Madison Leonard

AMA: Vanta Head of PLG Product Marketing, Madison Leonard on Customer Research

January 18 @ 9:00AM PST
View AMA Answers
Vanta Head of PLG Product Marketing, Madison Leonard on Customer Research
Top Questions
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
This really depends on the leadership team and company culture. Some organizations have a culture of "execute and iterate" first, whereas others will like to be more throughout from the beginning. This culture is unlikely to change with the viewpoints of one person, so I recommend choosing the co......Read More
350 Views
4 requests
How have you historically sourced people to interview while developing personas?
Especially if you don't have any customers that fit the bill my current plan is to assemble a list of possible titles and have my virtual assistant company prospect for and find contact details for them then probably send out a survey to validate if they're the right people to talk to and reach out individually to the ones that fit the bill.
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
This all depends on your company stage and customer size.  In the early stages (less than 50 customers), I would honestly try to talk with all of them. Offer free coffee, a heavy discount, or whatever you have to. This will help you understand your early adopter target audience - once you have......Read More
335 Views
3 requests
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
3 words - length, ROI, searchability.  Length: Sales reps and customers alike want things to be short and to the point. I like to keep it to a punchy header with 2-3 supporting bullet points if possible.  ROI: The benefit to the customer should be clear in the header. For example, "[Custome......Read More
408 Views
2 requests
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Yes I see them as completely different! UX research is more around the product usage. You're likely guiding the user through a prototype, MVP, or new feature and watching how they figure stuff out on their own. All your findings are around product usage and adoption.  However, with customer re......Read More
362 Views
2 requests
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Buyer research comes in two forms - existing customers and prospects.  Tap into your existing customers to learn what really sticked during the sales cycle and what their 'aha' moment was in the product. The key is to find the PAIN they were in before this product.  Then, do some networking......Read More
267 Views
1 request
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Most companies will have multiple personas. There are two distinctions here - user personas and buyer personas.  If you're selling mostly to SMBs, you may only have 1-2 buyer personas (usually CEO or COO) during your sales cycle. The more you move into mid market and enterprise, the more peopl......Read More
269 Views
1 request
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Compensation will depend based on the size of the organization and their role. For example, a Director of Product at a 25 person company will be a lot easier to get a hold of and compensate than a Director of Product at Meta. There are some agencies you can use, but I recommend doing LinkedIn pro......Read More
262 Views
1 request
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
This all depends on the stage of your company and whether you're a PLG or SLG company. Product-Led Growth companies: You won't be able to truly segment effectively until your product is mature and you have product analytics set up. In the early stages, you should be able to identify who your ......Read More
278 Views
2 requests
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Talk with at least 1 customer a week and you'll never be surprised by any changes! I like to follow Gartner and Forrester for changes in the market, as well as keeping a pulse on new PLG companies who are bootstrapping (don't underestimate those folks).  The truth is, most companies do these i......Read More
423 Views
1 request
I'm looking for tips and advice on building an effective buyer journey: Do you have any insights on how to effectively map and orchestrate a learning->buying cycle, considering a B2B Saas Product?
We're currently revisiting our content strategy here at Resultados Digitais, and some help on the subject would be very valuable. Our main challenges include: - Finding which types of of subject/content/format/channel work better, and in which stage of the journey; and - Understand how far should we go on segmenting and personalizing our strategy, and under which axis (demographics, persona, etc);
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
In order to understand your ideal distribution strategy, you have to know your ICP extremely well. Your company growth strategy will also play a role... product-led (PLG) with a freemium or trial product or sales-led (SLG) with sales locked demo.  If you're in a sales-led organization, all con......Read More
347 Views
1 request
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
The best use of VoC is usually with informing the product roadmap with PLG companies. I find that customer advocacy programs are better for more Enterprise-level roadmapping and selling.  Great example:  I once launched a new feature and had a hypothesis of who my target audience was. Upon ta......Read More
322 Views
1 request
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Not getting enough feedback from stakeholders on missing value.  VoC programs are amazing when implemented well, but if they are created in a silo or without solving a problem then it will not get the internal traction it deserves.  For example - are you marketing, sales, or product teams H......Read More
345 Views
2 requests
How do you set up a customer advisory board?
What are the pains and best practices to set up a customer advisory board? Are there good examples to look at? Our goal with the customer advisory board is to help us retain customers.
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard
Marketing & GTM ConsultantJanuary 18
Customer advisory boards are best when you keep the customers under 10 people and ask them to stay on for 1-2 years. Strategically hand-pick your advisors from the markets you want to break into or dominate. For example, if you want to go more into Enterprise, you shouldn't have 9/10 people from ......Read More
667 Views
1 request