Why product marketing must be at the center of the universe

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Why Product Marketing Must Be at the Center of the Universe Jeff Aboud Director of Product Marketing Kenna Security

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I Don’t Really Mean This … You Are Here

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… Which Can Lead to This

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What I Really Mean is This …

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… Or This

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6 Product Marketing is the Organization’s “Glue” Product Marketing Product Management Public / Analyst Relations Sales Demand Generation

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7 What Makes Product Marketing Uniquely Qualified to Lead • Provides the deepest understanding of the firm’s products/technologies • Possesses some degree of influence over product development • The only group that interfaces with all of marketing • Has a tight partnership with sales

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8 Case Study • Background - 12 year-old public company - ~$300K market cap - Founded by engineer, now 70+ years old and still the CEO - Cobbled organizational structure - “PM” was really engineering - “PMM” was more like PM (very little marketing expertise) - PR and Demand Gen were silos

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9 Siloed Functions Led to Disjointed Efforts – and Mediocre Results • Product launches • Messaging • Data sheets • White papers • Press releases • Analyst calls Product Marketing • Tradeshows • Website • Copy editing Marcom • Raw Leads • Nurture campaigns • Digital marketing Demand Generation

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10 So Rather Than This … Product Marketing Product Management Public / Analyst Relations Sales Demand Generation

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11 … We Had This Product Management Product Marketing Demand Generation Public/Analyst Relations Sales

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12 Business Impact • Lackluster Results - Product Marketing: Learned about new products 2 days – 2 weeks prior to launch - Public Relations: Little to no media pickup - Demand Generation: - Random, “generic” campaigns that were unrelated to product priorities - Mostly focused on content syndication - Dismal performance: $2.70 revenue-to-spend - Sales: - Regularly missed their numbers - Developed their own presentations and collateral

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13 Solution: Completely Reorganize Marketing Product Marketing Demand Generation Public/Analyst Relations Product Marketing Demand Gen Field Marketing Technical Marketing / Product Management Integrated Marketing Public/Analyst Relations

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14 Result: Everybody Got a Seat at the Table Siloes Were Replaced With Teamwork Product Marketing Demand Gen Field Marketing Technical Marketing / Product Management Integrated Marketing Public/Analyst Relations

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15 Symbiotic Relationships Drove Meaningful Results • Product Marketing: Learned about new products 3 to 4 months prior to launch - Global, cross-functional product launch process - Integrated marketing programs and campaigns • Public Relations: Continuous media coverage (including inbound!) - Deeper understanding of the core message • Demand Generation: 70% improvement in YOY lead generation performance - Campaigns driven by product priorities - Required content developed by product marketing • Sales: Quotas consistently met or exceeded - Deeper understanding of competitive differentiators and key value drivers - Possessed the sales tools and customer-facing collateral they needed - Had a voice in message development (closed-loop process)

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16 So Who Do You Want to Be if You Want to WIN?

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This Guy?

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Or This Team??

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19 And Are You Ready to Lead?

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Thank you Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaboud Twitter: @jeffaboud