I’ve never met a PMM who was able to keep everyone happy. So I’d reframe away from that goal as much as possible. Instead, I like to focus on how to keep your messaging defensible early and often.
You’re right that everyone has opinions. But there are a few opinions that matter most:
- Customers and prospects: They are the lifeblood of your business.
- CEO (or business GM/leader): They own the company strategy and where you’re going next.
There is no better defense than real evidence that your messaging reflects how customers and prospects talk about their pains, their desired outcomes, and the product they want to buy. At the end of the day, this is what most internal teams are looking for. Sales want to say what these folks want to hear. Product wants to build what these folks want to buy.
You’ll notice that I jumped straight to the highest-ranking leader as the other priority. At the end of the day, I found that your messaging will never stick if you don’t have a champion in your leadership team. While the customer proof points serve to give you a bottoms-up defense, your leader can be the top-down champion that you need to keep stay the course and avoid getting drowned in opinions.
Finally, be open to people’s feedback. When they feel heard, when you connect what they’ve shared with what others have, they feel considered and included. And over time, this will lead to more champions and also a few nuggets of actually great feedback.