It’s a principle of Pragmatic Marketing and just good practice in general. Marketing leaders, especially product marketing leaders, need to be out of the office and in their market on a regular basis. You need to be an expert in your solution so you can present at conferences and user groups, as well as supporting sales calls. Yes, present.
It’s common knowledge that marketing leaders need to listen to the market, but communication is a two-way process, give and get. It’s one thing to show up at a client site with a list of questions and listen to responses. It’s quite another thing to show up and present something meaningful, perhaps your product roadmap, before you start asking for free information.
All too often, senior leaders leave the presentation or demo to their staff or another SME, but you need to be the subject matter expert, the authority, before you gain the respect that will get you the real information you need. Some compelling topics that marketing leaders can present are:
- Your product roadmap aligned to user feedback and market needs.
- Thought leadership about the drivers and direction of your market and product.
- New innovations and their competitive differentiation.
The list can be endless, but just remember that when someone sees the word, “marketing” in your title, they think your are there to sell them something or ask them for something. Surprise them by giving first and when you do ask, you will get the real thing, valuable information.
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