How product marketing leaders can drive impact at the enterprise level

Product Marketing
Written By Raechel Lambert

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This article is all about that big company energy: what it takes to drive impact at the enterprise level. Here at Olivine, we’ve been lucky enough to work with over 50 companies ranging from pre-seed startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. 

Some of the big names we’ve worked with:

(Plus some we can’t mention yet. We haven’t gotten around to case studies for all of these clients — what’s the saying? Oh yeah, the cobbler has no shoes.)

Because our team shares insights with each other and we work with multiple clients each year, the velocity of learning is high, perhaps higher than with a typical in-house employee. So we pooled our learnings and even tapped into some of our trusted network to share what it’s like to get things done at big companies, despite lots of red tape.

TL;DR: 6 Lessons learned working with enterprises at the leadership level

  1. It’s never too late for product marketing fundamentals, even for public companies with long-standing products.

  2. For big initiatives, the pain has to be felt broadly or a catalyzing event must occur (i.e., acquisition) to really drive your work.

  3. Enterprises can learn from startups how to be scrappy IF they make space for experimenting and making mistakes.

  4. An outsider who’s not familiar with your SOPs can positively shift perspectives and shake up complacency.

  5. Hiring and procurement can be arduous. Be sure to understand the process so you can set expectations accordingly.

  6. Establish a single point person for leading, approving, or doing. If everyone is in charge, no one is.

For individual contributors in big orgs

“It’s never too late for product marketing fundamentals, even for public companies with long-standing products.”
— Sheena Vega, Director of Product Marketing at Olivine

I’ve worked in-house at really big companies (like, 75,000 employees big!), and I’ve consulted with companies of a similar size. One thing I absolutely believe is that no company is ever too large or too mature to be “past” foundational work when it comes to personas, JTBD, or product positioning and messaging. Sure, sometimes it’s more about realignment than it is about starting from scratch, but there’s always room for it. 

Change is constant and more is always revealed. This might be obvious, but sometimes after a business does a ton of work on their personas or messaging, they adopt a set-it and forget-it mindset and before they know it, their strategy and approach are stale. Sales teams are learning more about their buyers daily, there’s always new competition, and new ways to reach people emerge constantly. It doesn’t matter how big a company is or how long they’ve been around, taking some time to revisit fundamental product marketing work will only help drive more understanding and success.

“For big initiatives, the pain has to be felt broadly or a catalyzing event must occur (i.e., acquisition) to really drive your work.”
— Tom Heys, Director of Product Strategy at Monitaur
Lessons learned while working at Fitbit

In an enterprise, you have to understand organizational inertia in order to get the good work of product marketing done. If you try to kick off a major initiative like fixing your positioning, messaging, etc. without some external driver, you should expect it to not get off the ground or kicked down the road, or not approved. That's just the reality of working in a large organization with many entrenched, competing personal and professional interests.

Instead, you should be up on the bow of the Titanic, scanning the horizon for those moments that will force the organization to turn. Those icebergs might be an acquisition of another company, the loss of a flagship customer, legal action, or other momentous business impact. If the pain isn't acute and widespread across the organization, just keep biding your time, focusing on execution and incremental improvements.

“Enterprises can learn from startups on how to  be scrappy IF they make space for experimenting and making mistakes.”
— Raechel Lambert, Co-Founder of Olivine

Startups are constantly under pressure from a lack of resources. But this is a feature, not a bug. Being forced to ruthlessly prioritize, experiment with new tactics, and have an always-learning mindset unlocks the most growth (for the business and the people working there).

At big, established companies, it’s tempting to go the safe route, reusing the same playbooks and processes until everything is on autopilot. Sometimes big companies aren’t even aware of scrappy approaches that are successful at startups. Things like 

  • Plain text emails from product managers to invite folks to a public beta, which tend to convert way higher than glossy marketing emails

  • Empowering employees to speak openly (within reason) about the company, product, and culture on social media, podcasts, and conference talks

  • Sales outbound via Twitter DMs, either manual or automated with Phantom Buster

The key is to create a culture of experimenting where it’s safe to try new tactics. And if mistakes are made, learn from them without adding more processes and rigidity.

“An outsider who’s not familiar with your SOPs can positively shift perspectives and shake up complacency.”
— Brittany Smail, Product Marketing Manager at Olivine

As companies grow, official processes and unwritten rules can become so familiar that employees stop noticing them, let alone questioning them. Outsiders have the benefit of naivety—they bring a fresh perspective that isn’t clouded by internal conditioning. New eyes notice outdated or too-rigid systems and can suggest novel ways of approaching problems or collaborating across departments that give your team renewed energy.

Good contractors are proactive—by inclination and necessity. They’re not afraid to ask dumb questions, call out entrenched dysfunction, and try creative new ideas. The later stage a company is, the more it can usually benefit from some newcomer energy. 

“Hiring or procurement can be arduous. Be sure to understand the process so you can set expectations accordingly.”
— Daniel Canton, VP of Operations at Olivine

New leaders in big enterprises often don’t realize how long and arduous the hiring or procurement process can be — sometimes as long as 6 months to approve and onboard a new vendor. This can lead to them setting unrealistic expectations with the talent they are trying to hire. It's important for everyone to understand what’s involved and how long it takes so you can set and meet deadlines accordingly.

“Establish a single point person for leading, approving, or doing. If everyone is in charge, no one is.”
— Alex Orlinski, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Anthrofin

Whether you're a leader looking to hire an agency/contractor OR someone aiming to work with a big organization, establish a single point person for leading, approving, or doing. If everyone is in charge, no one is.

When there are many stakeholders, it feels like a unanimous consensus must be reached at every single checkpoint. This is incredibly slow, so a best practice is to establish who the tiebreaker will be at the very beginning. That will not only make decisions go faster, but it will also avoid confusion or political power plays when leadership is unclear.

Since 2016, Olivine has been focussed on product marketing and along the way we’ve helped our clients launch new products, overhaul long-entrenched positioning & messaging, unify multiple acquisitions into a single platform pitch, lead strategic workshops at team offsites, and develop product-centric go-to-market campaigns.

Interested in learning how we help enterprise companies grow? Reach out here.

Raechel Lambert

Co-Founder & VP of Product Marketing. Formerly Intercom.

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