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Axel Kirstetter
VP Product Marketing, Guidewire Software
About
B2B SaaS Marketing leader. I help companies transition from a single product to a portfolio.
Content
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
Its OK for the line to be muddy. Make sure you have a good working relation with your sales ops counterpart. Usually sales ops and enablement are slightly different functions. sales ops has also revenue ops elements in it around contracting and quoting for example. One common metric outright ......Read More
2045 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
Great question. Context matters. Larger companies have a dedicated sales enablement department. They are subject experts at the process of passing on knowledge to Sales. PMM are experts in the subject at hand. For example in the context of a launch, PMM would define message, positiong, pricing et......Read More
1529 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
This question sits better with Sales than product marketing. Also, sales strategy sounds like an oximoron to me. WHo cares how you sell as long as you make revenues (and its legal/ethical). That said, to better plan and align a company needs to decide a few things. Choices to be made: - what is ......Read More
1199 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • May 24
Pricing and CI are two separate side of the same coin. Easiest way to win more business is to reduce your price. But that has consequences for revenue. Ultimately one product with different price points is aimed at a different cohort where price sensitivity, functional preferences and quality exp......Read More
939 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • March 31
1. Many companies have a form of President's Club. Congratulate every single awardee. Ask to join them on the next drive-by with prospects/clients. these are the best reps you company has. there is probably a reason they are good 2. Listen in to tele conversation (be it inside our outisde sales......Read More
812 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
Should Sales not create the Sales Playbook?! This seems to be a case where PMM is doing Sales Ops' job. I understand with smaller companies responsibilities stretch across departments. In this case I would have thought the right answer is to work with Sales on the playbook. If they co-authored it......Read More
776 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • May 24
There is an interesting overlap between market research and competitive intelligence. that intersection is market intelligence. strictly speaking CI is only about direct competitors. Ignoring things like technology changes, indirect / partner landscape, macroeconomic changes, market size, regulat......Read More
760 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
Given that you are resource constrained I would highly recommend you explore using CI software. There are a few out there. Do a little research. For $20k you can be up and running. Team up with Sales to fund it. In PMM you dont always need to own everything. You can have can also impact by facili......Read More
749 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • March 31
Are you perhaps stretched too thin with multiple/various buyers. Do you need to do a buying persona exercise vs accelerated sales enablement? Sometime Sales Enablement is over thought. Ultimately it is about facilitating/suppporting the selling process. If you are pursuing many varied buyers, wh......Read More
748 Views
Axel Kirstetter
Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing • April 1
Love this question. Here is my 5-stepper 1. Identify your corporate dates. sales offsite, management offsite, product launches etc. are time based anchorpoints. Key decisions get made or updates occur. Execs get together etc. (pro tip: avoid end of quarter) 2. Identify your key business priorit......Read More
742 Views
Credentials & Highlights
VP Product Marketing at Guidewire Software
Formerly EIS Group, Datasite, Software AG, Microstrategy
Lives In Rockville, Maryland
Knows About Sales Enablement, Stakeholder Management, Competitive Positioning, Pricing and Packag......more