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Sean Lauer
VP of Marketing, Instruqt
About
As an award-winning marketer with over 14 years of experience, I possess deep expertise in product marketing and a keen understanding of user and customer needs. I prioritize building strong relationships and leading with empathy to solve problems......more
Content
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
There's nothing that says gathering intel in standard ways isn't ethical or fair. There are definitely some tactics that might straddle the line and a few that go way over the line that should obviously be avoided. I would rely on approaches that are very common, ethical, and effective: * Win/l......Read More
790 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • August 24
Before launching a product, it's important to conduct thorough testing and validation. Gathering feedback from the target audience can reveal valuable insights that can be used to improve the product. When collecting feedback, focus on product functionality, overall experience, and perceived valu......Read More
764 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • August 24
When entering a competitive market, it's crucial to carefully evaluate your launch messaging to ensure maximum impact. There are three key factors to consider: 1. Clarity and relevance - your message must be clear and address the primary pain points of your target audience. Avoid jargon a......Read More
711 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
The most important resource for competitive positioning is battle cards. It's the best summary and most actionable document (or group of documents) that can drive impact quickly. Some important components of battle cards are: * Top competitor profiles (firmographics) * Quick dismiss responses ......Read More
568 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
A competitor is anything that can be substituted for the value that your product offers. Sometimes, that's a product with a very similar feature set. Sometimes, it's a product that is designed for a different purpose, but people are using it (poorly) to solve for your product's value prop. And in......Read More
565 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • August 24
During a product launch, it's common for certain areas to be overlooked. Below are key areas that might be neglected and the reasons for their oversight: * Customer education: It's easy to assume that a good product is intuitive, but providing educational resources like tutorials, webinars......Read More
562 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
That's definitely a challenge! There are a few things you could try to gain more insights: 1. Utilize your sales team to ask about a competitor in discussions with prospects and customers. 2. Hire a third party to do win/loss interviews with prospects/customers. They may be able to ge......Read More
555 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
One of the key things to consider with any information provided to a sales team is making sure you answer two questions: * Why does it matter? * What should they do with it? When it comes to competitive intel, keep in mind the following factors to deliver value to sales: * Timeliness * Imp......Read More
541 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
Ideally, your narrative should actually be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to differentiation. Features can easily be copied. As this question states, it often leads to products being essentially the same across a competitive set. The components of your narrative—the story and the reason wh......Read More
531 Views
Sean Lauer
Instruqt VP of Marketing • February 17
Teams should be tracking win/loss rates vs specific competitors. This information is most easily gathered and tracked via the sales team (or possibly solutions eng) and stored in a system of record like Salesforce. Additional detail around win/loss reasons when in a competitive situation is key t......Read More
484 Views
Credentials & Highlights
VP of Marketing at Instruqt
Formerly Mural, Twitter, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Top Product Marketing Mentor List
Product Marketing AMA Contributor
Knows About Category Creation, Competitive Positioning, Release Marketing, Brand Strategy, Messag......more