Driving Revenue through World Class Messaging and Positioning

Powering Revenue Growth
through Compelling Messaging

Russell Scherwin
rscherwin@gmail.com
@rscherwin

Themes
• Correlating PM / PMk activity to revenue
• World-class messaging and positioning
• Translating segmentation into revenue process optimization

Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not those of my employer.

2 rscherwin@gmail.com
@rscherwin

Introductions

• What role do you play? • What role do you play?
(in the eyes of a revenue
focused executive)

– Product Development? – Revenue Support
– Product Management? – Revenue Enablement
– Product Marketing? – Revenue Protection
– Sales? – Direct Sales
– Dead Weight

@rscherwin

What does the CEO think?

@rscherwin

Product Messaging is Bridge Building

@rscherwin

Which pitch is more effective

We provide multi-channel selling
technology that helps our customers
drive value by increasing revenues,
while decreasing cost, through
integrated data semantics, within a
multi-channel multi-dimensional
database model.

@rscherwin


We provide multi-channel selling
software.

For example, we helped Best Buy
achieve an integrated view of
customers, orders and inventory across
all sales channels, improving average
revenue per transaction, customer
loyalty, and cost of sales

@rscherwin


We seamlessly manage the
secure flow of information
across organizational,
departmental, legislative, and
system boundaries

@rscherwin


We provide secure data
movement technology.

For example, we partnered with
the Federal Reserve to secure
payments across our
financial system.

@rscherwin


Would the
Federal Reserve pitch work
if delivered to Coca-Cola?

@rscherwin

What if I don’t have a reference customer?

Get one.

@rscherwin

Before you do traditional marketing tasks,
know where you are in your product’s life-cycle

Find a
new job

Scale
base

Build
base

PM/PMk’s job is scaling out the revenue process.

If you’re too early, you have nothing to scale.
@rscherwin

World-class Messaging and Positioning

Position is the space you occupy
in your audience’s mind

• The message creates a position
Sales

• A Message Foundation is a
Website Customers
necessary organizational
catalyst, governance
mechanism, and scale lever for
Message all outbound communication
Foundation

• Effective messages must always
Analysts Partners
be audience tailored – each
audience starts with different
Press
cares and biases

@rscherwin

Crisp Messaging Creates a Winning Position

@rscherwin

Messaging and positioning
How do you breathe action into your message?
• Position is the space the message occupies in the mind of the
audience, relative to other messages (don’t become noise!)

• A world-class message drives action and business outcomes

• Messaging is the start of the revenue process. It’s measurable!

• You control the message. Its delivery determines position.

• Typically, channels communicates the message, not you.

@rscherwin

Messaging through (and to) Sales

Marketing is sales in the aggregate
but don’t forget that the aggregate doesn’t have a checkbook
• PMk starts with the product. Sales starts with the audience.
• Sales sells to individuals. Marketing sells to markets.
• Segmentation and focus is the secret.
• The trick is finding the balance between scale and granularity

Means & Message Math & Management
Market • Define expected Medium • Manage and
• Identify and segment • Create Models execute
prioritize behaviors • Define metrics by ruthlessly
product/market • Define message segment • Continually hone
segments by segment • Cascade metrics model
• Create to channel • Provide
enablement and mediums backwards
assets feedback

@rscherwin

Elements of world-class sales messaging

• Relevant
• Differentiated
• Defensible

@rscherwin

Relevance

• Relevant to the audience
• Industry Segment Specific
• Product Ownership Specific (customer or prospect)
•Sales needs to know why a
Title Specific
•
specific title in a specific
Psychographic Specific

segment would agree to spend
• Differentiated
a specific dollar amount on
• Defensible
this offering

@rscherwin

Differentiation

• Relevant
• Differentiated from the competition
– What is unique about your offering
–
Sales needs the ability to
What makes you or your offering stand out
articulate why their offering is
– Feature/Function arrows for sales to throw in the heat of battle
– The ideal decision criteria that identifies the competitive land-mines
unique, relative to others vying
they should set early in the sales cycle
for the target’s attention
• Defensible

@rscherwin

Defensibility

• Relevant
• Differentiated
Sales
• Defensible needs credibility.
– Assume you start with little credibility
– Credibility comes from references with similar business
Up-front credibility
models/challenges
– Or
reduces cycle time and
– Credibility comes through tedious cycle proof steps
competitive threats.

@rscherwin

Your customer is the value chain’s next step

In a multi product-line
organization, you are selling to
and competing for the
attention of the sales force.

@rscherwin

The sales force is its own market!
• Enablement Secret

“B” and
“A” Reps
“C” reps

@rscherwin

Field Enablement Pre-Requisites
What PM and PMk needs to understand
• Identify and prioritize buying segments, and the process, roles,
skills, and gaps that exist for selling into them.
– Outline sales process activities for each segment
• (identify, qualify, prove, reach agreement, close)
– Link activities to roles and resource requirements
• (AE, SE, PS, Mgmt, Channels, Demo Team, Support, Contracts, etc)
– Identify skills and artifacts required by role
– Identify and fill gaps for effectively selling into prioritized segments
– Deliver sales kits for prioritized segments, containing #3 and #4
– Create measurement metrics and goals by buying segment

@rscherwin

Sales plays focus the field on execution
Sales should execute, not recreate messaging wheels
• For each prioritized segment:
– Identify titles to target and reasons why key capabilities benefit them
– Describe the Challenges / Opportunities / Compelling Events / Trends that your
capabilities address that trigger opportunities
– Key quantifiable value components with a concept of how to derive an as-is state
that your product capabilities improve
• Most important are the capabilities that differentiate versus the competitive landscape,
and their relative value
– Qualifying Questions with tree showing probable answers and follow ups
– Product launch details (special offers, contracts / LOI’s, potential hurdles and
gotchas, etc)
– Call scripts, VITO notes, and
– “Macro-Attack plans are created at a macro-level and account level
• Who do you target
• Hypothesis of
– The Pains / Challenges / Opportunities they have that we address
– How we have address them
– Anecdotes telling the story of how we address them

@rscherwin

Mistakes commonly made by product marketers

• Task orientation, rather than results orientation

• Allowing executives and their opinions to play pinball with you.
– Push back.
– But know the market better – be the expert.
– Team with the A reps. Leaders trust them, and they make more $$$ than
them.

• Not identifying and prioritizing segments that drive revenue

• Not identifying and prioritizing channels that drive revenue

@rscherwin

Driving Revenue through World Class Messaging and Positioning

Driving Revenue through World Class Messaging and Positioning

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