Feb. 29, 2024

047 Matt Coats (SchoolMint) on Driving Innovation and Revenue As Chief Evangelist

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Watch or listen to this week's episode on driving innovation and revenue through evangelism!

Matt Coats, Chief Evangelist at SchoolMint, shares his path from sales to evangelism - what sparked the vision, how he sold the concept internally, how it affected his compensation, and why it landed him on the senior leadership team.

Watch or listen for insights into the role of a Chief Evangelist, the need to turn the voice of the customer into new customer value, and strategies for preparing the market for these new solutions.

Takeaways:

  • The primary role of an evangelist is innovation - continuously identifying new opportunities to create customer- and market-informed solutions. A Chief Evangelist is uniquely positioned to help turn the voice of the customer into realized customer value.

     

  • Variable compensation can be part of an evangelist’s package. But that variable comp should look more like the CEO’s than a sales rep’s - not necessarily in quantity, but definitely in what it’s tied to.

     

  • Three types of external meetings for an evangelist: direct prospect or customer contact in a formal way (presentation, exec briefing, etc), informal customer interactions (coffee, lunch, or a call), and conferences (panels, sessions, and networking).

     

  • Evangelism is sales, but you’re selling ideas, not products. An evangelist can help sell employees on the meaning, purpose, and results of the company’s work, as well as sell to prospects and resell to customers the promise of improved outcomes.

     

Quote of the Show:

  • “We need somebody who’s going to go out and sell this concept. It’s not about selling a product or a thing, we need to sell this idea to the market.”

     

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