Here is the first of 3 episodes with Linda Stevens. She is former Esri Chief Marketing Officer. She now runs a consultancy called Spatial Spirits. We begin by working through her marketing playbook. The reason is that in an earlier podcast appearance on Pathfinders:
Here she mentioned that Esri dominates the field not due to technology but marketing.
Evidently then this is, at the very least, not something to ignore in planning dominance of geospatial. Points discussed:
Education to create an industry to sell into.
Personalities/heroes - credibility/proof point from an opinion leader.
Celebrate users.
Product management - herd the developers in the direction of customer needs.
Take it industry by industry.
Messaging - be ahead of sales.
There is a dance between leadership, development, marketing, to create a space for sales to close deals and bringing intelligence back from the field.
Voices for customers, potential customers, markets they want to grow into that don't know they need you yet.
Branding includes dressing the part.
Linda differentiates sales from marketing by characterising the former thusly: "Sales has the difficult job of understanding a user's needs, crafting the right solution, bringing all the players together, and winning the business. Then they have to negotiate the details and get the money. Great salespeople love the dance and customer success."
THE GEOSPATIAL INDEX
The Geospatial Index is a comprehensive listing of all publicly traded geospatial businesses worldwide. Why? The industry is growing at ~5% annually (after inflation and after adjusting for base rates). This rate varies significantly, however, by sub index. For $480,000 to start, this growth rate is $5,000,000 over a working life. This channel, Bluesky account, newsletter, watchlist and podcast express the view that you are serious about geospatial if you take the view of an investor, venture capitalist or entrepreneur. You are expected to do your own research. This is not a replacement for that. This is not investment advice. Consider it entertainment.
NOT THE OPINION OF MY EMPLOYER
NOT YOUR FIDUCIARY
NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
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