Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Overlay. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career

There were two big things missing from my college education: sales and a focus on small/medium sized business models. I earned my degree in Business Administration with a focus on marketing. The overall curriculum was solid, don’t get me wrong. It was fascinating to learn from excellent case studies on major brands like Coca-Cola and Sears and how they faced different market conditions. Buyer behavior was an especially interesting topic to me. However, my 12+ year career in marketing has been primarily focused on working with small and medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, every single position I’ve held as some form of Marketing Account Manager has involved sales.

As you can imagine, small to medium-sized companies operate much differently than the mega brands my education was centered around. Budgets are tighter, targeting is more regional, and executing marketing strategies is a much more tactical process. For example, a nationwide television campaign would be absurd to think about for a locally owned and operated restaurant.

My education had zero focus on sales, but in the real world, sales have been a cornerstone of what it takes to be a successful Account Manager. If there had been some baseline level of education on how to prospect and build relationships, I would have been in a much stronger starting position. There could have also been a chance to learn about ethical practices when it comes to sales, which I think the industry as a whole would benefit from.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m the CEO and Founder of Get Hoptimized, a digital marketing agency that works with businesses in the craft beverage and alcohol industry. That has been my primary focus for the last few years, and it’s been a great experience so far. The decision to focus on a specific niche was a good one, and working in this industry has been very rewarding. We primarily work with small and medium-sized businesses, where driving tangible and measurable results is crucial. The core focus of our agency is on ‘Brewing Results’ for our clients, which boils down to us providing marketing services that produce real business outcomes. It’s that message more than anything that has resonated the strongest.

Before Get Hoptimized, I was a partner in another firm. The partnership was formed between me and another great marketing guy after we ended up working together as freelancers on a bunch of projects. We kept looping each other into accounts and eventually decided that a partnership would be a good move. We grew the agency to approximately 8-10 employees, had an office space in Dallas, and worked with numerous great clients. After a couple of years, I wanted to do something on my own and work in a niche that was exciting to me. Hence the move to Get Hoptimized.

I’ve been a digital marketer and entrepreneur for about 12 years now. Along the journey, I’ve been part of startups, worked for agencies, and made my own way as a freelancer. There have been so many great lessons along the way, but the ones that stand out to me are that listening is more important than talking, and transparency and honesty go a long way.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There was a time not long ago that I was about the call it quits on running my own business and agency. It was a tough situation. We had been bleeding cash for a few months, then lost a few of our biggest retainer clients, and our sales pipeline was virtually dead. I had been running the agency for about 2 years and we hadn’t really ever been in a comfortable position with profit margins. So the big financial hit was hard.

Multiple employees were depending on salaries from the business. To add to the pressure, my wife and I had a new mortgage. I’m not kidding when I say that I was inches from walking away from the biz and getting a job for the first time in like 6 years or so. I was also pretty damn depressed about the situation.

Ultimately, we were able to turn things around, but it took some real grit to make it happen. I did a deep dive into the books to understand how much runway we really had with capital. Fortunately, we had some, but it meant pulling from reserves I had set aside for a “oh shit we’re broke” situation.

We looked at internal processes to understand what went wrong with those accounts that we lost, and how we could ramp up the sales funnel. That meant taking a hard look at myself and who I was as a leader to my team. It meant I had to be more transparent about our financial situation with them, too.

I also did a lot of soul-searching. Thinking about what my life would really be like if I weren’t working for myself. I remember talking a lot with my Dad, who helped motivate me to keep going.

So, we decided to buckle down and push forward. I put a lot of trust in my team to manage accounts while I focused on bringing in new business. Within a couple of months, we righted the ship. It was close there for a while, but I’m proud of the team for believing in each other and of me for believing in myself.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Honestly, this is one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the business. We do this in multiple ways.

In the craft bev industry, conferences are a thing. Especially the Craft Brewers Conference, which is the biggest alcohol business conference in the US. We make it a point to be there every year and use the event as a place to hang out with clients and industry colleagues. We’re also a remote agency, so the chance to meet with clients in person is super valuable.

Another way we try to connect is with gifts at strategic times throughout the year, the big one being around the holidays. We’ve sent bottles of wine or spirits, and those typically are well received.

We had a client who had a kid and was away for a bit after the birth. So, we sent a bottle of champagne to them to celebrate.

We are working on something new right now, where we are sending a disposable camera to certain clients. Asking them to take photos or inspiring them to hand off the camera to staff or clients. Then, we will pay for developing the film and getting digital scans of the photos. The cool part is that this turns into a way for the clients to get some content to use for marketing. Plus it’s fun!

I also am a fan of sending a handwritten note to say thank you. Gratitude goes a long way!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gethoptimized.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-overlay/