Fixing Message Malfunction at the Marketing-Sales Junction - Ep.25 Said Differently

#b2bmarketing #b2bsales #productmarketing #b2bstrategy #messaging #positioning Marketing may own a company’s messaging, but because Sales owns the number (and their comp that comes from it), that message better work well or it’s going to diverge. In this episode of Troupe’s podcast show SAID DIFFERENTLY about B2B messaging strategy, the focus is on the handoff of the go-to-market story to sales executing those messages as they work the pipeline. Guest Marcus Andrews, formerly a senior product marketer at Pendo, HubSpot, and Google and now head of Marketing at Conveyor, talks about his approach to developing a strong relationship with sales. One of his key pieces of advice: Marketers need to understand the storytelling challenges from the sales perspective and collaborate accordingly. Key moments from the episode: 2:46 = There’s passion in Marketing around crafting narrative, but Sales is the team executing the marketing narrative on the daily in real interactions. This is a critical handoff point for the Marketing-Sales relationship, and Product Marketing must own this. 4:39 = Product Marketing must have credibility with Sales. There needs to be a clear definition of the role and the relationship, which can vary in different companies. That inconsistency has led to confusion. 9:39 = A common scenario is rolling out a new launch or new messaging and getting that activated by the Sales organization. Marcus provides good practices he’s learned that make the handoff successful, such as matching the way they sell. 13:46 = It helps to have Sales involved in training their teams on the message and the pitch, and also to have Marketing walk in their shoes for a bit and deliver the message in the ‘real world.’ Marcus shares examples of how this looked at Pendo. 17:18 = How to build a rapport and relationship with Sales on how to best evolve the narrative and learn from signals coming back from the market and potential buyers. As Marcus says, “the best approach is to be curious” and how Troupe is a great tool for surfacing this messaging feedback signal and variation. 20:48 = Using data to help bring objective evidence to the Marketing-Sales relationship and story handoff. What marketing needs to bring to enhance the revenue story that sales is already telling in executive meetings and to the Board. 24:30 = How does this look when the sales cycle is more of a product-led (PLG) motion? Marcus talks about the tight messaging-to-outcomes feedback loops he experienced during his time at HubSpot. 27:05 = How Marketing can maintain ownership of the message when anybody in Sales or elsewhere in the org can use AI for ideation and creation. This is an opportunity to make sure everyone is using the same messaging and ICP source material on which they are basing their work. Credits: Troupe.ai for sponsorship: https://www.troupe.ai Graphic and production support: 24 and Up Music: https://pixabay.com/users/backgroundm...