Marketers of Technology
00:00:00 · Jeremy Byars, Andres Figuera
[00:00:00] S0: These are sort of public monopolies. There's only one water utility provider. There's only one electric provider. The traditional sort of games that you might be able to play is, like, you're behind the times versus your competitor here. They don't have competitors. [00:00:12] S1: Hey, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Marketers of Technology. My name is Andres Figuera, and this show is brought to you by Front Lines Studios, Silicon Valley's leading podcast production studio. If you're looking to launch your own show, we offer a full podcast with a service experience. You just show up and host, and we handle everything else. And with that said, let's dive into today's episode because today, I'm here speaking with Jeremy Byars, chief marketing officer at United Systems, a company that provides software, metering, operational support, managed IT, and customer service solutions for utilities and local government across The United States. So, Jeremy, how's it going, man? A pleasure to have you on the show. [00:00:56] S0: Man, it's going great. It's a happy Wednesday, and, yeah, I'm happy to be here. [00:01:02] S1: We're super excited to be hosting this for you, man. And just so that we can hit the ground running, Jeremy, would you be able to tell me a bit more about your background, how you came to become the CMO at United Systems, and then what United Systems does in your own words?
00:01:16 · Jeremy Byars
[00:01:16] S0: Yeah. So I'll try to be quick, but it's tricky. So I actually started out as an educator. I got a couple of master's degrees at a local university here, Murray State Go Racers. And I stayed there to teach for a few years, realized it wasn't for me, and then took a $7 an hour job actually leaving the university in customer service. And within a year I was CSM and within two years I was not only managing customer service, but I was also managing purchasing. And within three years I was hired as a VP at a sister company running inventory management. Marketing has not entered the picture really yet. Oh, by the way, my degrees are in English and Writing, not really a marketing bone in my body if I'm being perfectly honest, other than what I've learned on the job. And so anyway, long story long, went through that other job and I eventually got to be VP of Communications and Marketing and all whatever the title was at a finance company. I did that for five and a half years, I absolutely loved it. And maybe something we're gonna talk about here in a moment, I decided to walk away from that after about five and a half years and I wanted to stretch myself a little more. I felt like I'd hit my peak and wasn't really challenged any longer. So I may have listened to the get outside your comfort zone people a little too much. So I took a product manager job, which I'm not very technical either, at least to the level that some of your product managers are, your very successful ones are. And I took that job and while everyone says I did great, I didn't think I did so great. And something came up that was a mixture of marketing and product management, a product evangelist job here at United Systems. And shortly thereafter became CCO, and shortly thereafter became CMO. Yeah. It's a... It was an interesting path, but but I love where I'm at. Love what I'm doing now.
00:03:07 · Andres Figuera
[00:03:07] S1: But anyways, it doesn't surprise me that you have or have entered the marketing area because I've learned of a lot of people that graduated in... Or like majored in writing or in journalism or anything like that. So if you're able to create a narrative, I feel that's one of the most important things for you to be able to market something since you have to create this whole story around the product and the brand and make sure it's all aligned. So I can see how you could have ended up in this. But then in terms of what United Systems is, Jeremy, could you maybe let me know what... In your own words, what you guys do?
00:03:39 · Jeremy Byars
[00:03:39] S0: Yeah. So United Systems is a nearly 50 year old company. It'll be 50 years old next year, 2027. And we specialize in metering solutions and software solutions for utilities and local government throughout The US. We have about 1,500 customers. We are spread out coast to coast. We're headquartered in a small town in Kentucky, Benton, Kentucky, been here its entire existence. And we try to provide technology systems of all shapes and sizes to utilities. This is an underserved population, utilities that is, and they operate on razor thin budgets. So it makes for a very interesting sales pitch in that you can't... The other thing about it is that these are public monopolies as well, in that you can't really play them off the other company that they're in the market against, there is no one else. There's only one water utility provider, there's only one electric provider, and so on and so forth. So the traditional sort of games that you might be able to play is you're behind the times versus your competitor here. They don't have competitors, right? They're really in their own league. And so it's really about solving their pain points. And again, with razor thin margins for a lot of them, it is a very interesting and challenging industry to market to. But it doesn't make it any less fun. In fact, that makes it much more fun.
00:05:02 · Andres Figuera, Jeremy Byars
[00:05:02] S1: It's all about the challenge, right? Making them want to use the product. And Jeremy, is it a highly regulated industry? Like I feel because it's with local governments and these types of utilities, do you have to face a lot of regulations, and does that tailor how you market to them? [00:05:17] S0: It doesn't necessarily tailor the marketing. It definitely tailors what we produce from a product standpoint, what we distribute. So we're a distributor for the... For one of the largest metering providers in the country called called Itron. In fact, they're a global 3,500,000,000 company. And ultimately, yes, it is a regulated industry, but the products themselves have to speak to that, not necessarily the marketing. Of course, there are things that you need to be fully aware of. Lead and copper rules is one of the big ones right now where utilities are having to go and mark, tag, and replace lead and copper lines just to make sure customers aren't their customers rather aren't getting contaminants in their drinking water, for instance. And so it's good to be aware of those things, but it's a little different, for instance, in the financial industry where every single word that came out of my mouth as a marketer had to be carefully, extremely vetted by our legal team because we were adjacent to a highly regulated industry as well. So yes and no.
00:06:20 · Andres Figuera
[00:06:20] S1: I get it, but I do understand. Yeah, I was taking the financial industry as the example and that's like, you can't promise anything that shouldn't be because that can make you be held liable against what you market or whatever. But then, Jeremy, you're mention... Jeremy, you're mentioning that it's a challenge marketing to all these companies due to their budgets and everything like that. But then, can you shed up a little bit more light into how you're being able to get them to decide to work with you guys? And if you have any campaigns or strategies you've implemented that work that you can tell us about, that would be amazing.