Peter Geisheker | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Peter Geisheker 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 focus on identifying niche markets, simplifying messaging, and achieving measurable goals. They emphasize the importance of clear, consistent messaging across all channels and aligning marketing strategies with business objectives to drive growth and improve customer engagement.
Key points
🔍 Niche Market Focus: Ensuring the company targets a specific niche market with the most pressing problems that the product or service can solve.
📊 Clear Messaging: Simplifying messaging to ensure it clearly explains the problem solved and the value provided, avoiding jargon and complex language.
🗣️ Consistency Across Channels: Maintaining consistent messaging across all marketing channels, including the website, online ads, and sales communications.
📈 Early Wins: Updating messaging and achieving early wins through testimonials, case studies, and clear value propositions to build momentum.
💡 Proof of Value: Providing proof of the product or service’s effectiveness through metrics, such as how much faster or cheaper it solves a problem.
🤝 Sales and Marketing Alignment: Ensuring the sales team is aligned with the updated messaging and understands the benefits and value propositions.
🚀 Execution and Resources: Developing realistic and executable marketing plans with measurable goals and time frames.
👥 Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders to ensure alignment with the company’s vision and strategy.
🧠 Marketing Education: Educating clients on the importance of clear messaging and consistent communication.
📋 Long-term Objectives: Establishing both short-term and long-term goals to guide marketing efforts and ensure accountability.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Peter’s Background: Peter shares his extensive experience working with B2B startups since 2000, focusing on various marketing issues and managing substantial ad spends.
- Common Problems: Peter highlights common issues such as companies not focusing on niche markets and using unclear, jargon-filled messaging.
- Niche Market Focus: Emphasizing the importance of targeting niche markets with specific, painful problems that the product or service can solve.
- Simplifying Messaging: Ensuring messaging is clear and simple enough for a 12-year-old (or even a 9-year-old) to understand, avoiding industry jargon and complex language.
- Consistent Messaging: Updating messaging across all channels, including the website, online ads, and sales communications, to ensure consistency and clarity.
- Early Wins: Achieving early wins by providing proof of value through metrics, testimonials, and case studies to build credibility and momentum.
- Sales and Marketing Alignment: Aligning the sales team with the updated messaging to ensure they understand the benefits and value propositions.
- Measurable Goals: Setting measurable goals and time frames to achieve them, such as increasing leads or improving website traffic by a specific percentage.
- Red Flags: Identifying red flags, such as a company lacking sufficient budget or a CEO who wants to micromanage marketing efforts, indicating they are not ready for a fractional CMO.
Quotes
- 01:02: “I dive deep into the numbers to really understand prior history and what the future growth looks like.” – Peter Geisheker
- 01:45: “Understanding their data from a marketing and sales lens is crucial.” – Peter Geisheker
- 02:35: “Is there trust in data right now? Does the CEO trust the reporting they are looking at?” – Peter Geisheker
- 03:10: “Looking at the velocity of awareness all the way through to closed won, there are specific areas of latency.” – Peter Geisheker
- 04:00: “I want to make sure we all have a compass that we are working towards.” – Peter Geisheker
- 04:35: “It’s really easy for startup brands to bring in a fractional CMO and expect metrics and KPIs to be hit without having a strategic vision.” – Peter Geisheker
- 05:10: “I’m really in a learning mode that first 90 days.” – Peter Geisheker
- 06:25: “From a fractional CMO standpoint, where is the true alignment with sales?” – Peter Geisheker
- 07:20: “Many times, they haven’t done the right due diligence to understand who is the actual buyer.” – Peter Geisheker
- 08:00: “Defining your ICP is not a one-time exercise. Over time, your product evolves, market dynamics change.” – Peter Geisheker
- 09:10: “How do you get the most value out of your CMO? It’s about integrating them into other areas of the business.” – Peter Geisheker
- 09:45: “Marketing has so much more value to add as a stakeholder to other parts of the business.” – Peter Geisheker
- 10:35: “Customer retention became the new acquisition focus during the pandemic.” – Peter Geisheker
- 11:20: “I’m a huge fan of a 90-day plan with short-term and long-term goals and wins.” – Peter Geisheker
- 12:30: “A fractional CMO should have the underlying experience of different departments and how they really bring into marketing.” – Peter Geisheker
- 13:10: “From acquisition to expansion, a fractional CMO should look holistically across all tech, resources, strategy, and data.” – Peter Geisheker
- 14:10: “A red flag for me is if they haven’t fully baked their services or product offering.” – Peter Geisheker
- 15:00: “You don’t want to hire a fractional CMO prematurely if you don’t have a strategic vision.” – Peter Geisheker
- 16:30: “Identify what type of CMO you need for the stage in which your business is in.” – Peter Geisheker
- 17:45: “How should people get in touch with you and who should get in touch with you? B2B SAS companies are where I have the majority of my experience and success.” – Peter Geisheker