At every company I’ve been a part of, product marketing has always been the driver of any sales enablement done by the marketing team. I’m sure that’s not the case everywhere, but I believe it’s the norm. The main reason is PMMs are hired for a specific skill set that fits enablement – storytelling, positioning, and content production. On top of the raw skills, it’s part of the PMM team’s day job to be experts on the company’s product, market, and customers – all of which tie into the knowledge that the sales team needs.
The only exceptions I’ve seen are when the enablement is related to non-product-focused topics. For example, I’ve seen a demand gen team enable SDRs on how to follow up with leads from events and webinars. I’ve also seen content teams train on thought leadership assets that can be used in the sales cycle. For example, my current company releases a product benchmarks report and our content lead built the sales content and ran the training.
For product releases, I don’t have a “go-to-stack” but have a standard set of deliverables I’ve found useful in most situations (see below). Enablement software (LMS, Content Management System, etc.) can make it all easier, but isn’t necessary.
One big change I've made over the years is that I now swear by Google Slides and Google Docs, after being a PowerPoint and Word fan boy for quite some time. It's so much easier to keep people up-to-date with the latest materials and messaging when you can make updates at the same link. The minute people download a PPT deck to their desktop, they'll be copying that same version for the next 9 months and missing all the updates you make.
Here is a summary of product launch deliverables, related to the sales team, that I typically see:
- Launch checklist: for internal alignment, usually in a Google Sheet or project management software like Asana.
- Messaging & positioning doc: This is the foundation for all the launch materials. By documenting the product’s value prop, target audience, use cases, and differentiation, you can enable a team of people to execute independently in their roles.
- Slides: Good sales reps and CSMs always always want to share the latest releases in their meetings, even if they’re small. Plug-and-play slides make it easier for them, and also keep everyone across the company on-message.
- Training: it helps to get in a room and discuss things. The most common question I get asked is, “how do I sell it?” which isn’t as easy to convey in writing (although it’s possible). If you work with someone on the sales team to be a presenter at the training, you’ll have a credible pitch delivered by one of their peers.
- Copy/paste email templates: to slot into Gmail or Outlook, or a mass-email tool like Outreach / Tout. Sales always appreciates when things are plug-and-play so they can focus on selling and not writing.
- Longer-form assets: data sheets, solution sheets, blog posts. These aren’t a fit for every release, but are useful for the big ones.