GMT010: Desmond Choi - Head of Product Growth at Diamond

In today’s episode, Desmond Choi, the Head of Product Growth at Diamond. Diamond is an enterprise search engine that can optimize employee workflow. Listen in as Desmond shares valuable tips and insights on scheduling meetings with executives, other growth marketing strategies aside from sending e-mails, the entrepreneurial mind-set, and many more.

“If you’re comfortable with your process, you’re already behind the game.”- Desmond Choi

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

How Desmond was able to get meetings with CIOs, VPs, and executives of enterprise companies
The 131 cold e-mail format that helped him get an open rate of 50 to 60 percent
The tools he uses to launch his growth process for startups

Some Quotes From This Episode

“Keep it short. Don’t write essay e-mails.“– Desmond Choi

“Really understand the customer need and have empathy towards it.”– Desmond Choi

“If you bring in the wrong customer, actually, it can harm your business.” – Desmond Choi

“Sometimes in a sales meeting, just be open-minded and figure out what caught their attention and what interests them the most and try to elaborate on those points.”-Desmond Choi

About Desmond Choi

Desmond Choi is the typical sales and growth hustler. As a university of waterloo student, he became really plugged in to the Kitchener Waterloo startup scene, being the VP of Operations at MappedIn and co-founding SparkGig, a community driven marketplace for those who would like to list, discover, and book live performances. Desmond was the founding member of the US-Canada Alumni Tech Advisory Council . That opened doors for him to meet Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook), Brian Chesky (CEO of AirBnb) and more.

Show Notes

- - 02:15
    
    His career progression
  - 03:00
    
    How he got into Diamond
  - 04:35
    
    How he approaches growth for different companies
  - 06:19
    
    What value means to him as head of growth
  - 07:40
    
    Questions he asks to really get to the pain points
  - 09:28
    
    Progressions of his line of questioning and other insights
  - 10:11
    
    Sample scenarios
  - 11:50
    
    Tactics he used to get initial meetings
  - 13:51
    
    Advantages of scheduling a 15-minute call
  - 14:55
    
    The e-mail format he uses
  - 15:05
    
    Sharing of best practices with a mastermind group
  - 15:28
    
    Typical response rate for cold e-mails
  - 16:14
    
    How many days should one wait before sending a follow-up e-mail
  - 16:56
    
    Other growth marketing strategies aside from e-mail
  - 18:11
    
    Tips to close sales
  - 20:16
    
    Offering alternative solutions to customers
  - 20:27
    
    Building a long-term relationship with customers
  - 21:11
    
    What their strategy looks like as a whole
  - 22:25
    
    Specific tools he uses
  - 24:08
    
    Latest update in Waterloo
  - 25:57
    
    Cultural stuff that’s unique in Waterloo
  - 27:30
    
    His journey from sociology to entrepreneurship
  - 30:00
    
    What an entrepreneur is for him
  - 30:38
    
    What an entrepreneurial mind-set is for him
  - 32:10
    
    How he got his role as head of growth
  - 32:27
    
    Charities and nonprofits he’s involved in
  - 34:02
    
    Tips for people who are just starting out