Founders wait too long to hire their first product marketer. They either think it’s just copywriting (or they assume it’s someone else’s job).
Sales wants more leads, product wants more feature usage, and somehow no one’s responsible for the layer in between.
If you’re feeling that gap positioning isn’t sticking, new features don’t land, customers don’t “get it”— you’re probably late to hire.
Here’s how to find the right person, what they actually do, and how to onboard them for real impact.
What to Look for (Beyond a Resume)
Forget the title. Focus on these traits:
Pattern matcher: Can they take scattered feedback from sales, support, and customer calls and spot the signal?
Narrative shaper: Can they translate technical depth into buyer language— without watering it down?
Cross-functional glue: Do they get excited by working with sales, product, and CS—all in the same day?
Comfortable in ambiguity: Can they operate without perfect inputs, clear data, or clean ownership?
Bonus: if they’ve sold before (even briefly), they’ll understand what messaging looks like under pressure.
What They’ll Actually Do
- Craft the core story: What’s the positioning? Why now? Who’s the villain?
- Launch features: Plan messaging, docs, demos, internal enablement
- Create sales tools: One-pagers, talk tracks, objection handling
- Support GTM motion: From pricing input to market segment analysis
- Own customer insight: Competitive tear-downs, win/loss, persona maps
This isn’t a blog factory role. It’s about owning clarity. Internally and externally.
How to Onboard Them [First 90 Days]
Day 1–30: Absorb
- Sit in every sales call and onboarding
- Read every doc, deck, and support ticket backlog
- Interview customers who love and left
- Map personas, pain points, objections
Day 31–60: Shape
- Draft the one-slide pitch—without slides
- Build a feature launch playbook
- Create first sales enablement asset
- Propose a positioning test (A/B demo flow, landing page variant)
Day 61–90: Prove
- Run a launch or campaign, end to end
- Partner with 1–2 reps on a deal cycle
- Present updated messaging to founders
- Set up ongoing win/loss loop
Frankly Speaking
Your first product marketer won’t fix everything on day one. But if hired right, they’ll make every launch tighter, every deck clearer, every sales cycle sharper.
They’re not a luxury. They’re the person who tells the market what your product actually does, and why it matters now.
Hire accordingly. Then get out of their way.
Leave a Reply