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Clayton Pritchard shared thisGrowing up, I never pictured myself on the front page of the local paper. Last week, The Sanford Herald, my hometown newspaper, ran a front-page mention and a full feature on my acquisition of Olivine Marketing from Raechel Lambert and Ashley Wilson. It's a surreal full-circle moment for a Sanford native with strong roots in the city. I mean, my brother, my dad, my grandma, my great-grandma, and I all went to Seminole High School. Plus, my great-grandparents purchased the land I grew up on. After getting my degree at UCF, I spent the beginning of my career in Silicon Valley, and I'm excited to be back in Florida, closer to my family, and leading a global B2B product marketing agency from Jacksonville. Big thanks to Jeremy Gottschalk and Susan Wenner for the feature. Check out the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gYbBWj6J
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Clayton Pritchard reposted thisClayton Pritchard reposted thisThe more companies use AI for messaging, the more they sound alike. In a recent appearance on WJXT News4JAX, our CEO Clayton Pritchard shared an observation that's becoming harder to ignore: AI is safe. "Generic is not going to offend, but it's not going to attract." A few years ago, being an AI company was a differentiator. Today, it's table stakes. The companies winning attention aren't talking about AI. They're talking about outcomes. They're showing customers: → What problem gets solved → What changes after implementation → Why they're different from every alternative AI can help write copy. But it doesn't know: → Which customer problems matter most → Which value propositions resonate → Which competitive strengths actually influence buying decisions That's the work of customer research, positioning, and product marketing. And as AI-generated content becomes more common, those fundamentals become more important. Not less. The companies that stand out won't be the ones using the most AI. They'll be the ones with the clearest understanding of their customers.
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Clayton Pritchard posted this"Bad data means bad decisions. Bad data + AI means bad decisions faster and at scale." That's what Snowflake's CMO, Denise Persson, said at SaaStr Ai last month, and I couldn't agree more. I updated my LinkedIn title to Olivine Marketing's CEO a few weeks ago. And I've been drowning in spam ever since. Not a little more. A lot more. All day. Every day. And here's what I've realized: most of it is AI-generated. I can tell. Not because it's poorly written (it's often well-written) but because it's clearly built on bad assumptions about who I am and what I care about. This is the trap AI set for your marketing team. AI can write faster than any copywriter. It can spin up 50 message variations before lunch. It can A/B test subject lines and personalize at scale. But all of that power is built on your insights. And if your insights are wrong, if you don't actually understand your buyer's real problems, priorities, and language, AI doesn't save you. It just helps you be wrong louder, faster, and to more people. Bad positioning fed into an AI content engine isn't a strategy. It's a megaphone for your misunderstanding of the market. The only way out is getting the insight right first: 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 — not surveys, not reviewing product data, not scanning call recordings, but actual conversations 2️⃣ 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 — not what you assume they need, what keeps them up at night and afraid for their job and business 3️⃣ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 — not your internal jargon, their language so that it speaks to them AI is a scale engine. Make sure what you're scaling is worth scaling. What's the best outreach you've received lately?
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Clayton Pritchard reposted thisClayton Pritchard reposted thisMost sales objections aren't actually objections. They're messaging failures. When a prospect says: • "We're comparing a few vendors." • "We're not convinced it's different enough." • "The timing isn't right." • "We'll need to think about it." The instinct is often to train reps to handle objections better. But many of these conversations break down long before the objection appears. Because buyers don't clearly understand: ❓why your solution is different ❓why the problem matters now ❓why changing is worth the effort ❓why you're the right choice That's where sales enablement makes the difference. Not by giving Sales more content. By giving them the right content, messaging, and tools. The highest-performing teams invest in: • Sales narratives that help reps communicate value clearly • Competitive battlecards that prepare them for head-to-head deals • Objection handling frameworks that remove friction from buying decisions • Sales playbooks that create consistency across the team • One-pagers, pitch decks, and case studies that reinforce the story • Sales training that helps reps confidently put it all into practice The goal isn't to make every rep sound the same. It's to make sure every rep can clearly communicate why your product wins. When that happens win rates increase, sales cycles shorten, onboarding becomes easier, and performance becomes more consistent. At Olivine, we help B2B SaaS companies build sales narratives, battlecards, and enablement content that help reps sell with greater clarity and consistency. Learn more about how we equip sales teams with the messaging, tools, and confidence to win more competitive deals: https://lnkd.in/esRVK5pGSales Enablement Agency & Consulting — Olivine — A Product Marketing AgencySales Enablement Agency & Consulting — Olivine — A Product Marketing Agency
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Clayton Pritchard shared thisAt Lending Tech Live this week — not as an attendee, but as a researcher for Olivine Marketing's newest client, Origence. As I've said before, one of the fastest ways to get to know your customer and pressure test messaging is at a conference. You get input from a large audience with the additional nuance that you just can't get from a survey. So, I'm here to do just that. Absorb all I can from their clients and partners, get quick feedback on my initial assumptions, and pull out as many insights as possible in just 3 days. Plus, after weeks of calls and emails, I finally got to meet Erika Hill and James Flores in person. No better way to kick off a relationship. 🤝 #LendingTechLive #LTL26
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Clayton Pritchard posted thisThe longer a team lives inside their product, the worse their messaging gets. They're just way too in their own bubble to connect with the customer. The internal shorthand that gets repeated in every roadmap meeting starts to sound like plain English. The acronyms stop needing explanation. The way the team describes the product quietly drifts away from the way buyers describe their own problem. And then it makes its way onto the homepage. This is inside-out messaging. And it's everywhere. I see it all the time: ❌ Capabilities listed where problems should be ❌ Internally coined constructs dressed up as customer language ❌ Messaging that resonates with everyone who already bought, and no one who hasn't The more deeply you understand something, the more abstract your language becomes. What feels obvious inside the building is meaningless to the person on the other side of it. When's the last time someone outside your company read your homepage and said "that's exactly how I'd describe my problem"? If that question stings, here are three ways to start getting outside your bubble: 1️⃣ 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬. Hire an agency that can look at your messaging the way a first-time buyer would, without the baggage of every internal debate that shaped it. 2️⃣ 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬. Conferences aren't just for pipeline. They're one of the best places to have real conversations with the people you're trying to reach. Some of my best messaging insights came from hallway conversations at events when I was at Highfive (acq. by Dialpad). 3️⃣ 𝐃𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡. Watch how your customers actually use your product in their environment, not how you imagine they do. At Highfive, spending time with less technical customers like the Girl Scouts of Northern California was eye-opening. At LinkedIn, there was a program where executives visited users in their homes to understand their experience firsthand. Nothing sharpens your message like that kind of proximity to reality. The bubble is comfortable. Your buyers aren't in it.
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Clayton Pritchard posted thisMost B2B SaaS messaging fails for one reason: It starts with the product instead of the customer. “You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to sell it." Steve Jobs said this in 1997. Most companies are still getting it wrong in 2026. You can see it everywhere: → Homepages that explain what the product does before explaining why the buyer should care → Launches where PMM gets two weeks to retrofit messaging onto decisions already made → Pitch decks that define the customer as “mid-market SaaS, 50–500 employees” instead of a person under pressure trying to solve a real problem → Founders saying “we’ll figure out GTM later” This isn’t just an early-stage startup problem. It’s the dominant go-to-market failure mode in B2B tech right now. Technology-first thinking creates technology-first messaging. And technology-first messaging sounds exactly like every other homepage, pitch, and outbound email in your buyer’s inbox. Customer-first messaging looks different. 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 1️⃣ What moment is this customer in when they start looking for a solution? 2️⃣ What have they already tried that failed? 3️⃣ What does success actually look like for them? 4️⃣ What would make them trust us enough to stake their reputation on us? Those answers are your positioning. Not your feature list. Not your architecture. Not your benchmark results. Technology is the proof. The customer’s world is the argument. The companies that understand this don’t just have better messaging. They: → close faster → retain longer → and become much harder to displace The ones that don’t are still shipping homepage copy around features nobody asked for.
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Clayton Pritchard reposted thisClayton Pritchard reposted thisMost B2B SaaS companies don’t lose to competitors. They lose to competitors’ narratives. By the time a buyer gets on a demo, they already have assumptions about: • who the category leader is • what differentiators matter • what tradeoffs are acceptable • which vendor “feels” safest And most companies are completely unprepared for that reality. They have: ❌ no battlecards ❌ no comparison pages ❌ no switcher stories ❌ no understanding of competitor messaging ❌ no visibility into how competitors actually sell So Sales improvises. Marketing guesses. And Product builds in a vacuum. Good competitive intelligence fixes this. Not by obsessing over competitors… But by helping your company: • position more clearly • handle objections confidently • sharpen differentiation • influence buying criteria earlier • and win more head-to-head deals One of the biggest mistakes we see is companies treating competitive intel like a one-time exercise. But, the best teams turn it into an actual system: → comparison pages → migration content → battlecards → switcher stories → competitor monitoring → sales feedback loops That’s where competitive intel starts impacting revenue. At Olivine, we help B2B SaaS companies build competitive intelligence programs that actually influence positioning, sales conversations, and win rates from secret shopper research to battlecards to differentiated messaging. Learn more about how we help teams outposition competitors here: https://lnkd.in/eqpgDRNSCompetitive Intelligence Services — Olivine — A Product Marketing AgencyCompetitive Intelligence Services — Olivine — A Product Marketing Agency
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Clayton Pritchard posted thisThe companies with the best AI 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 win. The company that the market 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘴 has the best AI will. We've seen this movie before. VHS beat Betamax. Betamax was technically superior. Google beat AltaVista. AltaVista had comparable search quality. Salesforce beat Siebel. Siebel had more features. The market has never rewarded the best product. It rewards the product it best understands. AI is no different. Here's what's actually playing out right now and what to do about it: 👉 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲. They're not running evals. They're reading your website, listening to your CEO on a podcast, asking their network. Perception isn't a byproduct of your product. It is your product. 💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼: Audit what a buyer finds in the first 10 minutes of researching you. If they can't articulate your differentiation after that, your messaging is the problem, not your product. 👉 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰. The companies that own a clear position in the next 18 months will be nearly impossible to displace, even if a technically superior competitor shows up later. First mover advantage in AI isn't about the product. It's about the perception that forms before buyers know enough to evaluate properly. 💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼: Pick a position narrow enough to own. "AI for everyone" is not a position. "The only AI built for [specific buyer] doing [specific thing]" is. 👉 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. "Powerful." "Enterprise-grade." "Responsible AI." "The future of work." Every homepage sounds like the same press release written by the same committee. The bar to stand out has never been lower, which means the cost of sounding generic has never been higher. 💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼: If your messaging could appear on a competitor's website without anyone noticing, rewrite it. Positioning that doesn't exclude anyone positions you for no one. This isn't spin. This is how markets work. The best product that nobody understands loses to the good-enough product that everybody gets. You can have the best AI in the world. If the market can't articulate why you're different in one sentence, without prompting, you don't have a messaging problem. You have a survival problem. The race to build better AI is real. The race to own what "better" means in the market's mind has already started. Most companies aren't in it yet. Save this post for the next time your CEO wants to use generic "category-defining" messaging on your homepage. p.s. at Olivine Marketing, we help technical B2B companies find their white space and develop a go-to-market strategy so they can effectively bring their product to market and drive revenue.
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Michael Prentice Thanks! Will do!!
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Ana Lewison thank you!! Definitely wasn't the goal I started with, but so great to see.
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Vikki Fraser Thank you! I still talk about my experience at HostDime Global as the beginning of my career in tech.
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Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisPowered by our startup DNNR 🤩Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisOn June 18, The Free Press is hosting dinners in 12 cities across three countries. Join us and over 2,000 Free Pressers by signing up here: https://lnkd.in/ewShAZMX
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Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisProud to be part of the team that just took Silver at The Drum Awards Marketing Americas 2026 🥈 Our work with Cloudera — Bringing AI to Data, Anywhere — was recognized in the B2B category for a campaign that didn't just drive results, it changed how a market-leading brand is seen. 409M+ impressions. 75% increase in form fills. Conversion rates up to 2.6x. We'll let the results do the talking. https://lnkd.in/gukNMwXg Just Global | TrilliadClayton Pritchard reacted on thisAward season is only heating up.🔥 We're excited to announce that our campaign for Cloudera, Bringing AI to Data, Anywhere, has won Silver in the B2B category at The Drum Awards Marketing Americas 2026. 409M+ impressions. 75% more form fills. Conversion rates up to 2.6x higher. And a measurable shift in how Cloudera is perceived in the enterprise AI market. Shoutout to our incredible team at Just Global | Trilliad and to the team at Cloudera for pushing our work to greater heights. John Langstone | Benjamin Trimberger | Michael Cavanagh | Kristen Watterson | Desiree Jue Sinyork | Amanda Bendrey | Mary Kate (Manning) Zwingelberg | Anthony Lopez | Kristopher VanSpeybroeck | Crista F. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ga9viSbV
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Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisHappy Birthday, ProductTide.co - GTM & Product Marketing Strategy. Crazy to think it's been a year already! 🥂Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisHappy (almost!) birthday to ProductTide.co! 🎂 Next week represents one year of ProductTide incorporation, and it's been a busy one! From becoming a trusted contractor for AKKR to helping clients near and far, this has been a great first year. Thank you for all of your continued support! Highlights from the past year: -Onsite messaging & positioning / marketing strategy engagements with ed-tech and sports tech companies (I love being onsite!) -The opportunity to engage on projects with the past colleagues, companies, and bosses -100% renewal rate for additional projects across clients -6+ (going on 12+ month) ongoing engagements with a martech client & marketing agency client -The chance to work on all the things I love and am good at at one time; my ADHD brain is as happy as a clam -Meeting and working with so many incredible people across companies Challenges: -Figuring out how to become an S-corp & pay the right amount of taxes (thank you Formations) -Managing timelines when clients have moving targets -Not taking on too much - a lifelong struggle :) I'll leave you with a quote from my awesome client LeagueApps: "We engaged Katie and ProductTide to develop a go-forward marketing plan with an actionable execution strategy — and she delivered. What stood out immediately was how quickly she got up to speed. We operate in a nuanced B2B2C space serving youth sports, and within days she understood our business and was providing insights, recommendations, and points of view that were genuinely relevant. Her turnaround times were exceptional — pre-reads before meetings and workshops, same-day wrap-ups and debriefs, clear next steps, and high-quality deliverables that kept all of us accountable to the timeline. Beyond the deliverables, working with Katie was easy. She was responsive, proactive, and brought genuine expertise that she applied to our business — not a generic playbook." - Nick Naso, CRO @ LeagueApps Excited for year two! 🥂 -KatieHomepage – ProductTide GTM and Product Marketing StrategyHomepage – ProductTide GTM and Product Marketing Strategy
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Clayton Pritchard reacted on thisClayton Pritchard reacted on thisDid you know I was featured on AMN Healthcare's SLP Full Disclosure Podcast last year?!? We reviewed SLP travel contracts and discussed AMN's benefits! If you're not an SLP but interested in travel, this episode still has a TON of information about the perks, benefits, and help you find your reason to say "why not!" If you'd like to give it a listen, click the link below! https://lnkd.in/eYW3x3De #AMNHealthcare #SLPFullDisclosure #Podcast #AlliedHealthcare #AMNAllied Breana Donnelly, MBA Michelle Gage, MA, CCC-SLP
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Clayton Pritchard liked thisClayton Pritchard liked thisBackblaze, Inc. is hiring a Growth Marketing Director https://lnkd.in/gAfx2_qR
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Clayton Pritchard liked thisClayton Pritchard liked thisToday, we announce my favorite event of the year: our 3rd annual Upfronts. B2B media has always leaned boring. Consumer media never had that problem. Their Upfronts have run for half a century. Huge announcements, great content, a damn good time. B2B marketers never got the same opportunity. So we decided to flip the script. Since our first Upfronts, we've hosted marketing executives from GE Healthcare, Rippling, HubSpot, Fifth Third Bank, and 100+ other leading B2B SaaS and service companies. This event is special to me. When we launched Workweek, B2B content was boring, practitioner creators had no home, and B2B advertising was a race to the cheapest lead. We wanted to fix all three. This is one of the ways we do that. Want in? The link to apply is in the comments.
Experience & Education
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Olivine Marketing
View Clayton’s full experience
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Expert-In-Residence
Growth Blazers
- 1 year 3 months
Growth Blazers is a global community of modern marketers and growth leaders connecting members to the world's top growth experts and their proven insider strategies.
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Mentor
University of Central Florida - College of Business Administration
- 3 years
Education
Meet with a UCF marketing student to mentor her on starting her career including resume updates, internships, and job search.
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Search Marketing Manager
Givology
- 4 months
Education
• Volunteered to assist in connection of people to educational projects & student scholarships around the world with total impact exceeding 200 students & $400,000
• Managed Google AdWords campaign utilizing Google Grant of $10,000/month in order to increase brand awareness & conversions
• Worked on team to track & analyze involvement of more than 6,200 donors & volunteers -
Project Manager
BASE Camp Childhood Cancer Foundation
- 5 months
Children
• Brainstormed fundraising concepts with teammates, coordinated these efforts to raise $2,500 & surpassed our goal of $1,600 by over 150%
• Co-wrote & presented business proposal as well as project updates
• Planned & managed a charity event raising over $500
• Marketed charity event through self-designed flyers, social media, & contacting the press
Honors & Awards
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Inaugural Culture Champion
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Take Intelligent Risks Award
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Languages
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French
Elementary proficiency
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Spanish
Limited working proficiency
Organizations
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Revenue Marketing Alliance
Community Member & Speaker
- Present• Moderator of two sessions at the Revenue Marketing Festival 2022
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Customer Marketing Alliance
Community Member & Speaker
- Present• Guest on the Customer Marketing Catch-up Podcast
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Product Marketing Alliance
Community Member & Speaker
- Present• Speaker at Product Marketing Summit Chicago 2019 and Product Marketing Summit Las Vegas 2022 • Guest on the Product Marketing Life Podcast
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Society for Marketing Professionals Services
Communications Director (May 2013 - Jan. 2014), Professional Chapter Liaison (Dec. 2012 - May 2013)
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UCF LEAD Scholars
LEAD Scholar Mentor
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UCF Marching Knights
Alto Saxophone Player
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