AMA: Zoom Product Marketing - App Marketplace, Sharon Markowitz on Partner Product Marketing

As the founder of YourCareerWings, a career coaching business, and a former marketing leader in edtech at Intuit and Pragmatic Institute, I'm deeply invested in this question. I've always believed in the power of continuous learning, especially in today's ever-changing professional landscape. Did you know that the average graduate today will likely explore up to 15 different career paths in their lifetime? It's a staggering statistic that underscores the importance of adaptability and exploration. This advice isn't just pertinent to product marketing; it applies across all fields of interest. Let's look into some specifics to help you get started: 1. Conduct informational interviews One of the best ways to understand a profession is to talk to those who are living it. From recent grads to seasoned professionals, everyone's insights can be invaluable. Leverage your network—whether it's through community groups, social platforms like LinkedIn, or your university's career center—to connect with professionals in the field. You may discover that you prefer to work at a startup versus an established company, act as a generalist or be more aligned to product versus sales. You will learn so much, and I'm excited for you! This exercise not only broadens your understanding but also strengthens your market research skills. 2. Build real-world experience There's no substitute for hands-on experience. Here are a few considerations: -Solve real-world problems that a company is facing today in class and apply product marketing principles. -Seek internships, both during and after your studies, in related fields, at for profit or non for profit institutions. -Engage in competitions at your school or across institutions. -Take leadership roles in school chapters and apply product marketing strategies. 3. Explore relevant certifications Certifications can complement your academic background and work experience. During informational interviews, inquire about certifications that align with your interests. For instance, Pragmatic Institute offers certifications for product managers and product marketers, while numerous online platforms offer additional marketing courses to bridge skill gaps.

Its critical to get buy-in and attention from your sales organization and the partner sales organization. Partners should be part of the solution, and therefore, an integrated effort as part of the sales motion at your company. Educating the sales team with the necessary training on how to use and collateral is key, inclusive of user stories, as well as who the target customer is, what the partnership is, why its better together (joint partner message), and key benefits. Incentives and/or leadership prioritization will support further buy-in and attention from sales. I find it helpful to have strong relationships with a few sales colleagues to get input early on for what will matter most to them for building out enablement materials. As part of building out the GTM plan with the partner, sales enablement would be a component with the partner marketer. Its always best to inquire with what they need, and what works best for enabling their sales team, and deliver accordingly.

KPIS for a partner marketer vary based on the maturity of the partnership as well as what the team is solving for in creating the partnership. Also, sometimes the company and the partner are focused on different KPIs. KPIs may include sales, customer growth (new segment, greater penetration), retention, awareness and usage. At an established fintech company, the focus was on awareness and usage as it was a large app marketplace, and the fintech company decided to build a specific tech stack and partner for extending the software to solve customer needs to relevant verticals. It was more important at the time to ensure that customers had what they needed in one place when using the platform. At a tech startup targeting small businesses, we realized that customers were stalling in their success on the platform, and formed strategic partnerships with key players and established MQLs as the primary KPI. Specific programs were developed, however, the partner wasn't getting enough leads. We switched the KPI to leads simply to determine the right profile of the customer that was right for the program. Hence, testing and flexibility is key to ensure you are measuring what matters most. At an established tech company focused on making teamwork better, the company was focused on driving awareness and usage for integrations, while the partner, a major player in cloud computing, was focused on driving leads. While the primary KPI for each were as mentioned, the company I worked at added a secondary KPI of driving leads.

A product marketing manager skill set is foundational for being a partner marketing manager, whether at a junior or senior level. The key areas that make an exceptional partner marketing manager include the ability to: 1. build strong relationships 2. influence stakeholders who may not be direct reports, and 3. embrace the value of partnerships to extend the reach of a company with current and prospective customers. Before addressing the points above in more detail, the nomenclature mentioned in some of the questions needs clarification. The title “partner product marketing manager” is not common. In today’s market, a professional either assumes the role of a product marketer or a partner marketer. The product marketer may have responsibilities that include partnerships, and can vary widely depending on the company and organizational structure. Similarly, a partner marketer’s responsibilities may also vary. Build strong relationships: This starts at the company you work with, and then extends to the partner company. Key stakeholders often include product, integrated marketing, product marketing, data science, business development and/or sales. Typically, the relationship with business development and sales is of great importance as they will be the colleagues you often work with in collaboration with the partner company. Influence stakeholders: You have no control over what the partner company does. Granted, there may be a contract in place, still, with so many priorities between your company and a partner company, the ability to build strong relationships, then influence stakeholders at your company and externally is critical for developing a go-to-market plan and ultimately partnership success. Embrace the value of the partnership. There is no "I" in TEAM and similarly, when you are working with a partner company, its not all about "your" company. There has to be value in the partnership and shared interests. A few considerations of why companies partner include new customer reach & distribution, technology advancement (partner vs. build vs. buy), and incremental revenue.

Key areas to focus on for alignment and success in partnerships include: prioritization and resourcing, organizational structure, partner selection, value proposition & joint partner messaging, KPIs, and analytics. Oftentimes these may be overlooked by a company that impacts the overall success of the team. 1. Prioritization & Resourcing. Prioritization is critical at the executive level of the company and partner organization, and be properly resourced. For example, if there isn’t alignment at the top, it will simply be hard to get things done. If there isn’t a dedicated marketer at both the company and partner to work with, that’s typically a red flag. 2. Organizational Structure. Some companies operate based on how they are organized. Therefore, where partner marketing is in an organization does matter. It's important that the partner marketer is well embedded into the team, not a siloed group from a customer and GTM lens. This may imply it fits in the marketing organization or the sales organization. It depends. 3. Partner Selection. Not all partners are equal, and having the right partners is critical. A strategic approach with clear criteria aligned cross-functionally is paramount. A tactical approach will lead to confusion, mis-alignment and reduced success. Note, many companies do tier partners internally, to allow visibility on partner selection and prioritization. 4. Value Proposition & Joint Partner Messaging. The joint partner messaging should layer up to the company value proposition otherwise there is a disconnect at the outset. 5. KPIs. KPIs are critical, and should ultimately layer up to revenue. It sometimes depends on the maturity of the relationship and the nature of the partnership. Some examples of KPIs may be sales, retention, net new business and/or leads, or awareness & usage. 6. Analytics. It's amazing how often that teams do not focus on analytics and have the right infrastructure in place to avoid ad-hoc requests and/or non-intuitive dashboard. If resources are tight, I recommend understanding what action one would take if you had this data to refine what the request is overall for tracking.

Ways to continuously optimize the partner process may include: 1. Review GTM plans against targets both leveraging quantitative and qualitative data to determine what worked and what can be improved 2. Embrace testing as an approach for GTM, where the company and the partner can test, learn, iterate and scale or pivot. 3. Always be learning, and reaching out to other partner marketers outside your company and industry to apply best practices. How to test and scale or pivot? I am a big fan of The Lean Startup methodology by Eric Ries. Here is a video clip of a conversation on setting up the concept of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or as I like to say, MDP (Minimum Delightful Product) between Founder Scott Cook of Intuit and Founder of Lean Startup Eric Ries. When working for an established tech company focused on improving teamwork, one of the strategic partners I worked with was in cloud computing. The partner was hesitant to go outside their standard partner playbook for GTM motions. I suggested that we could test a GTM tactic that focused on explaining the integration to drive new leads, in a very short turnaround time, and commitment to share metrics. The willingness of the partner to be open to this, and the success of this, led to an invite-only event for the company, and a future long term contract.

Opportunities exist in both product marketing and partner marketing. It's rare to find a company without some form of partnership strategy or program nowadays. However, it's important to note that this doesn't always necessitate a dedicated partner marketing role. Keep in mind that a strong partner marketer typically begins with the foundational skill set of a product marketer. With this in mind, you remain open to roles in both product and partnership marketing. I feel it’s important to do what you are most passionate about as that will translate in your work, and your attitude. There are also many different facets of what a partner marketer may actually do, from managing strategic programs and channel distribution, to focusing on a select few strategic partners for co-marketing to drive results. Consider a few questions as you explore your next chapter, and overall career journey: 1. Are you more comfortable working for a startup or an established company? I've experienced situations where startups, despite having numerous partners, lacked an understanding of partnership marketing. Consequently, they faced challenges in justifying resources due to this lack of knowledge. In such cases, I believe contract roles are preferable to full-time employment, as they offer more stability. Similarly, I've worked at established companies where the partnership marketing role or team was present but not positioned optimally within the organization to effectively address customer needs. I share these insights to help you better assess the next company you work for and ask the right questions. 2. What are you most excited about in partnership marketing? Partnership marketing encompasses various facets, including market research, relationship building, go-to-market planning, external engagement and visibility, messaging, partner strategy, budget management, and more. Take the time to list out the aspects you find most enjoyable and for which you are well-suited. Then, stack-rank them to uncover potential roles related to partnership marketing,

There are different approaches to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and their impact on partnerships, and strongly depend on the acquiring company and strategy. Below are a few examples from my experience. At one company, the rationale for acquiring a business was to gain the customer base and therefore the need to promote an integration was not a priority. At another company, the rationale for acquiring the business was the synergy of the technology and team, and therefore, the team started out as a stand-alone subsidiary and eventually was integrated into the GTM motions for specific integrations for strategic partners. There was a much greater effort needed as part of the acquisition, but was a natural progression.

Educating your partners is critical to understand a company’s vision, overall priorities, and ultimately, where partners fit to further inform how you will work together. My approach to educate the partner company is as follows: 1. Introduce them to the company, vision, and the dedicated partner team 2. Share the value proposition, key product priorities (not all products within a portfolio are equal), customer target, and messaging 3. Identify dedicated training that may be needed for the immediate team, and/or sales 4. Provide access to the customer facing learning center Next, in development of the on-going working relationship it's important to: 1. Establish the value of the partnership with a focus on the problem you are solving together for the target customer 2. Develop a joint message that layers up to the company value proposition and is relevant for the target customer 3. Identify KPIs, keeping in mind, they may be different for your company vs. the partner 4. Collaborate to identify a joint GTM plan, as not all tactics are effective depending on the learnings each company has in reaching the target customer 5. Understand partner appetite for testing versus scaling GTM efforts 6. Ensure there are check-ins simply to see how things are going as part of building the relationship

Congrats! This is exciting. Here are some tips for developing your GTM strategy for a new partner channel: Research 1. Talk with your sales colleagues to learn what they’ve done to date, and if they have industry experience with this specific partner channel 2. Leverage your network, like LinkedIn, to learn how to GTM with that channel 3. Understand with your sales colleague if it's appropriate to have an exploratory call with a contact at the partner channel (i.e. the business development, sales, or marketing lead) to better understand 1) if there is a playbook and 2) what works best 4. Engage a third party to do 1:1 interviews so you can learn more about the channel partner and business model 5. Attend an event that the channel partner has so you can see first-hand how other companies may showcase their efforts, and have conversations with non-competitive companies Develop your GTM strategy 1. Based on your learnings, test any messaging with customers, incorporate the tactics that likely work best and embrace the concept of testing to learn to iterate for success 2. Consider reviewing success at the quarter level as appropriate so you can learn what worked, what didn't to effectively move forward. Good luck!

Positioning is a brief description of a product or service that your company offers, how it meets the target audience, the respective category and how it's different from the competition. This is typically an internal document. Messaging relates to how you will communicate the main value proposition and key benefits to the target audience. When thinking of partnerships, this should be a joint-message to the target audience. It's always best to test messaging qualitatively and quantitatively with target customers to optimize prior to introducing it to the market.

Product marketing managers should have a foundational understanding of AI technology and its potential impact on their roles and functions. So many products today have an AI component, or are prioritizing messaging around an AI component that its critical to understand given the inherent nature of product or partnership marketing is cross-functional. Several years ago, I worked for a major social network, and we were launching a new product to support heads of talent and recruiters in finding the right talent faster. At that time, the use of terms like AI were not as common so I worked with UX designers, engineers and customers to optimize the feature launch and the benefit messaging. Today, that has already changed! There are many ways to get experience, from at your company, to taking online courses, to simply using ChatGPT and more. I favor "hands-on" experience whether you are employed or not, there are many ways to get practical experience and application.

Marketing partnerships may not be the right nomenclature. If a company has an app on an App Store or App Marketplace with thousands of apps, these are not considered "marketing partnerships". Think of your favorite app on your phone, there are many apps on the phone you can select, but they are not all "marketing partnerships". As a partner marketer it’s best to provide a partner go-to-market playbook to those companies that have an app on the App Store or App Marketplace with ways they can drive awareness and usage of their app. This may include aspects such as a best practice marketplace listing, ways to offer customer support, specific and relevant go-to-market tactics, such as blogs, emails, case studies, social media, community forums and more. It's important for each app that is on the App Store or App Marketplace to showcase its own commitment and ability to drive significant awareness and usage of the app within the ecosystem, and then there may be additional opportunities to consider with the said app