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When creating a category how important is it to have a new title to sell into? Can you create a category with an existing role as main user?

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3 Answers
  1. Nipul Chokshi
    Nipul Chokshi

    Fourth CMO • 5y

    I don’t think it’s super critical for there to be a “new role” when creating a new category. When I was at Yammer, for example, we defined the “Enterprise Social Networking” category but made it a must have for various existing roles in an organization (VP HR, COO, VP Sales, etc.).What you’ll find is that new categories often don’t have a corresponding line item in the buyer’s budget - so you’ll need to help them identify ways to fund the spend for your solution (by borrowing from other line ite ...Read More

    1,003 Views
  2. Mike Berger
    Mike Berger

    Ex-VP, Product Marketing @ ClickUp, SurveyMonkey, Gainsight, Marketo | Formerly Momentive, Gainsight, Marketo • 3y

    You can create a category either way, but either way it isn't easy! Gainsight is a great example of a company that created a category by building a platform for, and championing, a new role that had emerged - the Customer Success leader. This was fueled by a shift to subscription-based billing, where retention became a primary growth lever for SaaS companies, and the Customer Success leader the person responsible for driving it. But you can also look at the creation of the Marketing Automation c ...Read More

    1,175 Views
  3. Anthony Kennada
    Anthony Kennada

    AudiencePlus CEO • 6y

    Not critical. In fact, you may be better off launching a new category into an existing (and much larger TAM) than also taking the task of creating / expanding a smaller TAM. The work that Gong and Drift are doing within the sales and marketing community (respectively) is quite impressive. The catch is that owning a niche can lead to some great business outcomes for the company on top.  When it comes to category creation, the idea is to position and evangelize a new problem that's observed in the ...Read More

    2,104 Views

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