Product Marketing Consulting Engagements
ProdMark Solutions offers a wide range of Product Marketing consulting services aimed at providing “best practice” solutions for your organization.
Click on any of the suggested consulting engagements below to learn how ProdMark Solutions can help ease your Product Marketing process:
- Sales Tools Creation
- Competitive Analysis
- Product Messaging & Positioning
- Product & Feature Naming
- Pricing & Licensing
- Product Launch Planning
- On-Line Demo Systems
- Customer Satisfaction Analysis
- Customer Reference Program
- Customer Advisory Council
- Custom Product Marketing Consulting
- Short- & Long-Term Product Marketing Staffing
Product Marketing consulting engagement descriptions:
Sales Tools Creation
Do your sales tools effectively convey the merits of your products? Do you receive ongoing feedback from your Sales force regarding how effective your sales tools are for conveying accurate product information? If the answer is “no” to either of these questions, ProdMark Solutions can help you to deliver the sales tools that your Sales force is looking for.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with Product Marketing, Sales, SEs and reselling partners (if applicable).
- Conduct a meeting with Product Marketing to determine a list of “core” sales tools that should be created for each product. Create a matrix which depicts products versus sales tools, which conveys what sales tools have been created for what products.
- Propose templates / samples for each sales tool. Once agreed upon, create drafts of each sales tool conveying actual product information. Evaluate and finalize.
- Continue creating sales tools until the entire matrix is complete.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of feedback obtained from all interviews
- Document describing “core” sales tools to be created for all products
- Templates for all approved sales tools
- Completed and approved sales tools for all selected products
Competitive Analysis
Is the Competition starting to slowly eat away your market share? Are you losing deals that you wouldn’t have if your Sales force was better equipped? If so, then it may be time to implement more sophisticated Competitive Analysis strategies.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with Product Marketing, Product Management, Sales, SEs and reselling partners (if applicable) to gauge the overall Competitive Landscape.
- Implement a Win/Loss reporting system to monitor competitive threats in the sales pipeline.
- ProdMark Solutions will call your competitors on behalf of an “anonymous” customer to gain competitive intelligence and to determine how your competitors perceive your products.
- Present several templates for competitive sales tools to Product Marketing for consideration. Once agreed upon, ProdMark Solutions will create customized sales tools to equip your Sales force with the knowledge they need to combat competitive threats. (Click on the “Sales Tools” menu for a list of competitive sales tools.)
- ProdMark Solutions is also available to provide in-person and/or Web-based competitive response training to your Sales force.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of interview responses
- Win/loss reporting system
- Summary of intelligence gathered from competitor interviews
- Variety of completed and approved competitive sales tools
- One or more competitive response training sessions
Product Messaging & Positioning
Before creating any Marketing-related deliverables for your products, it is best to create a “Message Map” to capture the overall messaging and positioning of your products. Your messaging pillars and positioning statements can then be integrated into a variety of deliverables, including press releases, sales brochures, web pages and a variety of other printed and/or electronic materials.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with Product Marketing, Sales and SEs to assess existing messaging and positioning and to determine requirements for updated and/or new messaging and positioning.
- Propose several alternative messaging pillars for each product and then schedule a meeting to finalize the selection.
- Propose several alternative positioning phrases, sentences and paragraphs and then schedule a meeting to finalize the selection.
- Create a unified Message Map that contains all product messaging and positioning.
Project Deliverables
- Messaging pillars
- Positioning phrases, sentences and paragraphs
- Message Map
Product & Feature Naming
Perhaps the most challenging duty of any Product Marketing Manager is naming a product or feature. It is virtually impossible to select a name that pleases everyone. But it is possible to implement a consistent and logical naming strategy that can be leveraged across all products.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with designated company employees to determine requirements for product and/or feature naming.
- Determine the company’s overall naming strategy, whether “descriptive” or “creative”.
- Host a naming brainstorming session. Gather consensus to the top 5 names.
- Perform an extensive trademark search domestically and internationally to ensure the proposed names are not already registered and/or in active use by another company.
- Create a spreadsheet depicting a selection of “filters” to be applied to each name, such as a “phonetic filter”, “transmits functionality” filter, and an “Invokes emotion” filter.
- Gather consensus on product / feature names and submit for approval.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of naming requirements
- Document describing naming strategy
- Spreadsheet depicting all naming “filters”
- List of top 5 names
- Final product / feature name
Pricing & Licensing
Pricing and licensing are just as much of an “art” as they are a “science”. It’s not only important to price your products to achieve optimal revenue, but it’s equally as important to select a licensing model that is easy to understand and meets the needs of a variety of markets. Let ProdMark Solutions assist you in determining the optimal pricing and licensing models to meet an ever-changing marketplace.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews throughout the company and with reselling partners (if applicable) to determine existing pricing and licensing models and to receive feedback on those models.
- Conduct extensive market research to determine the EXACT pricing and licensing models of every significant competitor.
- Create a Feature Comparison matrix to help compare how your products stack up against the competition.
- Put together a presentation that depicts 2-3 alternative licensing models and corresponding pricing alternatives.
- Host a meeting among key deciding members of the company to review licensing and pricing alternatives and to make a decision on course of action to follow.
- Create a Master Price List, along with product SKUs, if applicable.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of interview feedback
- Summary of market research and competitive analysis
- PowerPoint presentation depicting licensing and pricing alternatives, and the models actually selected
- Master Price List
Product Launch Planning
Planning a major product launch for the next version of your company’s flagship product? Want to make sure your getting “the biggest bang for your buck?” Let ProdMark Solutions plan your next product launch and produce world-class sales tools and other deliverables that will help maximize your new product’s impact in the marketplace.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews to gain insight into the product being launched, to determine the effectiveness of past product launches and to learn about specific goals of the impending product launch.
- Propose a Launch Plan template to capture the strategic goals and plan of action of the product launch. Once the template is approved, complete a draft of the Launch Plan and submit for approval.
- Propose a Launch Checklist template. Review the template in detail with those responsible for launch planning. Fill out the Launch Checklist with mutually-agreed-upon launch deliverables. Assign dates and owners to all launch deliverables.
- Initiate and oversee weekly product launch status meetings to ensure all product launch deliverables are on track.
- Execute those deliverables in which ProdMark Solutions has assumed ownership, such as sales tools creation.
- Once the product has been launched, conduct a “post mortem” launch team meeting to discuss what we did well and what we can improve upon next time. Utilize WebSurveyor (or other on-line survey tool) prior to the post mortem discussion to gauge anonymous feedback.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of data collected during interviews
- Launch Plan template and completed Launch Plan
- Launch Checklist template and completed Launch Checklist
- Weekly launch team status meetings
- Assigned launch deliverables (i.e., Sales Tools)
- Post mortem feedback presentation
On-Line Demo Systems
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a demo is worth a million. That’s why it’s important to offer one or more self-service demonstrations via your corporate web site. And ProdMark Solutions can show you how, even if your product is complex to use or difficult to demonstrate properly.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews to determine what products should be demonstrated via the Web and how best to demonstrate them.
- Make recommendations on how product demonstrations can be demonstrated “live” via the Web, utilizing a company such as Runaware. And, make recommendations on how product demonstrations can be achieved through flash-based demonstration, utilizing a company such as Autodemo. (See “Useful Links” page for more information on Runaware and Autodemo.) Present recommendations via a strategic demo planning meeting.
- Create a design document proposing how the company’s on-line demo room should look and feel, and what functionality it should provide. Seek approval from key company personnel and finalize the document.
- Work with those individuals assigned to implementing the on-line demo room and “project manage” the project through to completion and launch.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of data collected through interviews
- PowerPoint presentation summarizing demo recommendations
- Demo room design document
- Fully-functional on-line Demo Room
Customer Satisfaction Analysis
Your company is bringing in revenue, so your customers must be “happy”, right? Not necessarily. Many companies are under a significantly false impression about customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. And many of these companies don’t realize it until it is too late. Let ProdMark Solutions evaluate the true nature of your customers’ satisfaction with your products and services.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews to gain insight into your company’s products and services.
- Draft an on-line questionnaire using WebSurveyor (or other on-line survey tool) and submit the questionnaire for company approval.
- Submit the questionnaire to key company personnel in order to gauge how the company overall perceives customer satisfaction to be.
- Submit the questionnaire to as many customers as possible, ranging in both industry and company size. Provide motivation for completing the questionnaire by offering a special discount or free product opportunity.
- Evaluate all survey responses and create a Customer Satisfaction presentation and report.
- Present the Customer Satisfaction presentation to key company personnel, along with strategic recommendations for improving customer satisfaction.
Project Deliverables
- Summary of data collected through interviews
- Customer Satisfaction questionnaire
- Customer Satisfaction presentation and report
- Presentation to key company personnel
Customer Reference Program
Having solid customer references is critical to the success of any company. Who wants to make a significant investment in a product or service without a comfortable feeling that the offering has been proven by other customers. Let ProdMark Solutions perform a “customer harvest” identifying those customers that are willing to be references for (1) other potential customers, (2) your corporate web site, (3) sales tools and (4) to press and analysts.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-one-one interviews to learn about the company’s products and services and to identify the need for customer references.
- Obtain a list of customer contacts from Sales representing those customers most likely to be willing to participate in your company’s Customer Reference Program.
- Propose “terms of agreement” to be agreed to by customers willing to participate in the Customer Reference Program.
- Your company’s Legal Department must determine whether a verbal response, e-mail response or a written response is required.
- Call customers to introduce the Customer Reference Program and to solicit volunteers to be customer references.
- Create a customer reference database for use by Sales and Marketing.
Project Deliverables
- Document outlining the goals and strategies of the Customer Reference Program (for internal use only)
- Customer Reference Program “terms of agreement”
- Customer Reference Database
Customer Advisory Council
Every successful software and hardware provider should have some form of a Customer Advisory Council to periodically call upon as a “sounding board” to discuss product strategies. These period in-person meetings are a “win-win” for you and your customers. You gain valuable insight into your company’s product strategy, and your customers feel valued in that they have influence into your company’s product vision and roadmap.
Project Activities
- Conduct a series of one-on-one interviews to determine the goals and requirements of a Customer Advisory Council. Document this information for internal use.
- Create a simple document describing the Customer Advisory Council program and the benefits for its members.
- Solicit an invitation list from Sales and call customers to invite them to participate (under NDA) in your newly-established Customer Advisory Council.
- Draft a survey using WebSurveyor (or other on-line survey tool) representing “hot topics” to be discussed at the first meeting. Presenting survey results can be a great way to drive the agenda.
- Propose dates, venues and a sample agenda for your company’s first Customer Advisory Council and attend the meeting as an observer (and/or as a presenter). Document key findings resulting from this introductory meeting.
Project Deliverables
- Customer Advisory Council program descriptions for internal and external use
- Customer Advisory Council membership contact list
- Meeting participants’ survey and survey results (in presentation form)
- Summary of “key findings” resulting from the first meeting
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Custom Product Marketing Consulting
This list of Product Marketing Consulting Engagements represents common challenges faced by any Product Marketing organization. But it by no means represents 100% of the challenges faced on a day-to-day basis. ProdMark Solutions is ready to tackle any Product Marketing challenge you are facing. Contact us today to discuss how we can turn your Product Marketing challenges into ProdMark Solutions.
Short- & Long-Term Product Marketing Staffing
Are you unable to find good Product Marketing talent? Are you hindered by a stringent budget that prevents you from adding the headcount you need to complete your Product Marketing team? If the answer is “yes” to either of these questions, ProdMark Solutions can help by placing experienced Product Marketing talent into temporary positions to help meet the short-term and/or long-term needs of your employer.