Tag Archives: retail

Erica Orange's Blog The Future of Fashion

The Smell of Success

Once you’ve been hired at a startup, you won’t just float to the top. It’s a battle, and it requires a lot of effort to swim to the surface. You’ll be competing against everyone else in the startup world for leadership positions, and the fact is, many of them likely have similar skill sets.

According to this affiliate marketing firm, in order to stand out from the crowd in a marketing role, you’ll need to find new ways to set yourself apart. I’ve found that one of the best ways to do that is to develop and display your skills around these keys to success in product marketing.

1. Make sure your five mandatory sales tools are in place for each product. Re-examine and refine them every quarter, and keep them up to date. What are the five mandatory sales tools? These include your product data sheet, “what’s new” data sheet, sales training presentation, customer-facing presentation and competitive battle card that explains how to beat top competitors.

2. Know and track revenues, expenses and product profitability. I’ve found that, as a rule of thumb, these metrics should be tracked monthly and reported to senior management quarterly.

3. Track how many customers you have for your product. How many new customers are you gaining (or losing) every quarter? The importance of this goes well beyond the actual numbers. For example, do you talk with new customers to find out why they selected your product? It may not be why you think. Just as important, why are you losing to competitors? You often have to get the facts directly from the buyer to make sure you’re getting an unfiltered answer.