Talya Heller G.

I’ve seen many methods out there but what worked best for me in past companies was a category structure based on customer impact (taking into account existing and potential customers). The lowest would be a functionality improvement and the highest would be a game changer in the market. The way I think about KPIs is not by tier, it’s by launch. Your goals might be very different between launches even in the same category—or similar for some even in different categories. A PMM leader I respect on ...Read More

A great briefing deck is a mix of big-picture positioning brought to life with customer stories and value drivers demonstration. And while it’s perfectly fine to have a go-to baseline deck, you want to tailor it to your audience, meaning the specific analyst’s interest and POV. Here’s the structure that’s been working for me: Start at the 10,000ft view - what are we trying to solve - the pain and our vision; continue with high level GTM strategy (main use cases, who are our buyers, growth motion ...Read More

There are three ways I’ve successfully achieved that in past roles: conduct win/loss analysis regularly. Don’t neglect the quantitative part and look at competition, win rates against each, losses due to functionality and what status quo/ tech stack / competition looked like there. Get in the habit of post launch retrospectives. Start them by looking at KPIs (good sources are product analytics, CS ticket volume, marketing/sales analytics) and ask questions - what should be done differently next ...Read More

In short: focus on enablement, not on battlecards. I don’t know how and why battlecards became the golden standard but I always felt that format miss the mark because it’s hard to read and impossible to process in real-time (i.e. on a call). And as marketers we know that packaging and delivery matter. So, here are elements that I find more helpful: Deliver competitive news regularly - either 3 bullet points on a dedicated slack channel once a week or in an internal newsletter, but think of a cha ...Read More

Enterprise sales motion is one of the harder ones to pull off because it's usually long and involves large deal sizes. That usually means big buying groups with many detractors (legal, finance..). PMMs can help in many ways: Conduct win/loss analysis regularly--to keep tabs on shifts in market trends (spend, use cases, customer tiers), competitive landscape, product roadmap input. Competitive positioning--to inform messaging and sales training (quick dismisses - how to articulate to ICP prospect ...Read More

You’ve received some great advice here. I think listening to calls, joining LI groups or following hashtags they care about is a great source of information. Here are a few other that I’d add: Make it a habit to talk to a few AES and CSMs regularly. Ask them directly what they hear or see, stress-test your observations with them too Speak to analysts. If your company has relationships with analyst firms, leverage them as your ear to the market If you’re not doing it already, get into the habit o ...Read More

Two great sources of VOC that will interest your counterparts from other teams: CAB - customer advisory board, usually run by Product but PMM and CS are well-positioned internally to be deeply involved (select customers, choose topics, even moderate the discussion). Customer Communities - an avenue for PMM, Product and CS to communicate with customers directly and for customers to communicate with each other. This could look like a community-specific site with announcements, polls, Q&A, (gat ...Read More

The answer is, as always, it depends :) Is the PMM the owner of the launches at the company? If yes, their KPIs can be process related; i.e. snags in as well as successes (think low volume of support tickets that were created due to the launch, campaign readiness, sales and support readiness, etc.). In either way, instead of thinking about a set of KPIs that don't change for each launch, I like the approach of setting org-wide KPIs for each launch that are relevant for that specific launch. So f ...Read More

Speaking from experience, even if there’s no MQ in your category you should still engage with analysts regularly—if your buyers speak to them regularly. Here’s why: Other than other research and publications remember - your analysts talk to buyers all day. Them knowing you well keeps you top of mind when they’re having these calls. We’ve had several leads coming in after engaging with analysts. They key here is of course to know your audience and who they’re speaking with. Things change. If your ...Read More

I honestly think it depends in the type of PMM you want to be. If you want to be in rooms where decisions are made and influence those, I’d say yes it’s a very important skill. Even if you’re only focused on market research, there will be a time to present your findings so everyone can see how awesome you are and what great insights you have. Presenting as a PMM doesn’t only happen for folks who wants to take center stage and demo a product at a conference, it happens every day when you have con ...Read More