What I’ve learnt running the ‘WTF is Go-To-Market?’ course
? Hi, I’m James. Thanks for checking out Building Momentum: a newsletter to help startup founders and marketers accelerate SaaS growth through product marketing.
We’re opening registrations for the third cohort of our course, WTF is Go-To-Market?: a five-week short course for B2B startup marketers to get the skills, confidence, and tools to build a customer-focused go-to-market strategy. Registration closes September 9. Find out more and apply here.
Last year, Alicia and I were talking about the general state of product marketing training, wondering what we could do to support product marketers.. and help them avoid the mistakes we’ve made in our experience so far.
Fast forward 12 months and we’ve successfully run two cohorts of our course, WTF is Go-To-Market? and seen some great results:
- 30% of students have received a promotion
- 100% of students gave the course ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- 100% would be disappointed if no longer available
- 100% said they gained a”great deal of practical knowledge”
- NPS of 93
Not to mention a whole host of great testimonials, with snippets like these:
“In just several weeks, I’ve applied so many practical learnings to my job. The course has made me feel way more confident in my role and I’m adding a tonne more value and customer-focus to my company.”
“For someone who normally doesn’t love courses, this course was incredibly insightful and engaging, and really helped elevate my skills as a Product Marketer. You can bring all of the content and learnings straight into your day to day, from product launches to product messaging.”
“WTF is Go-To-Market has helped me understand how I can maximize my impact as a product marketer – I’m forever grateful!”
“In just 6 weeks, my knowledge has been elevated beyond my imagination. My fundamental understanding of Go-To-Market has evolved, and now I bring more clarity and confidence to my work, everyday… We all truly leveled up together.”
After coaching 20+ product marketers through the course, I thought I’d reflect on some of my insights so far.
In this post:
Product marketers still fight to prove value to their business
Most students have been the sole PMM in their business, or might work in a team without a dedicated product marketing leader. This means they’re always fighting to build product marketing best practices and influence across product and marketing.
We’ve been here, done that, and got the t-shirt. We teach from experience, and encourage PMMs to elevate the conversations they’re in away from tactical execution and towards identifying and answering the bigger, more strategic questions.
Product marketers struggle with their elevator pitch
One of the first questions we ask is for coursemembers to describe how they would “explain what their business does to a dentist.”
It’s a great, casual test. How succinctly can they explain their unique value proposition to someone who has no idea what SaaS is?
But nine out of ten responses either contain buzzwords and internal language, or are so dumbed-down they’re devoid of differentiation.
Developing your value proposition requires experience. Communicating it requires skill.
Product marketers still struggle with product managers
Alicia is naturally drawn to helping product and tech teams build customer empathy. She’s written about the overlap between product managers and product marketers, and it makes her the perfect person to help support our coursemembers with real experience.
Often, product marketers just aren’t involved at the discovery phase of product work and instead are just given features to ship. But we teach that successful go-to-market depends on an aligned understanding of the customer and their problems. Feature launches aren’t the end goal – they’re a milestone in the process to understand how best to help your customer.
By getting closer with the product team (from providing insights to joining standups), product marketers can help smooth their working relationships and get to better outcomes.
Product marketers are brave and ambitious
We’ve been so inspired by the grit, determination, and aspirational nature of all the PMMs who have taken the course so far. Many still at the early stages of their careers have vastly more guts than we did at that stage.
We believe that product marketers are the best type of people. Natural leaders. Empathetic colleagues. Driven. Detail-oriented. Strategic by default.
But most of all, we’ve been so encouraged by the bravery that emanates from everyone we’ve worked with so far. Unafraid to ask hard questions, or tackle difficult conversations, or push back against execs – always with the best needs of the business and the customer in mind.
Product marketers value authentic, vulnerable connection
When Alicia and I started working together six years ago, we realised how valuable it is to have an authentic connection with someone who’s going through the same thing as you. Someone you can commiserate and celebrate with, someone to riff ideas with, and someone to learn with.
That’s why our course isn’t just focused on the technical knowledge and the templates that we offer.
Instead, we create a safe space for people to learn from each other and connect with. We open up our own experience and talk not just about the successes, but the struggles and mistakes we’ve made. We show vulnerability, and it’s returned.
Registrations for our Autumn cohort now open
Alicia and I are so excited to open up our Autumn cohort of WTF is Go-To-Market. We’ve updated the program based on feedback, and can’t wait to welcome our next group onto the course.
WTF Is Go-To-Market is a unique, five-week short course for B2B startup marketers to learn the skills, build confidence, and get the tools to build a customer-focused go-to-market strategy.
We’ll guide marketers through six modules from ground zero to build a fully-formed strategy, including:
- Understanding the functional GTM components
- How to really know your customer
- What it means to define your value proposition
- How to launch your product into the market
- Why you need to communicate your GTM strategy
- How to iterate your GTM strategy to success
We’re offering over 40+ hours of education, including:
- 10+ hours of live sessions
- 30+ hours of written and video content
- 10+ product marketing templates
- Slack community of your peers for ongoing support
- Homework assignments to put your new skills to the test
Interested? Registrations close September 9th, with the cohort taking place between September 19 and October 28.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought – find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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