Product marketing can be very complicated. We do a lot. Does this long list of tasks look familiar to you? 

That's a lot, right? While product marketing looks different at every company, you’re likely responsible for at least a chunk of those tasks. It's a ton of stuff and it can be hard to manage.

Examples of the tasks of a product marketer: Personas, product launches, campaigns, competitive analysis, pricing, ROI, enablement, and messaging.

It begs a question: Is this strategy? Is doing all of this stuff strategic? 

The answer is absolutely not. 

All those tasks and responsibilities we’re grappling with day to day are merely tactical. It’s time to change that.

Strategy vs. tactics in product marketing

Let me tell you a little story. A while back, we had our sales kickoff with 500+ salespeople all in one place. A new sales trainer was running a big enablement session, rolling out some new sales methodology. He brought up some sales reps and said, "Hey, tell me about this top competitor. What are you going to say to your prospect?" 

I'll never forget the blank look on the sales reps' faces. They couldn't say anything – not a word! This was really insulting to me because I had spent so much time building competitive enablement for the team.

At first, I felt like it was the reps' fault for not taking advantage of all the materials I’d provided. But that was an immature reaction. It was my fault. My job wasn't just to create battlecards; it was to ensure our sellers could effectively communicate what differentiated us from competitors. 

Building tools doesn’t matter if reps can’t use them. Those are just tactics. Strategically ensuring initiatives are impactful – that's what matters. 

Let’s take an even simpler example – laying turf. If you pay someone to lay turf, are you paying them just to lay it down? No, that's only step one. It has to take root and grow into grass. I bought some turf recently and the packaging showed 14 steps to create lasting grass. Similarly, I was just building battlecards  – I didn’t create anything lasting or effective. Just doing tasks isn’t enough.  

I’ve worked at companies that tie bonuses to “management by objective” or MBO – do X task, get 1% of your bonus. Frankly, I think that's stupid. 

I'll never forget a guy I used to work with named Steve. There were three of us, Steve, Eric, and I, in a meeting with the VP who was talking about moving the department over to MBOs. Erik was nodding along, but Steve looked at him, looked at the VP, and said, “Don’t give me MBOs. Give me a number – a big f’ing number. I'm not a coward like your boy Eric!”

It was pretty intense, but Steve had the right attitude – have a clear target and do whatever it takes to get there. Just checking boxes doesn’t cut it. That killer instinct is what strategy over tactics is about. When managing a team, I'm constantly thinking about not just what we do, but why and what comes next. 

A scorecard for everything

If, as has often been the case in my career, you’re joining a company without an existing product marketing team, foundational elements like buyer personas, messaging, and pricing won’t be in place yet. You have to build the groundwork and get those fundamentals set up.

Then you have your tactics – launches, campaigns, sales tools, and more. The key question is, what happens after these tactical elements? What’s the end game?

You have to consider lagging indicators and how you'll evaluate success. How will you communicate these tactics in a scalable way that moves the needle so your turf takes root? You want a lush lawn, not something that gets kicked up whenever anyone goes out into the yard.

Image showing the foundations of PMM (leading indicators, buyer personas, messaging, and pricing) and tactics (launches, campaigns, sales tools, competitive intel)

This means you need a scorecard for everything. Now, this is often easier said than done. Every company I’ve seen has data access issues, no matter how good their tech supposedly is. But you have to push for those metrics. 

I once worked for a company that sold a whole bunch of products, but I was in charge of just one of them. I needed the numbers on that product specifically, but the revenue ops team was like, “We just throw all the revenue in one bucket.” It was frustrating, to say the least, but this happens all the time. 

If that sounds familiar, keep pushing for the data you need. That’s the only way you’ll be able to drive truly strategic initiatives.

I have scorecards for everything. I keep an overall scorecard plus product-specific ones. These scorecards provide insights to guide our strategy. When something is off-target, we can pinpoint issues and respond. 

Once we have a tactical plan, it needs its own scorecard – rolling out some competitive training? Cool. Let’s define success indicators and track results. 

From there, it’s time to communicate those insights, ideally without meetings – I hate meetings! 

Bill Gates famously used “walking decks” at Microsoft, simple slide decks emailed as PDFs recapping activities and next steps. That’s a great way to communicate at scale.

Essential PMM metrics: Example product scorecard

Here’s a product scorecard I use daily to keep track of how we’re doing. It contains all the metrics I need to pay attention to.

Example product scorecard

It starts with incremental annual recurring revenue (ARR) and then tracks conversion rates across the funnel – from leads to closed deals, plus metrics like churn and pipeline coverage ratios. Other key indicators include the total large deal pipeline, as well as average sale price, which is a good indicator of margins.

These metrics provide invaluable insights. Rather than blindly acting, it’s crucial to use data to strategize high-impact responses. Product marketing is increasingly seen as a strategic arm of the company, so leaving analysis to sales ops while we push tactics is outdated. This strategic work is what sets us apart.

So, let’s dive into each of the metrics you need to track to create a truly data-driven strategy.

Incremental annual recurring revenue

Like I said, It all starts with ARR – are we on target? If the ARR’s percentage to target is off, that could indicate pipeline problems, data issues, poor close rates, and more. It shows that there are broader strategic issues that need to be addressed.

Churn rate

Churn rate is another vital metric. Is it too high? If so, why? Is it a pricing issue? Is it an adoption issue? You need data to figure it out. 

High churn suggests customers don’t find lasting value in the product, so if that’s what you’re seeing, it’s a good idea to work with your product team to dig into adoption. That’ll help you understand if certain features are falling flat despite your marketing efforts around them. Do you need to better communicate the value of these features? Or are they truly not useful to customers? 

There are tons of potential responses – special promotions, improved messaging, pushing feature education through channels like lifecycle marketing, and more. But first, you need to understand the root cause of your adoption and churn issues.

Lead-to-opportunity ratio

Next, I analyze the lead-to-opportunity ratio. The demand gen team could be driving lots of leads, but few become sales opportunities. You might hear your sales reps grumbling that it’s because the leads suck. This happens all the time. Too often, we brush off these kinds of complaints, but they warrant investigation. 

There might be a targeting problem, an incorrect buyer persona, or the wrong messaging. You have to start testing and measuring to pinpoint the bottleneck. Maybe it’s an enablement issue – listen to some sales calls and see what’s going on.

Opportunity-to-close ratio

Opportunity to close ratio is another key metric – who are you losing deals to and why? Build a scorecard for each key competitor and track your performance. 

Or maybe it’s a price issue? Consider testing price elasticity – how price changes impact demand. Not a lot of PMMs measure that, but it’s vital. It might be that raising your prices means you’ll sell less but that could actually be a good thing if the increase in your gross margins outweighs the loss of revenue. 

Pipeline coverage

Pipeline coverage is another vital metric. If it’s too low. that could indicate an issue with messaging, personas, lead lists, or sales channels. It’s important to work with your demand gen team to make sure you’re getting all this right and figure out where you can do better. 

Deals over $1 million total contract value (TCV)

For enterprise sales, deals over $1 million TCV are worth tracking. If this metric lags, your BDRs’ (business development representatives) approach may need refinement – do they have the right targeting parameters and talk tracks? Without analysis, all you know is the number is wrong. 

I could talk all day about metrics, but the point is that bad numbers inform strategy. Don’t just cry “Whaa, sales doesn’t like our great stuff!” Take an analytical approach, determine the root cause, and respond appropriately. Math is vital for product marketing! 

These scorecards give you the contextual knowledge you need to enable strategic, value-driven action. That way, you’re not just rolling out turf – you’re making sure it takes root. Do that and everything else will thrive. 

This article is based on a presentation given by Jim Payne at the Product Marketing Summit in Denver. Catch up on this presentation, and others, using our OnDemand service. For more exclusive content, visit your membership dashboard.