What are some ways you can build credibility with Sales, ensuring that they will leverage your messaging and materials?

Man, I love this question! As PMMs so much of our work only has impact if it has engagement from others, and the only way to get that engagement is by having credibility in the organization. This won't be a perfect list or exhaustive, but some things that come to mind are: Take the time to understand their world: Get out in the field with them, get to know them over drinks, learn what customers are saying about how the product is/isn't meeting their needs, see how our assets do in the wild, etc. ...Read More

The best sales reps I’ve seen rely on people and resources across the company to win deals, but these same reps are also very particular about the materials they use and the people they invite to meetings. This attention to detail in the customer experience is what drives their success.The million dollar question to ask yourself is: “How can I be a value-add? What can I provide that they can’t get from anyone else at the company?”If you aren’t sure, just ask them what they need that would make t ...Read More

Well, it’s difficult to “ensure” that anyone is going to use any set of materials. I would look at it from the point of view where PMM's job is to create messaging and materials that sales would want to use.  Understand/Build your Voice of the Customer  To build initial credibility, it’s essential to champion the voice of the customer. You need to make sure you understand the buyer as well as they do, or your credibility will never get off the ground. Understanding the voice of the customer also ...Read More

This is all about relationships, credibility/expertise, and your ability to help sellers. Once you can demonstrate that you can help them by bringing your perspective to what they're doing to make them smarter, more consultative, more well-informed, etc., the more they'll trust you and the better your end product - in this case - messaging - will be. Get curious about what deals are giving sellers trouble, and where in the sales process they're getting stuck. Ask them if you can learn more. Shad ...Read More

I am going to answer this question as a former sales person plus as someone who produces content and train sales on new messaging. Sales people will listen to you if (1) they feel that you can help them close deals (2) you understand their painpoints as a sales person. So two things that I have done, which makes my training effective. (1) I make it a point to join calls as a silent listener, and when I train a team on some new messaging, I would reference the call that i attended as an example o ...Read More

In addition to David's answer, I will also add the following points that should help build the credibility.  Consistency You want to continue to deliver fresh content consistently. Consistent doesn't mean high quantity. But you need to follow a consistent cadence. Too many times, marketing will create content in these bursts and then stay back and watch. If your company is selling, then there is always an opportunity to gather insights and share them with your sales team to help them with their ...Read More

These are all great answers. To add just a little bit to Gaurav's helpful points of consistency and ease... Consistency--keep content updated with market and competitor movements. Did a competitor change pricing? Launch a new product? Change the messaging on their product pages? If you're tracking this stuff consistently AND you keep your sales collateral updated with those insights (battlecards, competitive profiles, etc.) sales will continue to leverage your materials because they know that it ...Read More

Great question - great answers. Dave Kong started us with a super framework. As you know, this is not a trivial issue so I would like to add a POV to these answers. (Full disclosure: I am sharing what I have seen as head of a B2B buyer strategy firm. I am so passionate about this, we created an offering to do this called PlaybooksPlus).  The Key to Sales Thinking In my experience, sales people are ruthlessly practical - they use what works. So the conversation with them must be ruthlessly focuse ...Read More

Meet them where their difficulties are. What, in their minds, is preventing them from closing more, bigger, faster? Maybe you know that messaging is the issue, but until you actually sit with salespeople and understand where they feel their own gaps are, you won't be able to translate that messaging into a format they will be able to use. For example, I've stopped making "buyer personas" the final deliverable. It should always be "business cases" that tell the actual story of how different stake ...Read More