AMA: Salesforce Senior Director of Product Marketing, Sales Cloud, Chandra Patel on Messaging

It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That doesn't mean it's not frustrating to see a competitor using almost identical words to the messaging you've just worked so hard to create and align your team around. That being said, this happens quite often so the best action is to be always be reviewing and refining to ensure you "stand out in the sea of sameness." Some tips to do this: * Don't fall back on generic value statements. If it's vague, it is easy to copy. Even worse, it doesn't mean anything. So... read it out loud and pressure test. Specifics matter. And know which features will pay off that value. * Get very clear on persona pains - prioritize what are the top 3-5 pains your solution will solve. Emphasize those in the message instead of trying to cover every single point. * Remember that positioning and messaging are different. * Positioning will not change that often. It is the foundation of your product strategy and value to the customer. * Messaging is the words that describe positioning. It should be revisited every 1-2 quarters to capitalize on market shifts, relevant news, interesting moments and other elements (maybe competitive!) to stay fresh with your audience.

Okay - thanks for the honest question. This is something we all deal with so having a plan is important. It starts with a communication plan for executive stakeholders. When major shifts, either organizationally or due to business priorities, these are the key steps: * I begin by looking back at the SSOT stakeholder documents that were approved and are currently in use. * I pull these forward and do a "re-share" with any new executives so they understand the current "state of the union." * I pro-actively ask whether any underlying assumptions need to be revisited in the near term (1-2 months or could be as quickly as 2-4 weeks) * I connect with colleagues in other marketing disciplines whether there are sizable investments coming up that would be impacted if messaging needed to be changed. This input is also shared with the executive team. * Finally, I suggest doing another messaging check-in a few months later. While this doesn't eliminate messaging churn, this process ensures strong alignment and partnership across exec and stakeholder teams by creating a forum for communication and establishing trust.

I develop messaging using a Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework. These can be considered use cases but the process is simplified by the jobs mapping to the persona who will do the job. So, don't think of this as an either/or choice. By leading with JTBD, you are able to create a narrative on the benefits for the persona(s)

Messaging success can be hard to measure directly but some helpful proxies I recommend are: * Website performance metrics - including bounce rate, time on page, video views, CTR * Direct to consumer purchase rates (no live seller involved) * Performance on analyst reviews * Views/usage by sales of approved pitch decks I also look to qualitative feedback from sales teams and customer calls as they will always be honest about what is working/not working.

I document messaging in three unique documents that can be shared with various internal stakeholders and audiences. * Visual messaging hierarchy - a 1-2 slide format. This is a summary of the product positioning that is used for executive alignment and as the guidepost for messaging * The product or solution (+ the tagline if applicable) * The overall value the product or solution delivers * Who receives value from the product or solution * The top benefits of the product (3-5) * The capabilities of the product or solution that pay off the aforementioned benefit statements * Long form messaging narrative (document). This is the full narrative and is used to inform other marketing disciplines and teams on the context and competitive differentiation so they can apply these key messages in various formats (content, social, events, enablement). Some sections in this document include: * Current market environment + situation * Current unsolved pain points * Product/Solution overview and benefits * Target persona overview * Competitive Differentiation - why competitor x, y are not comparable * Top benefit statement * Supporting benefit statements * Complete list of technical and functional capabilities that align to each benefit statement * Regional distinctions * Expected ROI * Customer proof points and case studies * Industry expert validation * * Approved pitch deck (slides). This aligns with the narrative doc but is is used primarily by sales and in 3rd party conversations to explain the value of the product or solution