into 2025, what marketingchannels do you think are
performing the best and what doyou see in store for next year,
cause it seems like a lot ofresults across marketing
channels are evolving.
What are your thoughts?
Garrett Jestice (13:36):
Yeah, it's such a great question.
I'm so glad you asked itbecause I think that in order to
know which marketing channelsto focus on, you have to start
with your customer.
You have to start with thatbest fit customer and figure out
what channels they turn to whensearching for solutions like
you offer.
And I say that and it sounds soobvious, but very few companies
(13:58):
actually do that right.
A lot of times we take achannel first approach and we
think about where are ourcompetitors and where do I need
to be?
And I need to be everywhere andI need to do SEO and I need to
do be on LinkedIn and I need todo this or that.
But really, when it comes downto it, if you talk to a handful
of your best fit customers, youquickly identify the channels
where you need to focus.
Let me give you an example.
(14:24):
I worked with a client a littlewhile back and they were a small
B2B agency, so they soldservices to businesses and they
were investing a lot in SEO andtrying to drive organic traffic
to their website.
So in interviewing some oftheir customers, we found out
that everyone that we talked tonever searches on Google for
solutions like theirs.
It was unique.
(14:44):
I think most businesses likeassume that that's the case and
it's true, but this segment thatthey were serving rarely did
that.
Instead, there were a couple ofother sources they went to you
know partners that they workedwith.
They'd go to them for referralsor some other trusted sources
that they'd go to, and so thatwas one of the ways that we
identified hey, you used allthis money.
(15:05):
You've been investing in Google.
Let's reinvest it in makingsure that these partner
relationships and these othersources you're showing up there
consistently.
So, again, it really juststarts with your customers, and
I think it's different for everybusiness in terms of what works
best.
Eric Eden (15:22):
Yeah, I think more than ever, some people are
saying maybe I won't look it upon Google, maybe I'll look it up
on TikTok or Instagram or inChatGPT, and so I think looking
to where people are looking forinformation as a starting point
is a good shout, andfundamentally, a lot of the
(15:44):
sales and marketing efforts comeback to the company's website
right, and that's really thefront door of the business.
These days.
That's where a lot of the magichappens.
What sort of advice do you giveclients about having websites
that that convert?
Garrett Jestice (16:02):
I actually believe that one of the best
ways to get your team aligned onwhat your go-to-market strategy
is again, we've talked aboutgo-to-market strategy some today
and the different components ofit, but the best way to do that
is by updating your website.
The act of actually updatingyour website forces you to think
through who is our audiencethat we really want to target?
(16:24):
How do we pitch our offering?
How do we message that clearlyto them right?
How do we price and package?
And then, ultimately, how do wedrive more traffic to that
website across these channels?
And so I think that the keything is making sure that you
know, as you go through aprocess of updating your website
, that it's clear and that youbring in different perspectives
(16:45):
across your team, and so thatyou get people aligned on that
process, it doesn't have to beoverly complicated.
There are a lot of really goodwebsites that are just one page
websites, right, and you cantotally do that.
There are best practices forwhat to include and how to tell
the story right.
So you have all those differentcomponents, and so you know
I've actually done a lot ofresearch in that space.
(17:07):
I work with a lot of clients ontheir websites, and so if
anyone's listening and isinterested in that, I have a
couple of resources I can sharewith you.
That kind of walks through thedifferent components of what you
should include on your website.
So feel free to reach out to me.
But yeah, I would say yourwebsite is a key piece in
helping you get aligned on whatthat go-to-market strategy is
across your team.
Eric Eden (17:27):
More so than ever, probably.
I think people now are moreopen than ever before to let me
just go look it up onlineinstead of calling, instead of
going to check out things inperson.
People will expect that it'llbe there, and it'll be there in
a compelling way.
So I think that's a great placeto start, and I love the idea
(17:48):
using that to focus the messagewhen you're really sitting
through and thinking throughwith the team.
If you can't communicate itclearly on the website, you
probably can't communicate itclearly in a call right Exactly,
exactly, yep.
You probably can't communicateit clearly in a call right
Exactly, exactly, yep, awesome.
Well, I will link to yourwebsite and your LinkedIn so
people can get in touch ifthey'd like to learn more about
(18:09):
any of these areas, and thanksso much for being on the show
today and sharing your story andyour insights.
We appreciate it.
Garrett Jestice (18:17):
Thanks so much, Eric.
Thanks for having me.
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