Unlocking Shorter Sales Cycles: The Power of Differentiated Messaging

Workforce Alchemy

What if your B2B deals are stalling because of your messaging, not your pricing, product, or competition?  In this episode of the Mason Duchatschek Show, Mason Duchatschek sits down with Bill Murphy, Founder and CEO of ColonySpark, to break down why generic messaging quietly kills deal velocity, weakens differentiation, and slows revenue growth.  If you are a business owner, CEO, sales leader, or marketing leader looking to shorten sales cycles, improve conversion rates, and stand out in a crowded market, this conversation delivers practical strategies you can apply immediately.  In this episode, you will learn:  • Why generic messaging kills deal velocity • How differentiation drives revenue growth and pipeline predictability • The hidden messaging blind spot most companies miss • How to speak to different buyer roles with precision • The three levels of messaging every B2B company must master • How to align marketing and sales for consistent, high-converting communication • Why playing it safe is often the riskiest move in competitive markets  Bill also explains how to uncover what your buyers actually care about, refine your positioning over time, and build messaging that consistently converts across the entire buyer journey.  Timestamps:  00:00 Introduction to Revenue Messaging Challenges 01:09 Understanding the Messaging Blind Spot 03:36 The Importance of Differentiation in B2B 06:12 Common Patterns in Generic Messaging 08:03 The Risks of Playing It Safe 09:56 Impact of Messaging on Sales Metrics 13:53 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Messaging 18:16 Understanding the Buyer’s Journey 20:16 The Three Levels of Messaging 23:23 Balancing Clarity and Complexity 25:24 Aligning Marketing and Sales 28:20 The Role of AI in Messaging 34:17 Future of Messaging in a Crowded Market  Memorable takeaways:  • Playing it safe is the riskiest move in crowded markets • Understand what each buyer role cares about to stand out • Balance clarity with simplicity without losing the essence  Connect with Bill Murphy:  • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/billmurphy  • Website: https://colonyspark.com  Connect With Workforce Alchemy:  • Website: https://workforcealchemy.com/  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReverseRiskConsulting  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workforcealchemy/  • X / Twitter: https://x.com/WorkAlchemist  • Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/WorkforceAlchemy  • Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/WorkforceAlchemy  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WorkforceAlchemist  Connect with Mason:  • Website: https://masonduchatschek.com/  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonduchatschek/  Subscribe for more content on B2B sales, leadership, revenue growth, marketing strategy, and building high-performing organizations.  Watch more episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaGSQcRH4ChwjjPLD9FN6r2IvuBp5PPbg  #B2BSales #B2BMarketing #SalesStrategy

Transcript

00:05welcome to the mason duke check show and before we jump in this episode is brought to you by

00:12workforcealchemy.com helping leaders uncover hidden profit leaks inside their workforce

00:18today's guest is the founder and ceo of colony spark a firm that helps b2b companies sharpen

00:26their revenue messaging so that they can stop sounding like everyone else in the market bill

00:33murphy works with leadership teams to uncover a blind spot that quietly slows sales cycles and

00:42increases price pressure instead of focusing on what a company sells he helps them reframe their

00:51message around what their buyers are actually going through so if you care about shorter sales

00:59cycles stronger differentiation and deals that do not stall this conversation is for you bill welcome

01:08to the show thanks for having me mason you know i work with exclusively those b2b founders that you

01:14were talking about and they all come to this come to me with the same problem and that's all the

01:19pipelines unpredictable the sales cycles are are too long for them and and then when you look at

01:25their messaging it you can easily tell why they're all saying the same thing they're all talking about

01:29themselves well we'll open up the hood and dig into that little engine there and see see what we can

01:34tinker around with and hopefully those that are watching and listening can walk away with some insights

01:39and strategies that they can execute right away i know that you say that most ceos have a messaging

01:45blind spot that quietly kills their pipeline what are you seeing that convinced you that this is such

01:53a widespread issue so i worked in b2b now for over a decade and i even worked you know for

01:59a couple b2b

02:00agencies and all are pretty reputable but our whole playbook was based on like content distribution we'd run

02:07those campaigns and you'd want to collect the downloads see who you know people that are typically they would

02:12call them leads and you'd send our client a spreadsheet of names email addresses phone numbers and they

02:18would love it because they've got the ton of ton of leads and then you know when they'd call to

02:23get in

02:23touch they would actually you know again start speaking to those people no one answered it was just names on

02:28a list you know when i was doing that you start seeing the real problem emerging that you know companies

02:35don't really need more leads it's their messaging that is really taking that buyer you know to kind of

02:42take a step back and say like you know is that my situation uh and most companies now when they

02:48describe what they sell it's a lot of just features and capabilities their years of experience but

02:55really the buyers you know most people we're talking to every day that they don't really care

03:00about that until they feel like they're understood first so that's really where that this whole kind of

03:05started and then being able to kind of work with companies day to day after day when you know for

03:11example if it's an acumatica company you know you may see this all the time it's just we implement

03:16acumatica for mid-market companies and that's like their headline on the website but if you go to

03:21almost every acumatica implementer they all say the same thing so we started thinking like how can

03:26we help rewrite this and just see what's happening in the market now at b2b how can we start talking

03:31about the transformation happening in the industry and the outcomes rather than just what you do

03:36seth godin when i'm a huge seth godin fan and he wrote the book purple cow and i don't know

03:40if you're

03:41familiar with it but for those that are listening what godin was talking about and i'm butchering the

03:45story a little bit but he was talking about how businesses are brown cows he said he was talking

03:50about traveling the countryside one time and he came out and he saw this cow grazing in the in the

03:56field

03:56and the dew was reflecting like diamonds in the sunlight the dew was reflecting from the sun and he's

04:01looking over the mountain and it was a beautiful sight it made an impression but after traveling

04:05traveling the countryside for 20 minutes he'd seen hundreds of brown cows and they were all boring

04:10they all looked the same to him and his point was that businesses are brown cows and they're boring

04:14and you know if you ask a cow they're going to think they're different and unique but to anybody

04:18driving by they all look the same and he made the point that if you can be unique and remarkable

04:22such as a purple cow if it was a genetic freak of nature word would travel like wildfire everywhere and

04:28it would promote itself by being newsworthy or different enough to talk about

04:35and i think you're dead on i think there's so many businesses out that are boring brown cows that

04:40all look the same to anyone driving by even though they feel they're different to anybody passing by

04:45there's just no differentiating difference which is why i'm excited to have you on here today yeah

04:51uh good that was great analysis so keep it going so when you review a company's website or their sales

04:57deck for the first time what are the most common patterns that tell you that they sound like their

05:03competitors look it there's i think it goes a little it's a step back from that it's you know

05:08every most especially companies we work with that two to ten million dollar range those founder-led

05:14companies they're they're a little i don't want to say scared but they're a little hesitant they

05:19don't want to differentiate too much they don't want to lose that the opportunity to get a new

05:23new customer so therefore they don't want to specify who they actually work with and what the outcomes

05:28they want because you know if another company comes along and they're uh they can work with

05:34them you know that's revenue for them and their families and their their their employees um everything

05:39gets a little everything takes into this generic uh kind of language you know if you you know if you

05:47open up five of your competitors in the same industry probably can read that they're heroes and to see

05:52the all the same thing they're a trusted partner they're they have innovative solutions and

05:57the combined experience is about five decades you know we can serve all industries and then you know

06:02you can you can never really specify what they actually do and what kind of outcomes that they're

06:07going to bring for you so it's just turned into a whole sea of sameness so i had i was

06:14having a

06:14conversation with one of my friends the other day and we were talking about this exact same topic

06:19and we were looking at our linkedin profiles which is a reflection of us and our business and what we

06:24do

06:24we are and at a certain point in time just like businesses some of our stuff looked all looks all

06:31the same and i came across a verse that said you're known by your fruits and that rung a bell

06:36and i was

06:37talking to folks and they were asking about why i enjoy podcasting and i said because i get to talk

06:41to brilliant people every day and i learned so much from them that i can apply every day and it's

06:50up to

06:50me to be able to discern which is applicable which happens to be a lot of it but we were

06:55literally

06:55applying some of the things that you're you're talking about here and when it came to my linkedin

07:00profile i literally scrapped everything literally it says on my linkedin profile i'm going to spare

07:06you the corporate sterile speak if you want to judge me by my fruits here's how i roll and literally

07:11like dot dot dot dot dot dot so people are going to actually know me by my fruits the stuff

07:16that i do and

07:16who i am and if they can find other people who have jumped out of airplanes world records run 100

07:23hundred mile ultra marathons who've gone to tony robbins seminars and walked on hot fire barefoot

07:29barefoot on hot coals by all means but i'm willing to bet that there's not too many of them out

07:34there

07:34if any that are that so i believe what you're saying i practice what you're preaching and really

07:42i'm looking forward to learning more from you today so what do smart leadership teams so i guess

07:46that's my way of saying i'm all in on what you're saying and i this isn't talk for me i

07:51believe so

07:51strongly what you're doing which is why i'm having you on here so why do smart leadership teams with

07:57strong products still end up using language that blends in rather than stands out just it feels risky

08:04to them you know what if you're excluding someone or another group and then you're it feels like

08:10you're leaving money on the tables then what i i think about it if you're going to a restaurant and

08:15you know you're it serves like italian mexican thai barbecue what's your first thought you're

08:22probably thinking like these guys they suck like this isn't a restaurant i want to go eat at because

08:26you can't be good at everything and when you're b2b the buyers are thinking the same thing you know

08:33they're just going to every website and every linkedin profile it's like we can serve all industries

08:38you know that no one really kind of understands what's different about you and um today the

08:44competition is so fierce you you have to really carve out your your niche that that people you can

08:49serve best because you know that referral the referral economy will always be there but it's it's

08:56not as strong as it used to be and and if you want to actually grow bust out of that

09:00five ten million

09:01dollar range you you got to start thinking about who's who can actually serve best and it's just not

09:06everyone who comes to you you talked about being risky one of my favorite books and this is not a

09:11new book it's been around for a long time it was called the clue train manifesto and what they talked

09:15about was avoiding the sterile safe corporate speak that sounds like everybody else and what they said

09:23was it's risky to play it safe because yes you can play it safe but you're going to get ignored

09:29and

09:29you're going to get forgotten and you're never going to stand out so in fact playing it safe is risky

09:34if

09:34your goal is to get noticed and to make an impact and to engage with the folks that you want

09:39to do

09:39business with so you talk about the real cost of undifferentiated messaging beyond vague branding

09:47concerns how does this show up in metrics like sales cycle length win rates and price sensitivity

09:55yeah that's the right question there is you know does the messaging is where things start but

10:00when you're a ceo it's something you care about but yeah you want it you want sales cycles or when

10:06you

10:06you start seeing that your sales cycles are getting longer because buyers can't tell why they're why

10:12you're different so they're shopping around you know that starts that's when things start clicking in

10:16your head i mean if win weight win rates are dropping because you you start noticing you're getting

10:21compared on price instead of your fit you know you're starting to that's i i see when i talk to

10:27founders that that's when the gears start turning you're you know if your pipeline fills up but

10:31people are with people are like not great fits for your company and your team is just spinning their

10:37wheels trying to trying to close them and trying to trying to reach back out for months on end you

10:43know that's that's when you can start seeing the actual bottom line of what what messaging can

10:48start uh doing for you and your team i'm going to piggyback on something that you said earlier a friend

10:53of

10:53mine was speaking at an event and he was talking to a group of hr folks literally all hr managers

11:00and

11:00this was before everything was on the internet this was when people put ads in the newspaper for

11:05help wanted ads in the newspaper and he has hundreds of hr executives in the room and he asked them

11:11what's the worst thing that can happen if you put an ad in the paper for a job opening

11:16every single one of them was like nobody responds all of them and you're smiling right now because you

11:22know you know where i'm going he said no that's the second worst thing that can happen and everyone's

11:27kind of looking around like well what's worse than wasting your time and money putting together an ad

11:30and not getting any responses from it he's like getting a whole bunch of responses from people who

11:35can't do the job because your outcome is to have someone who can do the job and messaging if you're

11:44if

11:44you're attracting a whole bunch of people like you say names on a list and none of them are the

11:49right

11:50buyer or the one you need to be talking to then all of your effort is wasted but the only

11:54thing

11:54that's worse than wasting all your effort doing all that marketing is to get a whole bunch of people

11:57who responded to your message that can't buy from you or aren't good prospects for you yeah how many

12:05times have have you heard i'm sure over your career i've i've heard it millions of times you know

12:10it's we it's just a numbers game we just need to get the numbers out there we need to reach

12:14more

12:14people get more leads and you know eventually you know one one out of 100 will be great and

12:20that's just not how things work anymore peep the buyer today is so is sophisticated they want to do

12:2680 90 of their their research themselves if you're not giving them the reason to come back to you and

12:32learn about you they're not gonna you know they're probably not gonna want to work with you so if you're

12:36getting a lot of you know leads it's not typically because you know that they may just be kind of

12:42filling out forms for anybody or you know they are they feel like i was mentioning earlier that

12:47they downloaded an ebook and uh that now you're assuming that they want to work with you so you're

12:52really just start you're either you're you're getting a lot of these low quality low intent leads

12:57where you're you need to start hiring more sers to start reaching out to them and they're just

13:03annoying everyone just sending them email sequences calling them or you're you're just wind up gets kind

13:09of throwing it all to the wayside because you don't know what's what you don't know who that

13:13diamond in the rough is and i would flip it on its head if you can kind of do what

13:17we were talking

13:18about is you can kind of show who you work with why it's important for them to to work with

13:23you the

13:23outcomes that you're going to provide and that you have provided you start they they start self

13:29selecting so when you get that when you get that actual opportunity in the door they're already that

13:3480 percent of the way ready to go they're they're just need to talk with you to kind of get

13:39some like

13:39you know the final questions in get make sure that you're a perfect fit and it helps shorten those

13:45sales cycles and it it allows you to have a core team that that is a full of experts and

13:50gets the job

13:51done not just people who are chasing leads so can you share a specific example of a company that

13:57thought their messaging was clear but discovered it was actually creating friction in the buying process

14:03instead sure so we work with a lot of consultancies and a lot of them are for example that i

14:10would say

14:10nine out of ten of their clients would come from referrals and then they think that's great they're

14:15getting revenue in the door they're growing but that that sounds good into your you know you start

14:20realizing like for example there was one where about three out of five of their referral sources were

14:26within five years of retirement you know we're talking a lot of folks we work with sell to manufacturers and

14:31industrial distributors a lot of these guys are a little older and you know if you start

14:36rec realizing like that to you know when these guys are start reaching retirement you have nothing to

14:43to move on to you know this you're kind of moving down you know the the graphs moving the wrong

14:48way

14:48um meanwhile when you have a newer firm where it could be half their size they're winning deals because

14:54um the they're actually not because they're better consultants i would say but because they were

15:01more visible they were actually publishing on social media building rapport with their target

15:07customers uh you know they're running those webinars they're showing up in the conversations

15:12inside the industry and kind of building out their little niche and their message so people start

15:17understanding like what's what kind of outcomes that they're bringing and that's what happened to a

15:22just that that acumatica dealers they start you know they they they got a little complacent and

15:28when you look at their competitors what they're doing is nothing i wouldn't say revolutionary we're

15:32doing the you know it's marketing you're talking to the right customer about their problems and your

15:38outcomes but um you know it's it's where i see a lot of is just a lot of just lack

15:44the taking not

15:47taking the risk of just following the best practice where you can go on linkedin right now any marketer

15:51b2b marketer you can follow always has to pick out you know who is your best targets and who's your

15:57best opportunities and customers and like talk to them but when it comes into practice no one wants to

16:04do it they want to have the i have 20 years experience i have a proven track record and i'm

16:08a trusted

16:09partner all over the website but nothing about the buyer situation and that's where i see in just in a

16:16composite view of our clients that we've worked with over the last couple years like that's kind

16:21of the situation that they're in it's it i'm reflecting on a conversation i had with a guy by

16:28the name of bill cates and a few maybe a month ago he was on our podcast and he talked

16:33about when you

16:34talk about what's in it for the buyer the going to a deeper level the the benefit of the benefit

16:42so generically if i'm trying to market to your company and i say hey we're going to help you

16:46increase your profits we're going to help you increase your revenue and increase your profit

16:50margins and blah blah blah i mean it's easy to sit there from a supplier perspective and say oh duh

16:56who

16:56wouldn't want that but when you think about the benefits of the benefits and who you're talking to

17:02like the business owner that sounds great but to the people involved in executing that

17:08they're sitting there going well what does this mean for me does this idea that's going to make

17:13the owner more money when they have enough is this going to mean i'm going to miss weekends with my

17:18family is this means i'm going to have to be on a plane does this mean i'm going to have

17:22to bring

17:22my laptop on vacation with me to execute this thing that generates more more revenue and bigger

17:29profits for the boss who's got plenty now obviously that's a little bit of a callous example but my

17:36point is the benefit of the benefit who specifically and you talk about what the buyer is experiencing

17:41what the buyer feels what the buyer's journey is and it really made me rethink and it's it's just

17:46one level deeper but if everyone else is just going with the generic benefits and you're able to go

17:52deeper to the exact people that you're talking to like an hr director has wakes up with different

17:57concerns every day than a head of operations wakes up with which is different than what a vp of sales

18:03marketing wakes up with which is different than what a business owner wakes up with and to be

18:08able to understand what that customer journey is like and what those problems are and what those

18:12impacts are for those people and to target your market accordingly makes sense to me you're hitting

18:17on a lot of pieces right here and where i the other probably one of the the things where we

18:24sometimes

18:24we know instinctively like there's there's a buying group where you're when you're purchasing 50 100

18:31thousand dollar 150 000 service and you need to implement it over a year you know this is not

18:37just a one person that's making the decision so you're you know you have your decision makers you

18:43have champions inside of the company you have people that don't want that this you don't want your

18:47solution so you have to start thinking about how can you start plotting out who is inside this

18:51organization and what do they need to hear like what's what's gonna motivate them to say yes for you

18:57what's gonna uh if they're a champion what do they need to kind of go inside of the company and

19:02and say the right things and be able to kind of sell your services to you and when you're not

19:07thinking

19:07about that that message across the roles the department um and like the industry as a whole

19:12you know you're you're starting to fall flat you know the it's more i guess top level way to

19:20explain this is a marketing message would describe you and then that revenue message kind of would

19:25describe your buyer situation so you'd start there and for example you know marketing message could be

19:31you know we provide manage it services for mid-market companies but you know that's that's everybody

19:39um if you want to think through like a revenue message we help manufacturers stop losing production

19:45hours to it outages that could have been prevented or you know you can probably condense that a little

19:49bit uh one talks to you and then one's actually talking to them so which one's actually going to

19:56start conversations and that's that's the way i would start testing it um thinking through the

20:02different levels the different buying group inside of your target accounts and to start seeing like

20:07what are those messages that that are moving the needle that would actually get you to stand out

20:11and be remembered when you're talking six nine twelve month sales cycles here buying cycles

20:16so i know that you talk about the three different levels role department and industry can you expound

20:22on that specifically in each of those areas right so like there there's not just one buyer and b2b there's

20:30that whole buying group the committee that needs to either you know the cfo level you know if you're

20:37selling erp you would probably have a cfo a controller you have operations you have it you have people on

20:43the

20:43plant floor that that might need to that are maybe using that erp and everybody in that committee cares

20:48about something different and everyone in that committee has like their own reasons to want to

20:53um move things along or just kind of stall the deal because you know whether it's personal reasons or

20:59you know they could be retiring soon they don't want to deal with another implementation or

21:02um their you know their allies or your the current uh software you're using um you how can you actually

21:11move the needle and stand out so the one where i would spend the most time on is that is

21:17this role

21:18level you know that the founder you know for us you know the founder is usually overwhelmed um they're

21:24typically that chief salesperson the chief everything officer like i would call it um they're stressed about

21:31what next month's revenue is going to be like and if you don't really speak to that founder

21:37us colony spark are trying to to sell we probably lost them uh you know i i like i want

21:45to focus

21:45there every company is going to have their own um typical kind of committee that they need to sell to

21:53then a layer down would be that department level where you know sales may say they need

21:59better leads that's that's what i hear a lot um but the marketing team you know usually is like uh

22:06saying like hey we're generating plenty of leads on the same problem i mentioned earlier that that that

22:12whole lead gen uh list that they're getting and you wind up being both are frustrated here so

22:19then you know for us our messaging needs to say more like how we can connect these into one system

22:24so

22:24they stop blaming each other we start aligning we start working together and finally on that market

22:29level you know we're talking about the bigger shift that's happening in the industry and this is

22:35happening no matter who you're selling to today there's a a big shift happening in their industry

22:39how can you start describing that to them and for us where we're you know while we're talking today is

22:45i think that referral only model is dying it's not going to work anymore so we know buyers are

22:51researching online before they pick up the phone so if you're not visible while they're researching

22:55you know you're probably not on their shortlist sure a friend saying you do great work definitely

23:00holds a lot of weight but we have so much knowledge at our fingertips today we want to do the

23:05research

23:06and feel confident in it for ourselves so when your messaging is only hitting one of those levels you

23:10probably only win one person in the room and if you can start hitting all three and start learning

23:16about what's actually moving the needle now you're standing out like probably most of your

23:20your competitors are are just neglecting so for companies with complex offerings how do you

23:27balance clarity and simplicity without oversimplifying what you actually do well you have to think about

23:35who's how is this deal gonna is gonna get approved so you know the poor messaging is gonna actually

23:43probably affect the the internal champions especially you know going back to the erp example

23:50you have it touches the whole almost all the whole organization so you you if you can find it

23:58internal champion that's gonna help you um that's gonna help you kind of that's gonna give you the that

24:04leg up inside of the negotiations so that champion could be sitting in front of the cfo or the vp

24:10of

24:11operations and if they're trying to explain why they you know they're the company should spend six figures on

24:18your services if they don't have the right messaging to give you that give you a leg up you know

24:23your

24:23deal could be gone before you even have that first opportunity to meet with the cfo preparing your

24:29champions and if your your team to kind of have more than you know some kind of you know we

24:34do it

24:35consulting or we do erp there you know no one's gonna get excited about that inside the organization

24:40on the flip side if your message is something like you know if the internal champion can say like

24:45these guys helped our company a company like ours you know cut two days off their monthly clothes like

24:51now you're giving that champion the real ammunition to to come in and get that deal you know get you

24:57that meeting um and they can repeat it but the cfo remembers that you know this is the team that

25:01cuts

25:02days off our clothes time or the you know you give it you're giving a script for everyone to

25:07easily follow and and remember inside of that organization so how should ceos think about aligning

25:13marketing and sales around a unified revenue message instead of letting each team create its own

25:21version i know you touched on that a little bit but so kind of acting steps when you lead with

25:26the

25:26outcome not the product that's really the whole answer you know you want to be able to uh think about

25:33you know how are you actually you know delivering for the the company and the transformation that

25:38they're they're having and let me say uh give you like an example here um that was going to be

25:45my

25:45next question give me a couple examples so uh we had a msp that was you know had a pretty

25:54sizable like uh my messaging problem you know marketing generated the leads sales ignored them

26:00similar what i'm mentioning before you know both teams are hitting their uh internal metrics every month

26:06and that that they're for them they inside that department that that felt great but the revenue

26:13is still getting missed so there's a huge there's a huge discrepancy inside that organization and the

26:19marketing team when when we spoke with them would say you know we did our job they'll look at the

26:23leads

26:24they are uh you know x you know manufacturers in u.s they do this um and then the sales

26:33would you know

26:33when we talked to them sales leader would say hey that's those things are they're garbage none of

26:38these people want to talk to us no one replies to our emails and you know we send them our

26:43sequence

26:43and you know no one gets on a call with us so what we wanted to do is you know

26:49we needed to fix that

26:51this like mql handoff entirely you know we can have our own podcast about why the mqls are you know

26:58we probably should retire that term um but you know there's no more marketing tossing over their

27:03leads to uh over to to sales you know both teams need to focus on the same you know they

27:10picked like

27:1175 accounts that we wanted to kind of be our target account list and marketing's job was to build

27:18awareness trust create demand and then sales job was to convert them and start you know you know

27:25building that bringing them to an opportunity we have one shared pipeline one uh one shared number

27:30where they were both measured on that that company was able to grow about 60 something percent over the

27:38the first year and when they are able to unify that message marketing and sales talking to you about

27:44the same you know your same uh outcomes the same transformations what each per how you're actually

27:50delivering now you're over the course of that six months you can actually you know see how this is

27:57uh that turns into real pipeline not it doesn't necessarily mean you get more opportunities it means

28:05now out of those 75 or so that you're targeting now they can actually really focus on getting in

28:10learning more about that company and how we can solve instead of just some general blanket hey we uh

28:16you know where you know it services for everybody kind of deal it's it i'm going to expand on that

28:21idea i i know a company that really took the plunge when they obviously i grew up in a time

28:28where

28:28that the strategic selling era the miller hyman stuff where response modes and things like that and

28:35when sales people actually made phone calls and knocked on doors and the old school methods of doing

28:41it and and sales people when i grew up were taught to introduce themselves develop rapport ask leading

28:47questions identify hot buttons and then present their solutions in alignment with the problems that

28:54the prospect said that they had and how the company's products and services provide those solutions to

29:00those problems now i think that the internet has just trained people they know to a large degree what

29:06their problems are they're just going looking for answers there was a guy by the name of mike

29:09knicks who i'm a big fan of that said most important thing you can do is identify what the 10

29:14most

29:14frequently asked questions of your prospects are and answer them perfectly then identify the 10 should

29:20ask questions those are the questions your you that your prospects your ideal prospects should be asking

29:25but they don't they may not know what they don't know yet but when they hear you talking about those

29:29things like wow this is different level higher level stuff this person helped me avoid some pitfalls

29:35by exposing me to thoughts and observations that i wouldn't have known to look for and it automatically

29:41increases their credibility what it also does is it shortens the selling cycle because if it's you

29:47figure the top 20 questions if i know the 10 most frequently asked questions of my my prospects are

29:52going to ask and i know what the 10 should ask questions are and what the perfect answers for all

29:57that

29:57i probably got 95 any of them need to make a decision not all of them but there is the

30:04perfect

30:04answer which sales and marketing can combine to make sure that message unified and i know companies

30:09that have literally taken that and turned their turned that into almost an online sales force a virtual

30:16sales force because it answers all the prospects questions and of course knowledgeable skilled sales people

30:21and technicians are are necessary to facilitate that the remaining questions and transition them into

30:27orders but to a large degree it solved the problem of from the company's selling's perspective we have a

30:35consistent message to these people that is the same we don't have different sales reps out selling

30:40different things or telling different stories it's all congruent and they even literally put together a

30:45test for their reps to make sure that hey someone asks this here's the answer someone asks this here's the

30:51answer and it was congruent and consistent with what was online and what was being said in the

30:59marketplace by people and and i just think that's a level that a lot of folks are missing nowadays or

31:04haven't even attempted to do they're still old school and it's costing them i would think about it like

31:08there's a couple things i would i would say here is first with the with their messaging now there's

31:14so always there's probably always going to be like an outbound kind of sales force that that's needed

31:19that's going to drive revenue but a lot of companies now are they're spending 80 90 percent of their

31:25time they they can get so far through that traditional sales cycle you don't really need

31:30someone like answer you question answer your questions anymore you need to find that today and

31:35you know if you're on on social media you should be learning about that if you're there think about

31:40all the things you do before you buy a product you're you're probably checking out reviews you're

31:44checking out their website you you may be following the ceo and you know they need to start they need

31:50to start talking about these things earlier so when someone kind of comes to them they've already read

31:55our content you know that they've already kind of came pre-sold i would also say just a lot a

32:01little

32:01bit more i would think about our when i think about website or messaging like i think of less of

32:07like

32:08this problem solution type of kind of back and forth now anyone can really start talking about that

32:13that's you know you can go on chat gpt and just say i want to i'm selling to these companies

32:17what

32:18are all the problems they have give you a big list 20 things that they have but i started thinking

32:22about like what are the outcomes they look at if a cfo is coming on the website today they don't

32:27need

32:27to know all the problems that we solve if i'm on a sales call like if we're if my if

32:33i'm listening

32:33looking at a transcript and the sales like at a is just kind of like rattling off like hey we

32:39have this

32:40problem all right yeah we do that or kind of like trying to like seed questions with that i think

32:45that's i think there you're there's really a lot left there's a lot more you can say and like how

32:50can you lead with more of the outcomes and how you've done this the overall outcomes you know a

32:55cfo jumps on the website they want to know about the overall outcome that you've affected the bottom

33:00line or some close times like they're they don't really need to know all the smaller things so

33:05and the last part i would think about with with these with messaging today or you know it's kind

33:09of like the sales conversations is you know we have so much data at our fingertips you can really

33:14start using you know the ai or other tools to start learning like what are those signals that are

33:20happening in the company one thing some things we would do you know we can see if a company or

33:26an

33:26individual is on our website we can see which ones are engaging with our ads we can see some third

33:31party signals like have they just gotten a round of funding or do they just hire a new cfo or

33:37did

33:37they you know if it's a publicly traded company you might see some sec violations or um you can start

33:43you know seeing if they listed a job like that you may be able to to fill or there's all

33:48these things

33:48that you can start learning about the company and building a nice summary about them that really

33:53allows you to go into those conversations a lot more prepared so if i can tell you why you if

33:59i can start

34:00talking to you about

34:01things that you already know instead of like asking questions and giving my solution to them

34:05you know now at least in my opinion if you come prepared people people respect that and you kind

34:11of show that you're you did your homework and you are you already kind of thought through the whole

34:15solution for their company that's a mic drop moment because i think a lot of folks don't realize

34:22how important it is to earn the time of your prospects and if you don't demonstrate that you have invested

34:28some time and energy to at least understand what they're dealing with then as far as i'm concerned

34:36you've disqualified yourself and you don't deserve their time some one of your competitors is going

34:41to do it and if they're they've kind of selected you're the top three and one's just kind of asking

34:47all the basic discovery questions and kind of just giving the canned answers but the other one says

34:51hey i know you're hiring for this position like if you you know we've been able to kind of do

34:57some

34:57you know do those same responsibilities at a you know faster pace and save a company a hundred thousand

35:03dollars a year or whatever now you can start now you're kind of putting yourself in their situation

35:08you already understand that situation they don't have to teach you um and i think that that also goes

35:12back to our original talk about how do you start deciding who you who are your best customers if you

35:17know there's the situation of the companies you you work with and you can accurately detail that you

35:23know you've already gotten a leg up when you're someone's on the call and saying like what about

35:27this situation or do you use this like that's just i that's a dying way of thinking and most buyers

35:34now

35:34are kind of getting up to speed with that so how often should leadership revisit and refine their

35:40messaging as markets and buyer expectations evolve so you can you know if you're like me i i just

35:47especially recently just really getting you get like excited about this because you can you can

35:51really start doing um you can start asking your customers and learning um and it can start taking over

35:56a lot of your other responsibilities so i would say uh start looking at this quarterly and not tip

36:02not like a whole rewrite i'm just kind of like a pressure test so as you know you can ask

36:07your team

36:09does this sound like you know what we're doing nowadays you can start pulling up transcripts and

36:15start using claude or any llm to start kind of pressure testing this and start seeing like is

36:22this what what people what our companies uh are our chart or our target audience is sounding like

36:29uh does it sound like what we're doing for them and you know if the answer is kind of is

36:34yes you kind

36:34of got you're you're good to go but probably every minute every quarter there's going to be some

36:39industry or economical thing that's kind of shifting in the market that um your business needs to take

36:46care of and then you can slowly make these changes quarter over quarter and the more you're kind of

36:51building in that feedback loop you'll see you know 12 months down the line if you're documenting this

36:56you can really i i bet any of your listeners today would you know we're march now march 2026 and

37:03same time next year you know shoot me an email and kind of show me that that progression and you'll

37:08be

37:08amazed at what you're learning so good points so looking ahead how do you see buyer expectations

37:16around messaging changing especially as markets are get more crowded and ai generated content becomes

37:23more common because i think that's a big thing how do you get your stuff to stand it's a great

37:26you

37:27have a message but if people automatically think that's ai generated they may not even listen to it

37:32regardless of whether it is or isn't yep but what you know what probably felt that you had like a

37:38specific message three years ago before we had chat gpt um it's probably a little dated now so um that

37:47if

37:48you're not spending that time with your customers and in sales calls learning about you know what what

37:55the problems that they're saying now is it's going to be uh impossible to kind of reproduce that on the

38:00website um we're just getting so smart now to you know the ai written content everyone's going to be

38:07doing what i'm talking about here about it you know within a couple months everyone will be doing this

38:12like how are you going to keep out doing your competition and it's the whole i would say that

38:17the best way to do it is kind of like some way of a you of course using ai we

38:22have to kind of learn

38:23from that but the talking to your customer is really a lost art no one wants to kind of ask

38:29them

38:29questions and you want to close the deal and get that revenue and start doing your job but you really

38:35you're losing that layer of a real true the voice of the customer to come through so then when you're

38:41messaging on your website and your your content starts sounding just like them because you're pulling

38:47it from your actual customers that's when you're going to start standing out and as you mentioned that

38:52this continued just bombardment of content and whether it's from the b2b side or or just your

38:59daily consumer activity you're getting bombarded by advertising and content like you need some way

39:05to stand out and it's more and more going to be of like how how is your actual customer speaking

39:11i love that advice because ai doesn't know what words your customer is using

39:17right and that's dead on i love that advice so if

39:22first of all i really appreciate all your time you've shared a whole bunch of great ideas and

39:26perspectives i think everyone watching and listening will benefit from if people want to know

39:30more about you your company and the work you do what are the best ways for them to connect and

39:35learn

39:35more of course young follow me on linkedin i love to connect with you and uh if you go to

39:40our website

39:41colony spark.com we're doing a revenue messaging audit right now so you can fill out a short form and

39:48i'll

39:48personally review your messaging send you back what what's working what's not some specific fixes

39:53that you can take right now to uh to start improving and getting ready for this c-shift of

39:58content and messaging changes that are happening in the industry so no pitch no sales call unless you

40:04want one but yeah come to the website happy to help appreciate you and your time thanks so much

40:10thanks for being on and hopefully we'll reconnect again soon thanks mason

40:15you

40:19you

40:22you

40:22You

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