Dec 18, 2023
In an ideal world, growth stage Product, Sales, and Marketing teams can create a formidable, high-impact partnership. The three leaders know one another like the back of their hand, and neither makes a move without the other two being informed. The real world, however, usually doesn’t work this way. In many cases, Product, Sales, and Marketing teams run parallel to, but separate from, one another until the last possible moment. Here's the thing, though: your customers can tell.
As Go to Market Operating Partner Mariann McDonagh put it during the Power Triad session, “the first thing folks can smell is when you’re not aligned.” This misalignment is a disservice to your customers and ultimately hurts your business. Let’s explore the need for interdepartmental connection when it comes to developing refined, solution-oriented products, and how you can work to achieve this dynamic.
The Impact on your Product
Is your product launching or is it escaping?
Go to Market Operating Partner Ryan Tognazzini posed this question at the beginning of the session and was met with nervous laughter from the audience. When he prodded a bit further, it became clear that the product launch process was an issue for about a third of attendees, and a lack of cross-departmental synergy was the likely culprit.
On the Product side, the need for constant “output” can usurp the need to communicate with Sales and Marketing teams. Engineers work feverishly to ship new offerings and capabilities, so much so that they might end up leaving their go to market counterparts out of the loop. For go to market folks, a lack of investment in the building process can lead to ineffective marketing efforts and disjointed sales processes. All of this ultimately results in products “escaping” rather than proactively, intentionally launching.
When Product, Sales, and Marketing are plugged in from the get-go, there becomes natural alignment during the engineering phase. This significantly enhances the product launch process:
- The Product team gets a better understanding of the “why” behind the roadmap, which guides them to build in a more refined and purposeful way. This ensures that the final product resonates more deeply with both the user and buyer personas.
- The Marketing team gains critical insight into the ins and outs of the product and, when engaged early on, has sufficient time to craft compelling messaging and a more effective enablement strategy.
- The Sales team gets clarity into the product’s true value proposition so that they can confidently articulate how the offering addresses their customers’ specific pain points.
Obviously, new products are only part of the scope. Continued improvement of existing products (based on customer needs) drives a competitive edge for your company. But without alignment between the Product, Sales, and Marketing teams, the feedback loops needed to effectively iterate on a product and its messaging are either weak or, in the worst cases, do not exist.
Pragmatic Marketing Framework
So, how can you begin fostering this culture of alignment between Product, Sales, and Marketing? Operating Partner Greg Nicastro suggested the Pragmatic Marketing Framework as one way to do it.
An offshoot of the Pragmatic Institute, the Pragmatic Marketing Framework offers a model for building and marketing products that customers actually want to buy. It draws on all three elements of the Power Triad but ultimately prioritizes the voice of the customer, which is key to ensuring product-market fit. This customer-centric approach ensures that every decision, from product development to marketing strategy, delivers real value to the target audience.
It’s important to note that this is only one best practices approach, and you should explore various methods to land on what works best for your organization.
Growth stage companies can seem to move a mile a minute, which can make it challenging to foster alignment between Product, Sales, and Marketing teams. Still, companies would do well to implement the ELT Summit theme of “going slow to go fast,” as working intentionally to facilitate greater alignment between the three teams leads to better outcomes for customers, and more scalable growth for the business.
If you’re looking for help creating synergy among your Product, Sales, and Marketing teams, The Edge can help. Reach out to Greg, Mariann, Ryan, or to us directly at edge@edisonpartners.com.
