AMA: Atlassian Head of Product Marketing, Jira Align, Daniel Kuperman on Sales Enablement

You have several products with release dates next to each other and limited resources, so what do you do? Here’s how you can think of this: first, identify the releases with the highest ‘tier’ or ‘priority’ (classification of release tiers vary company by company). The highest priority feature is...more

When your messaging needs to be reworked there are typically multiple signs pointing this way. Not only your reps may not be getting traction, but your competitive losses start climbing, fewer qualified leads enter the funnel, and when talking with customers you start hearing more “you were cheap...more

I like to ask: * Who is this for * Who else would use this * What are you trying to achieve with this * Why now In some cases a sales rep may come asking for a very specific piece of content they think can help in a sales situation. Going through the questions above helps me und...more

This varies by company. I’ve been in organizations where PMM would write email templates and in other places PMM would only provide the messaging framework and key bullet points and the BDR/SDR team would write it themselves. Regardless of whether PMM writes those email templates or not, it is i...more

The best enablement decks I’ve seen address: * Who is this for? * Why is this important? * What is the impact of this? * Action items / next steps Whatever the subject, following the framework above will help identify the specifics of why someone should pay attention. It is also i...more

This is where the partnership with the sales enablement team is valuable. If you don’t have a sales enablement counterpart, then I suggest the PMM team to think in terms of the Knowledge - Skills - Behavior framework. Here’s how this works: * Knowledge: what do sales reps need to know in order ...more

Ultimately is about revenue attainment. Are sales reps being able to make their numbers? If yes, you are likely doing your job well. Now, if we look more closely at how to impact revenue attainment from a product marketing perspective we end up with the following metrics: * Win / Loss rate: thi...more

This is done in conjunction with your sales enablement team, if you have one. Ideally you will look at the key priorities for sales enablement which you gathered directly from the sales team either via surveys (if you have a big team) or informally during a feedback session (great for smaller org...more

In my view, a demo should talk directly to the persona you are dealing with. This means you need to tailor the flow to address that persona’s key challenges, needs, and the situation they live in. I am not a big fan of super-scripted demos. Every salesperson or sales engineer will have their own...more

When selling to developers your enablement activities are likely to take on a different focus so that the team understands how to engage in a discussion and build a community while keeping their sales pitches locked in a drawer.  It will also require in-depth technical enablement and understan...more

Some of the big differences you will see include: * Longer sales cycle * A bigger group of buyers and influencers * More focus on security, certifications, and customer proof The main change is to incorporate additional personas in the sales cycle which will include new messaging and positio...more

Enablement tactics and tools that work for a team of 50 reps need to be adjusted when you deal with a team of 500 globally dispersed reps. Some common challenges I have seen include: * Multiple enablement/training tools and portals making it confusing for reps to know where to go * Breaks i...more