In today's tough economic environment, companies might be unknowingly complicating their customers' buying process. The root cause? Inside-out thinking.

By focusing too much on their perspective, companies often miss the mark on their customers' actual needs, leading to a disconnect that makes it harder for customers to make a choice.

Today, we’ll explore:

• What is inside-out thinking and how does it affect the buying process?

• How can companies shift their perspective to align better with customer needs?

• Why is it important to differentiate based on genuine customer value rather than trendy features?

• How can ungating customer information improve team alignment and product development?

• What are practical steps to avoid the pitfalls of inside-out thinking in your Go-To-Market strategy? ​

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👉️ Get strategic product marketing advisory from Sam at Clarity Department. Book your free strategy call now.

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Selling in this current economic environment can feel like crawling through a never-ending obstacle course. But what if companies are making it harder on themselves?

Imagine the best-case scenario: a customer actively seeking a solution to a pressing problem. She's met with endless, largely similar options and has to work hard just to choose between them.

How did we end up with such a disconnect in the buying process?

One key reason is the impact of inside-out thinking.

This mindset causes companies to focus so much on their own perspective that they end up speaking into a void, disconnected from their customers' needs.

Every GTM team is inevitably affected by inside-out thinking to some degree. After all, they spend all their working hours focused on their product's success.

Along the way, a bias forms about the product's importance, distorting their understanding of the customer.

Not everyone is reading the same industry articles.

Not everyone sees 3X value from the new feature your competitor released. No customer is thinking about your product as much as the team.

Here are some examples of how the company and the customer can be looking in opposite directions. 

Inside-out thinking creates a false confidence in knowing the customer, and this significantly impacts the work streams that get prioritized. If companies are caught in the trap of this mindset, the differentiator is usually a clear give away. 

Often, you'll see phrases like "AI-powered" or "Easier to use," which are not meaningful enough to stand out.

Let’s explore how inside-out thinking frequently shapes these types of differentiators.

1. Group Bias

When I was an in-house PMM, the PM team was convinced we were developing a groundbreaking feature.

The rest of the GTM team got swept up in the excitement of being different, only to realize much later that customers found no value in the feature.

This scenario is common when developing shiny, future-forward features.

A unique feature can be a powerful differentiator, but if it doesn’t address a strong enough pain point, it is unlikely to resonate with customers. 

Often, when a few executives seem confident, everyone just goes along with the tide.

We all bought into the idea's success, likely due to Groupthink theory (Tversky/Kahneman), where groups prefer consensus over conflict or questioning any decision-making.

2. Hyper-focus on Competitors

GTM teams become very focused on a set of competitors.

If a competitor builds a new feature, it’s added to the roadmap.

If they change their messaging, most companies follow suit.

There is a pressure in keeping up with competitors, whether it adds value to customers or not. 

This obsession often makes products in the same category look and sound the same, and makes it difficult for customers to choose from alternatives.

3. Preference to innovation vs actual needs

PMMs and PMs, already spread thin, often make strategic decisions like new positioning or product lines that are most likely to gain leadership approval.

The leadership in turn is likely to approve of strategic decisions that will look great to get a new round of funding or to appeal to a board.

This is why we focus on ‘on trend’ themes or innovation for the heck of it. 

So, how do we come up with a differentiation that actually helps customers choose a product?

1. Ungate customer information (not the same as “Talk to your customers”)

Here are a few ways information flows in startups:

• It sits in the minds of a few team members and is undocumented.

• There are thousands of calls to sift through.

• Access to customers is fiercely guarded.

As a result, customer understanding is based on the thoughts of a handful of people. Ungating information is the best antidote to inside-out thinking.

Often, research done by one team, like the product team, rarely reaches the marketing team.

Making AI-generated research summaries accessible across teams would be invaluable. I also appreciate how a PM I worked with made customer stories readable across teams.

Every quarter, he condensed why each ten customers chose us into snackable stories that were widely read.

Here is an example of the format that he used.

A dream version would be to tether roadmap planning to the customer stories and differentiators we want to strengthen as a team, rather than just features. Even better if it’s rooted in market research to always keep an ear to ground.

2. Move away from “new” or “On-trend” differentiation

Challenge the mindset that differentiation needs to be “different”. That it only rings true if it’s path breaking or if it's something that your competitor does not have.

Product differentiation is also clarity on how you add value to a subset of customers better than anyone else.

Talk about how your approach is different and show how it’s done, and you will have a more meaningful differentiator.

Here are a few examples:

Focused on a type of customer vs everyone 
Pulley is focused on how founders offer equity better than their main competitor, Carta. The use cases, the time it takes to get an evaluation is all centered around serving the needs of the founder better than anyone else.

Combining two pain points 
Ramp Travel addresses both employees' pain of filing travel expense reports and the Finance team’s concern for finding the lowest price. Their main competitor has tie ups with only a few airlines.

Here are a few more ways to think about differentiation in a meaningful way.

3. Budget to Test with Prospects/New Customers 

A differentiator is often derived from customer conversations.

However, it's important to distinguish between what customers are happy with now and why they originally bought the product. 

They may appreciate the responsive support, but that might not have been a key evaluation criterion.

If you have the budget, test your differentiator with prospects or new customers.

A strong differentiator is a powerful tool to stand out from the competition and is especially helpful when customers are evaluating multiple products.

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As your customer is browsing through your website or sales pitch, they are trying to make sense of what to compare you with and are on the fence about trusting you. If the process overwhelms them they are bound to make a choice based on price or the bigger brand.

Make the choice easy, everything else follows.

Let’s have a discussion

Join Sam Dega on the Spiky Growth podcast where we’ll discuss this topic in more detail.

Effective sales enablement requires more than product knowledge; it demands confidence that only live training can provide.

These sessions foster interactive learning, address real-time queries, and cater to various learning styles, ensuring comprehensive understanding and retention.

Passive content alone cannot achieve this level of engagement and effectiveness.

Today, Ginevra Mambretti explores:

• How does live training build sales confidence?

• Why is interactive learning more effective than passive content?

• What are the benefits of real-time feedback during live training?

• How do live trainings accommodate different learning styles?

• Why is integrating live training into sales enablement strategies crucial?

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👉️ Get strategic product marketing advisory from Ginevra at Grow that SaaS. Book your free strategy call now.

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As ChatGPT would put it, "in the fast-paced world of sales, staying ahead means more than just knowing your product’s features and benefits."

As a flesh-bodied product marketer would think, "what would make my sales enablement more effective?" I’m telling you, without live trainings, all your sales enablement initiatives just won't cut it.

Effectiveness in sales enablement is about more than just knowing your stuff; it’s about feeling super confident in that knowledge and being able to sell its value to customers.

This confidence comes from interactive learning experiences that go way beyond just reading or watching videos.

And for us sales enablement content creators, this means much more than just dumping a series of asset links and expecting your sales folks to learn them and use them.

Think about sales confidence for a second.

Live trainings give sales teams a chance to really get into the material. This hands-on approach helps them reinforce what they know, clear up any doubts, and build the confidence they need to sell like pros.

Without live training, there’s no immediate way to get those burning questions answered, leaving reps feeling unsure.

Sales teams are used to learning through live trainings - they thrive in role plays, war rooms, and live onboardings.

When we create content for customers, we know that different people learn in different ways, so we create state-of-the-art landing pages that offer a mix of video, visual, and written content.

The same goes for sales enablement.

Some folks get it better by reading, others by seeing, and many by doing. Live trainings make sure we’re covering all the bases, making learning more inclusive and effective.

Plus, live trainings are perfect for reinforcing new features and product capabilities. They keep everything fresh in the team’s minds, so they’re always ready to pitch the latest updates.

Regular live sessions make sure this knowledge stays top of mind. We know a big part of product marketing is not only marketing and educating externally but doing the same internally.

One big downside to just rolling out passive content is the lack of instant feedback. Live trainings let sales teams ask questions and get answers on the spot.

This real-time interaction is gold for clearing up confusion and deepening understanding, making sure any misconceptions are quickly sorted out.

To wrap it up, sales enablement without live training?

No way.

These sessions boost confidence, cater to different learning styles, enhance retention, and allow for real-time interaction.

Relying only on passive content leaves too many gaps.

For sales teams to truly crush it, they need the comprehensive, interactive experience that only live training provides.

So, if you want your team to thrive, integrating live training into your strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have.

Let’s have a discussion

Join Ginevra Mambretti on the Spiky Growth podcast where we’ll discuss this topic in more detail.

I was applying for a summer internship for a tech company and the marketing lead interviewing me just told me this.

My first thought was “Whoa, that’s so great!”

Boy, was I naive... 🤡

Today, carrying the experience of more than a decade (and a few battle scars), I’m not so bullish on the show ROI craze.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not an attempt to escape accountability or give marketers a free rein to be creative without an obligation to show their efforts lead to results.

But the improvements in tracking and attribution have made marketing so focussed short-sighted that most marketers today look like people who are stumbling in a dark room looking for a light switch that isn’t there.

The ROI Myopia

The problem with being able to track and attribute everything is that it creates a pervasive incentive to only do the things you can tie to results.

However, for all the leaps we’ve made in measurement and tracking, marketing attribution still relies on abstractions, or (as I prefer to call them) shortcuts.

We trade persuasion (unmeasurable) for conversion rate (as in the ratio between pageviews and signups on a piece of BOFU content). 

We attribute a sale to a single click on a retargeting ad even though there was a string of (mostly untraceable) touchpoints which preceded it.

Taken to an extreme, this can create comical situations. I once had a CEO ask me “Why do we need to create 10 pieces of content, when most signups come from 1?”

(If you’re not sure what’s wrong with this question, hit me up with a message and I’ll happily explain.)

But even with founders who are more attuned to how marketing works, it can be hard (bordering on impossible) to convince them to spend resources on tactics and channels which are not 100% trackable.

👉️ Get growth advisory from Ilia Markov at Grow that SaaS. Book your free strategy call now.

Why is this a problem?

Remember the 95/5 rule:

Most companies (naturally) focus on these 5% – by optimizing for signups, trials, and ultimately revenue.

What this leads to resembles a pool of piranhas fighting for a scrap of food.

That’s why truly great marketers understand the importance of being top of mind.

They want to build awareness and trust with their audience while they’re still in the 95% part, so that once they switch to the 5% of actively looking, they are ahead.

The problem is that mindshare and top of mind are incredibly hard to measure.

Abstractions like brand awareness and share of voice are unreliable – i.e. hard to measure and, because of that, hard to trust.

That’s why so many tech companies underinvest in brand marketing and then wonder why later entrants overtake them. (Hint: it’s not just the VC money. It’s how you spend them.)

What to do instead?

If you’re a founder, the best you can do is to become tolerant of not having full control/visibility (scary, I know) over what your marketing team is doing. This comes in a package with trusting your people – this part is non-negotiable. 

If you’re a marketer, first you have to learn to have some very honest conversations with yourself. Trust is non-negotiable as I said above, but it’s also non-negotiable that you have to earn it.

You’d also have to be the first to admit when something has failed – often even before others have noticed.

But above all, you have to be constantly vigilant to find ways to bring more clarity and deeper understanding – including using new methods and technologies.

Often that will come with an added price of having to first learn how to use and then translate complicated concepts and tools (such as Marketing Mix Modeling) to laypeople.

The landscape is getting more sophisticated, you have to follow

Marketing is constantly evolving and becoming more technical.

But at the same time, the basics remain the same – you have to convince people to trust you with their money and their (professional) reputation.

This means you have to develop your sophistication as a marketer.

This means you need to hone your technical and data skills while still listening and connecting with people as a human being.

Perhaps the hardest part is finding the right level of tolerance – doing things you’re not able to track, but still being comfortable you’re on the right track.

This comes naturally to a few genius marketers. The rest of us, just need to keep trying…

Let’s have a discussion

Listen to Ilia Markov on the Spiky Growth podcast where we discuss “The ROI Myopia” in greater detail.

Product Marketers are having a moment. So much of a moment, McKinsey, founded in 1926, wrote an article about the role. And after reading that article, I realized we really should have a talk about where product marketing should sit in a tech org.

So in this moment, I’d like to suggest a new way to think about product marketing and the reporting structure.

In my 15 years of experience, I have reported into both Marketing and Product. I have benefitted from certain aspects within each of the functions, but I have also been hamstrung by the same aspects.

The most frequent question behind “Do you have a launch checklist?” (the cringiest of questions) is “Where should product marketing sit?”.

Gif by fallontonight on Giphy

For most people asking and answering the question, there are only two options: Marketing or Product. 

Infuriatingly, the exchange will go something like this:

Question asker: Where is the best place for product marketing, Marketing or Product?

Product Marketer: It depends.

• What stage is the company?

• Who do you sell to?

• Is the company sales-led, marketing-led, or product-led, or do you have a PLG motion?

Question asker: [blank stare]

Product Marketer: I need more information to best answer your question.

Or if you are me, the answer is: neither.

Doesn’t matter the stage, motion, or who you sell to. These options simply do not allow the Product Marketer to address problems in the business without ruffling a lot of feathers and rocking a lot of boats. 

👉️ Get strategic product marketing advisory from Maureen at Grow that SaaS. Book your free strategy call now.

The Role of Product Marketing

We could debate the many reasons why Product Marketers have only these two options, but I am going to go with the most obvious answer: the name. Product, Marketer. 

Why put thought behind where this critical function should sit when the name tells you everything you need to know?

Before we get into the pros and cons of reporting structure, let’s review the role of the Product Marketer. This article isn’t meant to tear down Product or Marketing.

In fact, this article aims to more clearly define the roles and responsibilities to function more effectively together. 

Gif by therokuchannel on Giphy

I will spare you the long list of responsibilities, but I will outline the major categories where product marketing should, no, needs to lead. 

Understanding the market: market research, competitive analysis, buyer persona development, messaging and positioning

Reaching the market: Go-to-market strategy (don’t confuse this with selling - it goes beyond the act of selling), sales enablement, content creation, demand generation (think segmentation and ABM, not the full job of a demand gen marketer)

Product Lifecycle management: Product launch, adoption and usage, customer feedback, win/loss analysis, pricing & packaging

Aligning the organization: Influencing product management, marketing, sales, and customer success to rally around specific goals and objectives related to a launch (product, pricing, new messaging, etc) and release (product adoption, customer advocacy).

All of these activities are used to effectively launch, grow, and sustain successful products in the market.

To effectively achieve a goal, a product marketer needs to have a seat at the table where key business decisions are being made - like new pricing and packaging or changes to the current model, entering new markets/regions, or the decision to verticalize.  

Can you think of one other role in the organization with a scope this wide that is not in the C-suite? Right, neither can I.

In a SaaS organization, there will always be overlap of responsibilities - it is the nature of the business since everything is interrelated and interdependent.

Have a broken or less than optimal process upstream and that problem will show up later downstream. 

The role of Product Marketer is strategic and tactical. It’s big picture and excruciatingly detailed. It’s the best job in tech, and one of the most thankless jobs in tech - and you can read about it in every job description. 

But, I digress. Let’s get onto the pros and cons.

The pros of reporting to Product

If you are a SaaS company that sells to developers, architects, security, product managers, or support type personas, indeed product marketing could report through this department. As a Product Marketer, you would have access to:

• Early development discussions 

• Roadmap planning & prioritization

• Deeper product knowledge (although all good Product Marketers should make this priority #1 no matter where they sit)

• Stronger collaboration with the Product team 

These are all very good things as they can position the Product Marketer to have more influence over the roadmap with insights from the market.

You could think of the Product Marketer as the business partner to the product team, advising and making recommendations based on external and internal data. 

The cons of reporting to Product

While the pros of reporting to Product are seductive, there are some real disadvantages that can creep in if you aren’t vigilant. These include:

• Becoming too internally focused and centering talk tracks and marketing on technical details leaving the buyer to make assumptions (or more likely, find answers from your competitor)

• Limited exposure to marketing strategies

• Potential conflict with marketing priorities 

• Challenges in getting marketing resources

• Difficulty measuring marketing impact

• Risk of overlooking brand building (usually because you’ve become too internally focused)

• The rise of the “technical” product marketer (I have yet to meet a product marketer that cannot explain how the software works)

To reach the market, Product Marketers must have the alignment and resource support of marketing to be successful. 

And because it is so difficult to get the resources, Product Marketers may be required to take on additional tasks unrelated to their core responsibilities leading to burnout and slowing down all current projects.

Giphy

So this must mean that product marketing should report to Marketing, right?

Well, hold on. Let’s look at the pros and cons before we make a decision.

The pros of reporting to Marketing

On the surface, it would make sense that product marketing sits on the marketing team - it has the verb “marketing” built in.

But if you look at the four responsibility categories above, reaching the market is the category of activities that most closely align with the function of marketing.

Let’s run down the advantages here (I bet you can guess them already):

• Stronger alignment with marketing strategies

• Great access to marketing resources

• Greater focus on brand building

• Increased collaboration with marketing specialists

• Ability to see impact of marketing efforts

• Increased opportunities for career growth*

*I would say career growth isn’t a true reflection of the opportunity, it’s more the only option within the constraints of the current org structure playbook, meaning a Product Marketer typically tops out at VP of Product Marketing if you are lucky, or you go the CMO route. 

The benefits here are clear. Product Marketers have access to the activities and resources (people, systems, and budget) to execute strategic plans and be aligned within the Marketing boundaries. 

The cons of reporting to Marketing 

Same as before, you could probably work out the advantages before I listed them, and you can probably work out the disadvantages as well. Yet, I will endeavor:

• Risk of losing focus on product intricacies needed for clarity in messaging

• Potential conflicts between Marketing priorities and product-specific needs

• Challenges in influencing product roadmap because you have the shadow of marketing over you and you aren’t trusted or you are seen as “not technical” (yes this sounds harsh, tell me it hasn’t happened to you)

• Risk of being overwhelmed by marketing tasks and processes

Of course a seasoned product market can do their best to overcome these disadvantages by building relationships and becoming an in-house product expert, just know you may be asked why you are spending so much time with other teams.

Gif by bbc on Giphy

By now you can see the tension this creates in an organization when Product or Marketing are the only options for a Product Marketer.

While I have done zero empirical research on the topic, I would hazard a guess from my experience, the reason product marketing isn’t “working” in an organization is precisely because of the reporting structure.

For a Product Marketer to succeed, you need to be all-in with your team - and yes, Product Marketers want to belong to a team.

And to be all-in you must align with the goals and objectives of your team - even if those goals and objectives don’t exactly fit your scope of work. 

The other little discussed result of this either/or reporting structure is the well-being of your product marketing team.

Product Marketers frequently find themselves alone on an island. We feel homeless. 

While we can talk the talk of Product and Marketing, we don’t belong to one or the other and we feel it. 

Where does this leave us? 

I am so glad you asked.

Product Marketers need an org structure where we are not beholden to the goals of one function. Product Marketers need to be most closely aligned with the overall corporate strategies and goals. That place is with the CEO.

Oh, you’re going straight to the top. Don’t you think that’s a little presumptive of you, Product Marketer? 

No. And here’s why.

By using our expertise in market research, product positioning, go-to-market strategies, customer engagement, and communications, Product Marketers are well positioned to act as a strategic advisor to assist the CEO in making informed decisions, drive product success, and achieve long term growth.

Product Marketing needs to be in the room to hear the development of ideas and share guidance, insights, data, and feedback where the go-to-market motions are and aren’t working as smoothly as possible.

When Product Marketing is an independent function, laying out the facts isn’t betraying a team mate, a boss, or a department.

It’s looking to the best interests of the organization.

I am sure some of you are saying this is impossible or I am naive to think this could ever work.

Perhaps, but the value product marketing brings to the organization cannot be filtered up to the CEO and delivered by someone who doesn’t understand the reasons behind the suggestion. 

It’s no fault of your boss - they have their own objectives and goals to hit and why stick their neck out when they aren’t on the same page or can’t answer any follow up questions.

There are some of you who are saying right now as a product marketer they are having meetings with the CEO. Fantastic.

Are they sharing your ideas with Sales, Product, and Marketing? Or has your job now become harder because you have to convince three departments to get on board?

When you look at a Product Marketer's scope of work, to do the job well, there needs to be freedom to structure the job in a different way.

Product Marketers cannot live under the OKRs of a product team or marketing team, we need to be aligned with the overall corporate strategic vision and have the backing of the CEO to execute the job as it needs to be done, not just patch the holes of the current problem and move on to the next thing. 

While I realize this structure is different and that creating this org structure in an existing company is hard, doesn’t mean that it should be put aside.

Some organizations have created a Chief Strategy Officer - this would be an excellent place to land product marketing, and it creates a new career path. 

A CEO who wants to develop sustainable growth for their company should consider having regular conversations with their current product marketing team.

Ask what’s working and what isn’t working for them. 

Ask about their ideas on how to make launches better, how to make targeted campaigns really take off, or how to improve their overall go-to-market motion, and in this case I mean both the product launch and how you sell it.

And most importantly, take action on this information.

Your product marketing team is ready to make it happen. 

Of course, when this brave new world comes into existence, the name “product marketer” no longer fits. The name needs to be more reflective of the scope.

Maybe something like GTM Strategist. Funny enough, I secretly think the Chief Revenue Officer should come from the ranks of product marketing. 

If you’ve ever worked with me, you know I think Product Marketing is the best job out there -it feeds my need to know what's happening in tech, what’s happening in the market, with customers, and internally with processes.

I wouldn’t change my profession for the world. Just the name and the reporting structure.

Let’s have a discussion

Listen to Maureen West on the Spiky Growth podcast where we discuss “Rethinking Product Marketing’s Role in the Tech Org” in more granular detail.