Down to a T

I started Down to a T to help lean B2B marketing teams get clarity on their competitive edge, and translate it to 
1️⃣ a practical system everyone on their team can understand 
2️⃣ sales assets that speak to their entire buying committee to help their champion make a case internally in their company

Product Marketing

Exit Five

Exit Five Austin Chapter Ambassador

Spill the T

Spill the T is a newsletter that highlights one great framework, one GTM success, and one epic flop.

https://substack.com/downtoat

Creator

PMM Camp

The place for product marketing consultants (solo, non-solo, agencies) to talk shop, compare note, and vent (occasionally).

Consultants Cabin Leader

Product Marketing Alliance

Product marketers and competitive intel practitioners: YT shorts + survey drop every other Friday on PMA and CIA communities. 

📺 Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@CI_Alliance

Co Host | CI Confidential

Pavilion

Executive Member

Bloomfire

Building the Product Marketing function I created a repeatable cross-functional process for product launches, established a competitive program to keep our Sales, Product, and Leadership informed, honed in on our ICP based on market and internal data, and owned the messaging in enterprise sales assets such as decks and cadences, content strategy, thought leadership and market perception. I co-led Bloomfire’s Analyst Relation with our CMO and secured Bloomfire’s participation in Forrester Wave and Gartner Market Guides, and numerous research publications mentions.

I created content that with the buyer or customer in mind for every step in their journey: from thought leadership, buying guides, data-backed ROI proof points, product website section, product videos, internal selling materials for champions, sales decks, sales sheets, customer community updates, post-implementation videos, and in app guides.

Impact:
- Increasing enterprise win rates 
- Increasing ACV by 60%
- Increased sales assets adoption 
- Created and ran highly-engaging customer events (70% participation rates)
- Increased MQL/SQL conversion through targeting and messaging

Director of Product Marketing

Product Marketing Lead

Rêv Worldwide

As a director of product and product marketing at a fast growing B2C startup, I translate my interactions with customers and the interests of our partners into our roadmap, and then to actual product development. I use data to find the underlying stories and advocate intelligently to continuously improve the experience we offer to all of those.

Key product areas: enrollment, referral program, LCM messages, chatbot experience. I manage international teams (mobile dev, website, design) and work closely with our backend dev team, IT ops, account management, risk and regulation. 

Product Roadmap | Customer Engagement | Communications | Email Marketing | Motivation

Director of Product | Product Marketing

Spredfast

I spent my second year at McCombs FT MBA program working at Spredfast’s Product Marketing team. 

I researched the need and potential usage of a new product. My findings shaped the product scope (and were very different from the Product team’s hypothesis); indicated a clear ICP for that product; and used as valuable intel for the sales team in their outreach and during the sales cycle when tailoring solutions. 
I also explored different pricing options and created the core messaging that was later used in blogs, FAQs, and other sales assets.



Go to Market | Product Strategy | Customers Cohorts Definition | Pricing and Packaging | Messaging | Data Analysis | Market Research

Product Marketing (part time associate)

CDK Global

•	Recommended go-to-market strategy and defined MVP for strategic sales attribution product, based on competitive analysis, market research, and customers and account advocates feedback
•	Defined new product concept and modeled pricing strategies based on customers feedback; recruited full team of developers to achieve product feasibility during company-wide hackathon

Product Management | Summer Associate

I'm a product marketing strategist who helps B2B SaaS companies sharpen their competitive edge. With a background in product, PMO, and GTM, I work with post-PMF B2B companies to rethink their positioning and create sales assets that make it easier to buy from them.

My approach is straightforward: understand your market, identify what sets you apart, and communicate that clearly. Whether it's what levers to pull in campaigns or competitive conversations, or creating sales assets that help your champion sell your solution internally, I bring clarity, structure, and an honesty to every project.​

One client called me “lightning in a bottle” ⚡️
Check out my website to see why.


Outside of work:

9 years ago I moved halfway across the globe to a complete unknown. I got an MBA, discovered product marketing, and very intentionally transitioned into it. I'm a mom of 2 elementary-aged girls and I run my own business. I think 'Me' time is a nonnegotiable, and that is should include both relaxation and challenge. Exercise, garden, dance, go fishing - whatever it is, find things that enable you to step out of your skin for a little. And equally as important, I find ways to treat yourself, in big and small ways. Small is taking a bath (uninterrupted) listening to my favorite pod cast or playlist; big is taking a 5-day yoga retreat in Costa Rica.

This time last week I was nervous.

Earlier this year I decided to lean into in person events. 
Only most of the ones I've been to kinda sucked.

Drive had raving fans last year, but I still I wasn't convinced.
Having a couple of good conversations is one thing, fitting in is another.
And I always feel a little out of place in these things.

Then two weeks ago they asked me to moderate 2 round tables, which admittedly I was nervous about because it’s harder than it looks.

But unlike other experiences I’ve been to, it was effortless. 

The conversation was flowing, no one tried to hijack the discussion, and every single person participated.

I’m so glad I went. 

The speakers were incredible, but that's not why.

It was like every person there was in their best possible mood.

I met so many LinkedIn friends and acquaintances who have been the funniest, most friendly and open people I could’ve hoped to talk to


Seeing again folks I already know but somehow after this relationships got deeper (Drew Giovannoli 🐙 warned me that if I ever introduced him as a “LinkedIn friend” there will be be consequences)

And sharing vulnerable, deeply human moments roughly 10 seconds after meeting someone new.

I let go of any anxiety sometime early on day 1.

My “ROI” from going was connection, and it exceeded the goal.

Some highlights include 3 different conversations about hair, what became the semi annual shitalking sesh with Joshua Perk 👻, strategizing how to get first in line for ice cream with ♜ Arthur Castillo and Sahil Patel (while workshopping how to introduce ourselves), getting super real with Lashay Lewis about anything from kids, society (lighthearted), and running the business.

And I also got from these incredible conversations (during one of which Harry Dry -- a highlight on his own -- validated Down to a T brand name), 2 asks for follow up material for my services, and a podcast invitation.


All that to say… 
I already bought my ticket for next year.

Thank you Matthew Carnevale, Anna Vermillion, Dave Gerhardt, Allison Saxon, and Dan Murphy for creating such a space for us 💛

Talya Heller G. 💡

Sales assets for boring industries | GTM hacks, wins and flops: downtoat.co/newsletter | E5 Top 25, top 100 PMM | GTM Advisor | Speaker

I spent the weekend after Drive in nyc, first visit in 8 years.

I almost forgot how much I love this place. 
Here are a couple of the reasons, at no particular order:

1. No one on the street gives a shit about you, in the best possible way.
Perfect for when you need to get out of your own way

2. Those who live here literally never stop unless they’re about to get hit by something. I used to naturally adjust to that rhythm, but 9 years living in ATX gave me a lot more pause 

3. It is completely normal to stop for professionally produced selfies, anywhere, anytime

4. At the event you smile at someone there’s a solid 50% chance they’ll smile back 

5. Micro parks. Sure, Central Park, Battery, Bryant, city hall parks are beautiful. But I love so much the teeny ones they built on scrapes of oddly shaped sidewalk leftovers. Trees and a couple of benches give you plenty of opportunities to pause even in the busiest, loudest city.

6. Utility. The city is full of benches, and people actually use them. Not just exhausted visitors with sore feet like me. Locals too. Usually smokers lol. Also the outside of a Duane Reade in FiDi is a perfectly good spot for an impromptu pickleball court

7. You can get the best and the worst of everything here


And then it hit me:

Whoa, this place is a lot like LinkedIn 
😳🤣

PS grandma-style headscarves are back. Who would’ve guessed

Your homepage was written by a committee.
Your product pages? One person.
Guess which ones resonates more with your buyers.

Maybe because:
Product and solution pages = owned by product marketing 
Homepage = everyone has an opinion.

Your weekly exec team meeting may sound something like this: "It's too high stakes for just one person to decide!!"

So you get:
-the CEO's vision
-sales' objections
-marketing's keywords
-legal's disclaimers
-customer success' edge cases

The result is vanilla flavored positioning goo.

Meanwhile, your /solutions/inventory-management page is crystal clear because Sarah from product marketing wrote it without 12 people weighing in.

Oh, the irony.

Your highest-traffic page gets the worst messaging because it's "too important" to let one expert handle it.

Your low-traffic pages convert better because they actually make sense.

When too many cooks flounder in the kitchen, good positioning gets forgotten in the microwave.

If your homepage is struggling to connect it's probably not because your product or team. Not even how well you know your audience… but the clarity that ties it together. One story, one message.

“Sales decks are dead” ☠️ 

… says everyone with bad sales decks.

Marketers love to trash sales assets.

"Nobody reads one-pagers."
"Decks kill deals."
"It's all about conversation now."

But here's what actually happens:

Bad assets get ignored (by everyone, including your sales reps).

Good ones get forwarded.


Picture this:
Your champion just walked out of your demo. 

Now they need to sell your solution to 8 other people who weren't on the call.

What's in their arsenal?

A generic one-pager that sounds like everyone else?
Or one that tells their story better than they could?

The best sales assets don't just support the conversation.

They ARE the conversation when you're not in the room.

While competitors are "keeping it conversational," you're giving your champions the ammunition they actually need.

One well-crafted slide can do more competitive positioning than 10 discovery calls.

Are your sales assets working overtime or hardly working?

I've been a terrible marketer.

Preaching clients to collect customer evidence while ignoring it in my own business 🫠

(The google forms draft in my drive from 2023 proves I’ve had good intentions).

But I finally started collecting feedback across all touchpoints recently.

Nothing fancy, just timely.

Yes it’s cool I have an ongoing pull of quotes like this one for the website.
But what’s better is how much I learn from it about my client pain points, goals, outcomes.

About my own differentiators.

Cheers to the ultimate cheat code for better positioning.

Our buyers are literally telling us how to sell to more people exactly like them.
Why are we all so reluctant to listen?

"Explain it to me like I'm a kid."

You’ve heard this from every exec at some point.
We think sophisticated audience = sophisticated language.
Wrong.

Smart people don't need you to use big words.

If anything, it’s inefficient.
- Takes longer to get to the point
- Makes you sound vague
- Wastes everyone’s time

I knew that as early as I started working with execs.
But I really GOT it when I worked with a legal tech company.

When it was time to put the brand tone into words, it just seemed so obvious on the page.

Their audience went to law school.
They poke holes in everything.
They’re sharp.

The last thing they’re gonna put up with is decoding your sales assets.

"Our platform leverages advanced algorithmic methodologies to optimize litigation workflow efficiency."
vs.
"Find case precedents faster."

Guess which one they’d go for?

The smartest people in the room often use the simplest words.
Because 3-syllabus words aren’t the flex you think it is.
Short, to-the-point language is.

Same goes for your buyers.
They aren't impressed by your vocabulary.
They're impressed by your understanding.

Are you making smart people work too hard to get your point?

Taplio

Talya Heller G. 💡's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Talya Heller G. 💡's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Talya Heller G. 💡's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)