Why Product Marketing Management is a Good Career Choice

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A career in project marketing management is often overlooked by a lot of college graduates or professionals looking for a new career, but the job can be a great opportunity for professional and person growth for the right person. The role of a product marketing manager (PMM) is to define and execute the Go-To-Market or GTM plan for a product. A product marketing manager’s responsibilities include:

  • Determining a market opportunity and target audience for a product;
  • Developing a marketing plan, pricing, positioning and packaging for a product;
  • Training sales staff to sell a product

A product marketing management position offers much opportunity to learn and grow:

  1. You learn how to be a strategic thinker. A PMM has to determine how a product fits into a particular market before the product goes on the market. He must also determine the methods in which the product can be most effectively introduced to the market. He must understand the market, potential buyers and competitors in order to determine the best way to market a product.
  2. You learn how to execute against a marketing strategy. In addition to developing a good marketing strategy, a PMM must successfully execute against that strategy. Focusing both on strategy and strategy execution help you develop good strategic skills. As you become more aware of limitations of  your strategy and learn to modify your strategy accordingly, you become an even better strategist.
  3. You learn how to influence consumers and sell products. PMMs must be able to sell products to customers in a large group setting, like forums. PMMs must also train the sales force to sell the product, and the PMMs must also be able to influence people. Once a PMM develops a strategy, he must be able to influence other business lend their resources to execute against the strategy and help sell the product.
  4. You develop an entrepreneurial mindset. A PMM must define and deliver on a product’s revenue targets, therefore, he learns to think like a general manager or business owner.
  5. You learn every aspect of business. A PMM works with many departments to define and execute a GTM plan. A PMM may work with various teams who are responsible for lead generation, product support, sales training, alliances, partner training, web marketing and other business functions. As a result, a PMM learns all of the aspects of business involved in converting a product into revenue.

By Marie Larsen