AMA: BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing, Kelly Kipkalov on Product Marketing Skills
December 19 @ 9:00AM PST
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BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing, Kelly Kipkalov on Product Marketing Skills
Top Questions
How important are brand marketing skills for product marketers compared to analytical skills?
There is often a huge emphasis on analytical skills, instead of brand marketing skills, when it comes to product marketing job descriptions.
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
Of all the skill sets I think are important for a product marketer, brand marketing isn't on the top of the list. In fact, it's probably the opposite - particularly in smaller tech companies where brand = product - where I think a brand marketer could benefit from experience as a product marketer......Read More
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What advice do you have for recent graduates that want to go straight into product marketing?
Typically, these roles require 3-5 years of experience and/or an MBA. Are there roles we should target instead that will help transition into product marketing? What qualities do you want to see in young professionals that want to land in product marketing?
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
I've hired people straight out of undergrad, it's possible. Look for entry level titles like product marketing analyst, or specialist...they are out there. BUT, I will say don't despair if you don't see a lot of entry level PMM roles, and instead just try and land a marketing role in a company wh......Read More
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How do product marketers make sure they're learning enough varied skills to be a well-rounded professional when scope is an issue?
i.e. working at a large company with minimal scope, focusing on sales enablement but knowing you need experience on the product launch side, other marketing teams covering responsibilities, etc.
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
Such a great question! Sales enablement - although you're right it's a narrow focus - is still very transferable to the more customer facing aspects of customer marketing. You still need to understand how to build clear value props and messaging for sales so they can win deals, it's just that ......Read More
382 Views
3 requests
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
Great messaging isn't as easy as people think! Two things come to mind. First, learn the art of writing a single minded proposition, aka "SMP." If you aren't crystal clear on the benefit you're selling and why a customer should believe in the benefit (RTB or reason to believe) your messagin......Read More
377 Views
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Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
Even if you get a very specific product marketing question during an interview, I promise you that your soft skills are still being assessed at the same time. Are you a clear and confident communicator? Were you able to use influence and persuasion to get your work done? Did you take initiative t......Read More
369 Views
1 request
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
My answer to this is that 'it depends' on where you are in your career. If you are early career and just starting as a PMM, I would typically be making a hiring decision solely based on soft skills. There's no expectation that you have a well rounded set of hard PMM skills as an entry level ca......Read More
399 Views
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Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
I'd be happy to have some back and forth on this, but I'm not sure I fully understand the context of the question. Are you writing emails to sales, and if so, what type of content are you sharing? Or you writing emails for sales reps to send to customers? Feel free to email me back and I can take......Read More
386 Views
1 request
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
There's another question I fielded about soft skills, so take a look at that one in the feed. The soft skills I listed there: * Clear and confident written and verbal communication * Ability to influence others (particularly product) * Strong drive for results/taking initiative There's ......Read More
403 Views
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Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
I'm not sure the distinction you're making between data-driven vs data-informed but I'm going to say that you should be data driven. There's some narrative about PMM that says PMMs don't need to be analytical, or comfortable using data and I don't agree with that at all. Instead of intuition, you......Read More
350 Views
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Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
In our PMM career ladder at BILL we evaluate PMM career progression in the following areas: * Ability to uncover market insights * Influence product strategy and development * Create positioning and messaging * Orchestrate Go To Market plans At the level you're asking about - PMM to ......Read More
408 Views
2 requests
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 19
I'm going to answer your question slightly differently. PMMs can acquire skills as they develop in their careers, that's a given. So when I hire PMMs, I'm not just looking for skills, I'm looking for a specific customer-first mindset. Do you understand the customer problem you're trying to solve?......Read More
698 Views
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