Getting better at what you do or who you are takes commitment. It doesn’t happen by accident and no one is going to do it for you. Each day you have an opportunity to become a better professional, a better dad, a better sister, a better friend, and a better spouse. Find The One Thing you can do today to make you better. Then tomorrow find another. Don’t stop.

Strategic Product Manager listed Launch Clinic as a top product management blog for 2012 – booya! Thanks, Stewart!

Hopefully this whole ‘the world is going to end thing’ doesn’t pan out and I’ll earn my way onto the list for 2013.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Marketers struggle to say ‘No’ to requests they know are frivolous. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the status quo than make waves. But admit it: you (and your team) do a lot of extra stuff that is a waste of time and resources.

Part 1 was about linking everything you do in marketing to the goals the CEO values.

Part 2 discussed the importance of knowing your buyers.

The final installment of “How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired” is an exploration into one more thing effective product marketers need to know: the buyer’s process for making a purchase decision.

Buyers follow a process that leads to a purchase decision

Why should anyone in Marketing be concerned about how buyers buy? Your Sales team takes care of that, right?

Salespeople are expected to know how buyers in an individual deal make a purchase decision. Marketing should know how buyers in a market segment make a purchase decision.

First, there are patterns (steps) in the way buyers in a market segment arrive at a purchase decision. The pattern is logical and predictable. Second, there are different buying roles that get involved in making a purchase decision, and they get involved at different times in the process for different reasons. Third, is the two previous items sets the stage for identifying marketing gaps that can facilitate a purchase decision, and help prioritize marketing projects.

According to the Corporate Executive Board…

“57 percent of the purchase decision is complete before a customer calls a supplier, providing a large opportunity for Marketing to influence the early stages of the purchase process.” – http://www.executiveboard.com/sales-marketing/challenger/insight-led-marcomm/index.html

Where do you go from here?

Three things are needed to confidently say ‘No’ to frivolous marketing requests without getting fired:

1. Having a clear understanding of business goals and how they relate to what you do
2. Mastery of the people who influence a purchase decision
3. Knowledge of the purchase decision process

Saying ‘No’ Without Getting Fired is about knowledge not power. Oh and it makes it much easier to say ‘Yes’ with confidence too.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Today Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, effectively disrupting the business of school textbooks. I wrote that the “Apple iPad Will Be a Game Changer for Education” when the iPad was originally announced, but it didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure that out. iPad-based textbooks in the K-12 marketer are well within Apple’s distinctive competence.

iBooks Author a Game Changer for Marketers

The implication for marketers is immense. Let me get the conversation started…

• Deliver rich, interactive marketing collateral where you can not only create a persuasive message but a persuasive delivery to match
• Create game-changing product documentation
• Develop instructional materials that actually teach
• Self-publish thought leadership books without the need of a publisher

Stop what you’re doing, go to the Appstore, and download iBooks Author. Get to know it and how to use it. It will change the way you go to market and give you a competitive advantage (professionally and personally).

What are your ideas? What could you do with iBooks Author?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Product marketing managers struggle to say ‘no’ to requests they know are frivolous. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the status quo than make waves. Admit it: you (and your team) work on stupid stuff that you know is a waste of time and resources (believe me, you’re not alone).

In Part 1 of How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired I discussed the importance of understanding the goals that matter most to the CEO and translating it into what you do as a product marketing manager.

But even if you have a clear understanding of the business goals, a limited understanding of your buyers would not prepare you to say ‘no’.

Companies don’t buy products

Companies don’t buy products, people do. That was sage advice to me early in my career and it still applies today.

So if companies don’t buy products and people do, who are these people? How well do you know them?

I’m comfortable you could tell me their job titles, but what else? What is their annual salary? How do they get compensated? Who is their boss? What is their personal win?

In any market there are patterns. One of the patterns relate to buyers. We call this kind of pattern a Buyer Persona. A Buyer Persona helps you identify a likely buyer in the wild, and how to get inside his head.

Understanding buyers isn’t a desk job

Getting a full appreciation and perspective of your buyers requires work; field work. You can’t make it up and you can’t rely exclusively on your salespeople or the one subject matter expert in the company.

Think like an anthropologist. Find time to interact with real potential buyers in the wild. Observe them in their habitat, how they eat, raise their young, and forage for food.

Building an understanding of your buyers takes time and it takes perseverance. But the payoff is huge. Saying ‘No’ is especially empowering when backed by market evidence.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Kodak has been heralded for its work in social media, even writing a social media tip book. But recently Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection. As a kid I enjoyed photography as a hobby and the excitement of developing and seeing my photographs.

Jonathan wrote a piercing blog post on his blog Dim Bulb about the disconnect between branding/marketing efforts at Kodak and the reality of a market that was changing at blinding speed. It’s not that Kodak couldn’t create innovative solutions, it’s that they couldn’t “market its way out of a paper bag”.

“Its mainstream marketing was traditional to the point of irrelevance. Tag lines like “Take Pictures Further,” “Share Moments, Share Life,” and “A Kodak Moment” (the last of which dated from 1961) were catchy but had no legs, no motivational purpose for the brand other than being memorable. It looked good, like pictures, but there was nothing about the marketing that was uniquely Kodak, let alone uniquely prompting to purchase. Fuji or any other brand could say the exact same things.

If the goal was measuring conversations, the social media effort was a wild success and elevated the careers those involved. If the goal was to sell more stuff, not so much. Sounds to me there was a disconnect between the business goal and the marketing goal.

Is your message memorable but not motivational?

Is your marketing unique or can your competitor’s say exactly the same thing?

Read all of Jonathan’s blog post here

Many marketers fall victim to gobbledygook, but I expect better from Volkswagen. This effort was an epic fail.

“Volkswagen’s rich history of developing state-of-the-art technology coupled with our industry leading telematics architecture and experience will allow us to deliver a robust set of services to meet the global needs of today’s and tomorrow’s drivers.”

Who is this written for and what are they attempting to communicate?

How about…

“XYZ technology will make the experience of driving a Volkswagen safer and more enjoyable by connecting customers to the information they need when they need it.”

I don’t profess to be a copywriter by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe my copywriting friends can provide a better alternative.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Product marketing managers are inundated with requests for all manner of marketing collateral, sales tools, and sales support. So many that the list of requests grows faster than the ability to complete them in a timely and quality fashion.

When product marketing managers decide to push back and say ‘No’, it’s met with displeasure, disdain, or disgust. Usually the person with the most power or most senior job title decides the priority, and the product marketing manager is powerless to defend her position.

Jeff Bezos said it so eloquently: “The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy. The most junior person in the company can win an argument with the most senior person with regard to a fact-based decision.”

More power isn’t what’s needed, it’s facts.

Unclear Goals Result in Unclear Priorities

Product marketing managers need to be clear about how they, as individual contributors, support the goals of the business. In particular, the goals that matter most to the CEO. Unfortunately, the goals of the CEO (lofty or not), aren’t always translated to product marketing managers in a way that is meaningful.

Knowing the goals that matter most to the CEO is the first step in saying ‘no’ without getting fired. When you understand which goals matter the most you’ll find yourself in a safer place. Beware that there could be different agendas at play between you and the CEO which can result in different interpretations of the goals. Your job is to clarify the goals and use it as a center of gravity to help you make better decisions.

According the to 2010 Pragmatic Marketing Product Management and Marketing Survey, product marketing managers support 2 product managers and each product manager supports 3 products. This implies that product marketing managers support 6 products.

Without a clear understanding of the most critical goals the CEO values, you are left to travel without a compass to guide you.

Time for a Dose of Reality

You can’t market each product equally and expect them all to deliver top results. The product managers you support will be pressuring you to provide more marketing for their products. If the roles were reversed you would do it too. Your mission isn’t to provide unlimited marketing support to every product manager, it’s to help achieve the goals of the business.

Which products support the CEO’s goals the best? How do you know? Who will you need to talk with to know for sure?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Kenny Martin over at SEOmoz has a nice list of easy things you can do to earn links that can help you build better organic search rankings.

Ah, nice outfit Kenny.

For many B2B marketers 2011 was a challenging year. Given the current fuzzy economic climate 2012 will be no walk in the park. You will have another year of justifying every expense, every marketing programs. There are 4 things you can do to make 2012 a great year for yourself.

Get Acquainted With Your Market

Too many B2B marketers know so little about the markets they serve. They know a lot about their products, but they know very little about the problems they solve for buyers. Do you talk about buyers from your point of view (features in your products) or from their point of view (their problems you solve). There is no way you can gain knowledge of your buyers by sitting in your office or talking to your salespeople or resident subject matter expert. You need to get out of your office and interact with real potential buyers, in the wild, in their native habitat.

Make a commitment to have a conversation with 5 buyers each month. Develop Buyer Personas for buyers you are having trouble reaching or connecting with. Encourage your marketing colleagues to doing the same.

Get to Know Your Sales Channels

As you develop a deeper understanding of your buyers, you understand what they value and how to effectively communicate to them. What about the people who sell your products? You can’t assume they have the same understanding of buyers. Salespeople focus on individual transactions. You need a perspective on the entire market.

Make a commitment to do 4 “ride alongs” each month. Instead of complaining that your salespeople don’t use the presentations you develop for them, find out why because there is a reason. Why do salespeople eagerly sell some products but ignore others?

Get Clarity on What Your Management Cares About

B2B marketers complain that their management team changes priorities. Maybe the problem is a lack of clarity on how management is keeping score. A “do this, not that” reaction stems from a lack of confidence that the marketing team is tracking toward the right goal. Hint: generating more “leads” is not a goal management cares about. They care about selling more stuff.

Understanding management goals helps you prioritize marketing projects and gives you a firm footing to push back on requests that don’t support the goals.

Make a commitment to meet with members of your management team to document their most important goals for 2012. Then meet with your marketing team to translate those goals into actions. Let’s face it. You’re marketing some products that shouldn’t see the light of day and others that desperately need your help.

Measure, Test, and Measure Again

When you understand the goals that management cares about, you can relate everything that your marketing team does to those goals. There is no guesswork. A missing ingredient is demonstrating how the marketing team is supporting those goals. Measure everything and amplify those things that are working.

Test everything: different landing pages, different copy, different images, different messages. Lather, rinse, repeat. Build testing into everything you do.

Make a commitment to choose a small set of meaningful metrics that demonstrate how you are delivering against the goals your management team cares about. If the care about revenue then you should be reporting on metrics that support revenue (growth in the pipeline, market share, customer renewals, etc.)