Sina Falaki

Product based differentiton is gone. Get rid of the problem - solution approach. Brand differentiation is now key. A company story should align to the buyer: * Show the industry trend and market shift * Talk about the threat * Story the dream The journey is constantly evolving and changing, for example, b2b smb customers now expect a b2c like experience (self service, fast sales cycle, quick checkout). Segmented messaging and targeting is necessary and relaying messages that administer value has shifted the landscape from a "catch all" b2b lead generation approach to quality. Identify potential customer touch points Buyers ultimately expect personalization to their needs, value driven content mapped to the buyer journey, and preferences along with immediate responses followed with a sales rep who understands their pain. Value and solution selling across the funnel is the emerging trend that will soon became the norm. * Provide a solution to a problem * Key in on value propositions and solution marketing Integrating the customer experience and creating a consistent experience across touchpoints is key. Product marketers must adopt a more strategic approach to campaigns, partner experiences, and key in on the enrichment phase of the customer lifecycle - understanding how the prospect interacts with your website, product, ads, and even partner applications, across the entire lifecycle, whether its direct or indrect - from early in the buyers journey to customer succces, locking in on value and solution messaging will be crucial. * Upselling / Cross Selling during land expansions will be needed, especially if you have multiple products. As platforms became a necessity to ensure productivity and profitablity across organizations, also being aware of the partner experience will soon explode in value - customers are now coming from all angles, traditional and digital, and through channel marketing, messaging must be hyper aligned to their needs. * Ensure your customer success is fantastic - this is critical and an utmost differentiator in most companies. Implementation and support should be a leading value propsition. * Customer reviews are the new gold. Especially for SMB - once you go upmarket, analyst publications and gartner quadrants will be crucial to ensure trust. * Post sale success is crucial - Key in on retention and engagment strategies. * Integrate internal tech stacks and construct omnichannel campaigns - target specific segments and channels with the right messaging once you can fully understand the buyers journey.

In a proper program, Industry Marketing & Campaigns have joint ownership so we both look at the same metrics in order to build pipeline and win NARR. I say this as a preface because Industry and Campaign leadership should work together to: * Establish business objectives * Set targets, goals, and key intiiatives * Help with cross-industry efforts This should then yield to: * Pipeline generation * Open Pipe * NARR As such, we should always be looking at broad metrics that lead to: * Global NARR * Rep Productivity (monthly) * ASP (monthly) * Close Rate (monthly) * Cycle Time (monthly) * Market Penetration (quarterly)

Great question - Because I am so focused on Industry Marketing right now, I have it divided between Product Marketing KPIs and Industry Marketing KPIs: For Product Marketing: * Conversions NARR * Attachment rates - new logo and cross selling * Product ASP - the sales price, keep a close eye on this Industry marketers on the other hand look at: * Industry/Segment NARR * Gross Pipeline * Win/close rates

Product Marketers should always be thinking of ways to contribute directly to revenue. In my mind, if it doesn't move the needle, its not meant to be worked on. Prioritization needs to be ruthlessly put into check. Product Marketers should always key in on: * Driving pipeline and top-line revenue growth, inclusive of new logo and cross-sell / up-sell (land & expand growth) * Partner with Enablement to ensure quota-carrying teams know what to say to whom and when * Develop strategic sales plays To give context, when I was launching the Specialty Contractor division at Procore, my GTM focused on associations and unions. At the time, we were the first construction tech company to go through these associations and create clear partnerships with them, allowing us to edge out our competitors in a first movers advantage scenario. We gave discounts to each association in exchange for a true comarketing motion. This allowed our revnue to soar, and jumpstarted the industry motion at Procore. 

Establish a repository and be methodical in how you organize your work. Its important to have a running tab of folders that document strategic initiaves in order to then easily onboard teams and stakeholders across the business. I often times have recording, decks, sales materials, and everything that touches me organized in a proper manner so when someone does onboard, I can give them access to the folder, which allows them to onboard quickly. I also like to build out frameworks. In my recent job, I built out something called a Value Framework. This contains all of our messaging but also guides a reader through how we differentiate, segment, and align ourselves with the buyer and market. Its meant as an internal/enablement tool but often times have found it super easy for those to use to onboard. 

Great question - Because I am so focused on Industry Marketing right now, I have it divided between Product Marketing KPIs and Industry Marketing KPIs: For Product Marketing: * Conversions NARR * Attachment rates - new logo and cross selling * Product ASP - the sales price, keep a close eye on this Industry marketers on the other hand look at: * Industry/Segment NARR * Gross Pipeline * Win/close rates

Product Marketers should always be thinking of ways to contribute directly to revenue. In my mind, if it doesn't move the needle, its not meant to be worked on. Prioritization needs to be ruthlessly put into check. Product Marketers should always key in on: * Driving pipeline and top-line revenue growth, inclusive of new logo and cross-sell / up-sell (land & expand growth) * Partner with Enablement to ensure quota-carrying teams know what to say to whom and when * Develop strategic sales plays

I typically work with stakeholders in creating the messaging, thus once its done, all parties have put their own spin on the document, and there's very little room to change it. What this means is that I will create a baseline of a messaging based on customer feedback, and once that is done, I will take it to the appropriate stakeholders (pm, sales, customer success, and SMEs) for them to review and work on it. Once that is done, the document is complete and there's little room to change it. 

First 30 days - Meet with key staholders across the company - ensure excitement for the mission and what you're about to take on. Ask key questions about their responsibilities, what they are working on, and describe a bit on how you plan on working together with them. Product marketing is all about relationship building, in fact its key to be succesful. Ensure you're speaking with and understanding the pain points of each stakeholder you speak with, and make sure you listen. Listen in on customer calls and recordings - Its imperative you start familiarizing yourself with the products and customers alike. My best approach is to get a complete recording of customer conversations that your sales team has, and start jotting down pain points you hear and truly understand how the product is being positioned, this will help you connect the dots down the road. Acquire quick wins to show your chops - Quick wins are always nice. What is the biggest low hanging fruit you can take on in order to show your chops? Typically I like to work with the sales team early on, identify what they need, and build it. This helps establish relatioships with the team early on, and also helps with familiarizing yourself with the company. 60 - 90 Days: Keep the 30 day momentum going. Continue to listen to calls, fill gaps, and familiarize yourself with the company. I would add a few more to the list now that you further understand whats happening: Learn the product - Now that you understand whats happening across the company to a degree, make sure you get a sales engineer to show you details of the product. Talk to customers - get on a customer call and start surveying. Its important you hear first hand what your customers want and need. Take Ownership - WIth whatever you're assigned to do, ensure you are taking ownership and leading the charge on what you're given.

In the early stages, as teams are starting to get built - trust and dividing responsibilites is the biggest factor in ensuring alignment, especially between PMM's and PM's. How do you build trust and clearly divide responsibilities? Communicate and clarify your end goals. Align on goals - Ownership from both teams is necessary. Product Marketers are customer and market facing, while PM is developer and product facing. PMM's must ensure product adoption is critical and their highest priority. Marketers must align product packaging and messaging with market demands and PMs must align requirements. Teams must have shared goals, product deliverables should be married to marketing deliverables that speak to the customers desired response. Having one end goal, that is strategic and not tactical, allows both parties to work together to drive the products success forward. KPIs - Divide KPIs between both teams whether its customer or product oriented. Product managers care more about usage and customer satisfaction while product marketers drive growth and retention. Create a clear set of KPIs and get buy-in from internal stakeholders and partners. Product marketers must always have metrics attached to their launches, its the only way to ensure there is accountability and more importantly, showing the PM team you too are in it with them. Market research - provide visibilty into market conditions, sales, customer feedback, and industry research is prevelant. Consistently share this information with PMs in order to help shape the products trajectory and success.