David Esber

My first question is: what's the reason for not relying on your revenue org? Is there a lack of trust, challenges with prioritization, or something else? The best, most differentiated positioning means nothing if it's not being used throughout the customer journey – and since the majority of marketing orgs are focused on driving leads to a sales team, that messaging better be consistent at every stage of the marketing funnel. I view our sales partners as essential in building, validating, and ac ...Read More

A deep understanding of the product, target audience, job to be done, and the technical solution is essential for our team to be good PMMs. For any product, even those that are less technical, knowing what the job to be done is and how the product offering does that job is a strong starting point. Every product conversation starts with what I call 20ish questions that generally focus on the following categories:  Job to be done (who, what, why)  Product accessibility (how do they use it, what li ...Read More

One of the best things we can do as PMMs is talk to customers; joining sales conversations is a great way to gain a better understanding of ICP, customer pain points, and market trends – but it's also only scalable when it's focused on high-value engagements, used to test new narratives or positioning, or conduct research that's used to improve foundational assets like positioning frameworks and canonical pitch decks. Our team focuses our energy on producing and refining those foundational asset ...Read More

Enablement partners, like PMM, are balancing the needs and asks of multiple stakeholders. They sit in the middle of lots of initiatives and priorities, just like we do. And, we both benefit from close partnership to deliver the best possible enablement, keep a pulse on the needs of sales teams and leaders, and ensure consistency of message. For major initiatives, we've found it's best to engage Sales Enablement as early as possible in a workstream, soliciting input on best enablement modalities ...Read More

The best feedback we can get as PMMs is critical feedback. I firmly believe that our messaging should constantly be refined based on changing market conditions, competitor releases, or customer needs. If we're getting feedback that our messaging isn't landing, then it's a great opportunity to dig into the "why" it isn't working – but that certainly doesn't mean you have to agree or make changes.  There will always be times when leaders push changes from the top, and we need to respond, but an es ...Read More

Get in front of customers any chance you have! I will rarely say no to an ask to present a roadmap, speak at an event, support a pitch, or join a voice of customer session. This gives me opportunities to hear their concerns/desires and subtly test messaging. I might swap out a standard pitch deck for a draft I'm working on, or ask leading questions to test out new messaging – all of these insights don't just validate our messaging, but help us to refine and improve our messaging.  Additionally, ...Read More

No one likes being marketed at, but, when done well, we typically don't mind being marketed to. Generally speaking, we've found there's far more nuance to this dichotomy than simply drawing a line between audiences. I've also noticed many companies shift away from the divided messaging approach (i.e., dedicated landing pages for developers or non-developers) toward a single page that speaks to both features and values. Since we can't reasonably control 100% of who lands on a given piece of conte ...Read More

A former marketing leader I worked with always emphasized the need to "market your marketing". It takes time, is often the last thing I want to do after spending months working on a deliverable (or entire Bill of Materials), but it's arguably the most important thing we do.  Since our messaging is often most consumable in the form of customer-facing slides, we often start with a canonical pitch deck (that is maintained in our enablement hub), demo, and website.  From there, it's a hub-and-spoke ...Read More

I'm fortunate to work with a great team of Enablement partners who are responsible for building our regular weekly sales updates. We all are inundated with regular newsletters, emails and slacks, assigned trainings, and vendor promotions – it's hard to cut through that noise. Thanks to these partners, we're continuously improving the ways we get important information in front of teams, while also focusing on highest impact/most scaled activities. The team has landed on a highly-scannable, predic ...Read More

Guaranteeing every person the sales team uses "official" messages is a sisyphean task; when you step back to look at benefit vs. effort, it's probably not worth the effort. Instead, here's where I'd focus my time: Tier new messaging/resource rollouts like you would any launch – focus time, training, and effort on the most critical resources. For that content, gain buy-in from sales leadership to enable every team, including pitch certifications, on-demand resources including videos of salespeopl ...Read More