By Rhea Wessel
Recently, I led a messaging workshop for an account team selling into a large telecoms operator in Europe. The lead partner on the account had brought together seven or eight team members to brainstorm messages for the upcoming sales cycle for the operator.
In a full-day workshop, we dissected the customer’s problems, identified overlaps with the solutions the team offered, and zeroed in on key individuals within the customer organization to craft tailored messages for each.
By the end of the day, we had generated a massive amount of ideas, claims, storylines, and messages.
After the session, the participants said they felt clearer than ever on how to communicate their value proposition effectively.
Achieving clarity
The value of the workshop wasn’t just the ideas we generated that would later inform the content; it was about the approach.
This wasn’t a session led by a neutral facilitator who merely guided the process from a pre-scripted playbook. It was led by a journalist—me—who cut through the noise to get to the heart of the story and provided instant feedback on what messages resonated and why. Just as importantly, I was able to say why others fell flat.
This immediacy in feedback was crucial. It allowed us to refine the messages on the spot, ensuring that by the end of the day, we had not just created a collection of ideas, but a cohesive narrative that the entire team could use confidently.
This experience got me thinking: Why isn’t this type of workshop more common, considering the clarity and cohesion it brings to a team?
In complex sales cycles, where the stakes are high and the buyer’s journey is anything but linear, having a strong, unified message is critical. Yet, many organizations skip messaging work with account teams, often relegating it to an afterthought or something handled ad-hoc by individual team members. Meanwhile, messaging work at the corporate level only helps account teams with the broad direction.
Generating the messages
How did we generate pages and pages of messages and ideas?
We started by mapping the client's problems in a giant, text-heavy mindmap. With eight people chiming in, I was able to catch dozens of problems.
Then I asked which problems were most important to the client, and where could the supplier best help? With this perspective, we drilled down again into four specific problem areas, keeping a strict focus on the problems. We did not begin discussing potential solutions.
Then it was time to begin with the messaging articuation and capture.
For each of the four problems we drilled down on, we used a separate To/From messaging chart (See Figure 1).
Figure 1: Sample messaging chart for a journalist-led messaging workshop for B2B account teams
When generating such material, it's important to keep the phrasing parallel and keep it short. Here again, a journalist's ability to edit on the fly can help.
We continued with multiple charts like this for different end customer business areas before we moved to the final step of creating storylines.
More on the storylines in a future article.
The payoff: Cohesion and clarity that drive results
The goal of an account-based messaging workshop is to provide the account team with the tools they need to drive the sales process forward. This means more than just having a few talking points—it means having a deep, shared understanding of the narrative that will move the customer from consideration to commitment.
In my experience, account teams that hold these workshops come out more confident, more aligned, and ultimately, more successful.
They’re not just selling a product or a service—they’re telling a story that speaks directly to the customer’s needs and aspirations and is tailored for named individuals.
In a complex sales environment, that can be the difference between winning and losing.
-Rhea Wessel is a writer and founder of The Institute for Thought Leadership. Her new book on using AI to boost your thought leadership is due out in 2025.
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