How Balancing Speed with Customer-Centricity Kept Sales Enablement Assets for an Intel-VMware Integration Launch in Use for Over a Year
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10+
No. of assets created in 1 month
> 1 Yr
Assets used for
95%
Assets approved in one go
INDUSTRY:
IT, Cloud Infrastructure
COUNTRY:
United States
COMPANY SIZE
Developing Sales Enablement Assets for a VMware-Intel Integration Feature Launch
10,000+ Employees
GROWTH TYPE
Sales-Led
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
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Enterprise CIOs
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IT Directors
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Enterprise CTOs
PRODUCT MARKETING SKILLS:
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Sales Enablement
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Asset Creation
Intel vPro and Workspace ONE collaborated to create an endpoint management feature called the Chip-to-Cloud Solution that allowed IT admins to remotely access organization devices for security updates, repairs, and troubleshooting.
While the feature had been announced almost a year before, it was only starting to become generally available. This feature was being launched at the VMware Explore Conference in six months. Consequently, sales needed talk tracks, feature details, value proposition and so on. ​
My Role
As an MBA intern at the time, my role was to assist with the creation of the sales and partner enablement assets, including managing vendors. This included understanding technical concepts related to enterprise device management such as Zero Trust, Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR), virtual machines, and more. To enable sales reps and partner networks such as CDW to communicate the value of the integration, I created sales customer-facing assets such as emails, call scripts, one-pagers, training decks, and more as part of the feature launch.
The Goals
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Understand the value and unique benefits that the VMware-Intel feature offer
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Decode the technical concepts and translate them into benefits IT admins would actually notice from using the product
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Communicate these insights through written and video assets in an engaging communication style that spoke the language of IT professionals
The Stakeholders
Sales Reps
The feature was live and sales needed assets quickly to start telling prospects about it in a value and benefit-forward way
Reporting Manager and Director of Product Marketing
Given that the reporting manager for this specific project was leading this initiative within the company and collaborating with Intel and sales, they needed speed and accuracy when it came to developing assets. Additionally, as an intern, my goal was to prove value and impact within only 3 months to both of him and the Director.
Intel Marketing Manager
The Intel marketing manager in charge of the co-marketing campaign cared most about whether Intel was represented in accordance with their brand identity and messaging for the launch in all of the assets
The Discovery
The Actions
Decoding the messaging, positioning, and use cases
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Collaborated with the Workspace ONE product marketing team and sifted through the product and marketing documentation to understand the messaging, positioning, use cases, and technical concepts such as KVM access, MTTR, remote troubleshooting, and more
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Discussed the project goal of developing multiple assets, such as email templates, field marketing assets, video, one-pagers, blog and call scripts
Translated tech into relevant expected impact for customers
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Anaysed product capabilities and broke down use cases into customer value statements, such as:
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removing employee disturbance during work hours due to IT troubleshooting or updates
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reduced costs by preventing devices from being mailed in for repairs
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single console view to manage multiple devices
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Studied customer language and wrote copy in that style
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Since the audience was technical, I maintained some of the jargon that was widely used, understood, and accepted by the industry in the assets​
Managed vendor relationships and deliverables
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Oversaw deliverables being developed by 3 vendors and provided actionable feedback by making sure that the assets reflected our messaging
Iterated based on feedback from VMware and Intel
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Shared assets and feedback for vendors to gather insights from the product marketing manager leading the sales enablement initiative at VMware and the marketing manager at Intel collaborating with us on the co-marketing campaign
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I made sure that I checked the accuracy and match with the messaging for each asset before submitting for my manager's review
The Impact
Sales used the assets for >1 year
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Since the messaging was well-adapted and repurposed in each asset, sales was able to depend on the accuracy and message of the assets while sharing with customers
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Coupled with lack of change in the packaging or messaging, the assets were used for > 1 year by sales
Developed 10+ assets in less than a month
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Given that the launch was within 6 months and sales was already talking about the feature with customers, the assets needed to be ready within weeks rather than months
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I created 10+ assets within the month for sales to use in the formats they preferred
90-95% of assets were approved in one feedback loop
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Self-editing and cross-checks before submission cut down time on revisions or reworks and most of my assets were approved in one go
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Since I balanced speed with accuracy, I was appreciated by the team for the quick turn-around times
