Jason C. Grillo, Principal
Expertise. Ingenuity. Integrity.
Market Insights and Strategy
Q: How can we go to market amid key drivers, barriers, and opportunities in our industry?
A: I can help you create a business plan to get to market. We’d start by establishing what your business needs are, who the target audience is, best channels to reach them, and what sales messages will convert. This includes selecting the right price point, tone and theme of messages, and where to fit into buying decisions. It’s not only about who your customers are, but who is NOT a good customer for you that to me is the most important question to ask. A key underpinning is to understand buyer (in B2B) or consumer (in B2C) behavior: what are customers' needs?
Q: What are our customers saying - how can we analyze and use that feedback?
A: Market research is not just gathering data: it’s about arriving at actionable insights to clearly inform strategic and tactical decisions. First, ask what the purpose of the research is and how it will affect decisionmaking – determine what difference the effort will make to you. Then we can devise a plan of how to approach collecting the raw information that will support those insights. Methods and sources include, among others: publicly available datasources, syndicates reports, web traffic data, online surveys, telephone or in-person interviews.
Q: Why are we succeeding or failing to achieve results in our markets?
A: I can evaluate what the key issues are for your product. Start with looking at internal reasons: misaligned incentives, or gaps in people, process, technology, or data, for example. Additionally I will look at external factors such as competition or shifting market needs as causes. Then, prioritize the causes, and impact of solutions, and effort needed to achieve each course of action.
Brand Planning
Q: How can we structure key brand objectives, tactics, and results?
A: From my experience with brand teams, I can align product or brand strategic imperatives, to strategies to achieve them, then tactics that teams execute on – down to individual pieces of content that express the essence of what the brand aims to be.
Q: How can we align internally on our brand strategy across different functions?
A: In some organizations, working with different departments can seem like working with another company – this can just as easily be true in companies of only a few dozen employees to those numbering in the thousands. I have experience working on commercial teams to collaborate cross-functionally with groups with deep expertise in technical product development, finance, IT, or operations to achieve results. I can serve as the liaison to ensure everyone is on the same page and speaking the same language in commercialization discussions.
Q: What external alliance partners should we engage to be consistent with our brand?
I can leverage experience on both sides of vendor and selection negotiations, to ascertain which partners would be optimal, and how to drive interests. For marketing and project execution partners, I can use best practices from my experience as a leader in industry-wide partnerships. I can work with you and your partners to forge successful alliances to mutual benefit.
Content Marketing
Q: What kind of marketing campaigns and content will resonate with our customers?
A: Building on the product or brand plan, and market intelligence on the audience, I can figure which messages will motivate behavior among customers. I am most adept at creating written content – blogs, white papers, case studies. Additionally, I can engage with other freelance contractors or agency vendors to manage the creative process to ensure the results are on-message and consistent with goals. I can then execute campaigns, measure the results, and course correct using Agile methodologies applied to a content marketing context.
Q: How do we enable our sales teams for success?
A: I can work with sales teams to uncover gaps in content, and I can conduct anonymized interviews with buyers to get objective feedback on why sales do or do not convert.
Q: How could we measure marketing results?
A: Per Peter Drucker, ”What gets measured gets managed”. How a team determines a measure of success is governs the business behavior to meet those metrics. That could be degree of reach, number of leads and prospects, or conversion rates along the sales funnel. Direct customer feedback is another metric: overall customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, rates of advocacy. I can tie these to the financial results such as revenue or profits, and return on investment that your business seeks.