The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)

Fixing the Disconnect Between Marketing and Sales with Talya Heller


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#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 instead
  • How to enable your champion to sell internally with confidence
  • Simple frameworks for mapping competitive positioning that teams will actually use

Talya 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
  • (02:34) - – From engineering to B2B marketing
  • (09:19) - – What is buyer enablement?
  • (11:34) - – Why deals stall after vendor selection
  • (13:49) - – The problem with sales decks
  • (16:19) - – Why battle cards don’t work
  • (18:34) - – Talya’s competitive positioning map
  • (25:50) - – Grouping competitors by approach
  • (28:20) - – Market maps for sales
  • (30:20) - – Where to get the best insights
  • (32:50) - – New formats for enablement
  • (35:05) - – Why context matters
  • (36:50) - – Empathy for your sales team
  • (38:35) - – Closing thoughts on empathy
  • (39:40) - – Where to find Talya online

  • Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected]
    Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
    Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
    Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

    ***

    Today’s episode is brought to you by Zuddl.

    We’re halfway through 2025, and one thing’s clear: events continue to be one of the highest performing marketing channels. Niche meetups, conferences, curated dinners, networking - you name it. Everyone’s leaning in.


    Events are a core part of our playbook this year at Exit Five. So far, we’ve hosted two virtual sessions each month, one large virtual event, one in-person meetup, and we’re deep in the weeds planning our Drive conference coming back to Vermont this September.

    Zuddl helps us run a smarter event strategy - from driving registrations, managing invites, automating comms, reminders, analytics, tracking. Their Salesforce integration also makes it simple to report on pipeline and revenue from events without pulling in ops.

    On top of that, the differentiator with Zuddl is how their team is insanely good at supporting us. They always go above and beyond for us - and that’s how we’ve been able to keep the momentum going with 12+ events already this year, with plenty more to come.


    If events are part of your marketing strategy, you need to look at Zuddl to see how companies like Zillow, CrowdStrike, and Iterable are using the top event platform for Business events in 2025. 

    Head over to zuddl.com/exitfive to learn more. 


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    The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)By Dave Gerhardt

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