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Episode 14: Talya Heller, Owner of Down to a T joins me to break down how to weave competitive intelligence into messaging that actually differentiates.
Talya runs a product marketing consultancy called Down to a T focused on creating a differentiated POV coupled with customer centered sales assets.
Talya is a former engineer, turned product manager, turned product marketer. She came highly recommended for the show and was referred to as, “the competitive intel queen” (thanks Michele Nieberding!). I love it!
I’ve already taken some of what I’ve learned from this conversation and started implementing it in my competitive intel work as a product marketer.
And I think you will too.
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-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
In our conversation, you’ll find:
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
Where to Find Talya:
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/
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Created by Josh Chronister
I interview the best product marketers and tech companies who create messaging that resonates with their buyers. Come learn from them, so you can hit ‘Publish’ with confidence.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onmessaging.substack.com
