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Episode 11: Emily Pick, Lead Product Marketing Manager at Clari (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilypick/) joins me (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-chronister/) to dive into platform messaging, tailoring narratives for different buyer personas, and how to create a unified message across multiple products. We also unpack the balance of feature-level messaging, brand consistency, and customer words.
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💡 During our conversation, you’ll learn:
Influencing the product roadmap as a product marketer
Why most B2B messaging gets stuck in feature-function battles
How to create messaging for buying committees without losing clarity
How to transition from single-product messaging to platform-level narratives
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🎙️ In our conversation, we cover:
00:00 – Nobody’s buying a product—they’re buying a solution to their pain
00:29 – Intro to the episode and what you’ll learn from Emily
01:23 – Emily joins the show and shares her love for messaging
02:26 – Why Emily stepped away from business books and back into travel stories
03:17 – Backpacking, Rick Steves, and what travel taught Emily
06:26 – Travelers, chaos, and the joy of unpredictable experiences
07:20 – Introduction to platform vs. product messaging
07:56 – The history of Clari and their transition to a revenue platform
09:18 – Defining your category: what Clari wants to be known for
12:02 – Using positioning as the North Star for platform messaging
12:42 – Positioning vs. branding: how Emily differentiates the two
13:37 – Platform-first vs. product-level messaging strategy
14:08 – Moving from product features to solution-based messaging
16:01 – When product-specific messaging becomes important
16:54 – Mapping solutions to pains and personas before products
17:47 – Aligning product launches to the company narrative
18:36 – Crafting baseline and higher-order product messaging
19:37 – How Clari avoids building “off-strategy” features
19:48 – How product marketers can earn influence on the roadmap
21:29 – Bringing market research and analyst feedback to PMs
22:57 – Owning collateral and influencing alpha/beta feedback loops
23:12 – Building trust with PMs by being useful and aligned
24:02 – When Emily starts messaging and enablement for new features
24:32 – Using launch tiers and customer impact scores
25:56 – Examples: low impact vs. high impact, and how timing shifts
28:08 – Why Clari focuses on retention as much as acquisition
29:32 – The cost of new customers vs. caring for existing ones
30:30 – A call for PMMs to think beyond net-new revenue
31:00 – Tailoring messaging for the full buying committee
32:22 – Adoption depends on frontline users, not just executives
33:18 – Mapping personas to solutions and jobs-to-be-done
34:17 – Pre- and post-sale assets for each user type
36:45 – Collaborating with customer education to drive product adoption
38:39 – Clari’s position in a competitive space—and how to stay ahead
39:39 – Winning with relevance when features are at parity
40:57 – Creating preference without getting stuck in feature wars
42:49 – Signs you’re losing a deal: when the buyer uses your competitor’s language
44:34 – Selling against pain instead of relying on features
45:55 – How Emily and team enable sales with messaging that resonates
48:38 – Why customer words and Q&A insights power better messaging
49:41 – Tools Emily loves: Laudable and UserEvidence
50:49 – Letting Q&A fuel your copy and message refinement
52:04 – Emily’s #1 messaging tip: replace jargon with customer language
53:06 – What is living all about? Emily’s personal perspective
55:22 – Where to connect with Emily online
56:20 – Closing thanks and wrap-up
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🔦 Where to Find Emily:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilypick/
🔦 Where to Find Josh:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-chronister/
Newsletter: https://onmessaging.substack.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3E1gduFoKQYHiLNmNLzeF4?si=c3e2bc4bd362490f
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/on-messaging/id1787098696
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