What can someone who has an extensive sales background do to prove themselves competent for an entry-level product marketing role?

Some of the best product marketers I know started in sales roles, but it can be hard to make the jump from sales into marketing. As a salesperson, you know first hand how messaging is landing with prospective customers, what the needs of those customers are, and where your product wins and where it falls short compared to the competition -- all of which is invaluable to a product marketing team. The trick is taking that knowledge and building out the other foundational skills you need to make you ready for a PMM role. I'll focus this answer on how to move internally within your own company, but this advice still applies if you're looking to move to a new company in product marketing.

My first suggestion is talking to your manager and the product marketing lead at your company to let them know that you’re interested and ask them what you should do to show this is a role you can take on.

From there, I’d suggest taking on some sales enablement and training work. A lot of a product marketer’s role, especially in B2B SaaS companies, is focused on making sure the sales team has what they need to be successful. Getting your feet wet in that area will help you show your aptitude in the sales enablement side of product marketing. You can also take the lead as the sales point of contact for a large product launch to get exposure into how products are launched at your company and also give you the opportunity to drive some of the work yourself.

Once you’ve been able to show your experience in core product marketing work, you may be ready to put your hat in the ring for an open role. You likely will have to interview, rather than just having the job given to you, but lean into the strengths you have around understanding your target customer and insights around messaging, training, and product expertise.

Prove your passion for the customer. Demonstrate how you've set out to understand their needs and challenges, and how you solved them in your past roles. The importance of messaging and positioning in your day-to-day, and how that's driven success is another angle to call out. If you're breaking into PMM, it's about passion...passion for product, for customer and for excellence.

I find that a lot of the most successful marketers as well as product marketers come from a sales background and I have a lot to learn from them. You're already super customer-focused, you're a great communicator, you are an expert at thriving in tense situations, and nobody knows the go-to-market motion better. Let's bottle that up and turn you into a PMM!   

1. Find an industry you will thrive in and a product you are passionate about. Maybe this is an industry you have sold into or maybe it's something you already love. Build a network within that industry and start learning the ins and outs. There are a ton of places you can do this like Sharebird (!!), Product Marketing Alliance, LinkedIn, and even local meetups.  

2. Figure out any gaps and fill them. Start learning the basics of Product Marketing through online resources and courses. By submitting this question and tuning into Sharebird, you're off to a great start.  

3. Play up your strengths. You're the product now! Make sure you are positioning yourself accordingly on your resume, in public-facing forums, and by participating in relevant communities. 

Oh, and do everything in groups of 3s. I'm noticing a bit of a pattern here with my answers :) 

I made the switch from Sales to Product Marketing at my company a year ago. I actually wrote about this topic here . Here's my quick take:

-Product teams (in my experience) are always looking for ways to get feedback from customers. Document your customer/prospect feedback from your Sales calls.

-Sales enablement is a massive part of a product marketing team's GTM strategy (depending on your product)...you've been in the Sales seat, and have insight into what Sales wants/needs in terms of content and assets...this is incredibly valuable to Product Marketing.

-Present, present, present—whether it's events, webinars, recorded videos, conferences, customer meetings, etc. Product Marketers have to be able to articulate the product, benefits, and vision—something you're probably already doing in Sales! Volunteer to be a speaker at your next marketing event.

Create a lot of content - start a blog, write about companies you admire/respect, do videos, create Slideshares. My instinct is that a sales person could be a great PMM fit but I want to see how they write and think.

I spent over five years in my career as a top producing sales rep before breaking into product marketing. The thing I made sure that I could prove how valuable my background in sales could be to the role. As a sales rep, I know what it was like to have valuable material that was easy to use and understand and then I also knew what it was like to feel ill-informed and not have the support and relevant material. To be able to describe that in the interview process was critical.... and to stress the value and importance product marketing has on the sales enablement process.