Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups

Product Marketing and Product Management are disciplines where the theory is easily understood but practical execution is really hard. I asked Tim Johnson to share a couple of his favorite “from the trenches” stories to illustrate how shifting the focus from “product features” to “value to the customer” can make a huge difference.

In many larger organizations, sales folks are trained to become “trusted advisors” to their accounts. To attain this status, account managers need to demonstrate a deep understanding of the customer’s environment and pains and offer valued advice and support. It strikes me that this is exactly the goal of a great content marketing strategy.

Pilot projects for enterprise software may have to change as enterprise software becomes more socially-enabled.

Startups selling larger sized deals don’t generally concern themselves very much with managing a pipeline of leads at the beginning.  Most of the BtoB focused companies I know have started with 1 or 2 sales folks managing their own pipeline of leads which have come from them mining their own list of contacts along with [...]

I think most start-up execs don’t really believe in segmentation. Sure, if I ask for their segmentation they dutifully blow the dust off a fairly nice looking slide that shows what markets they are targeting.  Then I look at the customer list and the two things don’t line up whatsoever.  The execs know they’re supposed [...]