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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.Â
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.
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💡 During our conversation, you’ll learn:
Why 10-page messaging docs failÂ
How to adapt messaging for multiple personasÂ
Talya’s go-to ways to mine customer conversationsÂ
How to create “champion decks” and persona one-pagers
A simple framework for using competitive intel to shape messaging
How to identify the real differentiators that make customers choose you
Why ignoring your competitors is the biggest messaging mistake you can make
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🎙️ In our conversation, we cover:Â
00:00 – Why ignoring competitors is the biggest messaging mistake
00:45 – Welcome to On Messaging with Talya Heller, the “Competitive Intel Queen”
02:00 – Talya’s career journey: engineer → PM → product marketer
06:43 – Why she pivoted from product management to product marketing
08:21 – Early impressions of marketers from the PM side
09:44 – The #1 messaging pitfall: sounding the same as competitors
14:33 – How much differentiation do you actually need?
17:45 – Differentiation beyond product: experience, support, and community
18:04 – Using competitive intelligence to shape positioning
22:55 – Why no one reads messaging docs (and what to do instead)
25:42 – Competition is emotional: avoiding bias in research
26:09 – Where to research competitors’ ICPs and customers
29:42 – How to position messaging across multiple personas
36:12 – Equipping your champion to sell internally (champions decks & one-pagers)
42:46 – Aligning sales and marketing on messaging and assets
47:53 – Simple tools & playbooks for enabling marketing teams
55:20 – Localization isn’t translation: global messaging mistakes
1:01:18 – One piece of messaging advice to implement tomorrow
1:02:36 – What living is all about
1:03:22 – How to support Talya + where to subscribe to her newsletter Spill the T
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🔦 Where to Find Talya (and more links):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talyahellermba18/Â
Down to a T Consulting: https://www.downtoat.co/Â
Spill the T Newsletter: https://www.downtoat.co/newsletterÂ
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🔦 Where to Find Josh:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-chronister/Â
Newsletter: https://onmessaging.substack.com/Â
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3E1gduFoKQYHiLNmNLzeF4?si=c3e2bc4bd362490fÂ
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/on-messaging/id1787098696Â
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