How do you get your c-suite to care about product marketing? What are their high priority problems that we uniquely solve?

The way to get any leadership team to care about what we do is to bring something of value to the table. Know what your biggest company priorities are (because that will vary from company to company), and then find a way to contribute to solving that problem.

For example, many start-ups struggle with product-market-fit or positioning or defining a niche/category or segmentation - all of those are very strategic parts of PMM and of your company's GTM strategy - critical things any executive team would care about.

Tldr; align what you do with the biggest company priorities. Bring something of value (like data or insights) and show your value by making an impact.

Great question. I think ultimately it comes down to ensuring they understand the role AND value that product marketing offers. I've found a lot of the lack of interest or engagement has come from a misunderstanding of the function or not appreciating explicitly the value that product marketing brings to a business. Once this has been clarified (i.e messaging, value props, competitive differentiators, launch success, enablement, customer engagement, evangelism and so on) I have found that they quickly become and allie. More importantly they'll ensure you have a seat at the table for important conversations and planning once they see how invaluable you are!