Rajendran Nair

This is a good list to start with. I will add a couple: * Analyst/3rd party thought leadership pieces: Having independent, 3rd party content is very helpful. If you are focused on the Enterprise, having content from top tier analysts is helpful. I have worked with Gartner, Forrester, The 451 Group, Ovum Research and IDC in the past * Graphics/multimedia: you will need to generate lots of great content that you deploy across channels. You may have good writing skills in your team but you will likely need support for research/graphics/multimedia. I have typically relied on external agencies. * PR: The world has changed, but this remains a very important avenue to get your message out. I have found that working with PR experts is both more effective and less expensive, but it depends on your budget and the market you are going after.

This really depends on your product and industry. Let me outline a framework with four elements: * The customer perspective * The competitor perspective * The technology perspective, and * The marketplace perspective Take a look at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-marketing-three-words-part-ii-rajendran-nair/ and https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-marketing-three-words-part-iii-rajendran-nair/. I have laid out the framework I use to listen to the market.

To be clear, this answer is about assets that a rep should share after the initial discovery call but prior to the deeper dive (mostly demo) call. At a bare minimum, the rep should share a summary of the call, enumerating * the key value proposition of your product (pre-canned) * questions brought up by the prospect on the call (and the answers if possible/available) * questions that the rep may have for the prospect, and * the next steps to keep the conversation going. This could include other content such as case studies/testimonials, product tour videos, product updates, press releases, analyst/press content, etc. but that should be a constant drip to stay top of mind with the prospect.

There are three key elements you need to consider: * Your story and the constituent “story-lets” * Your internal audience - sales being the most important, but you need to address the needs of other customer-facing professionals (customer success, support, professional services, etc.) * Their audience (and how you can enable them to communicate better with them. To begin with, you will need to be in the thick of the action with the sales team. Listen in on sales calls, have weekly/monthly calls to collect feedback and reinforce your message. Over time, you can evolve strategies to scale your approach. In particular, think about developing training programs that you can deploy to the team. I have summarized a lot of my thoughts in these three posts: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141028002202-1469522-product-marketing-in-three-words-part-i/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-marketing-three-words-part-ii-rajendran-nair/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-marketing-three-words-part-iii-rajendran-nair/

When I am starting up a Sales Enablement practice (or it is a new product/market or even a new sales team), I prefer an intense, heavy handed approach, because that helps me develop and fine tune my stories and the assets I use to convey/manifest my stories. Over time, sales will have a bigger role in iterating on these assets, and possibly, to innovate on the messaging too.

I am assuming here that you have already created stories/collateral that will be required to sell into the enterprise. FWIW, here is a framework I use to develop stories - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141028002202-1469522-product-marketing-in-three-words-part-i/, but happy to drill down with you here or offline if that helps. Selling to the Enterprise is likely to be very different from selling to SMBs and mid-market. Some key differences to note: * The sales cycles are longer * The decision making process is more rigorously defined (or laborious depending on how you see it) * You will need to deal with at least three key constituencies in the sales cycle - evaluators, influencers, and decision makers - and possibly a fourth (exec sponsor) * You likely have a committee of influencers and in the worst case, a committee of decision makers * You may need to go through a POC or trial before the customer will make a decision. As a product marketer, this translates into two key questions: * Do you know the personas that constitute the evaluators, influencers, and decision makers? * Do you have story elements that will address the pain points of the most common use cases for each persona? Depending on your product, you may need to create a map of the personas and the assets that will support your team across the various phases of the sales cycle. (Unicast me and I can share an example of a grid that I use) Also, you need to know how the Sales team is evolving. Is a new team being hired? Or, is the existing team being refocused to sell to the Enterprise? Your content and enablement strategy needs to keep this under consideration. For example, if the current team is being refocused, then you need to support them as they adapt to the longer sales cycles. In this case, you will likely need to create new content, but you may not need to radically change the cadence of your sales enablement programs. If it is a net-new team, then you will likely need to create content as well as training programs for the team. But this is a deeper question in and of itself.

The most common KPI is the win rate. However, I dont think this is an accurate measure of your work as the eventual win depends a lot on other factors, starting with the salesperson running the cycle. I prefer to track the number of sales cycles that go past the initial demo stage because it more accurately reflects the results of your work.

I am not sure I understand this question but let me try. It starts with the corporate objective - what is the revenue goal for each product. Sales Enablement will need to focus on the product by priority. You also need to consider the lifestage of the product. For example, a new product may need additional focus as you evangelize it with the sales team. Did that answer your question?