Tom Heys

On my first day at Crayon, I was told that we were using Airtable to manage marketing, and it was just icing on the cake. Like some of the other posters, we're using it to track an Agile-like process with monthly sprints. I'm an Airtable fanatic, and having used it at previous employers and on personal projects, I love that the ability to adapt it over time. If I don't know where I'll end up with task and project management, which is most of the time, then I'll do it in Airtable ensure that I can make it fit what I want it to do, rather than vice versa – what I find with other tools more often than not. One of the best things about is that if you already have it in a spreadsheet to some degree, it's simply copy, paste, and customize. Granted, the learning curve is a little steeper than tools like Trello and Asana, but you'll find the investment of time well worth it before you know it. Probably my favorite aspect of Airtable is how you can change the visualization and data to fit department needs, an individual's needs, external stakeholders' needs, etc. It can present the same information (or filtered/sorted/limited versions of the same information) in: * A spreadsheet-on-steroids format * A Trello/Kanban stage/process workflow format * A calendar of deliverables that integrates with what you're already using * And even a thumbnail/gallery view that is super helpful for finding and sharing visual assets My only caveat is that the Android app has some kinks to work out, but I so rarely use it that I tune that weakness out.

As David mentions above, planning out the "story" – even in a simple product demo – is essential. I like to write a documentary style script, which has a table with voiceover audio on the left and corresponding video on the right. As far as the tech, Camtasia is a great product, though I usually want a little more control than it provides and thus use Adobe Premiere Pro to cut the videos after recording like many above using Quicktime. I add in some standard highlighting and click/tap animations to draw the viewer's attention to certain parts of the screen (if there's a lot onscreen, you may also want to supplement with some pan/zoom effects). Learn about L/J cuts and frame holds to keep the video moving along, and use a service like Wistia to see what people are actually watching so that you can improve your craft and effectiveness in time.

My philosophy on battlecards aligns well with what the other posters have said on the topic. I tend to create two resources: one that is tactical in nature and gives reps the actual words they need to say in the moment (a true "Battlecard"); the other is more educational and provides deeper exploration when the reps are not in the moment (more of a "Competitor Profile"). If you want maximum traction with sales, you should consider doing these happy paths: 1. Ensure that your battlecards are up-to-date and put them where your team "lives" virtually; as soon as they're unreliable or inaccessible, they are dead. 2. Create opportunities to collaborate with sales, collect feedback on their usefulness, and capture new intel that they're hearing from prospects. 3. Cultivate your power users, capture their success stories, and use them both to promote the value the rest of the sales organization; you should market to sales just like you market to your customers. 4. Be transparent and aggressive about the answers that you don't have and need their help to get from customers and partners; when you get an answer, trumpet that win back into your internal marketing efforts. 5. As you grow the effort, segment information and competition as much as you can; BDRs need different intel than Sales, and EMEA sees different competitors than APAC.