AMA: Zywave VP of Product Marketing, Amanda Groves on Category Creation

July 2 @ 10:00AM PT

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Speakers (2)

Amanda Groves

VP of Product Marketing · Zywave
T4

Test Host 480484

VP Marketing · Sharebird Test Co

VP of Product Marketing · Zywave

👋 Hi I'm Amanda Groves.. Philly native (Go Flyers!), Pittsburgh transplant (Go Panthers!)

💼 I currently am the VP of Product Marketing at Zywave, an InsurTech company focused on helping carriers and brokers manage, protect, and grow their book of business intelligently.

👀 Topics of interest for me are managing M&A and integrating offerings... AI product innovation/roll out and building high-performance PMM teams.

🤝 Topics I am help with... adopting agile marketing, core PMM/Solution PMM, new product introduction process/tiering and pricing and packaging.

🍦 Favorite ice cream flavor.. mochi!

What's the difference between creating a category for just a specific product/service vs. for the entire company? (Micro vs Macro category creation)

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

Think of it as a hierarchy. Corporate positioning is category level positioning - where you play, who you serve, who is your ecosystem of influencers. The product-level category then falls into solution selling by use case within the previously defined market segment. Each needs to roll-up into Corporate Positioning so your narratives are contained, reinforced, and supported.

307 Views

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My company is at a point where we should begin creating our category. How would you go about that process step by step today, for a small and rising org? Thanks :)

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

This is an exciting time for your org, and arguably the most fun. There are a few key strategies I would start exploring and aim to establish in a multi-year category creation plan: addressable market - who are you building this category for? analysts, evangelists, and competitors - who will influence the shape of this space customers and partners - who will influence network effects and adoption? product adoption - how complex is the solution and how much education is involved in adopting? Once ...Read More

319 Views

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What's the most important priority for Product Marketing when developing a new category?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

R&D and listening tours. Develop a methodology for researching your addressable market across customers, prospects, analysts, competitors, influencers etc. You'll need this as the backbone of how you define, shape, and evolve category overtime. From there PMM should be the stewards of positioning (based on the research), GTM strategy (commercialization) and launch (persona messaging and surround strategy). If you don't have strong R&D, the rest falls short. Stay curious and you will stay ...Read More

334 Views

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What do GTM strategies look like when you work on a whole category creation?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

There are a few key strategies I would start exploring and aim to establish in a multi-year category creation plan: addressable market - who are you building this category for? analysts, evangelists, and competitors - who will influence the shape of this space customers and partners - who will influence network effects and adoption? product adoption - how complex is the solution and how much education is involved in adopting? Once you have an understanding of the above, build the plan to serve t ...Read More

352 Views

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What are the biggest mistakes you made when creating a category

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

Biggest mistakes were not trusting my instincts more and pushing exec teams with my point of view. As I look back on the categories I have helped build (6sense, Crossbeam, Enable) each presented its own set of unique challenges. Most vividly, I recall during my time at Enable - very soon after an M&A event, I had sat down with our analyst team to help think through the shifting category and how we define it. I had great intelligence and validated PoV on how we define the market/trajectory bu ...Read More

317 Views

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How much effort is it to market products that create new categories? As in time and touches vs. existing products.

Or in other words, what is the education/definition effort vs. competitive differentiation effort in a known category

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

It is definitely easier to market within an established category because someone has done the heavy lifting for competitors. HubSpot built "inbound" and a universe of ecosystem players are still riding the coattails of their success. But HubSpot is also the first-mover with the advantage of the space, making share of wallet harder to grow for competitors joining their established category. If your org has a strategy, plan, and budget to build a category, there is a lot of upside but it takes eff ...Read More

319 Views

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How would you go about naming a new category?

Hey guys, for those of you who have been in the position to name a new category, what steps did you take to ensure that you were on the right track?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

I've done this a few ways across magnets like Crossbeam, 6sense, and Enable. You'll want to name the space you're headed, not where you are. At 6sense, we were making the shift from MarTech to "Revenue Intelligence." In this example you can see the shift from what it is to what it powers. Making the leap comes from R&D across analyst relations (briefings and inquiries), customer conversations, competitive intelligence, and stakeholder conversations. At Crossbeam, I worked across these channe ...Read More

341 Views

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When creating a category how important is it to have a new title to sell into? Can you create a category with an existing role as main user?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

It really depends on the addressable market size and growth goals of the business. If you aim to grow to a certain milestone and keep small SoW to be primed for acquisition by the incumbent - it's best to stay within the existing category. If your company aims to grow through to IPO and take over SoW (share of wallet) it's best to establish a standalone category and pull the market in your orgs favor. I think the secret is picking a lane, sticking to it, and not trying to do both because your or ...Read More

353 Views

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Where in the funnel do you invest most when launching a new category product?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

Analyst relations depending on size (enterprise)
Second and third party review sites (AEO/GEO/SEO need)
Influencers (SMB/VSB)
Community and advocacy flywheel (agnostic of size)

If you'll notice i didn't address the funnel because that matters less than the ecosystem involvement. Funnel is a lead process - share of voice and influence is an architecture process.

325 Views

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How do you gain buy-in internally to pursue a category creation strategy?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

It is something that is very attributable in marketing once you settle on a category. Internally, naming a category helps you build authority with "state of x" reports, build a common glossary that reinforces your company's POV and builds brand awareness. If you aren't a category creator, you need to join a pre-existing category so there is market share to win/grow. If the existing category is big enough - no need to rebuild. If you are losing share of wallet with no growth modality - you'll wan ...Read More

320 Views

1 request
What can you learn from decision makers before they've become customers?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

You can learn if they are the type of customer you want repeat behavior from. Like they fit your ICP, buying criteria, PMF, and drive the business forward. You can also learn firmographics like how they learned about the business, their goals/motivations so you can build and mirror their attributes in personas. You can also learn their technographics so you can shape eligibility criteria, adoption, and advocacy programs across key integrations. If they are a happy buyer and become a happy custom ...Read More

336 Views

1 request
When you're creating a new category but your sales team keeps reverting to incumbent category comparisons to close deals faster, how do you hold the category frame without leaving revenue on the table?

Amanda Groves

Zywave VP of Product Marketing | Formerly Crossbeam, 6sense, JazzHR, Imagine Learning, Appsembler • Jul 2

You want to build for the people that choose you - not your competitors. It's important to remind sales that every compromise in company strategy, you hurt long term business value. Consistency is queen. Continue to train on your category framing. Show wins where customers lean into your messaging and give them templated talking points to stay on track. If they continue to misrepresent category framing - you could try a SPIFF to incentivize talk tracks and gamify. Behavioral shifts but if they s ...Read More

331 Views

1 request

AMA: Zywave VP of Product Marketing, Amanda Groves on Category Creation

View AMA Answers

Speakers (2)

What's the difference between creating a category for just a specific product/service vs. for the entire company? (Micro vs Macro category creation)

My company is at a point where we should begin creating our category. How would you go about that process step by step today, for a small and rising org? Thanks :)

What's the most important priority for Product Marketing when developing a new category?

What do GTM strategies look like when you work on a whole category creation?

What are the biggest mistakes you made when creating a category

How much effort is it to market products that create new categories? As in time and touches vs. existing products.

How would you go about naming a new category?

When creating a category how important is it to have a new title to sell into? Can you create a category with an existing role as main user?

Where in the funnel do you invest most when launching a new category product?

How do you gain buy-in internally to pursue a category creation strategy?

What can you learn from decision makers before they've become customers?

When you're creating a new category but your sales team keeps reverting to incumbent category comparisons to close deals faster, how do you hold the category frame without leaving revenue on the table?