What strategic value can Product Marketing and Sales Enablement partnership drive?

While I see PMM as the flywheel of the corporate trinity: Sales, Marketing and Engineering, and view our influence and relationship with all as important, the one stakeholder relationship tied most directly to corporate success is with Sales -- and Sales Enablement in particular. Unless Sales is successful selling, there is no need for Marketing or Engineering.

In driving GTM strategy, PMM can ensure repeatable sales success, so that reps can focus solely on selling. So very practically, our working relationship with Sales Enablement boils down into 3 major collaborations:

1) Sales Kickoff (SKO): Once a year we level set the entire Field on the latest positioning and messaging, sales tools, sales plays, and competititve landscape.

2) Continuous enablement: Throughout the sales year, we must inform reps of new releases, content, and competitive perspectives. And we must provide this information in as many channels as possible, from weekly calls, to emails, internal newsletters, and Slack. Duplication and repetition is not only good, it is necessary.

3) Sales kits: Sales enablement platforms have gotten much better, and now allow us as content creators to curate for reps, all the right content down to the persona and sales stage.

The relationship between PMMs and Sales Enablement can be powerful to ensure the field is getting and staying up to date with the product, the market, and the competition.


Product Marketers do a great job crafting stories that drive product adoption and awareness. This information is curated through strong partnerships with the Product organization and Competitive/Market Insights team. If your organization does not have a CI team, that's ok - that means your PMM is a powerful treasure trove of market and competitive insights. As a member on the Sales Enablement team - it's crucial that you leverage this intel. Be tightly connected to the material your PMM is producing, internal trainings that are hosted, and roadmap initiative underway.


Sales Enablement has a great pulse of the field and areas the AEs and others need support. Bring this to your PMM with a menu of options for your PMM to plug into for joinning a regional/global sales call, a deep-dive into a specific feature or capability, hosting a lunch-in-learn for competitive differentiators. As a Sales Enablement lead, the more specific you can be in your ask to PMM, the easier, and quicker it is for that PMM to deliver or point you to an existing content piece. Finally, be sure to spend time with the material produced and if there are opportunities for Sales Enablement to tailor the content to best suit the field - make those updates and ask your PMM to review/edit/collaborate with you. 

It is one of the most important partnerships. There is a shared goal around enabling sales to sell by telling a consistent narrative and connecting with ideal customers through messaging and assets that will resonate.

PMM and Sales Enablement should work together to identify and fill knowledge gaps that are blocking reps from moving deals forward (e.g. talking points against a new competitor or for a new use case) and ensure reps know where to find the right content. Sales Enablement is a great resource for getting distilled feedback that can help PMMs understand what types of content are more effective — and why. It's important the two don't become misaligned, which can create confusion for the reps.

I think it's a hugely valuable and strategic relationship. 

Sales Enablement is invested in the growth and performance of the sales team. They provide the systems, processes, and tools that reps need to ramp quickly, and continue hitting their quota. They ususally have credibility amongst the sales team and reps listen to what they say/ask. 

For Product Marketers, this is a huge strategic partner. Our messaging, content, tools, etc. provide valuable content Sales Enablement can use in their training. We can leverage their existing processes and ear of the sales team to effectively distribute our content. 

Sales Enablement is also tapped into the needs and priorities of the sales team. This makes them a great source of information when it comes to existing sales priorities, gaps that we can help fill, areas where PMM can provide a ton of value. 

Product marketing and sales enablement teams share an ultimate goal: to help sales teams sell more. Each team has an important role in driving revenue.

Product Marketing focuses on developing content assets for the sales team to use throughout the buyer journey, and Sales Enablement ensures reps know how and when to use that content to deliver great buyer experiences and close more deals.

Product Marketing and Sales Enablement are most effective when they're working with each other, rather than against each other. Collaboration starts with developing cohesive strategies and plans that complement each other and align with the overall vision and goals of the company.

Partner up for strategic planning with your sales enablement team. Share priorities, plans, and calendars for the coming year to ensure they're aligned. Ask for and deliver feedback, and rework plans as necessary to ensure priorities are aligned and everyone is working toward the same goals.