Polomi Batra

This can really depend on what the product is, how large and complex it is, how well defined the challenges and use cases are. In terms of thinking about messaging and positioning of a product from scratch (in an ideal world), you should think about giving yourself time to go through a few steps: 1. Market research to understand your target audience, their needs, pain points, and preferences. This often involves customer surveys, 1:1 interviews, focus group, competitor analysis, and analyst reports and marketing trends. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on the depth of research required. 2. Forming your messaging and positioning: Based on step 1, start to formalize your product positioning and messaging, including taglines, elevator pitches, challenges, use cases and benefits. 3. Testing and refinement: Now that messaging and positioning is formally documented it’s time to start testing it. Test it internally and externally. And try to do a mix of quantitative and qualitative testing. For qualitative - talk to your go-to-market teams and get their feedback, pitch the messaging to analysts and get their early feedback, talk to a few customers and get their feedback. For quantitative - you can test using tools like UserVoice for customer feedback and surveys, and tools for A/B testing your messaging like Optimizely and Google Optimize to name a few. Once your new messaging is launched, think about how to monitor and optimize that messaging over time as the product evolves which affects the positioning, or its differentiators, or the main challenges it’s trying to solve. A couple of ways I’ve done this in the past is (1) quarterly surveys to customers to help validate our messaging still holds true, (2) quarterly check-ins with analysts to make sure the messaging still resonates with what the market needs, (3) ad-hoc check in with go-to-market teams to get their feedback on how the content (ex: pitch decks) is performing with customers. 

Yeah, this is always tough, especially because all the above roles usually have a point of view on this (as they should). Few things to consider: * Set clear goal alignment: Ensure everyone understands and agrees on the overarching objectives of our messaging strategy to create a common foundation for discussions * Customer-centric focus: Prioritize understanding your target audience by developing detailed buyer personas and gathering insights into their needs and preferences so you can be a voice for them in these discussions * Data-driven insights: Use data and research findings to provide more insights for feature prioritization. This can include competitive data about how the feature is differentiated, or feedback from customers and analysts directly. This will add credibility to your opinions. * Collaboration and compromise: Encourage collaborative discussions, open communication, and consensus building among stakeholders with different perspectives to arrive at well-informed decisions.

Ah, if you're going through this right now, I feel you. This one is tough and it's because messaging can be so subjective sometimes. If you can, try to take the conversation back to two things: 1. Data-driven insights: Emphasize the importance of data-driven decision-making. Use concrete data from A/B testing, customer feedback, and performance metrics as much as you can to showcase how the two options are performing. 2. Customer-centric focus: Highlight the significance of aligning messaging with the needs and preferences of the target audience. Explain how the new messaging not only resonates emotionally but also addresses the functional benefits that matter to customers. Showcase testimonials or case studies demonstrating how customers find the new messaging more appealing, thus enhancing their connection with the product or service. And if that doesn't work, come to a compromise and keep an eye on the performance of the messaging so you can bring it back up again after some time to re-evaluate.

Measuring the success of your product messaging is crucial to understanding how well it resonates with your audience and drives your business goals. Here are a few different ways to measure how successful your messaging is on the different channels it’s shared on at a micro-level and macro-level: More pin-pointed ways to measure success of messaging and how it’s resonating on certain channels like email, and in-product messages, websites and social media: * Click-through rate (CTR): How many people who saw your message took action by clicking on a link or call to action. It's a good indicator of the message's ability to engage your audience. * Conversion rate: % of users who took the desired action after engaging with your message, such as making a purchase, signing up, or downloading content. * Engagement metrics: Engagement metrics like likes, shares, comments, and retweets (on social media) to see audience's interest and interaction with your message. * Bounce rate: For messaging that’s used on the website, a low bounce rate indicates that your message is attracting visitors who engage with other content on your site, while a high bounce rate suggests that the message might not be resonating. * Time on page: The amount of time users spend on a landing page or content page after engaging with your message can indicate the message's effectiveness in keeping visitors engaged. * Email open rate: In email marketing, the open rate measures how many recipients opened the email which can tell you the effectiveness of your messaging * Email click-through rate: How many people clicked on links or calls to action within your email? This shows the message's ability to drive action. Broader, more qualitative ways to measure success of your messaging * Customer feedback and surveys: Collect feedback from your customers through surveys, focus groups, or direct communication. Ask questions related to the messaging's impact and whether it aligns with their expectations. * Sales feedback: How often is sales using the customer-facing materials you built for them to use like pitch decks, etc. Is it resonating with their customers? How many folks from GTM are using it or viewing it * Brand awareness and sentiment: Track brand recognition and sentiment through tools like social listening and sentiment analysis to gauge how your messaging is impacting brand perception.

This is a good question and a very hard problem to solve in a saturated SaaS/Tech industry. Here are a couple of principles I typically try to follow when solving for this problem: * Develop a unique value proposition: Identify what makes your product different from the competition. It could be a unique feature, better pricing, superior customer service, or a focus on a specific niche. Your value proposition should be clear and compelling. * Tell a compelling story: Craft a compelling product narrative that resonates with your target audience and the challenges they are facing with real-life examples. Keep the language simple and relatable to make it more memorable. * Highlight benefits, not just features: This goes back to make it more relatable. Instead of listing features, emphasize the benefits of using your product. Explain how it will make customers' lives easier, save them time or money, or help them achieve their goals. * Have a customer-first approach: Put your customers at the center of everything you do. Gather feedback, provide excellent customer support, and showcase customer success stories. Potential customers are often swayed by the experiences of others.

This is a good question and one that is likely debate-able. I don’t think I’ve seen evidence to prove this one way or the other. However, being part of a global software company with a widely international customer base, my observation has been that certain markets like data sheets over others. Typically a data sheet is useful to provide an overview of the product’s features, specifications, and benefits. They help customers make informed decisions by offering detailed and relevant information at a glance. The key information that customers find most valuable in data sheets includes: * Product specifications: Details on what comes with it, supported platforms, and integration capabilities with existing tools * Key features and benefits: Overview of unique features and differentiators, along with the business benefits of each * Customer testimonials: Success stories from customers that have implemented the software and realized significant improvements in efficiency * Pricing and packaging information (with key market currencies listed) * Support information: Clear outline of the support options available, including 24/7 technical support and comprehensive user manuals (optional)

Great question! At Zendesk, we do provide sales enablement for a global product with a global sales team. Here are a couple of things I like to focus on: * Region-specific case studies: Include relevant case studies and testimonials from each region to make the material more relatable. * Whenever possible, localize the content for 1-2 priority regions * Involve local teams early and often: Work with local sales teams and regional experts to gather insights and ensure the material is relevant and effective. And also, establish feedback loops with local teams to continuously improve and update the materials based on their input and market changes. * Provide continuous support and resources to address any questions or challenges that arise with office hours, or region-specific trainings/Q&A sessions * Work with your enablement team, or regularly review performance data and feedback to refine and improve the materials 

This is a tough one! A couple of things you can put into place: * Regular training and updates by conducting regular training sessions, workshops, office hours, certifications * Weekly updates by sending out weekly emails with new terms and industry news, slack announcements * Centralized knowledge repository like Seismic for example * At Zendesk, we use a tool called Gong to listen in on calls our reps are having with customers, we also join customer calls and EBCs to observe and provide feedback to the sales team on their positioning and pitching of our solutions

Great question! First thing you want to answer is “what is the goal of your sales enablement”? Is it increasing sales productivity, reducing sales cycle length, improving win rates, and enhancing rep onboarding, etc.. A couple of things we typically look into today to see how effective our sales enablement has been and the ROI of it. One thing to note is that it can be difficult to know for sure, but these are all indications of ROI of sales enablement. * Win rates: Percentage of deals won versus deals lost * Average deal size: Value of closed deals * Content usage and effectiveness: # of downloads, # of shares with customers * Qualitative feedback from reps in different regions, CSAT and completion of trainings

Working with sales is a collaborative effort; when you offer them assistance, they're more inclined to involve you in discovery calls. Here are some strategies that have proven effective for me in fostering strong relationships with sales: Show up in the calls as the product expert: Deepen your knowledge of the product so you can provide valuable insights during prospect interactions. Whether it's troubleshooting, sharing best practices, demonstrating ROI metrics, or sharing use cases from other customers, your expertise adds significant value. Offer to present or demo: Volunteer to present the product roadmap or conduct a demo during discovery calls. This proactive approach not only showcases the product but also highlights your commitment to supporting sales efforts. Partner beyond the sale: Instead of viewing interactions as one-off engagements, offer ongoing support and collaboration even after the customer buys the product for example. Offer to have feedback calls, more roadmap sessions, etc. I would also recommend starting by investing your efforts in a select group of sales reps, build those strong relationships with a few first and then scale over time as needed.