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: Lottable 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/

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/on-messaging/id1787098696