AMA: Eightfold Former Sr Director, Product Marketing, Jessica Scrimale on Sales Enablement

Sales is most likely to use an asset that product marketing creates if they influence the asset as it comes together. I like to create a working team with a cross-section of sellers to provide input and feedback on the playbook. Make sure your playbook is aligned to the sales methodology that your team is using, and keep it structured, with clear expected outcomes and milestones identified for each component. It also helps if the playbook can highlight little success stories or verbatims from se ...Read More

This is tough, but you can prevent foundational PMM assets from going stale by having (1) defined processes (e.g., establishing which components of your market intelligence are most important to update and on what cadence, and using what inputs), (2) quarterly prioritization to revisit key assets (e.g., dedicate budget and get buy-in from cross-functional partners to spend time and energy updating these assets as a part of quarterly OKR planning. If you don't dedicate and protect the time and bu ...Read More

I've seen this done a number of different ways. Typically we have dedicated time with the field to train them on the positioning. You can get buy-in from the head of sales and enablement (if you have one) to schedule a standalone session that you run to help train the field on the positioning.  If your company already has a standing enablement session (e.g., a monthly sales training time slot), you can use that time, or dedicate a portion of the agenda to this in a Sales All-Hands.  I've also se ...Read More

Ooh, this is a fun one and a big one! This is solution selling, and it starts by understanding buyer needs and pain points. Uncover the pain points your buyers are facing, and then map outcomes that your company can deliver on - not individual products - to those pain points to form an outline for your story. Stay away from product and feature names and paint a vision of what is possible for the buyer (e.g., transform the way you do X) if they become a customer. I like to focus on the emotional ...Read More

Internal sales surveys or qualitative feedback (e.g., 'what decks do you use when pitching?' 'what assets are most helpful?') can work. If you have an internal sales wiki built where you host assets, you may be able to access analytics about how many visits/pageviews/downloads you're seeing across key materials. But most importantly, having strong relationships with sellers and sales leaders can help create a feedback loop for PMM so that the materials that are most needed are the ones being cre ...Read More

Find a few successful, well-respected sales reps and cultivate strong relationships with them. Get their input on what you're working on, ask for advice on how (and with whom!) to socialize your work with, and use that political savvy to focus on the key stakeholders within sales that have more influence. The key is to focus - not dilute - your energy and build a small number of strong but impactful relationships. Build your consensus from the ground up; many managers and sales leaders will look ...Read More

This is all about relationships, credibility/expertise, and your ability to help sellers. Once you can demonstrate that you can help them by bringing your perspective to what they're doing to make them smarter, more consultative, more well-informed, etc., the more they'll trust you and the better your end product - in this case - messaging - will be. Get curious about what deals are giving sellers trouble, and where in the sales process they're getting stuck. Ask them if you can learn more. Shad ...Read More

The most successful internal launches are often big ones (i.e., rolling out a new product or sales methodology such as solution selling), and in my experience, they include: (1) an executive sponsor (2) alignment with business priorities and (3) internal momentum.  An executive sponsor is key if you want anything well-adopted by the sales team. Find a well-respected senior sales leader (the more senior, the better), who wants to take on the initiative and be responsible for getting the sales tea ...Read More