Nikhil Balaraman

Senior Director Product Marketing, Roofstock

Content

What role should product marketers have in writing email templates for sales development reps?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* Short answer: build the framework, but allow people to be creative. Don’t micro-manage every single email. But maybe run some audits and always be close with the SDR leaders, and get a good understanding for why they are getting rejected/hearing no. * Long answer: * PMM, and......Read More

1790 Views

What is the anatomy of a great analyst briefing deck?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • March 21

I think the mistake here is making it too long. I’d suggest an inverse triangle approach, and keep it short depending on the length and purpose of your briefing, probably no more than 5-10 slides. My typical lay out is: 1. Company slide (founded in, team, key logos, etc) 2. Market context (TAM......Read More

1541 Views

When launching a significant sub-product (e.g. an enterprise version of an existing product) how do you strike the right balance of enabling your sales team without bombarding them with dizzying details?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* Instead of focusing on the features, start with the use case -- why are we launching this we sub-product? What problem does it solve for our key personas or existing customers? Do we have examples of users adopting this product? * Once you have an understanding for how/why people are......Read More

1384 Views

How do product marketers work with sales enablement people? What are the roles and responsibilities?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* Generally, product marketers and sales enablement should work hand-in-hand as they are some of the most cross-functional roles in any organization. Because of their cross-functional nature, these roles need to be closely connected in order to coordinate messaging, launches, new asset ......Read More

1328 Views

When and how do you prioritize partner enablement?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* It's going to be hard in the early days becuase you'll have a lot to do, and the partner channel probably is non-existant until ~20m or so in ARR. If you're selling into regulated industries this might vary/be sooner, but your main focus should be on enabling your internal teams. * G......Read More

1300 Views

How common it is to pivot to a PMM role from a more technical role? How would you give advice for those who want to do it?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* I actually came to PMM from an SE role/background and would highly recommend people who are in technical roles consider PMM! The best part about this transition is that you're already trained on how to be an expert on the product, and how to best address and identify customer pain poi......Read More

1271 Views

How do I measure sales enablement success?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* At a high-level the goal is likely to make sellers more productive in some sense. Probably by making them more effective or more efficient. Let’s just call this “go-to-market readiness” as this is typically a key pillar of any sales enablement team. * GTM readiness is likely the succ......Read More

1242 Views

What is your suggestion for startups that have a product crossing the 'Chasm'. Are there any roadmaps you would suggest?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

The chasm framework makes it seem like there's just one magic gap that needs to be jumped across, and then you can just set your sales and marketing efforts to autopilot and go on an indefinite vacation. For some companies that may be true...Zoom definitely had an exogenous force push them across......Read More

1233 Views

Which KPIs do you typically use to track sales enablement success?

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* There are 2 main ways of tracking for success: Consumption Metrics and Outcome Metrics * Consumption metrics -- these metrics should be shared/co-owned amongst Enablement, PMM, and Content teams * Content views * Collateral usage * Quiz scores (used as an Ena......Read More

1163 Views

Have you thrown a revenue kickoff, where marketing, sales, and customer success are all together. It would be where there are joint-sessions and then separate sessions for each group. I would love to see a sample schedule. I have done FKOs, but not RKOs.

Nikhil Balaraman

Roofstock Senior Director Product Marketing • January 5

* Having been through several of these at a few different companies, the advice I would offer is that for joint-sessions focus on the biggest impact announcements (e.g., new product demos, fireside chat with a major customer w/ Q&A, new company vision/mission, etc.), and make sure to pu......Read More

1048 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Senior Director Product Marketing at Roofstock