Priya Gill

Not sure I completely answer the question. Typically when I ask candidates to give a presentation, it's less about the specific products they're presenting, but rather HOW they present it. Can the candidate articulate how they effectively approached their GTM strategy, from ideation to execution and beyond. Can they effectively launch a product/feature and properly engage the right cross-functional partners to make that launch a success? Are they outcome-oriented and think about the metrics they're trying to drive with a given launch? Those are just a few things that I would be looking for in a presentation. I would also add: Can they clearly understand the customer pain points and technical capabilities of the product, and translate that into clear marketing messages that resonate? The folks that I've seen who stood out were able to tell a story with their presentation and were clearly outcome-oriented vs tactic-oriented. I don't want someone who's just going to go through the motions. I want a critical thinker who will think outside the box.

There are 3 core areas that I ensure I have a solid understanding of before I build my GTM plan (it’s the same for when I have to build messaging & positioning): * Market trends & Competitive landscape: Understand what’s happening in the market we’re looking to play in and the customer problems or market gaps we are looking to solve. What similar offerings exist and how does our offering differentiate? * Target buyer(s) & their pain points: Get a clear understanding of who my target buyer is (budget, motivation to buy, purchase blockers) and what their pain points are (as it relates to the problem space your target buyer is looking to solve) * Product knowledge: What features and functionality are we delivering and how does that translate into a unique value proposition and set of customer benefits From there, it’s building out the core components of the GTM plan (some of which would be pulled from the research above): * Launch goals: how success will be measured * Launch tier & customer impact (if applicable): helps stakeholders know the level of involvement, volume of launch activities and the impact of the launch on the market and to existing customers * Market & competitive landscape: what are the top market trends, who are the top players in the industry * Product & pricing overview: what you’re launching, how much it costs, what’s included (from a capability perspective), what value will it deliver * Ideal customer profile: who are the primary and secondary targets, cut by geography, company profile (industry, company size), and/or persona (department, job level, budget size, titles) * Product messaging & differentiation: product description, value props and top use cases * Customer acquisition strategy: how customers will hear about the product, what the purchase experience will be like, key points to optimize * Launch execution timeline & DACI: key milestones to drive towards and what the DACI looks like for each part of the process Seamless launch execution of the items above, alignment across cross-functional teams and keeping all stakeholders well-informed throughout the process will be key to your success.

First off, I'll say that I'm never a fan of making someone create messaging/positioning and defining a GTM plan about the interviewing company's product because you're never going to get to the level of knowledge as someone in the company...and it takes way longer to do it right. OK, rant over. :) Typically when I ask candidates to give a presentation, it's less about the specific products they're presenting, but rather HOW they present it. Can the candidate articulate how they effectively approached their GTM strategy, from ideation to execution and beyond. Can they clearly understand the customer pain points and technical capabilities of the product, and translate that into clear marketing messages that resonate? Can they effectively launch a product/feature and properly engage the right cross-functional partners to make that launch a success? Are they outcome-oriented and think about the metrics they're trying to drive with a given launch? Those are just a few things that I would be looking for in a presentation. My hunch is that you were missing some of these things in your presentation.

There are 3 that I primarily look at that PMM influences (not directly drives): * Pipeline / Bookings (Demand gen / monetization efforts) * Win rates (Sales enablement and content) * Product adoption (Growth efforts) There are metrics that we can directly tie to PMM but that I find to be less meaningful, like engagement rates on content that we've created or product launch metrics which are more a moment in time. I think that it's totally fine that we don't directly drive the major metrics I mention above, but showing how PMM involvement / partnership can positively shift and impact each of those metrics is what's key.

If you understand the customer problems or market gaps you’re solving for, then you should be able to hone in on your target buyer and the types of customers you want to attract. It’s a lot easier to narrow down to an ICP if your product is already established and you have a base of customers to pull data from. From there you can start looking for patterns to see if there are commonalities across a specific segment of customers: by region, industry, company size, or type of buyer (department, job level). If your product isn’t established yet, then you can leverage market research solutions (like a global panel via SurveyMonkey), to gather buyer feedback. Either way, once you’ve honed in on this, you would operationalize it by infusing it throughout your GTM strategy. Meaning, your messaging and positioning, pricing strategy, sales enablement, marketing content, etc. would be tailored to this audience.

I’m assuming that when you say “existing GTM strategy is not working for the product”, you mean that the product launch failed in some way. I think it’s important to first do a retrospective to understand what really happened and rectify the problem areas. Some common areas to explore first: * Dig into the data: Is it a conversion problem or top of funnel problem? * Assess the product & pricing: Is there product-market fit? Did we solve the customer pain points with the feature set we delivered? Is there willingness to pay for what we’ve built? * Assess target customers, messaging and competition: Is our ICP correct? Does the messaging resonate and is differentiated? Is there anything happening in the competitive landscape that could be putting pressure on sales

This pitch deck is commonly sited as one of the best: https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0 And I’m not surprised to see that because it has all of the elements you’d likely see in a pitch deck: a unique market shift and the challenges it presents, how your product solves, and customer proof points. It’s short, sweet and to the point. The only challenge is that it can be very difficult to find a market shift / trend that’s truly unique, so more often than not, a lot of pitch decks have the same setup, pointing to their product as the solution. I’ve heard this a number of times from CIOs who’ve expressed frustration about “long lead ups” in pitch decks and that they wish it would just get to the point faster. If you can nail the market shift and customer pain points well, and how your product uniquely solves, you’re golden.

The most typical KPIs are pipeline/revenue if it’s a product that can be purchased or product adoption if it’s free. However, there are other KPIs that can be leading indicators to follow. It’ll depend on the feature/product/service you’re launching and what the goal of your launch is, so there’s no hard and fast rule here. But here are some examples depending on what you’re trying to achieve: * Product goals * Product-market fit: product adoption * Product launch success: product-specific pipeline, sign-ups * Marketing goals * Awareness and perception: brand awareness, product awareness, brand associations * Content and campaign performance: paid/email click-through rates, website conversion * Financial impact: marketing-driven pipeline and revenue, MQL → SQL conversion rates * Sales goals * Sales productivity: win rates, pipeline conversion * Financial impact: average deal sizes, target attainment

Regular engagement and alignment in key. I meet with my cross-functional leadership team bi-weekly to ensure we’re aligned on the needs of each team as they evolve and areas of focus. Key goals and deliverables: PMM with Sales: Drive sales success by developing content needed to support the pre-sales customer journey and business goals, such as use cases, pitch decks, customer case studies, and other prospect facing content. PMM with CSM: Drive customer success by developing more in-depth content needed to support the post-sales customer journey and business goals, such as detailed use cases, QBR decks (quarterly business review), roadmap decks, and other customer facing content. PMM with Marketing: Drive pipeline and bookings by supporting strategic marketing plans (demand gen campaigns, paid media, growth experiments) that build brand/product awareness and interest. PMM with Product: Drive market success of the product / solution / service with a strong GTM strategy, compelling messaging, differentiated positioning, and strategic pricing & packaging.

Simply, we combine market, customer, and competitive insights with product innovation to deliver a unified narrative and winning GTM strategy for the company. This means focusing on four core areas: * Product: Drive market success of the product and solutions portfolio by ensuring strong product-market fit, compelling messaging, differentiated positioning, and strategic pricing & packaging * Demand: Drive demand by supporting strategic marketing plans that cement industry authority, build brand awareness and drive pipeline growth * Enablement: Drive revenue and retention by empowering sellers and customer success with the content and narratives needed to support the customer journey and sales cycle * Customer: Drive expansion revenue and adoption by supporting engagement and growth initiatives for existing customers that drive retention, loyalty, and advocacy