AMA: HubSpot former Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Mary Margaret on Sales Enablement

Great question! Core things to keep in mind:  1. You will be selling to a committee, versus one person/one core contact 2. Due to that, you'll want to really understand the composite of that committee: what are their roles, what are their pain points and objections. Moving upmarket means coming...more

1. Take the time to understand their needs and paint points 2. Work with Sales leadership on a plan for rep adoption: align on the resourcing, rollout, measurement, and expectations 3. Partner closely with reps and the sales enablement team (if there is a focused one) to define and refine the c...more

If you are one person it is all about ruthless prioritization. That is the one thing that will make or break you and your efforts.  Through feedback from the team and from any data you might have, zero in on the core competitors (and restrict that number based on your bandwidth) that are going...more

The best incentive is to show them the opportunities it will unlock for them.  Example: Let's say you are trying to shift reps from talking about single products to a suite. There is resistance because they worry that will make it a tougher sell since it's a bigger decision. What do you do?  ...more

I don't think of it as a hierarchy, but more of a messaging map that focuses on the end audience (whether that is an exec or an end user) and their specific pain points.  One way to do that ladder is to break it down by differentiation/value and audience. So what are the core pillars of your p...more

My answer depends on the content and size of the team. Ideally:  A lot of the ones listed--help articles, knowledge base, how-to, FAQs---should likely live with a technical writing team.  On product videos, that should ideally be a partnership between the product (and product design team) and...more

It really depends on the size of the marketing team and the level of specialization across the teams: Are there channel/audience owners? Is there a Solutions Marketing team? Product Marketing will always own the content and foundational assets that need product subject matter expertise.  In te...more

This is a meaty question with answers that don't fit neatly in this rectangular box, but will try! First, make sure you are telling a story: Are you clear on who you are serving? Are you clear on the pain points to be solved? What is the change in the world that has caused those pains? How do ...more

There should be involvement when it comes to alignment on the year's go-to-market strategy and any refreshed or new product positioning.  Because it is the one opportunity to set the tone and focus of the year, product marketing should view it as the time to rollout any new strategies (campaig...more

This is a similar question to another one so sharing the same answer :)   The best way in my opinion is to zoom out and look at it through the lens of the company's main goals (usually revenue goals). Are those areas being served well? And prioritize from there. Also, where are there the bigg...more

Really good question and there are many ways to address this. The best way in my opinion is to zoom out and look at it through the lens of the company's main goals (usually revenue goals). Are those areas being served well?  Also, where are there the biggest knowledge gaps? You have to be care...more

Easy: approach the effort strategically.  Be clear on the why, what, and how.  1. Start with the goals.  2. Get clear on the jobs to be done.  3. Ladder the tactics up to those.  4. Make sure the corresponding metrics/KPIs of 2 and 3 ladder up to 1 5. Communicate your sales enablement a...more

It's really mainly two primary questions for reps when it comes to content requests:  -What problem are they trying to solve?  -Who is the audience?  -What is the distribution and adoption plan?  ...maybe a 4th, depending on the answers to the above, is if there are examples they can point yo...more

The important word in this question is "global"---the challenges of scaling enablement efforts across the world are primarily across 3 buckets:  -language: scaling localization of core assets and training -insights: scaling understanding of regional markets so that nuance informs the approach t...more