7 GTM Lessons from Selling to the World’s Most Conservative Industry
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Steff Gerhart, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of EcoLocked, shared how her team built a climate tech company in an industry where innovation is treated with suspicion. Their experience selling CO2-negative concrete admixes offers hard-won insights for any founder tackling risk-averse B2B markets.
- Segment by Behavior, Not Demographics
Most founders segment by company size or revenue. EcoLocked segmented by demonstrated innovation appetite. “We right away focus basically on subsections of that market. We look for customers who are already marketing their material as environmentally, you know, less harmful, sustainable,” Steff explains.
But they didn’t stop at sustainability messaging. They added a second filter: “We checked that they had either partnered with startups before or they have done some innovative approach within their own operations.”
This dual-filter approach dramatically improved conversion rates. Instead of convincing skeptics to take a chance on both innovation and startups, they targeted companies that had already demonstrated both behaviors. The principle extends beyond climate tech: when selling novel solutions to conservative markets, past behavior predicts future adoption better than any demographic data.
- Physical Proximity Solves Digital Credibility Gaps
In 2024, most founders default to remote sales. EcoLocked learned that hardware requires a different playbook. Their first customer came from close to their operations—not by accident.
“FaceTime in this industry is very important to build up trust, you know, that we are not just some crazy startup doing something weird. We really needed to be there and to convince them that this is something solid,” Steff shares. They went into customer labs, tested with customer materials, and worked directly with heads of laboratories.
This physical presence wasn’t just relationship building—it was risk mitigation. When you’re modifying materials that affect structural integrity, customers need to see, touch, and validate everything themselves. “Making sure they can build up that trust, they can get the security that there’s something legit was really important.”
For founders selling products where failure has serious consequences—whether that’s construction materials, medical devices, or financial infrastructure—budget for geographic concentration in your early GTM. Remote scaling comes later.
- Delay Your Launch Until It Matters
EcoLocked violated every growth marketing playbook by staying quiet for two years. “I would say we didn’t do much of marketing, to be honest, because it took us a while to have a functioning product,” Steff says.
The reasoning was strategic, not cautious. “We knew it would take some time and there’s the risk then that you go out. Everyone is like interesting and looking and wanting to talk, but you’re not ready. And until you get ready, you are kind of yesterday’s news.”
They worked with a handful of customers to achieve product-market fit, only ramping up marketing efforts recently—about two years from founding. This patience has a compounding effect: when they did launch publicly, they had case studies, proven results, and refined messaging.
The lesson isn’t to always delay launches. It’s to understand your market’s attention span. In fast-moving consumer markets, strike while interest is hot. In conservative B2B markets where purchase cycles span years, premature visibility burns your one shot at a first impression.
- Navigate the Enthusiasm-Skepticism Split
EcoLocked discovered their sales conversations consistently split across two personalities. “We kind of need to balance these conversations by obviously being open in what our product can and cannot do. Any risks or any unknowns because of course there are unknowns with such a new product without like scaring them away or being like not getting them excited.”
The pattern was predictable: sustainability-focused executives got excited and connected them with technical leaders. Those technical leaders—heads of laboratories—were “obviously technically extremely skilled, extremely experienced and very much focused on all the risks and what can go wrong.”
This required different conversations for different stakeholders. With executives, they emphasized impact and innovation. With technical leaders, they led with transparency about limitations, risks, and unknowns. “This finding this balance is really hard and we surely did not always quite hit it,” Steff admits.
The underlying principle: in complex B2B sales, different stakeholders need different value propositions. Map your buyer committee and craft specific narratives for each role, rather than one generic pitch.
- Invest in Education Before Persuasion
EcoLocked faced a knowledge gap problem: “A lot of people are not very knowledgeable about sustainability, about carbon removal. So this part in what exactly does our product do? How do we compensate the emission? What does that mean? This is a whole new topic that they have never been in touch with before.”
Rather than rush to product demos, they invested “time and also money in creating good infographics, for example, or you know, the short videos that explain stuff.” They pursued thought leadership through LinkedIn content, blog posts, conference panels, and industry speaking opportunities.
This educational foundation serves dual purposes: it builds category awareness (making future sales conversations faster) and establishes credibility (making initial conversations possible). When you’re creating a new category or introducing unfamiliar concepts, budget for education as a separate line item from demand generation.
- Choose Geographic Depth Over Global Breadth
Despite receiving inbound interest from the US, Canada, South America, and Asia, EcoLocked remained disciplined. “Since we rely on a supply chain that right now we are focusing here on the kind of European part, that would be quite some effort to build up a new supply chain in that other market,” Steff explains.
They concentrated on Central Europe with selective expansion to the Netherlands, Italy, UK, France, Denmark, and Spain. The strategy: “If we decide to go into the new region, then you know, we would do preparation and with full force.”
For hardware companies, this discipline prevents a fatal mistake: spreading resources across regions before achieving regional dominance. Supply chains, regulatory compliance, and support infrastructure all multiply costs with geography. The principle: dominate one region completely before expanding to the next, even when saying no to revenue hurts.
- Filter for Investors Who Understand Your Business Model
Steff’s fundraising advice cuts through the usual platitudes. First, she questions the default VC path: “I’m meeting more and more founders who actually decide to bootstrap for a while. And so for us this never was really an option. But if you can do that, I think this is worthwhile, at least exploring that option.”
The overhead is real: “If you compare a startup that is bootstrap versus one that is doing the exact same thing but has investors, you have like at least two, three employees just managing the investors.”
For deep tech specifically, she warns that investor enthusiasm often evaporates when hardware enters the picture. Many investors “shy away from that and in the end decide, you know, for that next digital tracking tool or whatever.”
Her tactical advice: “Clearly establish very early on in fundraising what you’re doing and if they are like interested in that because then you can save a lot of time, probably 60, 70% of the investors go away and then you can really focus on the bunch that is willing to go that journey with you.”
This filtering approach saves months of wasted pitches. Lead every investor conversation with your most challenging requirements—whether that’s hardware, long sales cycles, or regulatory complexity. The investors who lean in are the only ones worth pursuing.
The Meta-Lesson
EcoLocked’s GTM journey reveals a counterintuitive truth: in conservative markets, aggressive scaling strategies backfire. The playbook that works for viral consumer apps or fast-moving SaaS—launch early, iterate publicly, grow at all costs—actively damages credibility in industries where trust compounds slowly and mistakes are remembered forever.
The winning approach requires patience, discipline, and precision: narrow segmentation over broad reach, physical presence over digital efficiency, education over persuasion, and regional dominance over global sprawl. It’s slower, more expensive, and harder to celebrate in board meetings. It’s also the only way to win.
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