Dave is joined by John Short, Founder & CEO of Compound Growth Marketing. John spent a decade as a B2B SaaS marketer at LogMeIn, Yesware, and Workable before starting his own full-funnel marketing agency in 2018. John is focused on helping companies find the right strategy in order to grow, as opposed to just blindly picking from a menu of marketing tactics. His company helps B2B marketers with everything from infrastructure (marketing ops and analytics) to customer acquisition, funnel optimization, and scaling growth.
They discuss
- Growth by acquisitions
- Timeless marketing principles
- Evolving dynamic between sales and marketing
- The impact of AI on SEO
- Building a strong company narrative
Timestamps
- (00:00) - - Intro and disclaimers
- (06:00) - - Seeking Strategic Guidance
- (09:53) - - Embracing Ten X Growth Mindset
- (14:46) - - Overcoming Hurdles in Business
- (15:44) - - Balancing Work and Family Commitments
- (20:42) - - Evolving Search Results and AI Generative Models
- (24:35) - - Understanding Golf Physics and AI Research
- (29:26) - - Search Engine Trust and Accuracy
- (30:26) - - Shifting Landscapes: SEO, Cookies, and Timeless Principles
- (36:25) - - Strategic Approach to Social Media Advertising
- (38:18) - - Predictive User Scores and Behavior Analysis
- (41:51) - - Navigating Growth and Expansion
- (44:47) - - Aligning Sales and Marketing for Success
- (47:59) - - The Power of Company Vision: Lessons from Drift
- (51:11) - - Strategic Alignment
Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)