Edan Gelt and David Schafer | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Edan Gelt and David Schafer discussing the role and strategies of fractional Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in achieving significant business wins within the first 90 days of engagement.
Conclusion
Fractional CMOs are essential in identifying initial problems, breaking down silos, and aligning teams to focus on customer needs. They emphasize the importance of early wins, trust-building, and developing comprehensive marketing strategies tailored to the specific needs and goals of the company.
Key points
🔍 Initial Problems: Identifying existing issues within the organization, such as lack of understanding and siloed departments.
🗣️ Communication: Establishing clear communication with the leadership team and understanding their expectations and goals.
📊 Silo Breakdown: Addressing departmental silos to ensure a unified approach to marketing and customer needs.
📈 Customer Focus: Emphasizing the importance of understanding the customer journey and aligning marketing strategies accordingly.
💡 Early Wins: Focusing on quick, tangible results to build trust and momentum within the team.
🤝 Team Trust: Building trust within the team and ensuring everyone is aligned with the marketing goals.
📝 Comprehensive Strategy: Developing a detailed marketing strategy that includes both short-term and long-term goals.
🚀 Execution: Ensuring that marketing plans are realistic, executable, and tailored to the available resources.
👥 Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders early on to ensure alignment with the company’s vision and strategy.
🧠 Marketing Education: Educating clients on the complexity of marketing and setting realistic expectations regarding timelines and outcomes.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Edan’s Background: Edan shares her extensive experience in marketing across various industries and the importance of early wins and building trust within the team.
- Initial Challenges: Edan discusses the importance of understanding the goals, what has worked, and what hasn’t, and addressing any preconceived notions about marketing.
- Silo Breakdown: David highlights the problem of departmental silos and the need to get everyone focused on the larger picture, especially the customer.
- Customer Focus: David emphasizes the importance of understanding buyer needs and starting by talking to sales to understand how to turn prospects into revenue.
- Trust and Alignment: Both guests discuss the need to build trust within the team and align everyone with the marketing goals.
- Early Wins: Edan and David explain the importance of achieving early wins, such as conducting competitive analysis and addressing key customer issues.
- Comprehensive Strategy: Developing a comprehensive strategy that includes both short-term and long-term goals, tailored to the company’s needs.
- Execution and Resources: Ensuring that the marketing plans are realistic and executable with the available resources.
- Marketing Education: Educating clients on the complexity of marketing and setting realistic expectations regarding timelines and outcomes.
Quotes
- 00:31: “The CEO or the president of the company has one view of how things are working, and then the team probably has a different view.” – Edan Gelt
- 00:45: “I usually try to ask what the goals are and I think one of the biggest challenges is here’s the goal, here’s how we’re going to get there.” – Edan Gelt
- 01:07: “A big challenge is a lot of times they’re like, ‘Well, we only want to go digital’ or ‘We only want to use this messaging or this is our tagline.'” – Edan Gelt
- 01:56: “The main problem is silos, so that’s why trust building is essential.” – David Schafer
- 02:15: “Our job as corporate storytellers is to get people to focus on the larger picture, which is the customer.” – David Schafer
- 02:46: “Understanding the buyer needs is critical, so what I would do day one is go in and talk to sales.” – David Schafer
- 03:07: “Sales knows how to turn people into revenue.” – David Schafer
- 03:45: “Once you understand customers from the sales perspective and what finance is looking for, now you understand what the CEO really cares about.” – David Schafer
- 04:45: “The first day you get in, customer problems are first, silos are second, and then building trust for sure is your number one thing to do.” – David Schafer
- 05:36: “You could be great at what you do and get people to get engaged, but if they’re not taking action and making a purchase, it doesn’t work.” – Edan Gelt
- 06:30: “The biggest win outside of the tactical crap that you’re going to have to produce is showing that someone’s being heard.” – Edan Gelt
- 07:10: “You need to be ready to sail in open waters, identify trends, keep tabs on industry reports and social media chatter.” – David Schafer
- 08:07: “The CEO should hopefully know their goals and then get out of the way, let you work with the team and build it.” – Edan Gelt
- 08:47: “I think the thing that’s most important for understanding is taking what everyone’s doing and making sure that it’s aligned with the ultimate goal.” – Edan Gelt
- 09:30: “The hard math of being customer-centric and connecting customers and revenue in some way is often what companies are doing wrong.” – David Schafer
- 10:15: “If you give me a dollar today, I will give you $5 in this next period of time.” – David Schafer
- 11:00: “You don’t sell Christmas trees after Christmas for full price.” – Edan Gelt
- 12:01: “The biggest red flag is when they don’t have a sales team to follow up on leads.” – Edan Gelt
- 12:55: “If a client doesn’t want authenticity, then they’re probably not going to get the kind of value they could from a fractional CMO.” – David Schafer
- 13:45: “There is a fixed mindset in some people that you can’t call their baby ugly, you cannot point out something that is untouchable.” – David Schafer