At Genasys, we like to practise what we preach—especially when it comes to growth. So, when the time came to appoint a Chief Growth Officer, we didn’t have to look far. (Which is lucky, because hiring searches can be exhausting.)
Gavin Peters has worked his way up from VP of Marketing to CMO, and now he’s taking the reins as Chief Growth Officer (CGO). The move is less about job titles and more about common sense—bringing sales and marketing under one strategy, making sure we’re all pulling in the same direction, and turning momentum into measurable success.
In this interview, Gavin shares his plans for Genasys, his thoughts on the future of insurtech, and whether this promotion finally gets him out of updating the website. (Answer: absolutely not.)
1. What excites you most about stepping into the Chief Growth Officer role at Genasys?
I’m really excited about Genasys continuing its evolution to becoming the industry-leader in providing easy-to-manage, yet highly functional administration software for insurance. Since joining the business as VP of Marketing a couple of years ago, it’s always been clear that we have a fantastic offering for insurers, brokers and MGAs looking to modernise their operations, and our technology and services have continued to evolve to keep us at the cutting-edge of insurtech. On top of that we’ve started to establish a distinctive brand in a competitive sector.
With the team we now have in place, the culture of the business, our brand and product, we’re in an excellent position to continue to delight our customers and partners and take the business to the next level.
2. Genasys has seen strong momentum from closer alignment between sales and marketing. What has been the key to that success, and how will you build on it?
We’ve always had strong alignment between sales and marketing, as any modern company really must have as a prerequisite, so this is an opportunity to build on that and solidify our positioning in the market. They key is to make sure everyone has a really strong understanding of the customer, what problems they need solving (sometimes before our clients can even articulate that themselves) and exactly how our product can best do that. That means constant listening, great communication and a culture of wanting to continuously improve – something that we are definitely lucky enough to have at Genasys at all levels.
3.The insurance industry is evolving rapidly, with increasing demand for digital-first solutions. How is Genasys positioning itself to capitalise on these trends?
We’ve been talking about the insurance industry being in a period of transformation and ‘going digital’ for years, and that’s only going to continue for the foreseeable future. And insurance is definitely not unique; before moving into insurance I was CMO for a company providing digital payment solutions to the hospitality industry and it was exactly the same there – lots of moaning about hospitality being slow to ‘adopt digital’ and comparing it unfavourably with the retail industry. The truth is every industry is constantly adapting to new technology and trying to keep up as things continue to change.
At Genasys, our role as technology partners means we’re here to help our clients capitalise on the latest innovations that will genuinely benefit their businesses, to make things easier, cheaper and more effective. There will always be an ever-growing list of potential technology solutions that COULD add some value, but through our platform and working with our carefully-curated eco-system of partners, we’re here to help navigate that landscape and really focus on the solutions that will drive genuine ROI.
4. Genasys has ambitious plans for growth. What role does trust play in building long-term relationships with clients, and how does the company ensure it delivers on its promises?
Providing a platform like Genasys to our customers is never going to be a simple plug-and-play, faceless experience. Every business we deal with has a unique set of challenges, and needs a highly configured solution to make sure they are set-up in the best way to serve their customers. And insurance is complex! So that strong client partnership relationship is absolutely essential, and always will be – it’s how we’ve built our business and will continue to grow. Digital transformation projects, and particularly in insurance, have a shaky reputation for going overbudget and underdelivering, and has somewhat given vendors (often rightly) a bad name.
In that environment, it’s more vital than ever that we are fully transparent with everyone we deal with, and are fully open and honest about what we can and can’t do, and put great emphasis on our extremely thorough planning, project governance and great hands-on relationships. Too many vendors oversell their capabilities, undercost to get a deal done and then walk that up through a project. If it means we lose a deal to an apparently cheaper solution when we know that we can’t provide the quality of solution required for that price then so be it – our brand and reputation is way more important to us than any one deal. We have had a number of times that a buyer has chosen the cheaper option, and come back to us when it’s gone wrong, and whilst we’d always rather help avoid that scenario it does provide some vindication that we have the right approach.
5. Finally, what does success look like for you in this role over the next 12 months?
Continuing and hopefully accelerating the trajectory we’re already on: continuing to push our marketing comms out there as a really distinctive and trusted brand presence, with more clients joining the good-ship Genasys, whilst maintaining a happy team and great client relationships! I know, I’m greedy.
With sales and marketing now officially working from the same playbook, Gavin’s job is simple: drive growth, spot opportunities, and avoid getting dragged into ‘quick’ branding discussions. No pressure.
What happens next? Well, knowing Gavin, there’ll be a plan, a strategy, and almost certainly a slide deck with unnerving compliance with the company branding guidelines. Watch this space.
