AMA: Brex Director of Product Marketing - Travel and Expense Management, Jesse Lopez on SMB Product Marketing

Targeting SMB vs. Enterprise buyers should take into consideration their buying journey - some things to consider as you build product marketing plans for these segments include: Self-serve vs. sales-led motion: Equip your prospects with the right content across your funnel and adapt information for self-serve vs. sales-led motions. While some SMB buyers prefer to speak with a sales rep before making a software or tech purchase, self-serve is typically the primary sales motion with SMB buyers. Enterprise buyers traditionally choose a sales-led motion as they have more questions and want to assess any solution's specific aspects. Sales cycle: Given fast cycles and volume in the SMB segment, test and iterate approaches to maximize your funnel effectiveness. Equip your sales teams and marketing channels with information to help enterprise buyers pick your solution. SMB buyers tend to make decisions faster than Enterprise buyers as they are looking to solve a specific problem. Given the risk and change management required when adopting a new solution for a large organization, the traditional enterprise buyer can take months to a year to make a purchase decision. Decision-maker(s): Build messaging and content to attract and convert the key decision-maker(s). The enterprise buying process is complex and typically involves multiple stakeholders across the company, while SMB is more straightforward as fewer people are involved in the purchase decision. Understanding the pain points and buying criteria of every decision maker or influencer in the purchasing decision will help you tailor messaging and content. Lifetime value: Invest according to a buyer's lifetime value. Given the purchasing power of SMB buyers, the lifetime value of these customers is low compared to Enterprise buyers. You should manage CAC (customer acquisition cost) accordingly and ensure investments align with LTV projections of your SMB vs. Enterprise customers.

One of the core benefits of self-serve marketing is faster and cheaper growth when done right. Self-serve product marketers should proactively propose, test, and iterate new marketing approaches to make their funnel faster and their acquisition costs lower. At Square, I focused on improving outcomes across all stages of our self-serve funnel to deliver faster and cheaper growth. Some tactics to consider include: * Awareness: What positioning or messaging resonates the most with your targeted audiences? Is one page or multiple pages needed to capture target audiences? * Interest: What webpage headlines or designs best drive engagement with prospects? * Consideration: What piece of content has the most engagement with my targeted audiences? What content do my most profitable customers engage with? * Purchase: What CTA or offer was most effective at converting a prospect into a customer? * Retention: What lifecycle marketing or cross-sell initiatives are most effective at growing the value of a customer?

Your sales enablement strategy should reflect your persona and buying journey research. Strongly understanding how your SMB and Enterprise buyers learn, research, and make decisions should inform your enablement content. Some questions to consider as you equip sales with content and insights: * How does the customer learn about your products and services? * How does the customer compare and research your product vs. others? What resources do they use (e.g., marketplace listings, industry reports, analyst research, etc.)? * Why do customers choose you over your competitors? Why do customers churn from your product? * Who is involved in the decision to purchase your product? What role do they play, and what information do they need to decide to move forward with a solution? Typically, SMB buyers need to be educated on solutions to challenges they face, whereas Enterprise buyers better understand the solutions and capabilities they are looking for. As you enable your sales team on each respective segment, ensure they know how your content addresses the segment buyer's needs and knowledge gaps.

First and foremost: Align with your service partners what value their service and your solution provide to SMB customers. This joint value proposition should be the cornerstone of your selling process as that ensures both parties benefit from the partnership. Prioritize working with your service partner to understand the most effective content to train and enable their selling process. Some examples of content include: Internal enablement content * Persona training: Teach partners about your key personas to help them understand their challenges and critical buying criteria. * Product training: Teach partners about your product and provide them with sequences they can use based on customer challenges or use cases your product serves. * Sales training: Teach partners sales best practices to help them close more deals at scale. * Industry training: Teach partners about your competitive landscape and key industry trends to help them be trusted partners to their customers. Customer facing content * Pitch deck: Provide them with a sales presentation they can use to pitch your solution to their customer base. * Product demos: Provide them with pre-recorded videos or demo environments to help them showcase your product to their customers.