I'm curious about the experience of others, which group has been harder to work with––Product or Sales? And why and how y'all work through issues?

I’ve been in consumer businesses during my career as a Product Marketing so I can only speak to working with Product. I’ve had a lot of great experiences with Product partners. First and foremost, when starting a new business relationship I find ways to add value before I start offering criticism. Figure out what the team needs that you can help with and start there for at least the first few weeks. Next, make sure you’re picking your battles, and make sure your rationale for picking your battle ...Read More

In short, neither. I wouldn't look at this as "harder to work with" as much as I'd suggest investigating how you set up your goals and expectations. Both product and sales are invaluable partners.  Both generate compelling user insights. Product happens to generally generate them earlier during the development cycles while sales (especially in B2B) can get them to you rapidly once a product is in market. That being said, one needs to be careful not to use insights from product or sales too much ...Read More

In most companies I've worked in, Product Marketing is often vastly outnumbered by Sales teams. The challenge is not usually in personalities or conflicting interests - but in sheer numbers. For me, managing PMM-Sales relationships comes down to understanding their goals (keeping large customers happy, hitting sales quotas, etc.), while also taking care not to become an unnecessary bottleneck for their work.  In the past, I've used the following tactics to avoid/work through issues: Take time to ...Read More

In my experience, it depends more on the actual people you work with vs the function. I have had both incredible sales and product partners that understood the big picture, were always down to collaborative and problem solve together, and where we could openly talk about areas of disagreement. These folks came curious to learn other people’s perspectives and kept users' experience at the heart, making it easier to get alignment. I’ve also had experiences where that was not the case. If you are e ...Read More

I always say that Product and Sales should be the two best friends of Product Marketing! And I would say they both have their times when they are hard to work with or need more care. For both groups though, the most important thing is to listen and bring value. Come to them with ideas and ask for feedback early and often. Listen to their pains and challenges and come back to them with value add (assets, ideas, etc). With either group you want to help avoid or break down silos. Some tips for doin ...Read More