AMA: Uber Former Product Marketing Lead, Nikhil Balaraman on Sales Enablement
January 5 @ 10:00AM PT
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👋 Nikhil Balaraman
Hi all, I'm Nikhil Balaraman, Head of Marketing @ Pomerium:
• 👋 Based in: Oakland, CA
• 🧠 Top of mind: Is less truly more?
• 💬 Ask me about: Whether startups are worth it ;)
• 🍦 Fun fact: I've started a wine label with a few of the sales leaders I've worked with in the past. Who says sales and marketing can't be friends?!
• 👋 Based in: Oakland, CA
• 🧠 Top of mind: Is less truly more?
• 💬 Ask me about: Whether startups are worth it ;)
• 🍦 Fun fact: I've started a wine label with a few of the sales leaders I've worked with in the past. Who says sales and marketing can't be friends?!
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Generally, product marketers and sales enablement should work hand-in-hand as they are some of the most cross-functional roles in any organization. Because of their cros...
1519 Views
5 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
There are 2 main ways of tracking for success: Consumption Metrics and Outcome Metrics Consumption metrics -- these metrics should be shared/co-owned amongst Enablement...
1245 Views
4 requests
How do we get Sales more involved pre-launch to better the odds of our launch success?
We have a lot of stakeholders involved during our launch process. Sales is the most important, yet the least involved pre-launch.
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Depending on where the business is, sales should be either consulted or informed on almost every launch. Unless there is a tight liaison and voice of the sales team (ie ...
1209 Views
2 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Short answer: build the framework, but allow people to be creative. Don’t micro-manage every single email. But maybe run some audits and always be close with the SDR lea...
1974 Views
1 request
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Simply put, I think focusing on the outputs (e.g., collateral/content creation) instead of understanding the problem and building a solution for that problem. But in ord...
867 Views
3 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
At a high-level the goal is likely to make sellers more productive in some sense. Probably by making them more effective or more efficient. Let’s just call this “go-to-m...
1588 Views
6 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
There are no shortcuts to getting buy in from a sales team; and, every product marketer needs to know how their product gets to market. To get buy-in from a large sales ...
940 Views
3 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Instead of focusing on the features, start with the use case -- why are we launching this we sub-product? What problem does it solve for our key personas or existing cus...
1893 Views
1 request
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
By understanding how deals work from beginning to end. Get to know the SDRs. What research do they do before starting a sequence? How does a meeting get set? Sit in on f...
1101 Views
3 requests
How do I figure out a schedule for our revenue kickoff where marketing, sales, and customer success are all together?
It would be where there are joint-sessions and then separate sessions for each group. I would love to see a sample schedule. I have done FKOs, but not RKOs.
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
Having been through several of these at a few different companies, the advice I would offer is that for joint-sessions focus on the biggest impact announcements (e.g., n...
1699 Views
3 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
It's going to be hard in the early days becuase you'll have a lot to do, and the partner channel probably is non-existant until ~20m or so in ARR. If you're selling into...
1795 Views
4 requests
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
The chasm framework makes it seem like there's just one magic gap that needs to be jumped across, and then you can just set your sales and marketing efforts to autopilot ...
1719 Views
1 request
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • 5y
I actually came to PMM from an SE role/background and would highly recommend people who are in technical roles consider PMM! The best part about this transition is that ...
1754 Views
1 request