Travis and Kevin talk with the Founder and CEO of Refine Labs, Chris Walker, about the core formula when auditing a company, uncommon but successful marketing and sales strategies, creating meaningful content, and more.

Episode Highlights:

1. Strategy hasn’t changed
2. $0 in revenue to well over 7 figures in less than 11 months
3. 0 outbound emails, 0 cold calls, $0 on advertising, 0 trade shows
4. Produced organic content- efficient way to grow
5. “I don’t see marketers challenging their behaviors in a way that allows them to change.”
6. Take budget from things that aren’t working and use it to max out things that are
7. When auditing a company, core formula = 
8. Be able to set everything up so you can measure everything 
9. Capture existing demand
10. Create new demand- “Ideally what you’re doing is distributing content, your target consumers are consuming that content, there is no call to action, they are receiving messages constantly and through the brand awareness and messaging that you’re delivering it creates new demand and that drives people through the funnel until your processes capture new demand.”
11. Win on brand
12. “If you pass enough leads to sales, you’re going to create misalignment.”
13. Call leads yourself to make sure they’re a good lead, pass these leads to sales so they ultimately prioritize you
14. Marketing and sales teaming up to create content/how these roles might evolve
15. Marketers, especially in certain industries, do not talk to customers, they rely on feedback from sales or listen to recorded to sales calls” … disagree because:
16. Sales gives you feedback because of invested interest in deal, not objective view of what the customer actually told them
17. The buyer is not comfortable telling you the truth during a sales call
18. when listening to calls you can’t ask why or how or feel the reaction/see nonverbal cues about what they’re actually telling you
19. “I decided that actually going to talk to customers in non-sales situations and getting the real answers even if they weren’t the answers I was looking for, was helpful.”
20. Very helpful, especially when not familiar with the person/industry you're marketing to
21. Started running ads- saw a lot of traction at certain hours
22. Creating content
23. Ignoring regulated industries: “companies should be empowering their people to create content.”
24. Decide if you’re creating content for who you’re trying to sell to or yourself and your personal brand
25. “The reps that are able to do their day job well and do other things in extra time to build reputation and audience, will eventually become the best reps.”
26. “Everyone should know how to create content because that is the most effective way to do modern business development, networking, reputation building, and overall generating revenue.”
27. Instant gratification is a flaw, difficult to look into the future
28. Advice for someone who is struggling with the slow pace of building audience on social platform
29. Think about what they want to do in the future… think about how long you plan to be with a company
30. Lack of commitment to organization holds people back from taking time to build audience
31. Assess how it’s going today- look at performance day-by-day
32. It all comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish
33. “If you want to be the best or stand out in your career, you have to do stuff differently than everyone else.”
34. Understanding your audience, creating your content tailored to that… why do so many marketers get that wrong
35. Step 1: create content
36. Step 2: know how to distribute it 
37. “Content and distribution are two different things.”
38. New theme
39. “Marketers struggle to do their job because they spend too much time with technology and not enough time communicating.”
40. Can you communicate with the people you’re trying to sell to
41. Tech cannot magically create revenue- get away from core marketing principles
42. Technology is not a replacement
43. Wouldn’t look at tech as a solution until everything else is exhausted
44. Simplicity and empathy are the focus 
45. “Until you can run a mile there is no sense in trying to run a marathon.”

Favorite Points:

1. When auditing a company, core formula = 
2. Be able to set everything up so you can measure everything 
3. Capture existing demand
4. Create new demand- “Ideally what you’re doing is distributing content, your target consumers are consuming that content, there is no call to action, they are receiving messages constantly and through the brand awareness and messaging that you’re delivering it creates new demand and that drives people through the funnel until your processes capture new demand.”
5. Win on brand
6. Marketers, especially in certain industries, do not talk to customers, they rely on feedback from sales or listen to recorded to sales calls” … disagree because:
7. Sales gives you feedback because of invested interest in deal, not objective view of what the customer actually told them
8. The buyer is not comfortable telling you the truth during a sales call
9. when listening to calls you can’t ask why or how or feel the reaction/see nonverbal cues about what they’re actually telling you
10. “I decided that actually going to talk to customers in non-sales situations and getting the real answers even if they weren’t the answers I was looking for, was helpful.”
11. Tech cannot magically create revenue- people get away from core marketing principles
12. Technology is not a replacement
13. Wouldn’t look at tech as a solution until everything else is exhausted
14. “Until you can run a mile there is no sense in trying to run a marathon.”

Tweetable Quotes:

1. “I don’t see marketers challenging their behaviors in a way that allows them to change.”
2. “If you pass enough leads to sales, you’re going to create misalignment.”
3. “I decided that actually going to talk to customers in non-sales situations and getting the real answers even if they weren’t the answers I was looking for, was helpful.”
4. “Companies should be empowering their people to create content.”
5. “The reps that are able to do their day job well and do other things in extra time to build reputation and audience, will eventually become the best reps.”
6. “Everyone should know how to create content because that is the most effective way to do modern business development, networking, reputation building, and overall generating revenue.”
7. “If you want to be the best or stand out in your career, you have to do stuff differently than everyone else.”
8. “Until you can run a mile there is no sense in trying to run a marathon.”

Links:

Travis King: LinkedIn

Kevin Mulrane: LinkedIn

Chris Walker LinkedIn