Product Management and Product Marketing are functions where strategic planning and market analysis, as well as tactical execution, are critical success factors. Unfortunately, research indicates that Product Managers spend more than 80% of their time on tactical activities and sales support (see chart)¹. Additionally, 93% of Product Managers feel they spend far too much time answering basic questions for Sales and 72% believe they are not used effectively as a sales support resource².

WisdomWare creates a framework and ongoing knowledge transfer process between sales and marketing that saves Product Managers time, and helps them become more effective in both the tactical and strategic aspects of their jobs. Specifically:

• WisdomWare saves Product Managers time by reducing the hours spent:
• Answering basic questions from sales people.
• Creating both external and internal communications as well as sales tools.
• Preparing for and conducting sales training.
• Participating in unqualified sales situations.

• Improving the product and competitive feedback process.
• Giving them a framework and workflow for improving product positioning and messages.
• Allowing them to quickly roll out new products and marketing programs.

Time Saving/Time Reallocation Example

The following example shows the time savings that can come from using WisdomWare and restructuring a portion of the tactical activities done by Product Management. The WisdomWare implementation and ongoing maintenance effort reflects the actual experience of WisdomWare’s customers.

This example assumes a Product Manager who is responsible for four complex products and/or product lines. Of the 480 hours available each quarter, 384 (80%) is spent on the tactical functions and sales support activities indicated in the legend to the right of the graph. The initial creation of the WisdomWare Knowledge Base takes 48 hours (12 per product) and the ongoing maintenance of the knowledge base averages 1½ hours per week.

The Bottom Line!

The up front time spent creating WisdomWare can usually be saved during the first quarter after implementation! With WisdomWare, the typical Product Manager can gain approximately 10% of the day back to concentrate on more strategic and highly leveraged activities.

Over 100 product managers of technology based companies were surveyed regarding their perceptions of how informed their sales people were on certain critical information and how their companies were addressing the knowledge transfer problem between sales and marketing organizations. The survey covered eight issues. For each issue the survey asked the respondents to identify whether this issue was a problem or not in their company, and if it was a problem whether it was serious. The issues and responses are as follows.

1. "Our sales organization doesn't fully understand our customer's needs."
• Problem 84%
• Serious 36%
• Not a problem 16%


2. "Our sales organization doesn't fully understand our products and services."
• Problem 97%
• Serious 36%
• Not a Problem 3%


3. "Our sales organization doesn't fully understand our competition."
• Problem 90%
• Serious 42%
• Not a problem 10%


4. "Product managers and sales support experts spend time answering the same basic sales questions over and over."
• Problem 91%
• Serious 48%
• Not a problem 9%


5. "Product managers and sales support experts are brought into unqualified sales situations."
• Problem 75%
• Serious 44%
• Not a problem 25%


6. "Our sales training does not have a lasting positive effect on our revenue."
• Problem 74%
• Serious 39%
• Not a problem 26%


7. "Product managers are constantly rewriting sales support materials to keep them current."
• Problem 80%
• Serious 31%
• Not a problem 20%


8. "Product managers are not getting timely, quality feedback from the sales force."
• Problem 86%
• Serious 53%
• Not a problem 14%

¹ 1995 Study of over 1000 Product Managers by Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.
² 1996 Survey of over 200 Product Managers & Marketing Executives by Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

To find out more about Pragmatic Marketing and the services they provide, please call Craig Stull at (602) 515-1411.