Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers depend on sales enablement tools to ensure that sales teams have the right training and messages to make the most of their product opportunities. However, when introducing new products or features to market, sales enablement often fails - resulting in an under-performing product launch or sluggish product. This failure can be signified by the following symptoms: 1. Unable to build confidence to overcome sales' reluctance to sell the new product 2. Competitors annihilate the first attempts to create a market segment 3. What seemed to work for some teams does not scale for other teams Overcoming these challenges has a lot to do with what PMs and PMMs choose to do at the early stages of product introduction. About the speakers: Contondo Co-Founders Assaf Litai A seasoned entrepreneur, Assaf has over 20 years experience defining, developing and selling various B2B products to mid and large scale enterprises globally. His previous company, PortAuthority, was acquired by Websense, where Assaf served as vice president of Strategic Accounts. Aviv Ben Zeev Aviv Ben Zeev has over 15 years' experience at large, global, high-tech companies in roles including engineering, sales and sales-management. Before co-founding Contondo, Aviv was Vice President of Sales, Europe at Orckit. Upcoming Events Reserve your seat for the next AIPMM webinar. Visit: http://aipmm.com/aipmm_webinars/. Want To Certify Your Team? If you have a product team of 10 or more that you want to certify, contact us at certification@aipmm.com. About AIPMM The AIPMM is the hub of all things product management. It is where product professionals go for answers. With members in nearly 70 countries, it is the worldwide certifying body of product team professionals. It is the world's largest professional organization of product managers, brand managers, product marketing managers and other product team professionals who are responsible for guiding their organizations, or clients, through a constantly changing business landscape. AIPMM's certification programs are internationally recognized because they allow product professionals to demonstrate their expertise and provide corporate members an assurance that their product management and marketing teams are operating at a high competency level. Visit http://www.aipmm.com. Call For Speakers: http://bit.ly/1b006vm Subscribe: http://www.aipmm.com/subscribe LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/aipmm Membership: http://www.aipmm.com/join.php Certification: http://aipmm.com/html/certification Articles: http://www.aipmm.com/html/newsletter/article.ph

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Sales Enablement Tactics for PMs and PMMs
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6. Today’s Speakers
Moderator:
Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
Founder, Startup Product Academy
Presenters:
Assaf Litai
Aviv Ben Zeev
Co-founders, Contondo Inc.
www.contondo.com
© AIPMM 2014
www.aipmm.com

7. Sales Enablement Tactics for
PMs and PMMs
AIPMM / CONTONDO / STARTUP PRODUCT ACADEMY
© 2014 Contondo Inc.

8. Participate and Receive!
 All participants will
receive an early
version of our new
white paper:
“Sales Enablement
Tactics for Product
Managers”.

9. About Contondo
Empowering product
managers to drive sales.
The Contondo toolkit helps
you establish sales
momentum for your new
product.

10. Agenda




An Imaginary Scenario
The Keys to Early Sales Enablement
5 Common Traps During Early Sales Enablement
Avoiding the Early Sales Enablement Traps (for PMs) –
A Demo Using Contondo
 Summary and Q&A

11. An Imaginary Scenario
(but based on many real stories…)
 Mike is a PM that was getting a new product to
market
 Working with PMMs, he developed stellar
messaging and executed a GTM strategy:





Created presentations
Produced product sheets
Updated all the portals
Worked on a sales enablement process and playbook
Sent out emails
 6 months after launch, of 30 sales teams, only 12
teams sell the product consistently

12. An Imaginary Scenario
(but based on many real stories…)
 Mike is a PM that was getting a new product to
market
 Working with PMMs, he developed stellar
messaging and executed a GTM strategy:





Created presentations
Produced product sheets
Updated all the portals
Worked on a sales enablement process and playbook
Sent out emails
 6 months after launch, of 30 sales teams, only 12
teams sell the product consistently
Mike the PM asks: Looking back, what could I have
done differently to improve the sales of my product?

13. The Keys to Early Sales Enablement
 Definition: “The delivery of the right information to the
right person at the right time and in the right place
necessary to move a specific sales opportunity forward.”
– IDC, 2009
 Sales Enablement is usually on your go-to-market timelines
Key Takeaway:
 In early stages it is imperative that sales enablement - Enable product sales (the obvious)
- Avoid the traps that poison sales motivation (the hidden killer)

14. Sales Enablement Tactics for PMs and PMMs…
5 Common Traps During
Early Sales Enablement

15. Trap 1: Assumptions
“When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME” – Oscar Wilde
 Assumptions – often a necessary evil.
 But, sales teams can’t differentiate proven facts from
unproven assumptions.
 Misleading assumptions can kill sales momentum and
motivation.

16. Trap 2: Lack of Customer
Qualification
“Customer qualification”: determining likelihood of success
before resources are spent
 No customer qualification criteria means shotgun sales
approach – i.e. targeting wrong opportunities
 The above will result in:
 Product won’t solve customer’s problem
 Trip on traps set by competitor
 Heavy discounting
 Motivation for future sales is poisoned due to
opportunity cost – Missing quota and wasted resources

17. Trap 3: Using Canned Messages
 New products are accompanied by canned messages
 Canned messages often fail because they are:
 Unfocused - on the target audience
 Unfriendly –for both sales and buyers
 Of unclear value – when attempting to align with buyers
requirements

18. Trap 4: Mismanagement of
Referential and Competitive Data
 Managing referential and competitive data:
 Difficult to collect, classify, tag and distribute.
 Doesn’t happen by itself (email…)
 The outcome:
 Can’t leverage anecdotal evidence across
different teams
 Can’t learn quickly about competitive
situations

19. Trap 4: Mismanagement of
Referential and Competitive Data
 Managing referential and competitive data:
 Difficult to collect, classify, tag and distribute.
 Doesn’t happen by itself (email…)
 The outcome:
 Can’t leverage anecdotal evidence across
different teams
 Can’t learn quickly about competitive
situations
Mike the PM asks: What are the best tools to
manage referential and competitive data for new
product and feature introduction?

20. Trap 5: Collateral Dependence
 “Collateralizing” knowledge in nascent product
stages:




Misleading assumptions become pervasive
Good information stales quickly
Information Explosion (e.g. frequent updates)
Messaging consistency issues (e.g. field attempts to
make data relevant)
 Collateral serves as a crutch, freezing mistakes and
failing to convince customers to buy

21. Recap: List of Traps




Trap1:
Trap 2:
Trap 3:
Trap 4:
Assumptions
Lack of Customer Qualification
Using Canned Messages
Mismanagement of Referential and
Competitive Data
 Trap 5: Collateral Dependence

22. Sales Enablement Tactics for PMs and PMMs…
Tips for Avoiding the Early
Sales Enablement Traps (Demo)

23. Contondo Demo
Mobile Sales Enablement
Tip:
Mobile and
offline access to
new product
messaging is a
must for sales
and SE that work
in the field.
Tip:
A Sales and SE
friendly UX
solicits field
participation.
Field users have
little patience
for VPNs and
extraneous
clicks.

24. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging
Tip:
Knowledge
portal should be
set up like Sales
and SE think in terms of
opportunity
scenarios.

25. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging

26. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging

27. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging

28. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging

29. Contondo Demo
Scenario Based Messaging
Tip:
Data should be
sorted based on
the relevancy to
the scenario.
The scenario as
selected by the
salesperson or
SE
Tip:
System should
recommend
additional
helpful data.

30. Contondo Demo
Handling Assumptions
Tip:
Always track
your unproven
assumptions and
mark them as
such.

31. Contondo Demo
Handling Assumptions
Sales and SE are
prompted to
corroborate
assumptions by
voting helpful or
participate by
editing the wiki
message

32. Contondo Demo
Customer Qualifications
Tip:
Create customer
qualifiers that
minimize the
opportunity cost
by ensuring the
teams win the
early deals and
avoid wasting
resources.

33. Contondo Demo
Customer Qualifications
Tip:
Gamification (e.g.
vote trophys and
badges) helps
encourage Sales
and SE contribute
data (such as
qualifiers)
Tip:
SE are your
product’s best
representatives;
Integrate your
Knowledge
Management
with the SE
mailing list

34. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
Getting early
feedback from
the field should
be as easy as
1-2-3

35. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
Your systems
should share
referential and
CI feedback
instantly with all
users.

36. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
Your systems
should share
referential and
CI feedback
instantly with all
users.

37. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
All data must be
catalogued for
scenario
relevancy
(In this case CI)
Tip:
Your systems
should share
referential and
CI feedback
instantly with all
users.

38. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
All data must be
catalogued for
scenario
relevancy
(In this case CI)
Tip:
Your systems
should share
referential and
CI feedback
instantly with all
users.

39. Contondo Demo
Managing References and CI
Tip:
All data must be
catalogued for
scenario
relevancy
(In this case CI)
Tip:
Your systems
should share
referential and
CI feedback
instantly with all
users.

40. Summary
Key Takeaways:
 Early sales success is critical for sales motivation
 Try to avoid deal loss by insisting on proper qualification
 Mark all unproven assumptions
 SE are the product’s main representatives
 Keep on top of requested scenario material
 Redistribute referential and CI instantly
 Focus on tailored messaging rather than on producing collateral
 Work on honing your canned messaging ASAP
 Think small sized, scenario relevant, messaging in their pockets (mobile)

41. About the Speakers
 Aviv Ben Zeev - Aviv Ben Zeev has over 15
years' experience working for large, global,
high-tech companies in various engineering,
sales and sales-management positions.
 Assaf Litai - A seasoned entrepreneur, Assaf
has over 20 years’ experience defining,
developing and selling various B2B products
to mid and large scale enterprises globally.

42. Q&A
About Contondo:
Contondo provides an innovative
knowledge management system tailored
for PM and PMMs empowering them to
drive sales for their products.
For more information contact us at:
assaf@contondo.com
aviv@contondo.com
Twitter: @ContondoMedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ContondoMedia
Linked-in: http://www.linkedin.com/company/contondo
Website: http://www.contondo.com

43. Q&A
Moderator:
Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
Founder, Startup Product Academy
Presenters:
Assaf Litai
Aviv Ben Zeev
Co-founders, Contondo Inc.
www.contondo.com
© AIPMM 2014
www.aipmm.com

44. Download Whitepaper
New white paper
“Sales
Enablement
Tactics for
Product
Managers”.
http://startupproduct.com/contondo/
© AIPMM 2014
www.aipmm.com

45. Upcoming AIPMM Courses
Athens, Greece
Belgrade, Serbia
Athens, Greece
Follow the links above for more information, or contact:
certification@aipmm.com.
© AIPMM 2014
www.aipmm.com

46. Upcoming AIPMM Courses
Belgrade, Serbia
Follow the links above for more information, or contact:
certification@aipmm.com.
© AIPMM 2014
www.aipmm.com

47. Upcoming Courses
Course & Location
CPM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Seattle, WA
McLean, VA
Dates
Days
Time
May 5-6, 2014
June 9-10, 2014
M, T
8:30 am – 5 pm
CPMM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Seattle, WA
May 7-8, 2014
W, Th 8:30 am – 5 pm
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June 11-12, 2014
ACPM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
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McLean, VA
May 9, 2014
June 13, 2014
F
8:30 am – 5 pm
For more information, contact
Hector Del Castillo at hmdelcastillo@aipmm.com.
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