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Garrett Mehrguth
CEO @ Directive - Marketing Agency for SaaS | Coaching Agency Owners to Success | Family Man & Avid Angler
Professional Background
Garrett Mehrguth is a prominent figure in the realm of performance marketing, serving as the CEO of Directive, a forward-thinking marketing agency dedicated to helping software companies optimize their online presence. Under Garrett's leadership, Directive has established itself as a trusted partner for numerous SaaS businesses seeking to enhance their marketing strategies, particularly in the area of search engine optimization (SEO) and digital advertising. His extensive experience in the marketing sector allows him to understand the unique challenges faced by software companies, and he is deeply committed to providing tailored solutions that drive measurable results.
Before founding Directive, Garrett held the esteemed position of President and CEO, where he honed his leadership skills and developed a profound understanding of market dynamics. His strategic approach has led him to speak at various marketing engagements and contribute written content that reflects his expertise in marketing, strategy, and business growth. Garrett's passion for sharing knowledge has further solidified his reputation as a thought leader in the industry, inspiring others in the field to innovate and excel.
Education and Achievements
Garrett Mehrguth's academic credentials are as distinguished as his professional accomplishments. He obtained his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Azusa Pacific University, which equipped him with advanced skills in management, business strategy, and organizational leadership. Coupled with his MBA, Garrett holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a focus on International Development, also from Azusa Pacific University. This educational background has provided him with a well-rounded perspective, merging economic insight with practical business strategies that drive success in the fast-paced world of software marketing.
Garrett's commitment to professional development extends beyond formal education. He continually seeks opportunities to expand his knowledge and stay ahead of emerging trends in digital marketing, ensuring that Directive remains at the forefront of the industry.
Achievements
Over the years, Garrett Mehrguth has garnered significant accolades for his work in performance marketing. His leadership has resulted in phenomenal growth for Directive, with numerous software companies crediting the agency for their skyrocketing performance and enhanced visibility in search engines. His ability to craft impactful marketing strategies has made him a go-to resource for organizations looking to innovate their approach to digital marketing.
Garrett's speaking engagements and written content on marketing best practices have resonated with many audiences, allowing him to connect with fellow professionals, aspiring marketers, and business leaders. His contributions to industry discussions not only reflect his expertise but also his clear passion for mentoring others.
For SaaS companies looking for guidance in search marketing, Garrett Mehrguth represents a beacon of knowledge and assistance. His approachable demeanor and willingness to engage with businesses underline his dedication to fostering growth and excellence in the software industry.
Highlights
If you’re a SaaS company spending +$50,000/mo on Linkedin ads, there are only 4 metrics you need to track (hint: it's not CTR, CPC or Conversions):
BACKGROUND
Too many marketers are focused on “In-Platform Metrics”.
Things like CTR, CPC, and Cost per Conversion.
This is a huge mistake.
There is little correlation between these KPIs and bookings.
In SaaS, the customers with highest ACV and the lowest CAC are often the “leads” with the highest CPC and conversions.
So, most brands do not need volume; but instead, qualified volume.
That's why you should build strong reporting around 4 core metrics:
- % OF INTRO CALLS THAT ARE QUALIFIED
Most LinkedIn advertisers believe they are focused on quality and evaluate KPIs like cost per lead.
Unfortunately, this level of analysis is one step removed from a quality filter.
What we really want to know when advertising on LinkedIn is, “What % of my leads made it past the first quality filter?”
For Directive and many of our customers, that means we need to not only evaluate who is moving forward with an intro call, but what their title is, the size of their organization, industry or vertical. And equally important, what titles, org sizes, and other traits are NOT moving forward in our sales process.
By optimizing for this first stage of filtration we have a higher volume of significant learnings and can rapidly improve our taregeting.
- COST PER DEMO
Demo/trial should be the foundation of your forecast. I have found that demos are the backbone of forecasting because they have the needed volume + statistical significance around both ACV (per segment/package) and close rate.
By focusing on the cost to acquire demos and thus adjusting bids + budget, we are fully focused on the economic drivers of the business.
To do this, leverage CAPI integration. This will will allow you to integrate directly into Hubspot and have clean, concise reporting.
With the data clean, evaluate the following in your own pivot table:
- Cost per Demo by Title
- Cost per Demo by Industry
- Cost per Demo by Employee Size
- Cost per Demo by Ad Unit
By creating depth here, you will be able to properly optimize spend without accidentally hurting bookings.
- CLOSE LOST REASONS (+ ANALYSIS)
Not all demos close. That’s okay. The key is to understand why they did not close and what you can do about it. In order to be successful here, you need to establish the following closed lost reasons in your CRM and force sales reps to fill out a reason to mark an opportunity closed lost.
Here’s the closed lost reasons I suggest:
-
DOA/Bad Fit: These are unwindable leads you shouldn't even do an intro call with. Need to minimize these asap.
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Non-Bookers: These are people who convert, but don't book a call and never make it to intro call.
-
Budget: These are people who don't have budget on the intro call.
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Price: These are people who had budget, but went with a cheaper option.
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Competition: These are people who liked your price and had budget, but still did not choose you.
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Timing: These are people who are not currently in-market. You should get future timing here and make sure reps followup with this bucket of closed lost opps.
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Authority: These are people who like what you are saying, but frankly have no authority to make this decision.
- CLOSE RATES
Lastly, we want to look at close rate and understand how certain titles, segments, industries, products, and even ad units are performing down funnel.
For example: Document ads might have an awesome CPL for you in platform, but in a 12 month window result in no new business. In this case, we should not necessarily pause document ads, but instead, seek to understand their supportive impact and then question the amount of budget we want to dedicate to that.
The key here is (once again) understanding the details around what is closing and why vs. what is not closing and why and at what rate that is occurring.
And, you need to look at both win and loss rates. If you only look at closed lost you might think that a certain persona is not a good fit, but it may also have double the win rate as other personas. By being balanced and looking at both closed lost and closed won rate you’ll start to get deeper into the efficacy of your strategy and understand where to allocate time resources.
THE MAJOR REQUIREMENT TO MAKE LINKEDIN WORK:
Force all LinkedIn leads to become opportunities (not leads) in Salesforce upon conversion in a lead gen form. When something is a lead and does not book via a scheduling router the lead dies and your LinkedIn CAC skyrockets. By keep all leads from LinkedIn as opportunities you also have full visibility into their followup process via the deals tab in Gong.
Have reps email prospects before the intro call. You are optimizing for cost per’s down funnel, rep hustle and performance will make or break your LinkedIn investment.
IN SHORT:
Get out of your platforms and get into your pipeline/lifecycle stage performance.
The unlock is discovered in the details.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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