As a b2c product marketer, how best move into SAAS industry/b2b?
2 Answers
Suyog Deshpande
Samsara Sr. Director | Head Of Product & Partner Marketing • November 20
You already are a marketer, which is a good starting point.
Key differences:
- In B2C, you are focused on users. In B2B, you also need to think about accounts: That means you are moving from a “a buyer” to “ a committee of buyers” for your product. That means additional personas, objections, processes and challenge.
- In B2C, marketing could directly result in revenue. In B2B, you will have a sophisticated sales team to generate revenue.
- In B2C, sales cycles can be short. In B2B, they typically tend to be long
- In B2C, there is a lot of focus on engaging content. In B2B, the focus is on educational content
- .... and more
1) So, first acknowledge these differences and see if you can bridge that gap with projects
Example: if you are a B2B2C company, which is what most companies are becoming, then try to work on some B2B projects - like messaging or pricing for resellers
2) Find common ground and transferable skills - Did you do customer marketing or content marketing or channel/partner marketing? Those are all valuable skills in B2B as well.
3) Think if there is some intermediate role that you might need to take before becoming a product marketer at a B2B company - examples: Marketing Ops or Growth Marketing - Get into B2B industry first and then get into product marketing.
2942 Views
Melinda Chung
Credit Karma Senior Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Adobe, GoDaddy, VSCO, 3x startups • January 14
People often say that you can get into organizations by either function or domain. If you haven’t been in SaaS before, get into a SaaS company through your functional expertise - product marketing.
I would recommend moving into a SaaS company that does both B2C and B2B. You have the product marketing functional expertise to land in B2C there, and then you can network and move into a B2B function from there.
509 Views
Related Ask Me Anything Sessions
Quizlet Director of Product and Lifecycle Marketing, Caroline Walthall on Product Marketing Career Path
January 9 @ 9:00AM PST
Reddit Director of Community Product Marketing, Rachel Weber Callaway on Community Product Marketing Career Path
Zoom Head of Product Marketing, App Marketplace, Sharon Markowitz on Product Marketing Career Path
Top Product Marketing Mentors
Mary Sheehan
Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing
Jeffrey Vocell
Panorama Education Head of Product Marketing
Kevin Garcia
Anthropic Product Marketing Leader
April Rassa
Clari VP, Solutions Marketing
Susan "Spark" Park
Monzo Director of Product Marketing
Leah Brite
Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Employers
JD Prater
AssemblyAI Head Of Product Marketing
Jeff Hardison
Calendly VP of Product Marketing
Marcus Andrews
Pendo Sr. Director of Product Marketing
Meghan Keaney Anderson
Watershed VP of Marketing - Product Marketing & Communications
Related Questions
What does the first day as a product marketing manager look like? I have just moved into Product Marketing from Customer Retention. My questions are, 1) what is the core job of a product marketer, and 2) what skills do I need to work on?What comes after head of PMM, e.g. if you want to move to VP of a marketing team, how to do that? And how to ensure that you're getting knowledge of other marketing functions (e.g. paid) so that you are equipped to lead an entire marketing team (vs. just a PMM discipline)?I am in the process of pivoting my career from Content Marketing to Product Marketing. What are some helpful resources, workshops, and/or online courses I should check out to help make the transition easier?Does product marketing or marketing (marcomm) create content in your company (case studies, one-pagers, sales decks, whitepapers, etc.)?How do you think about balancing your time between meetings, emails, and work that needs to be done with relationship building and even trying to ensure you still have personal time?