Some Defintions

Inbound Marketing:
Inbound marketing includes gathering product requirements, defining the product and the complete offering, including helper infrastructure, packaging and pricing. It also includes working with engineering and partners to get the product and complete offering developed.

It is really about identifying what prospective segments value, then creating an offering that delivers it.

This is never finished, since the offering is constantly evolving and enhancement are required to keep customers repurchasing.

It is a pipeline operation, with new capabilities, either for fee or for free, being added on a regular basis. (As well as bug fixes being released.)

Outbound Marketing:
Outbound marketing includes promoting the offering to prospects and establishing and assisting sales channels with product sale and distribution.

This is where value is articulated and the communicated to the target segments. This includes the sales process, which is really the communication of value to prospects on an individual basis, followed by the capture of a portion of that value for the organization creating the offering.

Both of these activities involve constant learning and interaction.

They are a ton of fun, especially when you hit it right, and your offering is accepted by the market.

Roles in the High Tech Marketing Organization

Just a quick list of some roles I managed in my SW marketing group:

Product Marketing Manager:
Reports to Marketing Director
Owns the product line as a complete business;
inbound and outbound;
holds revenue responsibility.

Product Manager:
Reports to PMM
Responsible for guiding engineering to develop what the PMM needs;
responsible for ensuring engineering knows what to develop, down to the specification;
owns tracking, reporting progress and execution through beta.

Market Development Manager:
Reports to PMM or MD
Responsible for assisting the channel with whatever sales and education tools they need;
visits channel reps and customers with channel reps;
leads segment campaigns.

Technical Marketing Engineer:
Reports to PMM
Can serve in any of four roles-
1-Product specialist: AE of last resort, AE trainer, customer issue resolution when support engineers need assistance;
2-Alliance support: Holds technical and engagement support relationship with strategic alliance partners;
3-Inbound product marketing projects: Works on projects for PMM, gathering product requirements, writing specs and working with engineering to initiate development. Also runs betas. can be dotted line to PM during these projects.
4-Outbound marketing: Promotes products through seminars, workshops, trade shows, white papers, articles, etc. Responsible for material generation and for delivery.

More roles later. ;-)

Getting Started

Welcome!
Thanks for coming.

This blog is dedicated to expressing what I've learned about successfully growing a business during my nine years as the leader of a software marketing organization.

My team focused on providing electronic design software to the semiconductor industry. During the years we worked together, we grew the business from ~$20m to more that $150M.

Along the way, I faced many challenges in product marketing, channel marketing, market development, strategic alliances, marcom, naming, packaging, pricing, hiring, organizational design, organizational politics; you name it.

Addressing these issues was not easy, but I mused, puzzled, experimented and found practical solutions that ultimately resulted in the growth of the business.

Now that i have some time to look back on it all, I want to codify what I've learned and see what it stimulates in others.

This blog is where I will start that effort.