“If you’ve nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all…”
It’s a mantra that’s been passed from generation to generation - and it’s a philosophy that can most definitely be applied to product marketing.
Sure, there are times when a go-to-market strategy takes longer than expected, product messaging doesn’t quite tick all the boxes, or a product launch goes awry - but the fact remains, there are some things that just shouldn’t be uttered to a PMM team.
Sometimes, a seemingly innocuous remark can ruffle a few feathers, so to spare any red faces, we reached out to a bunch of PMMs and asked: “what should you never say to a product marketer?”
We’ll be focusing on:
- Remarks that’ve offended PMMs
- How to stay on their good side, by nominating for the Product Marketing Awards 2021
Comments to keep to yourself
“Only sales generate revenue.”
Liesl Leary-Perez, VP of Corporate Marketing at Hublilo
“Can we launch it tomorrow?”
Yoni Solomon, Chief Marketing Officer at Uptime.com
“Someone once said to me: ‘teach me how to use Jira’. Real story, by someone in sales who really thought that was part of my job description.”
Olivia Michaud, Head of Product Marketing at Tresorit
“Just show me the features and the capabilities.”
Alex Timofeyev, GTM Strategy & Product Marketing, Partner Enabled Managed Services and as-a-Service at Cisco
“Just add the SKU.”
Maegan Lujan, Director, Solutions and Services Marketing at Toshiba Business
“Can you build me a deck?”
Jason Friedlander, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Verizon
“Can you make my presentation pretty?”
Joe Ariganello, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Anomali
“I just need a few slides.”
Jeremy Harpham, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IFS
“Do we have a one-pager?”
Megan Kresinske, Director of Product Marketing at Wunderkind
“Do we really need positioning statements?”
Joseph Mayall, Product Marketing Manager at HubSpot
“This was released. Where’s the collateral?”
Cece Lee, VP of Marketing at Talview
“We need a cool new video right away!”
Viji Doraiswamy, Senior Director, Marketing Strategy at SAP Procurement Solutions
“Product marketing isn’t a path to CMO.”
Jill Rowley, GTM Advisor at Guild Education
“Products are small. We're a platform."
Cate Zovod , Market Development, HPA at Cognizant
“We set strategy; you make collateral.”
Stephanie Kong, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Split
“So what exactly do you do?”
Ali Mamujee, VP of Product Marketing & ESG at Mercatus
“‘I did PMM before you started.’ — from a colleague who has never been in a role that has anything to do with product marketing…”
Ali Hanyaloglu, Head of Global Product Marketing at Akeneo
“I need a one-sheet for this ASAP; I wanted to talk to you about a MAJOR release coming out next week; we need you to do messaging for this.”
Ashir Badami, Senior Director of Product Marketing at OpenFin
“That’s on product marketing to solve.”
Lauren McHugh, Senior Product Marketing Manager at ZoomInfo
“We need a GTM plan for the launch next week.”
Shaji Mohammed, Product Lead, Loyalty and Rewards at Facebook
“Why do you talk to customers?”
Ali Hanyaloglu, Head of Global Product Marketing at Akeneo
“Can you craft the email?”
Bina Amin, Mentor at Unreasonable
“Our target audience is everyone.”
Adina Timar, Product Led Growth Marketer at AT
“Do we need to announce this?”
Charlie Terenzio, Chief Marketing Officer at Newswire
“We’re going live next week, can you make a marketing plan?”
Reema Dhanda, Strategic Partnerships and Klarna
“Let us take it from here.”
Matt Hymers, Co-Founder at Connected Fanatics
“What do you do again?”
Keith Markowitz, Commercial Account Executive at Crown Castle
”Do you have something like this - but better?”
Micki Collart, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Drishti
“I don’t see the value.”
Hannah Sackett, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Electric
“Is that sample really finished?”
Rafael Ortega, Global Product Manager, Nike Equipment/Bags at Nike
“Your research and innovation are zero.”
Neeraj Sachdeva, Founder at Market Understanding
“Prepare a press release, we’re launching a new product next week.”
Durdica Polimac, Head of Marketing at Amodo
“Did you ask the sales team?”
Keith Tyndall, VP of Marketing at Kareo
“Let’s do zero-budget hacks.”
Siddharth Sharma, Head of Marketing at Verloop.io
“The last version worked better.”
Mark Waddell, Senior Director at IntegriChain
“So you're a content writer?”
Madhuchhanda Das, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at HighRadius
“It shouldn’t take that long, right?”
Emily Benedit, Product Marketing Manager at Syniverse
“We can launch products without you.”
Anthony Pu, Team Lead, Product Marketing and Go-To-Market at Ring
“I wrote the value proposition.”
Kristyn Maddox, Senior Product Marketing Manager, ISV Digital Strategy at Microsoft
“Research? Nah. We know our customers.”
Caitlyn Gossert, Senior Manager at PwC Labs
“Make it faster, with the same budget.”
Kirsty Chivell, Product Marketing Manager at dormakaba Australia
“Can you quickly write a white paper? And also send me three quick slides for our differentiation and value-prop, and maybe a one-pager too - by the end of the week.”
Anita Raj, VP of Product Marketing at ThroughPut Inc.
“Don’t you also manage events?”
Rob Ayoub, Senior Product Marketing Manager at FireEye, Inc.
“Reading this on a Sunday night might have been a bad idea.”
David Simutis, Director of Product Marketing at AirDNA
“Great. But halve the content ASAP!”
Hem Muralidharan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Big Data Analytics, Vertica at Micro Focus
“I got a good grade on my thesis, so I'm sure my strategy will work!”
Jowell Olaivar, District Manager US North East at Atlas Copco
“Here's the product messaging for sales.”
Rob Meyer, Head of Product Marketing at Firebolt
“We’re done, now you launch.”
Patti Newcomer-Small, Chief Marketing Officer at FMG Suite
“Come up with a winning go-to-market strategy before lunch.”
Joshi Bhavani Prasad, Product Marketing Manager at Cropmint
“The product markets itself.”
Matt Schaar, Senior Director at Accion Venture Lab
“The whole market is addressable, everyone is our audience…”
Tricia Read, Senior Product Marketing Manager at simPRO Software
Wanna know the crazy thing? There were a whole bunch of gripes our crop of product marketers flagged. But we’d rather focus on what you can do to bring a smile to their face, instead of what grinds their gears.
Cast your vote for the Product Marketing Awards 2021
The Product Marketing Awards are back again for 2021, bringing you the third edition of our annual celebration of industry excellence.
Last year, we waxed lyrical about our updated categories, and this year, we've only gone and done it again with three brand new awards to join our top-tier categories. 🥇
Give a product marketer the credit they deserve and submit your nomination; with the August 18th deadline looming, you oughta get your skates on - we’d hate for you to miss your chance to vote!
Whatcha waitin’ for?
Vote now
