Strong messaging does not happen by accident. It starts with understanding that the words you choose must work both inside your company and out in the market. Dave S. Faupel has spent his career figuring out what makes messaging resonate, from leading IBM’s worldwide marketing cloud rollout to driving demand at Sage and shaping brand strategy at Priority Technology Holdings. His philosophy centers on something many companies overlook: alignment before action.
Start With Internal Alignment
Most companies approach this the wrong way. They spend weeks crafting the perfect messaging, launch it, and then wonder why no one is on board. The real problem usually starts inside the building. “Before you launch anything externally, you need internal buy-in,” says Faupel. “Messaging should be socialized early with your sales, product, and customer success teams.” At Priority Technology Holdings, there is a specific process for making that happen. “We make sure everyone understands not just the what, but the why behind every message,” Faupel explains. It is not about sending an email and calling it done. When people understand why the message matters, they know how to use it. That alignment shows up in every customer conversation, every sales call, and every support interaction.
Focus on Customer Challenges, Not Just Features
This is where marketing often goes off track. Companies focus on features and capabilities when customers simply want to know if their problem can be solved. “You need to build your messaging around customer challenges, not just your product features,” says Faupel. It sounds obvious, yet most marketing still reads like a list of specifications. He saw this firsthand at Sage. “Externally, messaging should reflect what your audience cares about, not what you are trying to sell this quarter or this year,” he explains. One campaign focused on simplifying complexity for small business owners and accountants. It succeeded because it began with real pain points. “When your messaging starts with empathy, it creates relevance and builds trust,” he adds. Customers recognized their own struggles before they ever saw a product pitch, and that made all the difference.
Build a Core Narrative With Flexible Layers
Good messaging needs to work across different situations without sounding as if a robot wrote it. Faupel talks about building “a core narrative with flexible layers.” Think of it as having a strong foundation that allows you to build different things on top. “A strong messaging framework includes a core brand narrative that’s consistent across all channels, but has flexible layers tailored for different audiences,” he explains. Whether someone’s looking at a campaign, a sales deck, or a product sheet, it should all feel connected. “This creates cohesion and helps your brand sound as one voice, even when different people in your organization are telling the story,” Faupel notes. Without that thread connecting everything, your brand starts sounding schizophrenic.
Test, Refine, and Evolve
His team hears him say this constantly: test and learn. “There is no such thing as a perfect message,” he says. “And it is not a one-and-done exercise.” What resonates today might fall flat next month. The trick is staying ready to change course. You need real feedback for this to work, not just assumptions. “You need to gather that feedback from customers, get it out in the marketplace, hear from frontline staff, and be ready to adjust,” Faupel explains. At Priority Technology Holdings, they treat messaging as something alive that needs constant attention. They’re always testing it in real situations to see what’s actually working. When something stops landing, they change it.
Getting messaging right isn’t complicated, but it does require discipline. Get your internal teams aligned first, before you tell the world anything. Lead with customer problems instead of your product roadmap. Build something consistent enough to recognize but flexible enough to adapt. And keep testing, because markets change and so should your messaging. “The right message doesn’t just describe your brand,” Faupel says. “It defines how people experience it.” That gap between describing and defining is everything. When messaging works, it doesn’t just communicate information. It shapes how people think about you.
Connect with Dave S. Faupel on LinkedIn to explore how strategic messaging alignment drives real business impact.
