From Competitive Intel to Killer Messaging: How to Differentiate Your POV w/ Talya Heller | Down to a T

Like this episode? Clicking Like and Subscribe go further than you know. Thank you 💛Episode 14: Talya Heller, Owner of Down to a T (https://www.linkedin.com/in/talyahellermba18/) joins me (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-chronister/) to break down how to weave competitive intelligence into messaging that actually differentiates. We talk about why most companies ignore competition (and why that’s a huge mistake), how to find your real positioning levers, and why product differentiation alone won’t save you. Talya also shares how to enable sales with “champion decks” and persona-specific one-pagers, why no one reads your 10-page messaging doc, and how to make messaging usable across the entire go-to-market team. We even get into localization gone wrong, multi-persona buying committees, and her favorite way to uncover the best customer language.//💡 During our conversation, you’ll learn:Why 10-page messaging docs fail How to adapt messaging for multiple personas Talya’s go-to ways to mine customer conversations How to create “champion decks” and persona one-pagersA simple framework for using competitive intel to shape messagingHow to identify the real differentiators that make customers choose youWhy ignoring your competitors is the biggest messaging mistake you can make//🎙️ In our conversation, we cover: 00:00 – Why ignoring competitors is the biggest messaging mistake00:45 – Welcome to On Messaging with Talya Heller, the “Competitive Intel Queen”02:00 – Talya’s career journey: engineer → PM → product marketer06:43 – Why she pivoted from product management to product marketing08:21 – Early impressions of marketers from the PM side09:44 – The #1 messaging pitfall: sounding the same as competitors14:33 – How much differentiation do you actually need?17:45 – Differentiation beyond product: experience, support, and community18:04 – Using competitive intelligence to shape positioning22:55 – Why no one reads messaging docs (and what to do instead)25:42 – Competition is emotional: avoiding bias in research26:09 – Where to research competitors’ ICPs and customers29:42 – How to position messaging across multiple personas36:12 – Equipping your champion to sell internally (champions decks & one-pagers)42:46 – Aligning sales and marketing on messaging and assets47:53 – Simple tools & playbooks for enabling marketing teams55:20 – Localization isn’t translation: global messaging mistakes1:01:18 – One piece of messaging advice to implement tomorrow1:02:36 – What living is all about1:03:22 – How to support Talya + where to subscribe to her newsletter Spill the T//🔦 Where to Find Talya (and more links):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talyahellermba18/ Down to a T Consulting: https://www.downtoat.co/ Spill the T Newsletter: https://www.downtoat.co/newsletter //🔦 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 //Follow On Messaging:Subscribe, like, and share if you’re a product marketer crafting messaging in B2B SaaS. New episodes drop every other week 💛#productmessaging #b2bmarketing #productmarketing #podcast