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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