AMA: Demandbase VP Product and Industry Marketing, Jackie Palmer on Stakeholder Management

Whether PMM is new or established, the relationship with Product is key! I'll repeat my response from one of the other questions as I think it applies here as well: The relationship between Product Marketing and Product Management is often the most important relationship you can have as a product marketer. The best thing to do here is build up a buddy system and make sure you are bringing value to the relationship. I like to have my PMMs partner up with PMs 1:1 as much as possible. And I like to ...Read More

As I've answered on a few other questions, I have a set of things I like to do to build meaningful relationships with key stakeholders. These are key whether you are just getting started in product marketing or if you're the most senior team member. My 7 relationship building "secrets" are: Understand strengths and weaknesses: Figure out who in your organization has the skills that can help you. And think about what you're able to give in return. You should know what you bring to the table and w ...Read More

Some types of questions I like to ask to gain insight and feedback from internal stakeholders are: Where would you use something like this? Who could you see benefitting from this asset/collateral/launch/etc? Is there anything you've used in the past that is similar to this that resonated well? What do you think is missing? What could we add to improve this? Is there anyone else you think we should be asking for feedback? Those are just some ideas and obviously it depends on what you're trying t ...Read More

A delayed product release is sometimes the most difficult thing for a product marketer to deal with as you've likely (ideally) started a product launch process early and a late minute change can throw a wrench into that process! Change is obviously easier if you are not working with a fixed launch date like an event or other live activity but change is never easy for stakeholders even if a launch date is not fixed. One way to handle this is to orient launches around themes rather than specific f ...Read More

A difficult or opinionated stakeholder is sometimes the hardest thing but something you all likely encounter in your product marketing career. If you have the luxury of time to observe their working style you can try to adjust your approach on your own. If you don't have that time, make sure you ask others for feedback on how best to work with this person. I once held an important meeting with one of the executive team and thought I had everything prepared. I had asked for topic ideas ahead of t ...Read More

I always say that Product and Sales should be the two best friends of Product Marketing! And I would say they both have their times when they are hard to work with or need more care. For both groups though, the most important thing is to listen and bring value. Come to them with ideas and ask for feedback early and often. Listen to their pains and challenges and come back to them with value add (assets, ideas, etc). With either group you want to help avoid or break down silos. Some tips for doin ...Read More

It's never an easy task to get buy in from stakeholders if you are still working on building up authority and respect but what goes a long way is having an open mind and listening to stakeholders' input. I've found that sitting down with people, maybe interviewing them about their opinions and ideas, will help you build a rapport that might help secure buy in in the future. Asking for their input and feedback even before you need it gives them the confidence that they can trust you in the future ...Read More

The relationship between Product Marketing and Product Management is often the most important relationship you can have as a product marketer. The best thing to do here is build up a buddy system and make sure you are bringing value to the relationship. I like to have my PMMs partner up with PMs 1:1 as much as possible. And I like to do the same myself with the head of Product. Having regular check ins helps but even better is having regular check ins where you are delivering value and proving t ...Read More

If you're trying to assess whether you need multiple versions of an asset like a first call deck or pitch deck, the best thing to do is to sit with the different groups of people you're trying to build for and see if they actually do present the same content differently. Maybe the CEO uses the more visual slides and skips the slides with bullets on them or maybe an experienced sales person shows a slide with bullets but says different words compared to a new sales rep who "reads" the script clos ...Read More

It's important to build up a cross-functional product launch team and follow a consistent launch process as much as possible. While you're right, the stakeholders and process certainly can change slightly depending on the launch, I've found there usually more consistency between launches than not. At my current company, we've implemented a launch process that leverages what we call a gold/silver/bronze approach. We do the fewest things for a bronze feature and the most things for a gold feature ...Read More

This is a tough situation because if you are at the design phase, you probably already have an idea of how you want something to look. The designer however can bring a different viewpoint to the discussion. They often know how someone will interact with something visually and may end up creating something magical if given more free rein. That said, in this scenario you are the customer - and the customer is usually right! If there's truly a disagreement then make sure you've got your data and re ...Read More

Getting feedback on assets and collateral from stakeholders is a key part of Product Marketing's job. What I like to do is create a tiger team of people you can count on. This could differ of course depending on the asset but should likely include a mix of salespeople (pre-sales, AEs/reps, SDRs, etc.) and probably some of the post-sales teams as well (CSMs, PS, Account Managers, etc.). Many times you will know the people to include but sometimes you'll need to ask managers for nominations. It's ...Read More

Getting a variety of feedback from a variety of people is the best thing you can do to influence and persuade teams. I always like to poll multiple teams and different levels of people to ensure that I have as many examples as possible. Make sure you ask internal teams - sales (including pre-sales and SDRs if you have them), post-sales like customer success and account management, other marketers even - for their input. Even better try to gather external feedback too if possible. Reach out to fr ...Read More

Managing up and managing down require the same key ingredient for success - communication! If your direct reports are under-performing, it is best to alert upper management right away and come with a plan that you will implement to ensure issue doesn't happen again. For the direct report, it is also best not to delay your feedback. Make sure you give feedback as close to the time of the issue as possible so they don't think it was an ok thing to do. Ask them for ideas on how they can ensure it d ...Read More