Michael FertmanProduct Marketing Leader and CMO
I'm accountable for a product's revenue target.
I lead its pricing, packaging, positioning and sales enablement, and bring product, finance, sales and marketing onto one plan.
I work with businesses over $25M in revenue that serve enterprises and have a new product to launch or a product whose growth has stalled.
I led products and pricing for the $500M subscription business, which grew by $30M a year, up from $14M a year.
Product marketing, product management and pricing for product lines from $5M to $500M.
First chief marketing officer, reporting to the founder and chief executive. Built the function from the ground up.
PE-backed fintech. First VP of product marketing; both new hires promoted.
Associate on data-intensive projects for consumer goods clients.
Navigator of a 950-person nuclear-powered ship during the First Gulf War.
If everyone owns the number, then nobody owns the number
In enterprise sales, every team can win while the product loses.
- Product ships every feature on time.
- Marketing hits its lead goals.
- Sales makes its number with other products.
- Finance keeps the company on budget.
- The product stops growing, and the company loses growth it didn't know it had.
“I can go out and sell one of these [new products] or I can sell two [of our core products] and meet my number.”
The chief executive is often the only person that product, finance, sales and marketing all report to, so the product's revenue falls to the chief executive by default.
I'm accountable for the number nobody owns
An agency can run strong campaigns, and a strategy firm can give you sound recommendations. The changes needed to improve a product's commercial growth usually cross four teams at once. I own a product's revenue, or a set of products', across those teams.
I'm a former chief marketing officer who has also led teams in product management, pricing, product marketing and sales enablement. I use that experience to choose which changes to make and how to make them. I partner with your sales leader on the targets, the pay plan and the proof sellers need.
Who hires me
The best fit is a new product four months or more from launch, or a product whose growth needs changes in more than one team at once.
At Guidepoint, I was that chief marketing officer, and I helped grow revenue from $30M to $50M in a flat market while marketing-driven pipeline rose 5x.
At Apex Fintech Solutions, a $400M business, I won board approval for its first home-built SaaS product, and we built $5M in pipeline with large financial institutions before launch.
At Dun & Bradstreet, I carried the revenue target for each product line I led.
Give sellers the price, proof and pay to sell the new product.
I interviewed launch leaders at 15 B2B SaaS companies with $600M to $20B in revenue. In many launches, no one tests the targeting or the pricing with customers, and the sellers' pay plan changes after launch. I make sure all three happen before launch.
I took a new product into Dun & Bradstreet's sales channel in under four weeks.
Working with the senior executive team, I redesigned the launch process for a publicly traded business with 5,000+ customers.
Find the revenue gap and close it.
I split the product's revenue into customers who left, cut back, stayed, bought more or joined. Then I choose one or two changes where the gap is biggest, such as the price, the package, the channel or onboarding.
By focusing the team on retention and moving clients to a new platform, I turned around a $30M portfolio that was losing customers.
For a $5M product, I cut implementation time by bundling onboarding services into the price. The faster setup raised new customers' first-year revenue by 10% on average.
Turn winning deals into a pitch every seller can use.
I find what the first winning deals had in common. The sellers who closed them show the rest of the team the buyer, the pitch and the proof, with the chief executive in the room.
I repositioned the product as premium, priced it by industry and trained the sellers. Those who closed at the new price presented their deals to the rest of the team.
I certified the sales team on selling the $200M suite after I regrouped it into standard bundles by use case.
“Mike's strategic thinking and execution capabilities were critical to the success of the product and sales/partnership strategy.”
My work usually begins with a diagnostic.
Go-to-market launch process
Your current launch process
A new launch process
The new process rolled out to your teams
Go-to-market launch ownership
Launch status, gaps and plan
A launch team running with the first customers
The product launched through the full sales channel
Product revenue ownership
Year-over-year growth by product and channel, with a gap analysis
Focus areas to close the growth gap
Growth from the planned changes
In implementation, your teams can make the changes, or I can lead the work with them.
Bring a product and its revenue target
On a 30-minute call, we'll talk about where the product stands and whether my experience fits the work.
Let's talk ↗