Harsha Kalapala

AMA: TrustRadius Former Sr. Director, Product Marketing & Brand, Harsha Kalapala on Partner Product Marketing

December 14 @ 9:00AM PST
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TrustRadius Former Sr. Director, Product Marketing & Brand, Harsha Kalapala on Partner Product Marketing
Top Questions
How does Product Marketing get involved with alliances, partnerships and marketing the integrations of a product with another product?
Does that role change if your alliance/integration partner is larger/better-known than yours is?
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
This essentially involves zooming out with the exec team and making sure the team is on the same page on the definition of "product". If you can get leadership to agree that partnerships, integrations, services are all part of the solutions offered, this job gets easier. The responsibility for pa......Read More
571 Views
2 requests
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
Sales will always welcome your support when you can clearly demonstrate that you are helping them drive more sales. Map out how your partnership initiatives will help deals directly or indirectly. How will you help them hit their numbers faster? Get buy-in from sales leadership, and then enable t......Read More
299 Views
2 requests
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
There are many lessons I continue to learn as I drive more partnership go-to-market initiatives. These are the top ones that stand out so far: 1. Driving adoption is key - especially when the integration UX is on the partner's side. User adoption is what keeps a partnership alive. Without i......Read More
331 Views
2 requests
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
There are typically strategic outcomes and tactical outcomes to partnerships. Partnership GTM leaders should be goaled on the tactical outcomes, but also incentivized to drive strategic outcomes that may be harder to predict and measure. These are some of the KPIs I've worked with –  Tactical KP......Read More
412 Views
3 requests
What are the pros/cons to including a partner in a marketing campaign/asset?
Can you do too much partner marketing vs standalone?
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
You always want to include a partner's brand and messaging in your joint collateral. Your audience may be attracted to either part of the partnership - so your collateral and messaging should tailor to their interests. I wouldn't include the partner too much in developing the asset - it just slow......Read More
303 Views
1 request
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
It is critical to have full buy-in from the exec team on the role partnerships play in the company's growth. They should believe in the potential of partner marketing to amplify the partnership's awareness, adoption, and revenue impact. The best way to get buy-in is by making progress and showing......Read More
352 Views
2 requests
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
When starting out, partner PMM work should be an experiment run under core product marketing. The fundamental principles are all the same. What changes in the environment in which you operate, your audience mix, and the non-traditional opportunities you can uncover to get creative in your GTM? On......Read More
629 Views
2 requests
What's the best way to teach partners about your product and which assets/resources should be developed to maintain their knowledge?
For your team, leveraging internal product training, battlecards, sales plays, etc. gets them prepared. What works best for supporting partner GTM motions?
Harsha Kalapala
Harsha Kalapala
AlertMedia Vice President Product MarketingDecember 14
This is an important question. The marketing rule of 7 exposures applies here as well. I try to get on as many opportunities as I can to educate and train partner stakeholders. Ask for a few minutes on their weekly team meetings — the product team, the customer success/support team, the sales tea......Read More
533 Views
1 request