Fixing the Disconnect Between Marketing and Sales with Talya Heller

Listen to this episode from B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt on Spotify. #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 (02:11) - – From engineering to B2B marketing (08:56) - – What is buyer enablement? (11:11) - – Why deals stall after vendor selection (13:26) - – The problem with sales decks (15:56) - – Why battle cards don’t work (18:11) - – Talya’s competitive positioning map (24:19) - – Grouping competitors by approach (26:49) - – Market maps for sales (28:49) - – Where to get the best insights (31:19) - – New formats for enablement (33:34) - – Why context matters (35:19) - – Empathy for your sales team (37:04) - – Closing thoughts on empathy (38:09) - – Where to find Talya online Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected] the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***This episode is brought to you by Webflow.If you're a B2B marketer right now, you’re probably being asked to do more with less - less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines. And you’re expected to somehow grow pipeline anyway.That’s why more teams are switching to Webflow.Webflow is the website experience platform that helps you consolidate your stack, reduce program spend, and move faster. Instead of juggling a dozen tools and waiting on devs, Webflow gives marketing and design teams the power to build, launch, and optimize sites all in one place.No-code flexibility. Dev-level control. Built-in A/B testing, SEO, localization, and AI tools. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your highest-performing channel.It’s everything you need to turn your website into your most efficient, highest-performing channel.Check it out at webflow.com/exitfive.