Product Messaging Agency

The Broken Loop: Why B2B Product and Marketing Are Out of Sync (and How to Fix It)

If you're in B2B marketing or product, the scenario above probably hits uncomfortably close to home. It's a tale as old as time, or at least as old as modern B2B organizations:

• Product teams, often guided by senior leadership, build. They build with conviction, with code, and with countless hours of effort.
• Once something's "ready," it's tossed over the fence to marketing, often with a polite (or not-so-polite) request to "help us promote this!"
• Marketing then scrambles, working backward to decipher the value proposition, understand the problem it solves, and, more often than not, figure out why it was even built in the first place.
• A rushed launch ensues, and when the market yawns, guess who takes the blame? Marketing, of course.

The kicker? Sometimes, the product shouldn't have been built at all.

Sound familiar? Because it's almost a universal truth in the B2B landscape. I hear this exact story from marketers and product professionals across the industry. The core issue? There's little to no incentive for product and marketing to align from the outset. Collaboration happens far too late in the game, if it happens meaningfully at all.

The Missing Piece: Early Market Intelligence

In my humble opinion, product teams shouldn't even begin building until they've worked hand-in-hand with marketing to gather crucial market intelligence. Marketing isn't just about pretty brochures and catchy taglines; it's about understanding the market, the customer, their pain points, and what truly resonates. This isn't groundbreaking insight; it's Marketing 101. Yet, for some reason, it's rarely how things play out in practice.

Marketing's Seat at the Table

Marketing deserves just as much influence on the product roadmap as any other department. Why? Because marketing is often the direct conduit to the customer. We hear their frustrations, understand their aspirations, and see the gaps in the market. This direct feedback is invaluable for informing what products to build, what features to prioritize, and how to position them for success.

When marketing is brought in at the ideation stage, they can:

• Validate market need: Is there a genuine problem this product solves? Is the market large enough?
• Identify competitive differentiation: How will this product stand out? What's our unique selling proposition?
• Inform messaging from day one: Understanding the target audience and their needs early on allows for more effective and authentic messaging.
• Prevent wasted resources: Building something nobody wants is perhaps the most expensive mistake a company can make. Early collaboration mitigates this risk significantly.

Breaking the Cycle

So, how do we fix this perpetually broken relationship? It starts with a fundamental shift in mindset and process:

1. Integrate Marketing into Product Strategy: Marketing shouldn't just be an execution arm; it should be a strategic partner. Include marketing leaders in product strategy sessions, roadmap planning, and initial concept discussions.
2. Establish Shared Goals: Align product and marketing KPIs. When both teams are measured on the same outcomes (e.g., product adoption, customer satisfaction, revenue generated from new products), incentives naturally align.
3. Regular Cross-Functional Syncs: Beyond formal meetings, encourage informal, frequent communication. Product and marketing teams should feel comfortable sharing ideas, feedback, and market insights regularly.
4. Embrace Customer-Centricity: Both teams need to put the customer at the center of every decision. This shared focus naturally bridges the gap between building and selling.
5. Data-Driven Decisions: Leverage market research, customer feedback, and sales data to inform both product development and marketing strategy.

The success of a B2B product hinges not just on its technical brilliance, but on its market fit and how effectively its value is communicated. It's time we stopped treating product development and marketing as separate entities and instead fostered a truly collaborative ecosystem. The alternative is a continued cycle of wasted effort, missed opportunities, and the never-ending blame game. Let's build together, with the market in mind, from the very beginning.