Pocus hosts “Ask Me Anything” sessions with GTM experts to share best practices, frameworks, and insights on this emerging category. These AMAs are an opportunity to ask leaders any question — ranging from hiring to sales compensation to tech stack — in a low-key, casual environment.
AMAs are for members of Pocus’ 10x Go-To-Market Community. The 10x GTM community is on a mission to help sellers become experts in emerging AI tools and the latest playbooks/tactics so you can stay ahead of the curve.
Interested in joining? Apply to join the next cohort here.
Meet Kevin Baldacci, Head of Solutions Product Marketing at Asana 👋
Kevin didn’t set out to become a product marketer. He started his career in content marketing and made the leap to product marketing after talking with his manager at Salesforce.
“I went to my manager’s office for our weekly one-on-one and he said, ‘Hey Kevin, I really like your messaging and what you're doing. I don't think you should be in content marketing, so I'm going to put you in product marketing instead.’ And I haven't left product marketing ever since.”
After 11 years at Salesforce, today Kevin works as the Head of Solutions Product Marketing at Asana. With a tenured career at best-in-class organizations, Kevin’s learned what makes a successful product marketer, and how AI can help uplevel the role.
We recently chatted with him about:
- The traits that make a 10x product marketer
- How to use AI to improve your product marketing efforts
- Bringing an AI product to market
Prefer to watch instead of read? Catch the full conversion:
The four traits of strategic product marketers
Being well-rounded is critical to success in product marketing – you must stay close to the numbers, collaborate with sellers, and craft winning messaging.
“The amazing part of product marketing is that you get to touch all different types of skill sets. Great product marketers set the strategy, develop compelling narratives, take that to the masses, and put the product into customers’ and prospects’ hands.”
Here are the four traits Kevin believes make a best-in-class product marketer.
- Business acumen: Product marketers set the high-level strategy, so it’s important to understand the ebbs and flows of the business. Being an expert on your buyers, product, and industry will increase your credibility and help you create impactful materials.
- Messaging expertise: Crafting engaging, solution-oriented narratives is a key part of product marketing – especially in B2B. SaaS products often have a laundry list of features, and it's a product marketer's job to combine them into a cohesive narrative that addresses buyer pain points and delivers value.
- Public speaking skills: “Product marketers are expected to go to events and evangelize the product,” shares Kevin. The ability to create a narrative and deliver it to different audiences is a job requirement.
- Field enablement: Sellers rely on product marketers for talk tracks, pitch decks, and strategic messaging. Winning product marketers enable the field with the right materials and tech stack.
Another relatively new trait required to be successful? The ability to use AI effectively.
AI do’s and don’ts for product marketers
AI gives marketers at all levels access to strategic insights, without the need for advanced data analytics skills. Product marketers can now quickly identify winning campaigns and areas for improvement.
“Marketing is undergoing an amazing revolution. You have talented marketing teams that now have AI, and it’s democratizing skill sets and making people smarter and processes more efficient.”
But, where can AI drive real impact and what’s just a fad?
Kevin shared his thoughts.
He recommends using AI to:
- Aggregate data and identify patterns: Using AI, you can quickly identify top-performing content and channels. Then, you can make changes to existing campaigns and design stronger programs.
- Write messaging and positioning: AI can help you tailor your message for different folks and companies quickly, which is especially important when creating copy for many segments and audiences.
- Help sales target, research, and engage prospects at scale: AI tools help sellers identify the right accounts to reach out to, uncover key account details, and write more relevant emails – making reps more efficient and effective. At Asana, Kevin uses Pocus to prioritize accounts, conduct in-depth research, and personalize outreach, helping sellers generate pipeline and close more deals.
"Pocus solves something I've been trying to do for almost a decade. While I was at Salesforce, helping sellers plan effective outreach was a challenge. We usually sent information through Excel spreadsheets or Salesforce reports. But that was one-dimensional. Data was coming from a single source, so as soon as it was delivered to reps, it was frozen in time. Pocus solves that by aggregating data into a single solution to generate insights and help our reps prioritize. It's become the go-to-market hub for our field."
But, Kevin warns against using AI to blast thousands of generic automated emails. Doing so makes you look spammy. You must be careful about the communications you send and should be weary of AI solutions that completely remove human intervention.
How to bring AI products to market
In addition to using AI internally, product marketers must help sellers communicate the value of their company’s AI solution.
Here’s Kevin’s advice on how to highlight AI’s value without overhyping it.
- Promote your AI features: Your customers aren’t mind readers. Clearly articulate how your AI solution helps buyers achieve better outcomes.
“AI has become table stakes. Make sure your prospects and customers are aware you have best-in-class AI solutions.”
- Provide value to current and future customers; Avoid relying solely on new models you’ll build in the future. Communicate how the tool helps solve your buyers’ problems today.
- Don’t always lead with AI: Announcing your AI capabilities is a must, but don’t use the technology as a crutch. The AI space is incredibly noisy, so it’s important to identify customer pain points first, and then share how AI helps solve those challenges more efficiently and effectively.
“Address key use cases, and then follow up with how your AI solutions will take those use cases to an entirely different level.”
Cut through the noise with AI
Modern marketers and sellers will win by using AI.
AI won't replace folks, but it will help them achieve 10x results. If you’re not already using AI, now is the time to do so.
"The marketers that are really thriving in this environment right now are the ones that are curious, are poking around AI, and leveraging the AI solutions that they have at their disposal."
Want to hear how other GTM leaders like Kevin are using AI to drive growth? Join our community!
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