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Use Case framework: The most important step in creating industry messaging
As you create your industry specific messages for your horizontal product, one of the first activities you need to undertake is to develop a use case framework for the target industries. Once you have defined the use cases, creating the rest of industry messaging becomes easier. Following is the three-step process I have used to…
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A framework for developing your second half demand generation plan
You are probably in the middle of developing your demand generation plan for the second half of the year. Your sales targets for the second half are growing at a faster clip than your demand gen budgets. How do you squeeze more efficiencies and effectiveness out of your demand gen budget to drive your…
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What role did luck play in your career?
If I look at my career, 50% was luck and the other 50% was hard work. I was lucky to have joined some great companies with nurturing work cultures and amazing colleagues. I was also very lucky to have multiple very good mentors who gave me the opportunities I would not have had access to…
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The age old question – is it marketing or sales that primarily generates our pipeline?
It takes a village. Attribution for leads is an age-old problem. But I have a proven solution. When I became the CMO of one of my previous companies, I immediately knew I had a problem. The marketing team used last touch attribution for sales leads i.e., the lead source in the CRM system was attributed…
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Win-Loss Analysis – Revisited
In the last few weeks, I have spoken to at least three ex-colleagues who wanted some insights into the win-loss analysis work I have done in the past for clients. They were all looking to significantly enhance the win-loss analysis program within their product marketing organizations. Here is the summary of thoughts I shared…
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Challenges in working with Industry Analysts, when you are trying to create a new category.
Having been the CMO of multiple startups (with successful exits), and more recently, providing consulting advice to many more over the past 15 years, I am often asked what is the best way to work with industry analysts? As a young company with next-generation technology, you are trying to be the 2.0 player in…
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How to refresh your Go-to-Market within 30 days
I spoke to an old friend a couple of weeks ago, who is a CMO at a SaaS company. He was in the process of updating their Go-to-Market (GTM) for their new Fiscal Year and wanted my thoughts on it. Below is an approach I proposed – not an exhaustive study but something that…
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3 tips to create highly engaging top-of-funnel content.
Digital channels have become more saturated than ever before. Customers are being bombarded with top-of-funnel marketing campaigns containing offers for analyst white papers, webinars, infographics and even solution briefs. Problem is that the content in these offers is not written for a prospective customer that is at the top of the funnel i.e., someone…
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How can product marketing create more relevant content?
I have seen a lot of mediocre product marketing content at SaaS/enterprise software companies. Product marketing primarily creates content for a) enticing prospects to accelerate the consideration phase of the sales cycle, OR b) training sales organization to better articulate your value prop or understand your solutions OR c) helping account execs tell compelling…
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Its the start of a new fiscal year – Get sales and marketing aligned!
This is the beginning of fiscal year for many software companies. It is a good time to identify the areas where sales and marketing strategy is not aligned and address the gaps. Without an aligned go-to-market approach, you will only get sub-optimal results. Here are some important areas to consider: If the sales organization…
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Assess what worked well and what did not in 2020, to help you frame your 2021 product marketing plan
With 2020 behind us, this is a good time to assess how well your 2020 product marketing plan worked and where the gaps were – for messaging/positioning, pricing, sales/partner enablement, and content. It will help you identify where are the biggest opportunities for improvement in 2021. For example: Can you significantly reduce the sales onboarding…
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You need these three key stakeholders on your side to succeed as a software company
The most important stakeholders in any software company are a) your customer base, b) your partner community, and c) your employees. You absolutely need these three on your side if you are going to succeed as a software company. What does it mean for these stakeholders to be on your side? Let us take…
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