Kelly Kipkalov
Sr Director, Product Marketing, BILL
Content
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
I'm going to answer your question slightly differently. PMMs can acquire skills as they develop in their careers, that's a given. So when I hire PMMs, I'm not just looking for skills, I'm looking for a specific customer-first mindset. Do you understand the customer problem you're trying to solve?......Read More
656 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
I've hired people straight out of undergrad, it's possible. Look for entry level titles like product marketing analyst, or specialist...they are out there. BUT, I will say don't despair if you don't see a lot of entry level PMM roles, and instead just try and land a marketing role in a company wh......Read More
439 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • April 18
Anything by Trout and Ries (ancient, I realize), or April Dunford. April's 'Obviously Awesome' book is an quick and fascinating read, and while it focusses on positioning, good messaging falls out of great positioning. So start there and everything else follows!
405 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
In our PMM career ladder at BILL we evaluate PMM career progression in the following areas: * Ability to uncover market insights * Influence product strategy and development * Create positioning and messaging * Orchestrate Go To Market plans At the level you're asking about - PMM to ......Read More
404 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • April 18
I guess I'll have to pile on the Chat GPT bandwagon! But I will also say that we haven't used Chat GPT to create messages as much as we have used it to fine tune them, and to help with voice and tone. Some PMMs struggle with brevity and I've found Chat GPT helpful to take longer messages and skin......Read More
400 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
My answer to this is that 'it depends' on where you are in your career. If you are early career and just starting as a PMM, I would typically be making a hiring decision solely based on soft skills. There's no expectation that you have a well rounded set of hard PMM skills as an entry level ca......Read More
397 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
There's another question I fielded about soft skills, so take a look at that one in the feed. The soft skills I listed there: * Clear and confident written and verbal communication * Ability to influence others (particularly product) * Strong drive for results/taking initiative There's ......Read More
397 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
I'd be happy to have some back and forth on this, but I'm not sure I fully understand the context of the question. Are you writing emails to sales, and if so, what type of content are you sharing? Or you writing emails for sales reps to send to customers? Feel free to email me back and I can take......Read More
385 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
Such a great question! Sales enablement - although you're right it's a narrow focus - is still very transferable to the more customer facing aspects of customer marketing. You still need to understand how to build clear value props and messaging for sales so they can win deals, it's just that ......Read More
382 Views
Kelly Kipkalov
BILL Sr Director, Product Marketing • December 20
Of all the skill sets I think are important for a product marketer, brand marketing isn't on the top of the list. In fact, it's probably the opposite - particularly in smaller tech companies where brand = product - where I think a brand marketer could benefit from experience as a product marketer......Read More
382 Views
Credentials & Highlights
Sr Director, Product Marketing at BILL
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Knows About SMB Product Marketing, Messaging, Category Creation, Product Marketing / Demand Gen A......more