⌚ 2-min PMM Insights: LinkedIn's Intent Pages, Glean's Channel Program, Supabase's Launch Week, Proof's Offer Timing
October 2023, Part 1 release
📈 4 MICRO [PRODUCT MARKETING] CASE STUDIES
[1] Create separate landing pages for each persona (or intent) you appeal to and improve organic SEO while increasing sales from new logos.
LinkedIn's pitch, for the most part to any business, is to use their platform to advertise a job, source candidates, and train employees. To appeal to each of these use cases, LinkedIn has a dedicated landing page with custom copy and imagery to offer the most relevant experience.
[2] Consider the option of a launch week to set an arbitrary deadline in the future and speed up the shipping of major features.
Supabase borrowed from its Y Combinator experience to pick an artificial deadline to motivate different internal initiatives stretching from fundraising to product. Instead of just a launch day, the company opts for a launch week set with a predefined timeline, like 3 months, to force cross-functional teams to ask - "What are the MOST ambitious things we can hope to ship 3 months from now?"
[3] Create urgency in your sale by timing your offer to account for the seasonal business fluctuations of your prospects.
Proof (an advertising services firm) suggests learning when your product will be most relevant during the prospecting phase. For example, an accounting software website is likelier to try out your live chat software before the tax season traffic spike.
[4] Choose one of these two compensation structures to incentivize AEs (Sales) to work closely with channel partners on new deals.
The go-to-market (GTM) leader at Glean proposes two options to compensate AEs in deals sold through or by a channel partner - (i) As the channel program gets off the ground, you can allow the AE to 'retire their quota at 100% list price' even if the revenue is slightly lower for the company due to the partner margin or (ii) You comp the AE on net revenue (i.e. subtracting partner margin) but ensure a % of AE's sales (ex: 25%) goes through partners as a requirement to ensure partner program success.
📚 1 BOOK & TOP 3 INSIGHTS
“Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win” by April Dunford
[1] Break your sales pitch into 2 distinct phases - (i) SETUP: offer insights about the market, competitive alternatives, and discovery. (ii) FOLLOW-THROUGH: focus on your solution for the customer by highlighting your product's value, include a demo if needed, and end with a call to action.
[2] Make it easy for your prospects to understand the market by not comparing the individual products of your competitors. A good sales pitch, instead, should show the competition as different approaches to the problem.
[3] Test and refine the first version of your sales pitch by convening your team after every call to ask these 3 questions - "Where was the prospect getting lost? Where was the prospect getting excited? Were there questions asked that indicate something confusing in the pitch?"
🧠 5 CURATED MARKETING THINK PIECES
[1] The Tyranny of the Marginal User: Why consumer software gets worse, not better, over time
[2] Scientists Build Better Startups
[3] The perfect pricing model doesn’t exist
[4] Who Should Do Strategy? It’s Your Team, Stupid!
[5] Is What I Want Now What I Want Later?