Hila Segal

I would recommend considering a few tools for the enablement stack (but try not to get crazy here - focus on what your team absolutely needs depending on the maturity of the org): - Call recording to be able to listen to calls in a scalable and systematic way (like Gong, Salesloft, Zoom IQ) - Sales collateral platform to host all content in one central location, track usage, versioning, analytics, etc. (like Highspot, Showpad) - Competitive content platform for up-to-date information and competi ...Read More

Building diverse working relationships with different stakeholders across the organization is one of the most critical secret powers of a successful product marketer. Doing that not only gives you access to information and knowledge, but it will also help you collaborate more effectively on major projects. Here are the tops internal relationships you need to master: Product managers - think about this relationship like a true marriage, and your children are the products you bring to market toget ...Read More

Listen to sales/CS calls. As a team on 1 you can't be on every call but make it a weekly habit to listen to at least 5-10 calls (you can listen at 1.5 or 2x speed 😊). Be strategic about the calls you listen to - use keyword search or tagging for key topics of interest that are relevant to your business like competitors, pricing, implementation, ROI, etc. This will give you great insights into what your customers and prospects care about and how your team is responding.  Read G2 reviews. There's ...Read More

Analysts will not endorse any vendor directly. Your goal with AR is to help shape their POV about the market, especially if this is a new category and ultimately get well positioned on MQs and Wave reports. Shaping their POV means showing analysts how customers are getting value from this new type of solution and what critical capabilities that are required to be successful. Do this by building a personal relationship with the analysts, sharing insights, connecting them with your customers, and ...Read More

Advancing to a director level can happen as an individual contributor when the scope of the role is expanded, and more responsibility is given to you—for example, leading product marketing for a product line or multiple product lines. You can also step into a people manager role. No matter what path you choose, transitioning into a director role means graduating from product marketing execution into designing a strategic product marketing roadmap that aligns with company goals and the needs of t ...Read More

Strong PMMs are good writers, know their product inside and out, experts of the competitive landscape, messaging geniuses and storytellers, BFFs with the sales team, GTM architects and excellent project managers. I like to think about a good PMM as a: A psychologist who can develop a deep understanding of the fears, aspirations, hopes, and dreams of buyers and target personas. An explorer seeking to learn more, discover more, and do more; bringing curiosity and some risk taking to product messag ...Read More

It's a great idea to get sales involved pre-launch. A really great idea! Here are some thoughts on how to do that: 1/ Find the innovative sellers on your team and give them early access to content, messaging, demo, etc. so they can start testing and provide feedback 2/ Start enabling and creating early excitement around a new product months before it officially GA. Sales all-hands, roadmap sessions, demo days, etc.  3/ Create a forum for sales to share market insights and what they are hearing f ...Read More

Going upmarket is a company-wide initiative that goes well beyond just pricing. Your product needs to be optimized to support the next tier of buyers (for example more scale, APIs, supported languages, admin capabilities etc.). Your GTM engine needs to be recalibrated for selling up-market - from creating demand to qualifying pipeline and navigating enterprise deals for close. Your support and customer success playbooks must also be upgraded and developed for the new buying segment with more whi ...Read More

Today, there are so many fantastic resources and community groups, certainly more than when I started as a pmm. So I'll focus my answer on other ways you can continue to grow professionally: Find a mentor. Identify a product marketer who's further on in their career than you and ask them to be your mentor. It doesn't have to be someone you know or have worked with in the past. Reach out and explain what you are trying to accomplish and what pmm skills you are looking to develop. Ideally, you wan ...Read More