It is 8:00 a.m., day two of your annual sales meeting. Product marketing is up first. A tall pedestal sits next to the podium draped in a black cloth. Out walks Joe, the director of product marketing in the hardware division – dressed in his nicely pressed shirt adorned with the company logo and so excited to share his news. He begins his presentation. He welcomes everyone, updates you on the state of the market and – “ta da” – he pulls off the black cloth and introduces you to the newest addition to the product family. He then begins to share the elevator pitch and features/benefit messaging. And, finally he concludes with a list of marketing tools that he and his team have been diligently working on over the past several months to help the sales organization sell this new product into their accounts.
Does this scenario sound familiar? Probably. It is pretty typical in most organizations. Product management and product marketing work together to develop and bring to market their individual products. They have a standardized checklist of launch deliverables that they churn out prior to the big reveal. But what about the other product teams? How does this product fit into the larger product portfolio? And, what about the sales team? How will this product fix the problems that their customers need to solve? Do the product teams even know what those problems are? How much of the messaging and tools will actually work the way real customer conversations work?
Avoid the “ta da” method – get others involved
In the example described above, there was a lot of upstream planning with little input from key stakeholders across the value chain, in particular the people who actually conduct the conversations that matter. By bringing in downstream players, specifically representatives from the sales team, you benefit in two important ways. First, they bring with them the perspective of the customer. They are talking to prospective and current customers every day. They are the feet on the street and bring to light the real-life problems that customers are looking to solve. Second, they are the people that will choose to use – or not use – the tools that the product teams work so hard to develop.
Develop the message together
If sales and marketing are aligned from the outset, together they can develop a relevant and impactful story, right from the start. One key is making sure the messaging passes the “snicker” test – can a salesperson actually say this without snickering. This cross-functional story building effort can then be cascaded throughout meaningful tools and support materials that will help bring it to life. Finally, with this elevated level of joint collaboration, it no longer becomes about “us” and “them.” It’s no longer about the sales team sitting in a dim room waiting for the big “ta da” – everyone is connected to the story. Everyone has his or her “fingerprints on the gun.” This ownership will breed passion and that passion will close the sale.
The Messaging Feed 