Klue Demo certified ✅ — well sort of.
In December, I did a presentation about the first 100 days as a solo PMM. In it, I touched on the importance of getting to know the product you’re working with.
So when I heard that our sales team had a demo certification process, I signed up. BTW if your org has a demo cert process of some kind, I highly suggest you do it.
Here’s why:
✅ It forces you to learn the product — You’re given a deadline and the training resources you need. It’s like a crash course in learning your product quickly. I invested ~20 hours into studying demo recordings and practicing.
✅ You’re expected to perform — At previous companies, I’ve forced myself to record a demo in my first 30-60 days. But having to actually present to sales leaders forces you to know the product that much more confidently. The pressure is on, and that’s motivating.
✅ You gain credibility — There’s nothing worse than your sales team not having confidence in your understanding of the product and sales approach. It takes more than just getting demo certified, but I feel this is a strong first step in building confidence and mutual respect.
✅ You step into the shoes of an AE — Selling is HARD. So much more goes into a demo than knowing the product well. Going through this process gave me an inside look at how our team sells Klue and where I can enable them. How they do discovery, demo the product, handle objections, differentiate us vs competitors, what slides they actually use and how.
✅ You see how positioning and messaging is used — Writing positioning and messaging in a document or deck is one thing, but responding to an actual prospect confidently when asked a question or faced with an objection is a different story. It’s where the rubber meets the road. And this process lets you experience it yourself.
Am I "officially" certified? 😬 Let’s just say I won’t be topping the sales leaderboard any time soon. Like I said, there’s a lot more to selling than knowing the product. But I couldn’t think of a better way to kickstart my journey here at Klue.
A huge thanks to Erin Neal, Alex Cook, Leigh Quinlan, Qayam Noorani, Jacob Gebrewold, and Brandon Bedford for helping me out.
Would love to hear what other approaches PMMs have for leveling up your product knowledge when joining a new org!
