546 words | 6 min read
1 Big Thing: Product Marketing ≠ Sales
Let’s clear up the confusion once and for all.
Product Marketing isn’t sales. It’s not about pushing features, making pitch decks, or backing up account executives in meetings. That’s a narrow view — and a costly one.
Product Marketing is strategic. It’s upstream. It listens before it builds, thinks before it launches, and positions before anyone ever clicks “Buy.”
In simple terms: it’s the discipline of turning market whispers into revenue. Of matching real-world problems with the specific strengths of your product — and doing so in a way that makes your message not only heard, but felt.
Why It Matters
Today’s buyer doesn’t want to be sold to — they want to believe before they engage.
And they’re not waiting for your pitch.
74% of B2B buyers self-educate before ever talking to a sales rep.
The average inbox? Overflowing with generic noise.
Messaging that misses the mark? It kills momentum — for sales, for R&D, for your brand.
Even the best products fade into obscurity when poorly positioned. But even modest products can thrive if their value is sharp, clear, and timely. In noisy markets, clarity wins. And clarity comes from product marketing done right.
Go Deeper: Where the Magic Really Happens
Market Discovery is Your Superpower
Great Product Marketers are part detective, part translator. They read between the lines — in interviews, data, competitor moves, macro shifts — and turn soft signals into strategic decisions. Take Slack. It didn’t just create a messaging app. It identified fragmented team communication as a $30B+ drag on productivity — and solved that. The insight wasn’t in what people said… it was in what they meant.
Spot Pain Early — and Act
Why do elevators have mirrors? Not to make them faster — but to make waiting feel shorter. The real problem was perception, not speed. That’s Product Marketing in action: identifying the deeper problem before it becomes obvious to everyone else. Great PMMs don’t wait for feedback forms to fill up. They sense friction in its earliest form — and move.
Build Your “Problem Bank”
Every workaround. Every complaint. Every “I wish it did…” Write it down. Organize it. Revisit it weekly. Over time, this becomes your unfair advantage — a living map of unmet needs and positioning gold.
Value ≠ Features
A value proposition isn’t a tagline. It’s a promise of transformation. It should answer:
What pain are you solving?
What gain are you enabling?
Why you, specifically?
If your message could fit any product, it fits no one.
By the Numbers
74% of buyers self-educate
2.3x faster growth with product-market fit
40% shorter sales cycles with aligned messaging
17% of assumption-based launches hit targets
3.5x higher retention with sharp value props
30% of a PMM’s time is spent listening
Numbers don’t lie — but they do whisper. PMMs are trained to hear them.
The Bottom Line
Product Marketing isn’t a checkbox on the launch list. It’s a mindset — a motion — that links insight with execution. Great PMMs don’t wait for waves. They predict tsunamis — and build the board before anyone else even sees the surf. And if you’re not listening to your market, don’t worry — your competitor probably is.
(And if not them, ChatGPT will get there soon.)
Karthikesh Raju
Founder | Lead Consultant
Dr. Karthikesh Raju is the Founder and Principal of banyan.works Oy, a consultancy specializing in Go-to-Market Operations (GOps) that bridge the gap between technology and market success. With over two decades of global experience across the tech, telecommunications, automotive, and software industries, he has a proven track record of delivering products with significant global impact of over 400M Euros.