AMA: ServiceNow Senior Director, Platform and AI Product Marketing, Shar Patel on Enterprise Product Marketing

One of the most apt quotes I've seen recently is: “You sold me a Lamborghini, but you never taught me how to drive it.” That’s a pretty accurate metaphor for where enterprise product marketing can either fall short or create real leverage, in partnership with your account team. The vision gets attention, but what wins deals is helping customers translate that vision into a real, executable path.That means creating the path to value:  What business problem are we solving?  What does success look ...Read More

I’ve had the chance to do both, and the biggest difference I see is the complexity of the buying journey and the depth of the problem you’re solving. In SMB and mid-market, you’re often optimizing for clarity and speed. The buyer journey is shorter, there are fewer stakeholders, and the messaging needs to quickly answer: What is this? Why do I need it? How do I get started? Self-service, ease of use, and time to value are usually big drivers. Enterprise is a different game. You’re not just selli ...Read More

When I think about hiring enterprise PMMs, there are a few traits that stand out to me:  1. Ability to sell the vision and ground it in reality The best enterprise PMMs can operate at two levels. They can set the narrative for where the market is going, and they can also get into the details and make sure that story shows up in how deals are actually being sold. If you only live in one of those worlds, you tend to fall short in enterprise roles. 2. Strong partnership with the field, ideally with ...Read More

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when moving upmarket is thinking enterprise is just “selling to bigger companies.” That difference comes with a lot of nuance, and it’s a fundamentally different buying motion. The first mistake is not evolving the value proposition. What works in SMB or mid-market, like speed, ease of use, or quick time to value, usually isn’t enough for enterprise buyers. They’re thinking about business impact, scalability, risk, and how this fits into a much larger t ...Read More

This is one of the core tensions in enterprise PMM, and I don’t think the goal is perfect balance. The way I see this is it's about having a strong global narrative with room for local adaptation. At the global level, you need a consistent story around the problem you solve, the value your company brings and differentiation. If that isn’t tight, everything downstream gets fragmented. Localization should not mean rewriting the story. It should mean tailoring how it shows up in-market, like region ...Read More

At ServiceNow, AI Agents were a good example of how complex AI GTM gets because you are really selling two different definitions of “success” in the same deal. For our c-suite, AI Agents are about outcomes. They care about ROI and time to value, whether it materially changes how work gets done, and how they stay ahead of their peers by adopting the most advanced AI in their space. For our platform owners, the lens is very different. With AI Agents, the conversation was about how they are built a ...Read More

M&A is such a routine part of enterprise companies, and I think it’s something enterprise PMMs HAVE to get comfortable navigating. Every acquisition brings new products, new teams, new customers, and often a very strong point of view on what the story should be. The way I’ve approached this is by starting much higher up: getting really aligned with the C-suite on the company strategy and the north star. What are we trying to be known for? What customer problem are we uniquely positioned to s ...Read More