How to Make Sales Actually Love Product Marketing

What top PMMs do differently to get Sales to actually use their work.

Hi GTM friends 👋

Let’s be honest: most Sales teams think Product Marketing is “cute.”

You write clever taglines. Build sleek decks. Drop enablement emails into Slack on a Friday and wonder why they’re ignored.

But what if you can make Sales love product marketing?

Not just tolerate it. Not just nod politely. Actually respect you.

This post breaks down 8 proven tactics that help PMMs earn Sales’ trust, drive alignment, and show up as revenue partners — not just slide designers.

This comes from an amazing conversation with Anjali and Aleksandra, a product marketer who’ve seen the best and worst of sales-marketing alignment.

Let’s get into it — before someone blames PMM for missing the quarter again.

Prefer to watch instead? 🎥 Watch the full video here

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1. Treat Sales Like a Persona

You’d never launch a product without researching your customer.

But most PMMs don’t apply that same thinking to Sales.

Instead of assuming what Sales needs, treat them as a core persona. Interview them. Observe their calls.

Ask:

• What slows you down in a deal?

• What objections keep coming up?

• Which competitors are hardest to beat?

Then use that input to build tailored assets:

Use-case decks, objection flashcards, customized talk tracks, short pitch videos.
Don’t build at them — build with them.

When Sales feels like your work is designed for their workflow, they’ll actually use it.

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2. Run a Sales Confidence Survey

Want to know if your enablement is working?

A Sales Confidence Survey can give you a baseline before and after major launches.

Example questions:

• How confident are you pitching this feature?

• What messaging is unclear?

• What resources are most helpful?

You can use it to:

• Identify weak points in your materials

• Prioritize what to improve

• Track perception over time

And when confidence goes up and assets get used more — you’ve got momentum.

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3. Join Sales Calls (and Actually Listen)

You don’t need a 10-slide enablement plan to build credibility.

Start by joining one Sales call and just listen.

You’ll catch:

• Buyer objections no one warned you about

• Slides that get skipped

• Messaging that doesn’t land

One PMM joined a series of calls and realized reps were fumbling through competitive questions. The next week? A lightweight doc with key differentiators and suggested phrasing. It spread fast — because it solved a real problem.

Sometimes the best enablement isn’t a polished deck. It’s one sticky insight delivered at the right moment.

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4. Share What’s New — Live

You can drop a Slack update or a Notion link but nothing beats showing up live.

Join recurring Sales team calls when launching something new like:

• Updated collateral

• New messaging

• Upcoming product changes

When presenting live, you’ll get real time feedback:

• What confuses them?

• What gets follow-up questions?

• What messaging feels “off”?

Doing this regularly builds a rhythm. More importantly, it signals,

“I’m not just here to push assets. I’m here to help you close.”

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5. Send a Plaintext GTM Newsletter

After the call, follow up with a Go-To-Market newsletter.

Keep it short, skimmable, and useful. Use a format like:

• What launched

• What’s coming

• Why it matters

• How to pitch it

Think of this as a living sales brief, something they can:

• Reference on a call

• Forward to new reps

• Scan in 30 seconds

No need to over-design. Keep it lightweight and tactical.

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6. Create a Roadmap Just for Sales

Sales doesn’t care about product focused roadmaps. They care about how to pitch what’s coming.

Build a Sales-facing roadmap that includes:

• What’s launching

• Who it’s for

• What problem it solves

• Key benefits

• Supporting links (decks, videos, one-pagers)

This is about translation, not transparency. Strip out technical detail and focus on what drives deals.

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7. Turn Sales Insights Into Landing Pages

Sales is sitting on a goldmine of insights: Objections, use cases, and real buyer language.

But most PMMs never tap into it.

Let’s say reps keep hearing:

“We’re not looking for software right now — we just need to solve [X] problem.”

Turn that into a landing page, a use-case story, or a a targeted campaign.

At one company, reps mentioned customers were coming for urgent infra fixes. Those insights became five new landing pages tied to real-world pain points — and they became top lead generating sources.

Don’t just use Sales insights for enablement. Use them to shape what Marketing ships next.

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8. Measure Revenue — Not Just Morale

Feeling good isn’t the same as performing well.

If your goal is to drive impact, track the metrics that matter:

• Win rate before and after enablement

• Time to close by persona

• Asset usage in closed-won deals

Even simple data — like which content shows up most in winning deals — can guide your strategy and prove your value.

This way, when leadership asks what PMM is bringing to the table, you’ll have the receipts.

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Final Thought: Sales Doesn’t Want Pretty. They Want Useful.

The PMMs Sales loves most aren’t the ones who build the prettiest decks.

They’re the ones who:

• Show up

• Listen

• Build solutions to real problems

• Track what works

When you do that, you’re not just “the person who writes the messaging.”
You become the teammate they trust to help close deals.

This way, when leadership asks what PMM is bringing to the table, you’ll have the receipts.

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Looking to break into product marketing or level up your impact? Check out Product Marketing School - where you’ll learn practical and actionable product marketing without the fluff.

Until next time,
— Henry ✌️