Presented at ProductCamp Boston in early April 2016

1. Product Marketing
“Moving the needle”
Larry Concannon
Connect to me at www.linkedin.com/in/larryconcannon
April 2016

2. Background
 Northeastern U. - engineering, coop
 Sales engineer - G2000 company, Montreal
 Harvard MBA
 Product Management
 Product Marketing
 B2B
 Software, SAAS, Internet
 Startup, emerging growth….

3. Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
Two dimensions of success: product and go-to-market

4. Living hell
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
Weak product and ineffective go-to-market is a living hell

5. Living hell Frustration
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
Many tech companies find they are in the frustration quadrant:
our solution is truly the best but we are not winning in the market

6. Temporary
Living hell Frustration
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
Fantastic GTM can only make up for a weak product for a short
period of time; a better product with good GTM will emerge

7. Temporary Nirvana
Living hell Frustration
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
Of course, everyone wants to be in the top right quad

8. Temporary Nirvana
Living hell Frustration
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
*
Determine where you are by product and as a company

9. Temporary Nirvana
Living hell Frustration
Solution/Product/Technology
1 10
10
1
Go-to-market:marketing,sales…..
*
(Product
Management)
(Product
Marketing)
Product Management is responsible for moving to the right;
Product Marketing for moving up. Together: up and to the right!

10. Dig, Set, Spike
Engineering
QA
Documentation
Operations
Support
B2B tech based companies
are like a volleyball team
with three hits. Behind the
scenes is the Development
team creating products with
no fame or fanfare. The
“dig”. Not glamorous, but
this is the foundation for
everything else.

11. Dig, Set, Spike
Sales
Sales engineering
Engineering
QA
Documentation
Operations
Support
At the other end of
the spectrum,
Sales is the
offense - spiking
and scoring. They
get the fame of
closing deals but
they also get
immediate market
feedback (blocks
to the face).

12. Dig, Set, Spike
Sales
Product Mktg
Product Mgmt
Marketing
Development
Product Marketing, Product Management and Marketing are in the middle,
coordinating this process. Communicating on both sides. The “set”….

13. Did I mention that you are multilingual while
Dev and Sales speak different languages?
Sales
Sales engineering
Product Mktg
Product Mgmt
Marketing
GreekGerman Multi-lingual
Engineering
QA
Documentation
Operations
Support

14. Move the needle…
 Run rate
 Current product
x
 Current target markets
x
 Current marketing/sales strategies/tactics
 Grow with the market (rising tide floating
boats)
“Run rate” is an old
manufacturing term for the
day to day productivity of a
factory. In tech, it is selling
your current product to the
current target markets the
same way you do now.

15. Move the needle…
 Run rate
 Current product
x
 Current target markets
x
 Current marketing/sales
strategies/tactics
 Outperform the market
Launch new products
Target specific markets
Mktg/sales enablement
What can product marketing do to exceed
run rate? To move the needle?

16. Product Launch
 Cross departmental team
 Epic (Jira)
 Launch date: press release, product page,
social media, etc.
 Sales training, sales engineering training,
presentations, collateral, etc.
 Positioning/messaging (the key to success)

17. Launch goals
What are the goals of this launch?
 Qualitative
 Ex. establish the company in a certain market
 Negate a competitor’s advantage
 Gain competitive advantage over competitor(s)
 Quantitative
 Leads generated in the target market
 Deals closed in next 4 quarters after launch

18. The customer’s problem
 Concise definition of the customer’s problem/opportunity.
 What business problem does this product category solve
for customers in general (primary demand)?
 Define the problem - the tactical and strategic levels.
 What is the result of what we will deliver - the expected
outcome business for the customer? How does the
customer define/measure value?
 How do we articulate the value in the customer’s
terminology? Can we quantify the value?
 What is the cost/downside of not buying anything at all?

19. Target Market
• What is the target market for this product?
• Size
• Growth
• Are there certain types of customers that
would especially be interested in this
product:
• Verticals – primary and secondary?
• Organization size – SMB, mid-market, enterprise
• Certain business characteristics? High labor costs, irregular
schedules, geographically dispersed?

20. Base level positioning statement
"For (definition of the target customer) who
(statement of the business problem that the
customer wants to solve; in the customers
lexicon), our product is a (category of the
product) that (the overall value statement: the
product’s key benefit for the customer). Unlike
(definition of the competition), our product
(distinctive competence)."
From “Crossing The Chasm”, Geoffrey Moore.

21. Meta Message
(Overall theme of the product’s value to the
customer)
What is the product’s distinctive competence
(major theme, the “meta message, the one most
important point you’d want the customer to
remember about the product). This can be an
easy to remember slogan/statement for everyone
to remember. Focus is on the overall lasting
business benefit of the solution.
www.corporatevisions.com

22. Power Positions
(Value statements that are important to the customer and which we
can say we are unique: the best, fastest, lowest cost, etc; 2 to 4 for
the product)
• Power position 1 – a simple two-sentence “value statement” that
defines why customers value this attribute and what about our
solution is distinctive with respect to this power position
• Proof: how can we prove it
• Power position 2
• Power position 3
www.corporatevisions.com

23. Resources
 Pragmatic Marketing
 Boston Product Management Assoc.
 Free
 Monthly meetings
 Sirius Decisions
 Corporate Visions

24. Thanks
I believe that Product Marketing is about ten years behind
Product Management in terms of how well defined and
understood it is in organizations. Product Management
has a process for creating the product roadmap and
working with development (agile, scrum, tools (Jira)…).
Product Marketing is not as well defined and many of us
are developing our processes as we do the job. All the
content development and marketing automation in the
world will not make up for off-target positioning and
messaging…
Larry Concannon
(www.linkedin.com/in/larryconcannon)