Fixing the Disconnect Between Marketing and Sales with Talya Heller

#246 Sales Alignment | Danielle welcomes Talya Heller, founder of Down to a T, a B2B consultancy helping marketers turn competitive positioning into high-impact sales assets. With experience in engineering, product management, and product marketing, Talya knows how to bridge the gap between what marketing builds and what sales actually uses.Together they unpack:Why most sales decks and battle cards go unused and what to build insteadHow to enable your champion to sell internally with confidenceSimple frameworks for mapping competitive positioning that teams will actually useTalya also breaks down how she researches, builds, and delivers assets that align sales, marketing, and product, all rooted in buyer empathy.Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro & Talya’s background (01:00) - – From engineering to B2B marketing (07:45) - – What is buyer enablement? (10:00) - – Why deals stall after vendor selection (12:15) - – The problem with sales decks (14:45) - – Why battle cards don’t work (17:00) - – Talya’s competitive positioning map (22:00) - – Grouping competitors by approach (24:30) - – Market maps for sales (26:30) - – Where to get the best insights (29:00) - – New formats for enablement (31:15) - – Why context matters (33:00) - – Empathy for your sales team (34:45) - – Closing thoughts on empathy (35:50) - – Where to find Talya online Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, helping modern marketing teams build fully custom sites—no developer needed—that perform in AI search. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Markup AI - A content quality platform that scans your content against brand voice, preferred terms, messaging standards, and AI-search readiness before it goes live, right inside Google Docs. Learn more at markup.ai.Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more