AMA: Cyera VP of Product & Corporate Marketing, Christopher C. Hines on Stakeholder Management

Generally speaking, when I was first starting out within Product Marketing, I found it difficult to be overly focused on timelines. In many cases, PMM isn't like Growth Marketing. PMM has no set programs, field events etc. that have stark deadlines. But there are Product Launches... Now, I feel very different about this. Timelines are important because they drive focus and prioritization. They drive accountability. One way to improve PMM operationalization is to introduce what I call PMM content ...Read More

I am a huge advocate of doing everything you can to get PMM out in the field. This way you have the ability to influence what gets talked about, and can see first hand what reps are saying, and how customers are responding. But this can take time, and requires the Sales team to pull PMM in...typically after PMM can gain the trust of Sales. So, leadership should be aligned in that THIS is the message that the company is moving forward with. There should be clear guidelines and agreement on how fa ...Read More

The most effective management model I have seen was born out of some of the original Blade Logic GTM teams. I started working with a few who learned this model called Power Plays (aka Landing Zones aka fancy sales plays). The idea is based on the ability to boost sales productivity by focusing on one key metric. New business meetings (NBMs). Simply speaking, if you can drive an increase of NBMs per week per account rep, and have you conversion funnel in place, you can model out what your expecte ...Read More

Love this question. First, let's look at each of the teams a Product Marketer will typically work with Growth Marketing Product Team Sales Enablement Each of those teams are motivated by very different factors. Your ability to influence then is directly related to you ability to align to what gets that excited. Growth Marketing - this team is all about generating pipeline, and proving that Marketing is a vital piece of the GTM business to Sales teams and Partner orgs. NOTE: In some companies Mar ...Read More

This is a solid question. I also says that being a Product Marketer is a bit like being a quarterback. Or if you prefer the Arts, a band Director (fun fact, I played Tenor Sax within my high-school's concert band back in the day). What's key is the ability to understand the other critical roles, how they ARE working together, and how they SHOULD be - then orchestrating the strategy. As a new comer the first three people that you should reach out to your Growth Marketing Leader, Product Marketing ...Read More

Ah, this is a wonderful question. The secret to this is simple. There are two cohorts (groups) you want to include in your feedback. Cohort 1: If you were to send a piece of content, or an idea for a new launch over time you manager, what 3 people would they most likely send it to to get their thoughts? The top Sales rep, their boss?, the head of sales enablement, a close co-worker they have worked with for years? Include those people as part of you feedback process. Cohort 2: Who are the people ...Read More

I always look for the folks within the organization who embody ALL of the below: They are the biggest contributors to the company success - the ones your CEO loves. There name comes up more than anyone else, all the time (you know the ones...hopefully that's already you ;) ) They are key to your success as a Product Marketer - they can enable or block - depending You respect the way they think, and they have relevant experience you believe will make you successful They know your audience either ...Read More

Yes, several! Our revenue goals have increased 200% this year, which means that the productivity of all the GTM-focused employees needs to increase 200% as well. AI is an important tool we are using to help us get there. We have an enterprise license of ChatGPT that we leverage. In fact, I asked one of the members on my team to develop the "AI-Marketer's Playbook" here at Cyera. The playbook contains all of the ways that Marketing can use AI to be successful. Within it, includes a library or pro ...Read More

This will vary by organization. But in general, the hardest org to influence is the organization who has been most successful. If it's the PM team, and you are product-led organization, determining what motivates PM, and what gaps they are feeling, and seeing how PMM can fill this is important. I've found that content creation, finding cool ways to highlight products that are outside the box, allows you to win the hearts and minds of PM quickly. Also, be conscious of how much you listen more tha ...Read More

Create systems that allow for collaboration to take place. In most companies collaboration is poor. So, creating joint initiatives like Landing Zones (Sales plays) help automatically drive alignment between PM + PMM, PMM + Sales, and PMM + Growth Marketing. It's a way to streamline alignment by getting everyone focused on the 2-3 plays that the business as a whole is rallying behind to drive pipeline and close deals. Give the cross functional teams something they can believe in, together, the ra ...Read More

First off, I am a big believe in leading from below when you are more junior. View yourself as a leader from the outset. I'm not saying be cocky, or overconfident, but realize that you DO have a seat at the table. Second off, spend a fair amount of time determining what the strengths are for the more senior stakeholders you are working with. Is one more of the "idea" person, but less of the "doer"? Is one a great writer, but maybe not the most creative? Are they all pretty bad at developing an a ...Read More

Ooo I like this one. Tell me about how you turned Marketing into a critical part of the GTM. Tell me about the creative ways you are using AI to develop content. Tell me if you are participating in customer meetings at all, and why. Tell me about a time that you helped lead the charge and create a new market space. And tell me how you worked with your core internal cross-functional teams to win together. Anecdotes and stories are the best. So get your stories in mind, and share them with me. I h ...Read More

I am a firm believer that Comms should be extremely aligned to PMM and Corporate Marketing. In previous roles I have owned Comms as well for this very reason. Think of PMM + Corporate Marketing + Comms as a three concentric rings. The inner core, is the Product Marketing piece (the message), the next outer ring is the Creative look and feel of the company (how you personify the brand), and the outermost ring is Comms (this is the megaphone that allows for insane amount of reach within the indust ...Read More

Think about it like this. You have a nerf blaster, and that blaster only has 10 shots. How do you use them? Is it work a nerf dart? Maybe not. So, not everything will be working going to battle for. The best way to handle this is to actually be more proactive. Build a joint positioning framework, and get Product and Sales on board with it. That way, you will de-risk the chance of being at odds with them. With a framework like this you can streamline alignment but, there will be times where you s ...Read More

Great question. In my experience, always have a perspective first and walk in with a recommendation. If you don't come in with a plan, you risk too many opinions getting in the way, and the process becomes inefficient (we have all been there, right??). You need to stack the cards in your favor just a bit. I actually created something call the Unicorn Messaging Framework to help with this - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christopher-c-hines_ive-been-lucky-to-have-helped-grow-and-develop-activity- ...Read More