Your messaging probably stinks.
Not because you’re bad at marketing, but because most B2B messaging is crafted in conference rooms by people who already understand the product, then launched into a market full of buyers who don’t.
What sounds clear internally rarely lands with prospects. The value prop that got nods from the executive team often gets blank stares from buyers. And that differentiation you spent weeks wordsmithing? Your competitors are saying the exact same thing.
Here’s the reality: messaging is never perfect on the first attempt. The companies that consistently win aren’t the ones with the best first draft. They’re the ones that actually test their messaging against real buyer reactions before betting their pipeline on it.
Testing doesn’t have to be complicated. But it does need to be structured. Here are ten questions that separate messaging that resonates from messaging that falls flat.
Question 1: Does It Clearly Define the Problem?
Most B2B messaging leads with solutions. Big mistake.
If your prospect doesn’t immediately recognize their problem in your messaging, they won’t stick around long enough to hear about your solution. You have about three seconds to make someone think “yes, that’s exactly what I’m dealing with.”
Test this: Show your messaging to someone in your target audience without any context. Ask them to explain the problem you’re solving. If they can’t articulate it back to you clearly, your messaging is skipping the most important part.
The companies that grow consistently don’t lead with features or even benefits. They lead with the problem their prospects are actively trying to solve. Everything else is noise until you nail this part. This is the foundation of problem-centric messaging—recognition that your buyers respond to problems, not features.
Question 2: Is It Specific to Your Ideal Customer Profile?
Broad messaging feels safe. It’s also forgettable.
When you try to speak to everyone, you end up resonating with no one. Generic statements like “improve efficiency” or “drive growth” don’t make anyone feel like you understand their specific situation.
Here’s the test: Can you swap your company name with a competitor’s and have the messaging still work? If yes, it’s not specific enough.
Strong messaging uses language that reflects actual industry dynamics, role-specific challenges, and daily realities. It should make your ideal customer think “this company gets exactly what I’m dealing with” while making everyone else think “this probably isn’t for me.”
That specificity is a feature, not a bug. You want self-selection. This same principle applies across your entire marketing strategy. Whether you’re building ABM programs or demand gen campaigns, vague messaging wastes budget on the wrong audiences.
Question 3: Does It Differentiate You from Competitors?
“We provide best-in-class solutions to help companies achieve their goals.”
Cool. So does literally everyone else in your category.
Most B2B messaging fails the differentiation test because it describes what you do without explaining why you’re different. Features alone don’t differentiate. Your competitors have similar features. Even “better” features don’t differentiate unless buyers understand why those differences matter.
The test: Look at your top three competitors’ websites. Now look at your messaging. If your core claims could appear on their sites without anyone noticing, you don’t have differentiation—you have category description.
Real differentiation comes from a specific point of view about the problem, a unique approach to solving it, or a clear trade-off you’re making that others aren’t. If you’re not willing to say what you’re NOT, you can’t effectively say what you ARE.
Question 4: Is It Outcome-Oriented?
Features describe what your product does. Outcomes describe what buyers get.
Nobody buys marketing automation software. They buy predictable pipeline growth. They don’t buy customer success platforms. They buy reduced churn and higher expansion revenue.
Test this ruthlessly: For every claim in your messaging, ask “what outcome does this create?” If you can’t connect it to something measurable that buyers care about—revenue growth, risk reduction, time savings, cost avoidance—cut it.
The strongest messaging ties directly to business outcomes that matter to your prospect’s boss. Not just their problem, but the result that makes them look good internally. This outcome focus is critical when helping buyers navigate their decision process, because they need to justify the purchase to stakeholders who care about results, not features.
Question 5: Does It Pass the “So What” Test?
Every claim in your messaging should withstand buyer skepticism.
If a prospect can read your value proposition and respond with “so what,” your messaging is incomplete. You’ve made a claim without connecting it to why it matters.
“We have the most comprehensive platform in the market.” So what?
“Our platform includes 47 integrations.” So what?
“We reduce implementation time by 60%.” Now we’re getting somewhere, but so what does that actually mean for the buyer’s business?
The test: Take every major claim in your messaging and literally ask “so what” until you get to the business outcome that matters. Strong messaging anticipates that question and answers it before the buyer has to ask. This is exactly why most marketing plans fail—they optimize for activities (claims made) instead of outcomes (reasons buyers care).
Question 6: Is It Simple and Free of Jargon?
Complex language doesn’t make you sound smart. It makes you sound like you don’t know who you’re talking to.
B2B buyers are busy. They’re evaluating multiple solutions. They’re bringing your messaging to colleagues who may not be as deep in the weeds. If your messaging requires translation, it won’t travel.
The test: Show your messaging to someone outside your industry. If they can’t understand the core value in one read-through, it’s too complex.
This doesn’t mean dumbing it down. It means getting clear. Use plain language. Cut the buzzwords. Replace industry jargon with conversational terms. Every sentence should be simple enough that anyone on the buying committee could repeat it accurately.
Remember: buying committees involve 6-10 people. Your champion needs to repeat your value prop to colleagues, bosses, and procurement. If they can’t remember it or explain it simply, your deal stalls. This is why understanding what every buying committee member cares about matters—your messaging needs to travel through multiple stakeholders.
Question 7: Does It Connect Emotionally as Well as Rationally?
B2B buyers are human beings making decisions that affect their careers.
Yes, they need rational justification. But emotion drives urgency. The frustration of wasted time. The anxiety about falling behind competitors. The relief of finally solving a persistent problem. The pride of driving measurable results.
Messaging that only hits the logical side misses half the equation. Test whether your messaging acknowledges the emotional reality of your prospect’s situation.
This doesn’t mean manipulative language or manufactured urgency. It means recognizing that behind every “lead” is a person dealing with real pressure, real consequences, and real career implications. When you stop treating people like database entries and start acknowledging their reality, messaging becomes significantly more effective.
Question 8: Can It Adapt Across Channels?
Your messaging needs to work in a pitch deck, on a landing page, in a LinkedIn post, and in a sales conversation.
A message that only works in one format isn’t a message—it’s a one-off execution. Test whether your core messaging holds up across different contexts and attention spans.
Can you explain your value proposition in one sentence? In three sentences? In a paragraph? Does it work in written form and when spoken? Can it be shortened for social media without losing meaning?
The best messaging has a modular structure: a core position that stays consistent, supported by proof points that can be mixed and matched depending on the channel and audience.
If your team struggles to adapt your messaging to different formats, the underlying message probably isn’t clear enough. The Problem-Persona Matrix helps create this modular structure by mapping problems to personas, giving you a framework that adapts across channels while staying consistent.
Question 9: Do Buyers Recognize Themselves in It?
This is the most important test and the one most companies skip.
You can workshop messaging internally all day. The only way to know if it works is to test it with actual buyers—or at minimum, people who match your ideal customer profile.
Show them your messaging without context. Ask:
- Do you see your problems reflected here?
- Does this sound like it was written for someone like you?
- What questions does this raise?
- What would you want to know next?
If prospects don’t immediately recognize themselves in your messaging, it doesn’t matter how clever or polished it is. Great messaging makes buyers feel like you’re speaking directly to them, not broadcasting to a generic market.
This isn’t about running formal focus groups. It’s about getting your messaging in front of real buyers early and often, then actually listening to their reactions instead of defending your clever wordsmithing. Systematic validation through sales feedback, buyer panels, and A/B testing is what separates messaging that sounds good from messaging that actually works.
Question 10: Does It Drive the Next Step?
Messaging only works if it moves buyers to action.
Every piece of messaging should have a clear next step. Whether that’s downloading a resource, scheduling a call, requesting a demo, or simply learning more, it should drive action. If your messaging doesn’t create momentum toward a decision, it’s just creating awareness without conversion.
Test this: After someone reads your messaging, what should they do next? Is that path obvious? Is it low-friction? Does your messaging give them a reason to take that step right now?
Too many companies optimize messaging for clarity without optimizing for action. Strong messaging does both—it explains value and creates urgency for the next step. This becomes especially critical when planning within 90-day sprints, where every piece of messaging needs to contribute to near-term pipeline movement.
Stop Perfecting, Start Testing
Here’s what we see in client audits: companies spending months perfecting messaging internally, then launching it without ever validating it with real buyers.
The result? Messaging that sounds great in the conference room but generates zero pipeline movement in the market.
The companies that consistently win don’t have perfect messaging. They have tested messaging. They put drafts in front of buyers early. They measure response. They iterate based on real data, not internal opinions.
This isn’t about endless testing cycles. It’s about validating your core assumptions before you bet your pipeline on them. Run your messaging through these ten questions. Better yet, put it in front of real buyers and watch what happens.
Because the gap between messaging that sounds good internally and messaging that actually converts is where most B2B pipeline goes to die.
The Testing Process That Actually Works
Here’s how we approach messaging testing with clients:
Start with sales conversations. Your sales team hears objections, questions, and buyer reactions every day. That’s messaging feedback in real-time. Mine those conversations before you write a single word.
Test with external audiences early. Don’t wait until messaging is polished to show it to buyers. Draft messaging gets more honest feedback than finished messaging.
Measure what matters. Track metrics that indicate messaging effectiveness—not just click rates, but conversion rates, sales cycle length, and win rates. If your messaging isn’t connected to revenue outcomes, you’re measuring the wrong things.
Iterate based on data, not opinions. Internal debates about messaging should be settled by buyer response, not whoever has the strongest opinion. This is exactly why most marketing budgets fail—they’re based on assumptions instead of evidence.
Build in regular review cycles. Messaging isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. Markets change, competitors evolve, and buyer priorities shift. Test your messaging quarterly, not just at launch.
Make Your Messaging Work
Strong messaging doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you systematically test your assumptions against real buyer reactions.
These ten questions give you a framework. But frameworks don’t replace the work of actually putting your messaging in front of buyers and listening—really listening—to how they respond.
Your prospects don’t care about your clever taglines. They care about whether you understand their problems and can deliver outcomes that matter. Test for that, and everything else falls into place.
Want to see how these questions fit into a complete messaging framework? Read our complete guide to problem-centric messaging in B2B marketing for the systematic approach that makes testing easier.
Ready to test your messaging against real buyers instead of just internal opinions? Our B2B Growth Audit includes a complete messaging assessment that shows you exactly where your message is landing—and where it’s falling flat. Get your audit HERE.