Product Marketing Stakeholders and Why They Matter

Navigating the SaaS world isn’t just about the code. The success cocktail includes a blend of people from different departments of the company, aka the product marketing stakeholders. 

From product managers to customer support, they have a stake in how things roll out. Why do they matter? Because product marketers can’t make a product successful all by themselves. They need to collaborate with these departments to get the product to market. 

Let’s dive in and unravel the movers and shakers of your SaaS product.

Who are Product Marketing Stakeholders?

As a product marketer, you work closely with sales and the product team. Here’s a rundown on collaborating with your stakeholders, aligning on goals, and, most importantly, making your next launch a smashing success.

If you want your stakeholders to be fully invested, involve them from the start. That means collaborating with market-facing teams early on to identify requirements and opportunities. Remember to emphasize that you have common goals and that their success is tied to your own. 

Here’s an example of how sales and product development stakeholders work together.

Sales

Goals

When it comes to driving sales, deal size & win rate are crucial metrics where sales and product marketing teams can collaborate and support each other.

How you support

Sales teams are always eager to get the lowdown on the latest plans from the product development team. Coming up with fresh and innovative ideas is the secret sauce to standing out from the competition. 

By teaming up and brainstorming together, you can cook up strategies to set your products apart and drive our profits and growth. It’s a win-win.

How they support

This is also your chance to coordinate with sales on why they won or lost, common objections, and their take on competitors in the market.

Product

Goals

According to Fluvio’s Devon O’Rourke, if product marketers want to be true partners, they have to own the adoption and results of their product. Though how they get there will differ, the end goal is the same. That is, to drive successful product adoption and deliver value to customers. 

It’ll lead to customer satisfaction, retention, and business growth.

How you support

The product team needs qualitative feedback from the market to ensure they’re building in the right direction or identify if there are additional opportunities to support customers. 

And it’s not just negative feedback that might influence the roadmap – they appreciate the positive feedback, like testimonials and case studies.

How they support

The insights from the product marketing team help to shape the product roadmap. Product management empowers product marketing to dream up and plan cool new ways to market the features. 

Scale your product launch – together!

Time to scale your product launch! Here’s how to use these stakeholders to help launch your product beyond the walls of your company. 

• Make sure your SDRs are living and breathing the messaging. Send them relevant info so they can freshen up their outreach with their prospects.
• Ensure that the marketing team is fully equipped with messaging, has the right collateral, and understands the relevant buyer personas so that they can rock it in their marketing responsibilities. 
• The sales team should know all the amazing ways your product can be used. This will help them pitch the perfect solution and find the right match for each prospect’s unique needs.  

Leveraging Stakeholders To Report and Measure Your Efforts

As a product marketer, you want to drive users and prospects to use your product. Though there are several metrics to measure success, it helps to have input from the teams directly in touch with customers for qualitative insights.

For example: 

• If only a tiny segment of your audience is converting from an ad, your marketing team can tell why and identify the target segments that convert the most. 
• If your sales team has pitched your new solution to ten prospects, but only two were interested, there might be a few objections that the team didn’t address. It may be time to sit down with the sales team and bring them up to speed to handle the objections better.
• If your customer bought the solution but hardly ever uses it, don’t worry. Customer success can help you figure out why and what needs improvement to boost adoption.

Make Your Next Product Launch a Success

The above steps help level up the relationship between product marketing and internal teams and enhance your go-to-market strategies. 

When different teams work together properly, they drive product adoption and generate revenue more effectively. It’s a cycle that continues beyond the product launch. To continue being successful, keep delivering value and getting support from these stakeholders and internal teams.