AMA: Vanta Director of Product Marketing, Joe Goldberg on Tactics for Successful B2B Software Product Marketing

In a typical enterprise SaaS startup, new features come fast and furious so scale is key for building content around them. Start with internal enablement (slides) on tier 1-2 features at Alpha, and all features at public beta or GA. Update as features move through stages. This internal material on slides forces pithy, succinct messaging/ICP/GTM plan which you can re-use later. By the way, an added benefit of early enablement is (1) the field can tactically roadmap sell and (2) the field can recr ...Read More

Do not over-rotate to very precise sales plays (if you hear x, do y) for the field. Focus more on teaching reps how to do good discovery and then adjust the play/message/demo on the fly (aka "audible ready"). This is because every opportunity/sales meeting is unique and the possible “plays” run in the dozens or hundreds. Reps cannot/will not memorize all these, nor should they.  Get reps to where they can ask several questions around enterprise size/maturity/industry, buyer role/responsibility, ...Read More

When selling a technical enterprise software product, what is the best advice you have for a product marketer? This seems obvious, but master the product! Become an SME, learn how to configure and demo it yourself, and do booth duty to demo/pitch it. This all helps you craft messaging/content for the product which is deeper and will resonate better with your target audience. Also you gain credibility internally with others like product management, the field, enablement, and more. And to become a ...Read More

When building it, of course lean heavily on sales feedback, including how the best sellers pitch. Ask to see any custom decks they use. Do not forget the goal of FM deck is mostly do discovery/qualification + generate enough interest to get to second meeting (not close a deal!). So easy on the slide count and heavy on conversation and demo. Load up the appendix with slides, but not the main body. For a 30 min first meeting, 5 slides max is good.Make sure prospect talks at least a third of the ti ...Read More

It is not either/or. It is both. If “Product Led Growth” is using the product so a customer can self-evaluate, buy, implement, expand/renew, that is clearly a good thing as it accelerates the sales cycle, and frankly demanded by customers these days - most do not want to talk to sales early. And there is still plenty of room for sales to reach out to these quality, Product-Qualified Leads, drive upsells, and more. And at some point the self-serve trialer will want to engage with sales for a full ...Read More

One is too much focus on high-level messaging/positioning. While messaging and positioning are key, do not overthink the messaging/positioning. Should be simple. Who is the product aimed at, what it is, what is does/benefit, how different/better, why it is needed now. Remember the audience is a newbie who wants the basic info…so make this easy on them. I’ve seen it countless times where many teams and people work on messaging for many weeks and at the end, the message ends up straying from plain ...Read More

Absolutely lean on recruiting/HR as your partner as they’re extremely helpful. But my big tip is you also need to co-own this hiring process and personally plan to spend a few hours every single day on it, especially given how important it is. Things you can do to help: Send job post to your LinkedIn network and have colleagues do the same with their networks. Also ask colleagues to target great people they worked with in prior roles. networks. Post the JD in marketing communities such as Shareb ...Read More

I have seen this where an inferior company copies you and plays unethical. They copy your web site messaging, they have similar-sounding case studies, they have fake/good G2 reviews, they have fake LinkedIn followers, etc. And they undercut you on price. Problem is buyers at first glance see no differentiation between you and them. A solution I have seen work well is reliant on you having the better product. Which is you force the evaluator into a hands-on trial where they see first-hand your UI ...Read More