Yesterday was my birthday 🥳

I spent it shaking off my London jet lag and singing at the top of my lungs at the Taylor Swift concert in Vancouver (I like to think she scheduled her tour stop just for me).

All that to say, I’m exhausted. But, before I continue with my birthday weekend celebrations, I wanted to shoot off a quick recap of the PMM Summit in London this week.

It was a STACKED lineup — April Dunford and Emma Stratton both on the same day! Plus, I had the pleasure of giving the Day 2 opening keynote and running a workshop on product launch.

As has become custom for every conference I attend, in today’s edition I’m sharing 4 slides you absolutely can’t miss.

Top 4 PMM Summit Takeaways

Salesperson = Guide

The queen of positioning April Dunford kicked off the conference with a new talk I hadn’t seen from her before.

She started with a slide that showed 40% to 60% of B2B sales purchase processes end in “no decision.” The easiest and lowest risk decision is to do nothing. Bad buying decisions lead to bad outcomes — such as their coworkers placing blame. April claimed our job as marketers and sellers is to minimize regret for the buyer.

One way to do that? Act as a guide. Give your buyers perspectives on the market AND help them navigate alternatives.

The Reverse GTM Brief

Studying product launches has been the number one thing that’s made me better at launching products myself. That’s why I designed an entire workshop around it!

This week, I walked 60 PMMs through the process Andy, Jason and I use to analyze and dissect launches for our show Ready for Launch. It all leads to something we call a reverse go-to-market brief. Essentially, we try to reverse engineer how we think the PMM designed the launch strategy.

Want to study your favorite launches? Make a copy of our reverse GTM brief here.

VBF

I’ve shared Emma Stratton’s slides before, and I’ll keep doing it until we’ve all mastered her messaging techniques! One question I hear time and time again is “what’s the difference between a feature and a benefit?”

Emma does a great job of breaking down each component and giving a definition — benefits and value propositions translate features for your buyers.

3 Pillars of Product Storytelling

64% of consumers will switch if a brand’s story lacks personal connection. For a PMM, the stakes of telling better stories has never been higher.

Elliot Rayner’s presentation on The Shortcuts of Visual Storytelling was not only the most beautiful, it was FULL of actionable takeaways on how to actually tell stories that sell. I particularly like how he broke down the three pillars of product storytelling.

Follow him on LinkedIn and DM him if you’re interested in a copy of his ebook The Story Engine (will definitely be digging into it myself).

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

🎧 Playlist: Next up in my podcast queue? This episode from Lenny’s Podcast on how to identify your bullseye customer in one day.

⚒️ Tools: Special thanks to Emma Stratton who made me download the Timeshifter app to help fight my jet leg. 10 out of 10 recommend.

Now, off to eat more cake 🧁