“We’re going with someone else”
I was up for a product marketing promotion years ago. It was me and one other candidate.
I was shocked when I didn’t get promoted – I had more launches under my belt, the products I managed were the cash cows for the company, and I was even mentoring other PMMs.
Amruta is hosting a webinar on this exact topic in where she’ll go more in-depth into how to build influence as a PMM. Register here
After I got over the heartbreak, I reached out for feedback.
While kind, the hiring manager was honest.
I lost the promotion because they couldn’t see how I could influence others, especially the C-suite.
That was a hard lesson I learnt. Hard work and talent only takes you so far as a PMM.
Influence is what gets promoted.
Reasons why influence is a non-negotiable these days
- AI is eating up “execution”: The decks, the one-pagers, the campaign ops. AI will happily write your one-pagers. What it can’t do is walk into a room full of VPs and make them care. That’s the PMM advantage.
- The C-suite wants impact, not slides. PMMs are being pulled into boardroom conversations as growth enablers. But you don’t get a seat at that table by simply executing more or faster. You get it by identifying problems that matter to the company, and solving them.
- Product marketing is a team sport. In flat orgs with tight resources, no one team owns it end to end. In fact, product marketers are often driving initiatives that involve many teams and SMEs who are passionate about their ideas. Influence is how you connect dots across sales, product, and ops to keep initiatives moving forward.
According to Product Marketing Alliance State of Product Marketing 2025, influencing cross-functional stakeholders is the second biggest challenge faced by product marketers today.
Yet, while everyone agrees this is a crucial skill, no one goes to school for it.
The playbooks out there spout surface-level tactics like “Bring data”, or “Show that you’re listening” without dialing into the how or why.
Or worse, offer vague advice like “Be strategic!” – whatever that means…
Simply put:
You do not need formal power.
You need a simple practice – 3 steps, in fact – that you can repeat every week.
3 simple steps to building influence without authority
Meet people. Speak up. Help them first.
That’s it. Three almost stupidly simple steps.
Why so simple, Amruta?
Because influence is not a one-time action. It’s a process.
I’d rather that you execute 3 simple steps than a complex 60-page tactics-filled playbook that instantly overwhelms you.
Or triggers your latent perfectionism (I see you, my fellow A-type high-achievers!).
Or creates analysis paralysis of “Where do I even start?!”
Not on my watch.
3 steps. I’ll walk you through each one, with mindset and moves you can make tomorrow.
Let’s go 🚀
1) Meet people
Influence starts before the ask. If you only show up when you need something, you’re the coworker version of a popup ad. People might click once, but they’ll avoid you altogether after.
Influence also starts with relationships.
The more people you meet, the more doors you open. Every conversation expands your sphere of influence.
But who do I meet?
A lot of PMMs freeze here. “Who do I meet? How do I pick the right people?”
Wrong question.
It’s not about perfectly targeting who you meet. It’s about building relationships.
Take my Samsung experience. When I joined a new department, I barely knew anyone. One day at lunch, I struck up a conversation with a colleague’s friend. We grabbed coffee. Six months later, that “random” connection had transitioned to a team that I needed inputs from.
Guess who connected me to the right stakeholders? That same “friend”. And because it came as a warm intro, that team was quick to give me their perspective and helped me shape a great recommendation.
When you take the time to meet people, you’ve already done half the work before you ever make an ask.
2) Speak up
If meeting people is step one, step two is letting them see who you are.
This is probably the #1 mistake I see PMMs make.
They hide.
They think: I’ll wait until I’m “ready.”
Spoiler: you won’t be ready until you start speaking up. Readiness is a state that comes from doing.
If you’re wondering “But what do I say?” — the answer is simple: share your insights and ideas.
You own the voice of the customer.
You have a pulse on the market.
You are looking at competitor pages, day in, day out.
My client, Kavi, would ask me the same question. He was fed up with getting his 1-on-1s with senior leadership cancelled and wondered if he was even adding value.
So we flipped the script. Instead of chasing executives, we focused on being in service of his product team. He brought insights and his perspective to product standups.
Pretty soon, his PMs were quoting him in other meetings. Senior leadership noticed. Asked Kavi to come with his inputs to them directly.
No more cancelled meetings. Tons of high-level visibility.
It’s not that you don’t know.
It’s that you’ve forgotten how to talk about it with conviction.
With the belief that this is valuable for your stakeholders and partner teams.
3) Help them first.
The last step is to offer to help your stakeholders and colleagues.
Help them BEFORE they need you. You’re showing up with value so consistently that eventually people can’t imagine doing it without you.
You’re not doing a pitch or hard-sell. You’re acknowledging what they’re going through and offering to help.
It can be as simple as saying – “I see what you’re up against. Here’s how I can help make this easier. Would you like me to? ”
You’re not waiting until someone asks for your input. It’s stepping in early with something useful.
Making it actionable
I’m a firm believer of learning by doing. Here are some practical moves that you can start making this week:
- Meet one new person inside your company, one new person outside your org or function.
- Next time someone asks how you’re doing, don’t just say “good!” or “Keeping busy!” Share one quick win or customer insight from the past week. Keep it short. Keep it human. That’s enough to build trust and credibility over time.
- Take one project you’re working on and offer to help your stakeholfer first: “I’d be happy to pull the customer insights for this” or “I can draft the first outline so we have something to react to.”
Final thoughts
Influence is not a one-time action. It’s a process.
Do these 3 steps this week. Then do it again next week. That’s how it builds.
Your work is too important to sit in a deck. Go make it move.
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Amruta Anil Hunnurkar is a global product marketing leader and coach who helps PMMs be more visible, get buy-in, influence without authority, and build careers they love (without burning out in the process). Her 1-on-1 coaching program is designed to help product marketers move from execution to impact.
If you’re a PMM who’s tired of being overlooked or stuck in execution-only mode, join her upcoming workshop designed specifically for ambitious PMMs who want promotions in 2026 – Influencing Without Authority Webinar.
You can also find her on LinkedIn and Youtube, where she shares stories, frameworks, and the real behind-the-scenes lessons of product marketing influence in action.