AMA: Mixpanel Former Head of Product and Content Marketing, Jeff Beckham on Sales Enablement

A good question to ask before starting a sales playbook is, “what’s in it for them?” Good sales reps welcome support from anyone who can truly help them, and product marketers are well-positioned to provide that type of assistance. But I’ve made the mistake many times of taking the “build it and they will come” mindset, because it was the path of least resistance. The playbooks I’ve seen actually make a difference were created with in-depth sales feedback from the get-go.Sometimes it seems obvio ...Read More

It’s exciting that your company is making the shift up-market! The first question to ask is whether you have the right people in place to sell into enterprises. Promoting the best people on the mid-market team is highly risky, although that decision is usually outside the purview of product marketing. Having a seasoned enterprise sales rep or two is essential to success because they can guide the broader organization in transforming in the way that it needs to. For enablement specifically, it’s ...Read More

If it’s a specific rep you’re having trouble with, I’d recommend just having a quick conversation with them about where the confusion is stemming from. They might have some useful feedback on how to organize or disseminate content that is more in line with their day-to-day or use case. The added benefit of talking in person or getting on a video call is that they’re more likely to empathize with you. They may have good intentions (wanting to use the best materials to be effective in their role) ...Read More

At every company I’ve been a part of, product marketing has always been the driver of any sales enablement done by the marketing team. I’m sure that’s not the case everywhere, but I believe it’s the norm. The main reason is PMMs are hired for a specific skill set that fits enablement – storytelling, positioning, and content production. On top of the raw skills, it’s part of the PMM team’s day job to be experts on the company’s product, market, and customers – all of which tie into the knowledge ...Read More

The biggest mistake I’ve made is not involving Sales at the ideation stage. Too many times, I’ve thought I had a great idea for a new program or piece of content, only to find upon rolling it out that I was solving a problem nobody had.It’s always good to have a few “friendlies” on the sales team who you can bounce early-stage ideas off of. If they think you’re onto something, you can get sales leadership involved. There’s no better way to make an enablement program work than for the Head of Sal ...Read More

This is a fun question because I’ve seen this vary so broadly across the places I’ve worked. Step one is to make sure product marketing gets invited :) At Mixpanel, all of the go-to-market teams go to SKO, and it has really helped to create a sense of shared purpose across sales, marketing and customer success. But I’ve seen SKO be sales-only at larger companies and companies on tight budgets. You’ll likely get different answers from different people on the right level of involvement in the cont ...Read More

The more time in advance you can provide the sales team, the better. But you also don’t want to sit on new products / features that are ready to go, especially when you’re at a small and nimble company like yours. The key question is, when is the product far enough along that you know the final feature set, can demo it, and have certainty around the best positioning and sales narrative? That’s the earliest you could possibly host the training.I’ve found that doing training a week before a launch ...Read More

If your sales reps are already having daily conversations, you’re in luck! It means they aren’t short on time with their customers and giving you 20-30 minutes shouldn't be a big deal.  You might have the best chance positioning the market research ask as something that can strengthen the relationship with the customer. If they’re already taking the time to meet with your company often, they likely are heavy users of your product and would value the opportunity to provide input into your strateg ...Read More

If you have the opportunity to be involved, snatch it as quickly as possible! The core of product marketing is creating messaging that works, and the fastest way to test messaging is through channels that scale. SDR templates are one of those, along with digital ads and high-traffic web pages.Our rule of thumb at Mixpanel is that a unified message, either written or approved by product marketing, is the best. While you want to empower and trust your sales development reps, when there are hundred ...Read More

A quick survey can work well. I usually use Google Forms, but higher-end tools like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics provide a little more flexibility if you have them.Longer surveys get fewer responses, so if volume is most important, definitely keep it short. The best way to send it out is through an official sales communication. I did this recently and put it in the biweekly sales newsletter. If you don’t have one, asking one of your sales leaders to send it out will help boost the response rate. A ...Read More

The best sales reps I’ve seen rely on people and resources across the company to win deals, but these same reps are also very particular about the materials they use and the people they invite to meetings. This attention to detail in the customer experience is what drives their success.The million dollar question to ask yourself is: “How can I be a value-add? What can I provide that they can’t get from anyone else at the company?”If you aren’t sure, just ask them what they need that would make t ...Read More

That’s a tough question, and unfortunately, I think it does depend on your organization. I’ve usually seen enablement added as a separate function when a company reaches the 150-250 employee range. The common change-driver is usually a big push in sales hiring, which often comes with globalization. This creates a need to decrease ramp time for each rep, build custom learning paths by level, segment, and/or region, and run trainings in more places. It can be hard for product marketing to scale to ...Read More