The short answer
A product marketing consultant helps a company decide who a product is for, what to say about it, and how to price, package and launch it, so a rep can say it on a first call.
- A product marketing consultant makes five calls: who it’s for, what you say, how you price and package it, how you launch it, and what sales says.
- Reps writing their own pitch, confused buyers and stalled launches are symptoms of an unclear offering, not bad execution.
- Hire a consultant when the story isn’t decided. Hire an agency, a fractional product marketer or a full-time hire to build and run it.
- The story only counts once it survives a live sales call.
On this page (8 sections)
- 01 What does a product marketing consultant do?
- 02 When to hire a product marketing consultant
- 03 Consultant, agency, fractional or full-time?
- 04 How product marketing turns into sales
- 05 Where the story meets the sales call
- 06 Product marketing consultant questions
- 07 The bottom line
- Sources & Further Reading
A product marketing consultant helps a company decide who a product is for and what to say about it, then how to price, package and launch it. For B2B sales the test is simple: can a rep say it on a first call, and does the buyer repeat it to their boss?
This guide covers the five calls a product marketing consultant makes, the signs you need one, how a consultant compares with an agency, a fractional product marketer and a full-time hire, and where the story meets the sales call.
What does a product marketing consultant do?
A product marketing consultant makes the calls that everything else in marketing and sales is built on. There are five.
- Who it’s for. Who buys first, and the one problem they pay to fix.
- Positioning and messaging. What you say, in what order, and what you never say. In the words your buyers use.
- Pricing and packaging. The entry offer, the path to more, and what makes it safe to buy, because people weigh a loss more heavily than a gain of the same size (Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory, 1979)1.
- The launch plan. Who hears first, where, and what counts as a win.
- The sales story. What your sales team says on the first call, and the answers to the objections you hear most.
The story starts with buyers, not with the product. One common method for finding it is Jobs to Be Done, described by Clayton Christensen and his coauthors in Harvard Business Review in 20162: what the buyer is trying to get done. Then ask what makes them hesitate. The positioning part has its own guide: what is product positioning.
When to hire a product marketing consultant
Product marketing stalls in the same places. If you see two or more of these, decide the story first. Then build the assets.
- Sales reps write their own pitch, because the official one doesn’t close.
- Buyers can’t say what you do, or why to pick you.
- Launches get attention inside the company and silence outside it.
- Deals stall on “too expensive” and long sales cycles.
- You keep getting compared with the wrong competitors.
- Partners don’t know how to sell you.
These aren’t failures of execution. They’re symptoms of building product marketing on an unclear offering foundation. More content, a new deck or a bigger launch budget won’t fix them, because each one repeats the same unclear story louder. (More on what an offering is.)
Decide the story first. Then build the assets.
Consultant, agency, fractional or full-time?
Four ways to get product marketing done. Each does a different job, and each charges differently.
| A product marketing consultant | A product marketing agency | A fractional product marketer | A full-time product marketer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | The calls: who it’s for, what you say, what you sell, how you launch | Strategy and assets: messaging, the launch plan, sales materials and launch copy | One senior product marketer, part-time | A person who owns product marketing every day |
| Who does the work | Decides with you. Your team or an agency builds from the plan | Their team | They do, part-time, inside your team | They do, inside your team |
| How it’s priced | Usually a fee per project | A monthly retainer or a fee per project | A monthly fee | A salary |
| Best when | The story isn’t decided yet | You want a team to produce and run the work | You need one senior person part-time, not a team | The story is clear and you need someone to own it for years |
The order matters more than the choice. Decide first, then hire the hands. A team that hires the builders before the story is decided pays for the same assets twice.
How product marketing turns into sales
Product marketing succeeds or fails on a live call, where a buyer hears the story for the first time. The path from the plan to the call has three steps.
Decide who it’s for. The first buyers, and the one problem they pay to fix.
Decide what you say. The few lines, in the buyer’s words, in the right order.
Say it on every call. The founder first, then every rep, the same way.
One story. More deals.
Step three is where the story gets tested. When the positioning document says one thing and the founder, who still runs most of the sales calls, says another, reps copy the founder, not the document. That is why sales reps keep failing even with good positioning, and why the positioning book spends so long on how the market hears you.
Where the story meets the sales call
If you are a founder who still sells, the story lives in your sales pitch before it lives anywhere else. Getting it right is the work of sales pitch coaching. When your first reps need to say it the same way you do, see pitch and first-rep training.
The fastest way to find out whether your story lands is to say it out loud to someone who plays your buyer. That is the Power Hour: 90 minutes, live, on video. You pitch, Jose roasts it live. Apply for a 15-minute fit call. In Jose’s words:
I read every application and take every call myself.
If the question is bigger than the story (which market, which offering, which price), decide it with your team in one day: the go-to-market workshop, 7 hours, in person.
Product marketing consultant questions
What does a product marketing agency do?
A product marketing agency, or firm, decides and writes how a product is sold. Most cover positioning and messaging, the launch plan, sales materials and launch copy. Some also run the launch. An agency is at its best when the story is already decided and you need a team to produce the work and keep it running.
Should I hire a product marketing agency or a consultant?
Hire a consultant when the story isn’t decided: who the product is for, what to say and what to sell. When it is decided, you need people to build it, which is where an agency, a fractional product marketer or a full-time hire fits. Hiring the builders first usually means paying twice for the same assets.
How much does a product marketing consultant cost?
Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer or a fee per project. Fractional product marketers usually charge a monthly fee. Jose M Bermejo does not sell product marketing projects. For founders whose story isn’t landing on calls, the first paid step is the Power Hour: $950, 90 minutes, live, on video, booked after an accepted fit call (free, 15 minutes).
The bottom line
A product marketing consultant earns their fee by making five calls before anyone writes an asset. Hire one when the story isn’t decided, hire builders when it is, and judge the result on the sales call, not in the deck. If reps are writing their own pitch today, the story isn’t decided yet.
Decide the story. Then sell it.
Sources & Further Reading
- Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk”, Econometrica 47(2), March 1979. doi.org/10.2307/1914185
- Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan, “Know Your Customers’ ‘Jobs to Be Done’”, Harvard Business Review, September 2016. hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
