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00:00:01
Aligning Product Marketing and Sales
11 Plays4 hours ago
In this episode, Brian Dietmeyer talks with Carol Grant, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Storable, about the dynamic interplay between product marketing and sales. They explore how product marketing serves as a pivotal enablement function, shaping go-to-market strategies and sales enablement in complex organizational structures. This insightful conversation sheds light on the evolving role of product marketing in aligning with sales efforts to drive effective market penetration and customer success.
Timestamps:
00:02 Introduction to Carol Grant and the topic of aligning product marketing with sales.
00:58 Discussion on the role of product marketing as the ultimate enablement function.
03:27 Exploring the friction between product marketing and sales and the need for a flexible playbook.
11:12 Carol shares her approach to integrating into Storable and assessing sales needs.
16:10 Insights into the ongoing adjustments and learning within product marketing roles.
22:53 The impact of rapid market changes on product marketing strategies.
26:10 Closing thoughts on the necessity of continuous adaptation and innovation in product marketing.
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:05
brian
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Close Mode, the enterprise sales show. I'm Brian Dietmeyer CEO of Close Strong, the home of Precision Guided Selling. And today I'm legit excited to be here with Carol Grant, who's the Senior Director of Product Marketing with Storable.
00:00:20
brian
And what what what I found interesting too is i is looking at your background that you were messing around with AI in 2015, before it was even a thing. And care at Microsoft, and Carol also has some chops from Zillow,
00:00:32
brian
for those of you who don't know, Storable is property management software, provides end-to-end solutions for storage facilities. So with that long introduction, Carol, welcome to the show.
00:00:44
Carol
What an intro. Thank you so much, Brian. Hi, closed mode community. It's a pleasure to be here with you.
00:00:51
brian
And Carol and I coordinated All Black today, where it's the hip Hipster Friday here.
00:00:54
Carol
That's right.
00:00:56
brian
So...
00:00:57
Carol
Sorry, we're kicking off the weekend, right?
Role of Product Marketing
00:01:00
brian
So we're we're talking about and aligning product marketing and sales. And we were chatting a couple of weeks ago, and it was very intriguing to me because I haven't had a ton of experience working in a sales organization myself or leading one where I had product marketing. So I learned a lot as we were talking.
00:01:17
brian
And so we were talking about how we can work more effectively yeah together. So you you said something to me. You called product marketing the ultimate enablement function. Tell yeah tell me that and was intriguing to me.
00:01:28
Carol
Yeah.
00:01:29
brian
What did you mean by that?
00:01:30
Carol
Yeah. So, you know, i think when when when people think of product marketing traditionally, right, of course, especially in a sales led motion, we have a huge role to play in sales enablement.
00:01:42
Carol
But I think about it as well as enabling our internal stakeholders, everybody that plays a role in go to market. And so obviously customer success plays a big role in that. But then also our internal marketing partners as well. You know, you think about product marketing really helped shape and define the target in the audience.
00:02:04
Carol
That's critical for our marketing partners to be able to do what they need to do and aid us in the execution of that go to market. yeah Our product partners, right, the ones building, and it's really our job to help bring insights to the table to help them refine what they're doing.
00:02:11
brian
Yeah.
00:02:20
Carol
and kind of give them an additional layer to consider as they're building value. And so I think about it as the ultimate able and enablement function in that aspect. But also, too, a big part of product marketing, i and I found the most successful product marketers, help drive clarity when it comes to go-to-market, especially go-to-markets in complex orgs with complex product portfolios.
00:02:37
brian
yeah
00:02:45
Carol
you're constantly having to drive back clarity and help people connect the dots to get really valuable solutions and product to market. And so I think that's the other layer of the enablement piece when I think about it being the ultimate
Friction Between Marketing and Sales
00:02:59
Carol
enablement.
00:02:59
brian
that that's i don't remember us talking about that last week and and i'm with you that's that's that's right on and i can think of the last couple companies i've started where i'm usually about 18 months in before i feel like we have that that simple a simple way to a simple authentic way to communicate it to people so yeah i i hear you on that especially with stuff becoming more complex so i'm ah ah you did some cool stuff when you first took on the role and i want to get to that next but
00:03:00
Carol
and
00:03:03
Carol
and Yeah.
00:03:15
Carol
Yeah.
00:03:27
brian
you You also talked about, I was just talking to you sometimes maybe about friction between product marketing and sales. and
00:03:34
brian
And you said one of the problems is sometimes product marketing just comes in with the past playbook and why that's not relevant today. Can you hit on that a little bit?
00:03:34
Carol
Yeah.
00:03:43
Carol
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, i I do think there are core fundamentals and principles that we apply as product marketers across the board, you know, no matter what role.
00:03:53
brian
Yeah.
00:03:54
Carol
I think what you use when and what frameworks you use when is really dependent on understanding the stage of the business and what problems they're solving in the moment.
00:04:05
Carol
And so that's what I mean by there is no standard playbook, right, as you're switching between companies. Because every company is different.
00:04:14
brian
Yeah.
00:04:14
Carol
and So, you know, as an example, you could go to a company where they don't have an
Diagnosing Business Needs
00:04:18
Carol
awareness issue. They don't have a problem with driving that top of funnel acquisition for a product. Right.
00:04:24
Carol
But then all of a sudden usage and real adoption becomes an issue. Well, is positioning going to help you there? You know, it's like whipping out, you know, standard playbooks. I'm going to come and do positioning. I'm going to do the messaging frame. We're going to do all those things.
00:04:37
Carol
But that's not the problem. Right. At that point, because you're clearly cutting through the consideration set in the market. Well, now the problem may be onboarding. The problem may be customer education.
00:04:47
brian
Yep.
00:04:49
Carol
And so that's what I mean by there is no standard playbook. and And another thing I will say is some of the best market product marketers I've witnessed are really good at diagnosing.
00:05:01
Carol
Right.
00:05:02
brian
Yep.
00:05:02
Carol
And so that to me, that's kind of the initial thing when you're coming into a new org as a product marketer, that's really the first thing you want to do. You want to do a lot of listening, especially from a customer ah perspective, but you also want to diagnose, you know, diagnose what really are the blockers right now to product adoption?
00:05:21
Carol
acquisition, so on and so forth. And i that starts to lean you down different paths, right?
00:05:26
brian
Yeah.
00:05:27
Carol
And then you start to figure out like, okay, out of my core set of principles or what it is I do from PredMarket what do I really need to apply here?
00:05:27
brian
Yeah.
00:05:33
Carol
Okay.
00:05:34
brian
It's funny because um i'm I'm hearing more. One of the things and you're you're you're not saying, but I'm i'm hearing is you know, this notion of expertise, bringing someone in with expertise. I interviewed somebody who was talking about finding really traditional, non-traditional ways to find salespeople, you know, and I feel like i'm I'm hearing this more and more that sometimes, you know, the traditional model has been, someone's got the chops doing this, bring them in, and then they try to do what they've always done.
00:05:58
brian
And, and so, yeah, just, I feel like there's this little baby leading indicator where people are trying to say, let's let's think about it differently.
00:05:58
Carol
Yeah.
00:06:04
brian
And you, you also, ah ah This is one of those, i mean think, like reasonably obvious, but someone was talking about the difference in sort of established brands versus emerging brands.
00:06:15
brian
And that's what was in my head when you were saying that, that it's it's an entirely different playbook, an entirely different approach.
00:06:19
Carol
totally differentive And a different set of problems. Right. And also like, where's your standing in the market? Right. Are you the market leader? Are you, you know, not the market leader and you're trying to kind of get in and cut through. And so those are going to have different problem sets you need to solve to driving product and market and driving that adoption.
00:06:39
Carol
And so that's what I mean by like, there really is no standard playbook. There's ah there's there is a core set of principles as product of marketers. You have to know how to do, but really what you apply when it's going to be really dependent on the org, the company, the stage they're at, and what are the set of problems they need to solve within within the market.
Customer Needs in Brand Strategy
00:06:57
brian
Yeah, i might I might ask you an unfair question here. Maybe not. It's not designed to be. But I'm thinking of those two things, of it an emerging brand and an established brand, at like the highest levels. So what would you say? I know it's in my mind. Like, what's the the number one thing you got to do with emerging and the the number one thing you got to do with established?
00:07:17
brian
I want to see how different those are.
00:07:18
Carol
Okay. Well, first I will say the first answer, not so different, understand your customer.
00:07:23
brian
Okay. Okay. All right.
00:07:25
Carol
I'm doing the business and understand ah who's who in terms of your customer set and who you guys are really trying to target. Right. And so I think like that is standard across the board.
00:07:39
brian
Right.
00:07:40
Carol
and obviously do your triaging with your internal partners to kind of understand where some of those, those issues may be, but from an emerging versus established brands, like established brands, they already have that pull.
00:07:54
Carol
They don't really have, acquisition or an awareness problem, right? they They have that natural pull.
00:07:58
brian
right
00:07:59
Carol
They almost have that growth flywheel. So and in established brands, most established brands, they they have large product portfolios. So then your challenge becomes, how do I cut through and kind of position within the broader set of this portfolio to drive this product forward.
00:08:17
Carol
Right. And I think that's where you start to get product marketing teams that are evolving into like, you know, you see solution marketing start to evolve. Right. And that becomes a role or you see them break off to focus on segments.
00:08:25
brian
Yeah.
00:08:28
brian
Yeah.
00:08:29
Carol
So you may get enterprise, marketer you know an enterprise product marketer versus SMB marketer. Right. Because now you have this huge set in an step in an established brand. And you have to start thinking a bit more holistically about cross-sell, attach, and so on and so forth, right?
00:08:45
brian
Yeah.
00:08:46
Carol
Where an emerging brand, your product portfolio is probably a little bit simpler. And you're still trying to gain that awareness of your overall brand and market. You don't have that pull necessarily.
00:08:56
Carol
And so you're trying to kind of build your brand cachet at the same time by driving really that top of funnel for a It's
Rebuilding Trust for Legacy Brands
00:09:06
Carol
a little bit different. you know It depends on kind of, again, how mature you in the market to your point, where your customer set is and kind of understanding and trusting trusting you, right? Because if you have to go build that trust, that's an extra layer.
00:09:19
Carol
And so you then you don't probably have that product adoption yet. And so it's just kind of thinking about those things in the realm of like really kind of where are you at from a market perspective and then where your customer's at from a trust perspective and what do you have to try and overcome?
00:09:32
brian
Well, and yeah, you you just made me think of something with this trust thing. yeah Years ago, I worked with a tech company in Silicon Valley, and and we we referred to this thing very generically as legacy practices.
00:09:47
brian
They had kind of been jerks in the marketplace. They always had the coolest new tech, you know, and and so they played hardball with everybody.
00:09:53
Carol
Yeah.
00:09:54
brian
And so it occurs to me, yeah, when you talk about trust, that some some of that established brand thing, we We actually, in in helping them get deals done, we had to undo some of the brand, right?
00:10:05
brian
Which is yeah, that's got to be difficult.
00:10:05
Carol
Yeah. yeah
00:10:07
brian
that From product marketing, I bet that's tricky.
00:10:10
Carol
Right. and And it's, you know, it's a bit of a dance with your brand partner, depending on if there is a brand partner, right?
00:10:13
brian
Yeah.
00:10:16
Carol
Because they really have to work with setting the broader stage of like the company brand and then
00:10:16
brian
Yeah.
00:10:22
Carol
you know I think about product marketing as helping provide the proof points to that, right? From a product value perspective. And so it really is is a core partnership. But yeah, like at the end of the day, if that trust layer is broken, it's like we all have to back up.
00:10:36
Carol
We all have to kind of back up and and reset. And sometimes you know that happens. And that's why I intentionally use the word trust, because that has to be in place for that pull to really be effortless.
00:10:44
brian
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. And i I remember us landing on that. And my my point to them was, we're going to, so we we have this this intention of how we want to do deals going forward.
00:10:58
brian
we're We're going to have her to consistently do deals that way for a while, to depending on how long we've been jacking the market around, like to build trust, it's going to take time.
00:11:02
Carol
Yeah.
00:11:07
Carol
Yeah.
00:11:07
brian
So
00:11:08
Carol
yeah
00:11:08
brian
Yeah, going going back to something you started on earlier, which I i ah ah really liked and I think everybody in it in a new role should do this, but you did it. Most people don't. So you're talking about how how you sort of started your work you came to Storable and how you did that discovery, much like most of us in sales do.
00:11:26
brian
And yeah, can you share a little bit about the you know the instruments you used, how you did it, what you learned?
Storable's Sales Enablement Insights
00:11:32
Carol
Yeah, for sure. And so, you know, i think it it it goes back to what I said, where it like be diagnoser, you know, don't just assuming, you know, what your deliverables are, you know, really take time to understand, like, what are the challenges that the company is facing?
00:11:40
brian
Yeah.
00:11:50
Carol
What are the business objectives? What is the go to market motion, right? My org is a sales led go to market motion, right? And so Are there any blockers in that? Like, how are we doing today with go to market? And are we really getting the most out of helping sales go drive that adoption for the product that we want to bring to value, right? And really asking those questions. Is that a key blocker?
00:12:15
Carol
Because I do see for me in a sales led organization, sales is such a core channel for us, right?
00:12:21
brian
Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:21
Carol
And so that's not working um the most optimal level, then we're not we're not doing our jobs.
00:12:21
brian
yeah
00:12:27
Carol
so what I did do, you know, when I, once I joined Storable and really started to get embedded with my and internal stakeholders, sales leadership, and also our client success leadership really kind of identified enablement as an opportunity working with them.
00:12:43
Carol
And what I set out to do was us product marketers do best, go get the customer insights. And in this instance, sales was the customer and we did a survey.
00:12:53
brian
Yeah.
00:12:54
Carol
get deeper about you know how how do you feel most set up for success when we're bringing in new market a new product to launch? Can you tell us a time when you felt the most ready to go sell something new? What are you know what kind of format do you learn best in? right What assets do you find the most useful? And so kind of just getting kind of a total landscape of really how did they how do they learn best?
00:13:22
Carol
And then how do we use that as a container to start to restructure how we're thinking about our assets for product marketing and start to plug plug that in? It's also a ah partnership partnership with our sales enablement director as well.
00:13:34
Carol
But that is essentially the tool that we use. It's like, let's go get let's go get the data. Let's go get the insights. We're making a bunch of assumptions right now that we can collectively start to see where do we need to optimize and where do we need to start focusing from a product marketing perspective.
00:13:50
brian
If yeah I know you're not going to, know well, maybe you do. I doubt you have a stat on this, but I'm wondering like how that seems like you absolutely should do that when you walk in How common do you think that is with, so a new product marketer comes in because you, you mentioned the old playbook and I can already see in your facial expressions.
00:14:05
Carol
Yeah.
00:14:09
brian
Go ahead, answer that.
00:14:10
Carol
I don't think it's that common.
00:14:12
brian
Yeah.
00:14:15
Carol
But again, right. Like, and, and I, and I, and again, it depends on like, what problems are you trying to solve and and what are you finding in your diagnosis? I do feel like there's a bit of a, sometimes, you know, we talked about this tension, right.
00:14:29
Carol
Between sales and white marketing and we, and, know,
00:14:30
brian
yeah
00:14:32
Carol
we know that there's broader tension with sales and marketing overall. Right. And one of the things that I really try and land internally is like sales to me is the best, has the best level of information but of what's happening in the market.
00:14:51
brian
yeah
00:14:51
Carol
And so, you know, I, I really look at, you know, if we're enabling them in the best way possible, we can really accelerate what we're trying to do. and drive more efficiency in how we and how we go to market.
00:15:04
Carol
And so to answer your question, i don't suspect it's happening a lot in terms of that kind of formal way that I you know that i kind of try to gather those insights.
00:15:14
brian
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:15
Carol
but like do But what I do believe is happening like across the board, because product marketers just can't be affected without it, right? I do think they are having those informal conversations, getting that anecdotal feedback, right? And and having those conversations to understand at a high level what is working.
00:15:30
Carol
I am very data driven and so I like to get insights in mass. And so that was part of my intention of of doing that. But I do think we are trying to gather it at a high level in different ways.
00:15:42
Carol
I don't think kind of maybe the process that I did is is probably not the norm.
00:15:46
brian
Yeah. No, and I think I got the sense when we were chatting last week, it was a more formal diagnostic, right?
00:15:53
Carol
Yeah.
00:15:53
brian
And I was thinking about that question in terms of, hey, you're new in the role. What's the first thing you should do? you You could be in your role and go do that right now, right?
00:16:01
Carol
Absolutely.
00:16:02
brian
Yeah.
00:16:02
Carol
Yeah.
00:16:02
brian
Yeah.
00:16:03
Carol
I mean, you could be, you know, month 12, right?
00:16:06
brian
Yeah.
00:16:07
Carol
go do that. and And as sales teams grow or there's, you know, turnover, things might start to look different in terms of what the needs are. Right. And so you just you asking that question now is making me think and I'm like, oh, I think I got to probably do this. I don't know, twice a year, quarterly.
00:16:26
Carol
is something that we're now baking into our product marketing goals.
00:16:26
brian
Yeah. Yep.
00:16:29
Carol
And so we will do almost this like benchmarking survey more often so that we can start to see as we learn and we refine, are we moving the needle with our partners and helping them feel set up for a success?
00:16:29
brian
yep
00:16:42
Carol
And so that is a goal that we're taking on in partnership with our with our enablement function.
00:16:47
brian
And i'll I'll make an assumption as a lifelong sales leader, sales consultant, salesperson, that like the the the market reaction, like as a salesperson, I'd want to be asked that. So I'll make an assumption that they like the process. But I have a question for you now on outcomes.
00:17:02
Carol
yeah
00:17:02
brian
what What disconnects did you learn about in the survey? Like, holy smokes, like they don't really like this or they don't really use this. And then any insights where like, wow, they want this? and Yeah, what what were the big takeaways? Yeah.
00:17:14
Carol
I think so. Some of the the the bigger takeaways are just on like format of delivery of assets. Right. where My team is spending so much time churning out. one pagers, battle cards, you know, all, you know, all of these standard things that you can think about.
00:17:31
Carol
And they're like, hey, we just want more time with, you know, solutions architects on live demos, you know, and then maybe some videos to go along with that, right? Like compete information, and not so much.
00:17:43
Carol
And so, so that to me was a bit of a like, oh, wow, that that's a little bit of a surprise, right? And so i you know, I think as we start to kind of peel it continue to peel those insights and and refine, we'll find more of that. And I'm intrigued to see as we start to get into that and make changes, how does that
Adapting to Market Changes
00:18:02
Carol
evolve? I'm i'm assuming like if I did this by the end of the year, we'd find some new interesting nuggets that that make us go like, huh, that's interesting.
00:18:09
brian
um'm And I'm wondering if you have any formal or informal indicators of of adoption. If they said this is what we want and you put it out there, like if you were to compare, do they use it? Or, you know, they say that the marketing stuff sits in the trunk of the car.
00:18:19
Carol
Yeah.
00:18:22
brian
Nobody does that anymore, but it used to say like, do you have any sense of that? if If you give them what they want, are they actually going to use it?
00:18:29
Carol
Yeah, that's a great question. We don't have a sense of that yet. And, you know, one of the things, and I think this, and I'm sure a lot of product marketers would appreciate this, like we are using, you know, content management system to deliver to sales, right, where we can track.
00:18:41
brian
Yeah.
00:18:44
Carol
And so one of the things we do have to do as a part of this, I would call like reset, is figure out how to get that to a place where consumption is easy so that we can start to track.
00:18:56
Carol
So in short order, we will have that. But you're absolutely right. Like those things have to go together. Right. and And, you know, as we refine, how do we know? How do we know if what they say they need is actually going to be used? And so I think that goes hand in hand. So that is something we're retooling and lining up with our efforts.
00:19:15
Carol
Yeah.
00:19:16
brian
So my my last question is one that I'm personally, if anybody's listened to more than one episode of closed mode, i'm I feel like the one thing that shifting how we all approach business more than anything else is is what one of my friends and advisors, Jim Dickey, calls the speed of change, selling at the speed of change.
00:19:35
brian
and and And I've sort of double clicked on that, that I think ah that's a big, broad statement, but your value proposition is changing. Your competitors value proposition is changing.
00:19:44
Carol
yeah
00:19:47
brian
Customer needs are shifting. I mean, think back to when supply chain interference and then you know geopolitical stuff changes. and And so all of these things are changing. And i had a VP of sales say to me about a year and half ago, we do the equivalent of annual planning quarterly now.
00:20:04
Carol
yeah
00:20:04
brian
and which which but but Which, by the way, freaks me out because I can go back to when I was with a Fortune 50 and we shut everything down three months before the annual plan. So I'm like, how the hell do you do that quarterly? But so, yeah, how how does that impact? Like, how how do you feel about that speed of change? Is that a thing? And then how does that change the role of product marketing?
00:20:22
Carol
Yeah. First of all, I love change and transformation. So its it's it's right up my alley. And how I think about that for product marketing and and also what I'm seeing product marketers do to to kind of rise up and respond to that speed of change is
00:20:29
brian
Yeah.
00:20:40
Carol
not have a fixed mindset or a fixed way or plan when they go to drive go to market.
00:20:44
brian
Yeah.
00:20:47
Carol
i you know traditionally and I've been there you know at big companies where it's like, you're launching a thing, it's six months out, you know everybody's kind of marching to this thing.
00:20:48
brian
yeah
00:20:57
Carol
Nobody says a peep about it. It's hush hush. You launch it and and you sit back. right And then that's it. You go on to the next thing and launch. you know what What I see happening is It's less about getting to that launch, perfect launch moment and and stopping.
00:21:13
Carol
But it's like, how do we quickly, iteratively get it out there, launch, get insights, iterate, go back? And then go past a launch motion, right?
00:21:24
Carol
It's really start thinking through the entire life cycle of that customer and then being able to be flexible to respond to how the market is shifting, right? And and not being so tied down or weighted in your in your plan, right?
00:21:33
brian
Yeah.
00:21:39
brian
Yeah.
00:21:39
Carol
And so it's building that flexibility in your plan. It's knowing that like, you know, okay, yeah, we have a we have a launch date, but, you know, maybe we're teasing some things in before that to get a little bit more signal so we can make that launch date stronger, right?
00:21:54
brian
Yeah.
00:21:54
Carol
So I think, you know, product marketers are thinking about go-to-market, I feel like almost more multidimensionally. And then in the context of a full customer lifecycle, not just I'm getting the launch and then that's it.
00:22:09
Carol
Good luck. Good luck, sales team. And then you're and then you're onto the next and then you're on to the next product.
00:22:12
brian
Right.
00:22:16
Carol
So that is how I think product marketing. And that's how I'm experiencing product marketing kind of rising up to meet the speed of change.
00:22:23
brian
Well, it's it's it's interesting to me too, because you know sales enablement is making the evolution to revenue enablement for that for that very, like, let's look at the whole sales cycle, not just getting the product out there or or getting or getting the deal.
00:22:31
Carol
Okay.
00:22:38
brian
So yeah, it's, go ahead.
00:22:38
Carol
Exactly. Yeah. I was going to say, I think it's more critical, you know, even for companies who are trying to drive cross-sell and sell into like multiple product portfolios, right?
00:22:48
Carol
Like you really have to think about how complex that is and how many touches you need. And then what does it mean to kind of go beyond launch and continue to kind of hit it, hit it, learn, iterate, bring it back and keep going and going and collecting that and collecting that data in real time.
00:23:06
Carol
I think you know product marketing discipline, we're really good at like gathering the insights upfront, doing the customer interviews, locking and loading on, like messaging is set, positioning is set.
00:23:17
Carol
But i you know I see the change as like even being more fluid with that, you know, with that process. It's like, yeah, we we kind of got what we got, but we really don't know until it's in market.
00:23:24
brian
Yeah.
00:23:29
Carol
And so we just got to know that even those things that we deem as like the foundational part of the strategy may need to shift a little bit and we might need to change course. Maybe we find a whole new ICP or segment when we get into market. It's like, okay. And so, you you know, i think it's more about that flexibility and how you approach your go to market and thinking about it in the context of the full life cycle.
Competing on Transient Advantages
00:23:51
brian
one one of One of the ways I've heard this expressed in in a quite frightening way is a book called The End of Competitive Advantage, which is a very sad story written by a professor from Columbia, ah Columbia, ah Rita Hunter McGrath.
00:24:04
brian
And she said that our challenge today is to learn to compete on not our like fixed position that we started at the beginning of the year with, but we need to learn to compete on a series of short-term transient advantages.
00:24:17
brian
And it's just like, that kind of exploded my brain because that is it. like we have We have this thing and this thing has got what, a 90 day, day you you talk about how tech, you earlier you were talking to me about how tech companies can punch above their weight now by by leveraging AI, that kind of thing.
00:24:31
Carol
that Yeah.
00:24:31
brian
so yeah We're rolling stuff out, but but the competitive life cycle of this stuff is a minute and a half because data is so pure, people get access to it and they copy it.
00:24:40
Carol
Yeah. Yeah. It's really the wild, wild west. That's like the best way I can describe it.
00:24:44
brian
Yeah. Yes.
00:24:46
Carol
Right. And it's almost like we got to figure out how do we, how do we put our cat cowboy hat on to like, rise up to the challenge and just not be so fixed in the way that we were thinking about in designing go to markets and just know like everything is fluid now.
00:25:01
Carol
And what drives that fluid fluidity is how quickly can you get information, learn and get the data to then reshape and go and go back.
00:25:01
brian
Yes.
00:25:10
Carol
And so
00:25:10
brian
Well, and that's also back to one of your earlier points about coming in with the old playbook. The entire structure has changed. I did a podcast a week or so ago with Gordon, the CEO of Strategic Account Management Association. His whole topic was disrupt or be disrupted.
00:25:24
Carol
Yeah, that's true.
00:25:25
brian
you know and And I think that's it. And it wasn't, part of his whole dialogue was you could milk it for a while in the past. You cannot anymore. You just have to blow stuff up. Like in advance, you got to blow stuff up or you're going to get blown up.
00:25:37
Carol
Yeah. Yeah. You just got to assume like whatever model you have is not going to, it's not to work. And so, yeah, I think you're right.
00:25:43
brian
Yep.
00:25:44
Carol
Right. And, and it's like, to me too, it's like refining that diagnosis muscle. as well right and that's part of also rising up to meet this this change rapid change
00:25:51
brian
yeah
00:25:55
brian
Yep.
Conclusion and Reflections
00:25:57
brian
Well, I'm just jealous that I don't have you as a product marketer in my organization. I'm legit. like i it's It's so fun talking you. And you've been super generous you know for folks who listen to this. like We have pre-calls.
00:26:08
brian
you You and I ping back and forth. like we We get ready for these things. And you've been really generous with your time and your ideas. And I think of closed mode as sort of this body of knowledge for those of us who are out here doing hard jobs where we can go, hey, you know what?
00:26:21
brian
maybe there's a little therapy and go on listening to a peer, you know, whether it's, whether it's forecasting or product marketing or whatever. So you you've added to that body of knowledge and it's been really fun for me. I really appreciate it.
00:26:33
Carol
I was saying you've been so gracious to have me on and to have me speak to your community. I thank you for the time as well. And it's been It's been a real pleasure. Thank you, Brian.
00:26:43
brian
Happy hipster Friday.
00:26:45
Carol
Happy Hipster Friday.