November 1, 2026
Be Different, Not Unique
Unique tells a prospect everything they know is now useless. Different says seven of eight things still apply.
Read →The Blog
Frameworks for B2B messaging that works.
Field notes on positioning, copy, and the psychology of B2B buyers, written by Dean Waye.
November 1, 2026
Assumptions Are Beliefs We Treat Like Facts
One day, one of the assumptions your whole category rests on stops being true.
Read →October 31, 2026
The Asymmetrics: 24 Ways David Beats Goliath
Scan two dozen lenses for the one or two that give you a fight Goliath can't follow you into.
Read →October 31, 2026
Say What Your Competitors Can't or Won't Say
“We think of you as a partner” isn't unique. What can your competitors not say?
Read →October 30, 2026
If Your Message Only Works at Scale, Anything Would Have Worked
Money can carry a weak message. If you don't have the money, the message has to do the work.
Read →October 30, 2026
The Three Pathways in B2B Marketing
Spend money, publish content, or be creative. Only one of the three still works for most companies.
Read →October 29, 2026
The Best Tool for Creative Thinking
Anything that lets you treat thoughts as physical objects you can pick up and move.
Read →October 29, 2026
Creative Thinking vs. Creativity
One is a mechanical process you can run in half an hour. The other is about capture.
Read →October 28, 2026
The Second Right Answer
The first idea that clicks feels like the answer. Nine times out of ten, there's a better one.
Read →October 28, 2026
Tell Prospects Their Own Story, With You in It
If you're not the biggest player, you'll never afford to teach the market your story.
Read →October 27, 2026
The Upstream Test
Whatever you write has two audiences: the person reading it and the person above them.
Read →October 27, 2026
Do Ninety Percent of Your Prospect's Thinking
They will never meet you halfway. Plan for that, and preempt what they'd otherwise object to.
Read →October 26, 2026
Hope at the Top, Data at the Bottom
Without hope at the start, no one sticks around long enough to reach your data.
Read →October 26, 2026
Informational, Aspirational, Transformational
Your messaging lives at one of three levels. B2B starts at the wrong one.
Read →October 25, 2026
Keep the Threshold Small
At the top of the funnel, ask for almost nothing. Then ask for a little more each time.
Read →October 25, 2026
Be a Welcome Distraction, Not an Interruption
Even the busiest person's day has white space. Show up there, and give them a small win.
Read →October 24, 2026
Your Funnel Is a Series of Rope Bridges
A rope bridge gets someone to the next place. It won't bear much weight, so don't load it.
Read →October 24, 2026
Leave a Voicemail That Tells a Story
Treat a voicemail like a tiny piece of audio content, and an abandoned channel starts working again.
Read →October 23, 2026
Use the Channels Your Competitors Abandoned
Old channels aren't full of noise anymore. Hardly anyone gets junk mail.
Read →October 23, 2026
Go Read Your Company's Earliest Marketing
Over the years your messaging has been sanded down. The original had something you've lost.
Read →October 22, 2026
What Will Your Buyer Feel After They Buy?
Most B2B companies have never asked. The usual answer, “relief,” is the wrong target.
Read →October 22, 2026
Your Horror Movie Questions
Dating sites found that one odd question predicts compatibility. B2B marketers need their own.
Read →October 21, 2026
Feelings Are Real, but They Aren't Reality
In B2B you can rarely test externally, so opinions get treated as facts. Rank shouldn't decide it.
Read →October 21, 2026
The Point of Good Writing
Good writing gets understood. Persuasive writing makes the reader feel understood.
Read →October 20, 2026
What to Do When You Have Three ICPs
Multiple ideal customer profiles leave you three options: merge, split, or name a new problem.
Read →October 20, 2026
Three Ways to Open: Break Part of Their Reality
“We've made something, sit tight” is the weakest opening there is. Here are three that arrest attention.
Read →October 19, 2026
The Negative Future
What happens to a prospect who doesn't get to a positive future? It's worse than staying put.
Read →October 19, 2026
You Sell the Shortcut
Your prospect already knows their problem and the future they want. What they lack is the bridge.
Read →October 18, 2026
Assertive Is Not Unprofessional
When someone says your copy isn't professional, they usually mean it isn't generic.
Read →October 18, 2026
“Don't Hurt Me” Language
It's what most B2B companies write, and it puts nothing in the confidence bucket.
Read →October 17, 2026
The Confidence Bucket
A prospect shows up with none. You have to provide all of it, right at the start.
Read →October 17, 2026
“My Boss Is Going to Want to Talk to These Guys”
In B2C you want “I need that.” In B2B, you want a different thought entirely.
Read →October 16, 2026
The Safety Question
How do I know it's safe for me to vouch for you to my boss? Nobody will say it out loud, and it decides everything.
Read →October 16, 2026
Hope, Confidence and Safety
At the top of the funnel you have to convey three things as quickly as you can, then get out of the way.
Read →October 15, 2026
What Is First Contact Messaging?
Almost everyone opens by informing and educating. It's usually the wrong move. Here's what to do instead.
Read →October 15, 2026
The One Sentence Behind All B2B Marketing
We understand your negative present and we can shortcut you to a positive future. Every word is doing work.
Read →September 29, 2026
50 Lessons for Selling to Strangers
Fifty short lessons on how B2B buyers decide, what first contact messaging has to do, and why creativity is the only advantage left.
Read →August 25, 2026
Asymmetrics: Twenty-Four Lenses for Finding the Move Your Competitors Can't Copy
A complete field guide to structural B2B advantage — 24 lenses plus the Assumptions to Asymmetrics to Assertions method.
Read →August 21, 2026
THE FIRST WORD: Why Marketing Always Leads
The full book on how prospects decide to read in three seconds, with six frameworks for getting there first.
Read →August 17, 2026
Seven Ways to Hook a Reader in Two Seconds
Most headlines fail before the reader even decides to read. Here's what actually works.
Read →August 13, 2026
Ten Things B2B Buyers Won't Tell You (But Your Copy Needs to Know)
Writing for a buyer who is professionally rewarded for saying no.
Read →August 9, 2026
When Your GTM Story Stops Working
Your message didn't fail because it was wrong. It failed because the market moved.
Read →August 5, 2026
What Great CMOs Actually Think About Marketing
A synthesis of 17 CMOs on what separates momentum-builders from campaign-runners.
Read →August 1, 2026
The Assertion Spectrum: Why Your B2B Copy Is Either Boring or Threatening
Most B2B copy sits at two extremes. The sweet spot in between has a name.
Read →July 28, 2026
Why Your Buyers Stop Reading After the First Line
The keep-reading decision happens in under two seconds. Here's what's happening in that window.
Read →July 24, 2026
The Uniqueness Trap
Unique versus different — most companies think they're unique. They're just different.
Read →July 20, 2026
How Internal Consensus Kills B2B Messaging
Committee-safe language offends no one, and moves no one.
Read →July 16, 2026
The Primer: What You Say First Is Not What You Think It Is
Your first job isn't to sell. It's to make the sale possible.
Read →July 12, 2026
Writing Copy When You Cannot Afford to Be Wrong
A small addressable universe plus long test cycles means different rules for writing.
Read →July 8, 2026
First Say This: The Order of Your Message Is the Message
Order determines whether anything downstream of it ever gets heard.
Read →July 4, 2026
How to Write to Someone Who Has Never Heard of You
Writing to strangers is structurally different from writing to warm leads.
Read →June 30, 2026
The Hook: How to Find the One Line That Unlocks Your Whole Message
Every strong message has a hook underneath it. Here is the process for finding it.
Read →June 26, 2026
Why B2B Ads Are Boring: A Diagnosis in Four Parts
Boring by committee, by habit, and by a misunderstanding of what buyers actually respond to.
Read →June 22, 2026
Nine Fixes for Nine Webinar Problems You Think Are Unfixable
Low attendance, no questions, and dead air are copy and structure problems, not technical ones.
Read →June 18, 2026
Be the One They Want to Watch
What separates attended webinars from tolerated ones.
Read →June 14, 2026
Everything You Actually Need to Know Before Hiring a Copywriter
Most companies hire for the wrong reasons and brief badly.
Read →June 10, 2026
Reliable, Dignified Prospecting
An approach that earns a response without cringe-outreach.
Read →June 6, 2026
Why Prospects Ghost You (Not About Follow-Up Timing)
Ghosting is a message problem surfacing late, not a timing problem.
Read →June 2, 2026
Write Headlines That Hit
The mechanics behind subject lines that actually get opened.
Read →May 29, 2026
Not the Also-Ran
How to position when you're not the category leader.
Read →May 25, 2026
How to Brief a Copywriter for Outcomes Instead of Output
The difference between a good brief and a bad one.
Read →May 21, 2026
What Desire Has to Do With B2B Marketing
B2B buyers decide emotionally and justify rationally.
Read →May 17, 2026
The Questions That Change How You Write
The brief questions that actually matter.
Read →May 13, 2026
What Makes a Webinar Worth Completing
The architecture that holds the room past minute fifteen.
Read →May 9, 2026
Three Levels of Messaging
Informational, aspirational, transformational — most companies default to the lowest.
Read →May 5, 2026
The Credibility Problem
Why buyers don't believe you even when you're right.
Read →May 1, 2026
What the Follow-Up Is Actually About
Follow-up is a positioning problem, not a persistence problem.
Read →April 27, 2026
The Voice Problem: Why B2B Companies All Sound the Same
The process that produces sameness, and how to break out of it.
Read →April 23, 2026
The Scope of a Message
What copy has to accomplish versus what it merely has to say.
Read →April 19, 2026
Test Your GTM Message Before It Costs You Anything
Finding out the message is wrong after launch is the wrong order of operations.
Read →April 15, 2026
How to Test GTM Messaging Without Running a Single Campaign
Getting the buying committee in a room before you spend anything.
Read →April 11, 2026
What a Tested Message Is Actually Worth
The value of knowing where a message breaks before buyers do.
Read →April 7, 2026
The Shortcut Is the Ballgame in B2B
Buyers already know the problem and the future. You're evaluated on the mechanism.
Read →April 3, 2026
The Cold Outreach Split
Your CRO wants to stand out. Your AEs want to blend in.
Read →March 30, 2026
Three Ways Cold Sales Messages Actually Cut Through
Three legitimate cut-through approaches, and one that doesn't work.
Read →March 26, 2026
Who Your First Contact Should Come From
Marketing outbound comes from a company. Sales outbound comes from a person.
Read →March 22, 2026
You Are Actually in the Entertainment Business
You compete for attention, not for information delivery.
Read →March 18, 2026
Nobody Does What You Do Not Ask Them To
CTA avoidance is fear of making a real ask.
Read →March 14, 2026
Why Your Testimonials Are Doing Nothing
Testimonials written for the company that earned them, not the buyer reading them.
Read →March 10, 2026
The Follow-Up They Don't Delete
Most follow-ups fail from having nothing new to say.
Read →March 6, 2026
What to Do When They Go Quiet
Re-pitching is the wrong instinct when a deal stalls.
Read →March 2, 2026
The Pricing Conversation You Keep Avoiding
Price only shocks when it arrives before value does.
Read →February 26, 2026
Why Your LinkedIn Posts Are Talking to Themselves
Most B2B LinkedIn content is written for the writer and the algorithm.
Read →February 22, 2026
The Demo That Decides the Deal
A demo wins by feeling built-for-them, not by showing more.
Read →February 18, 2026
The 90 Percent Rule
Do 90% of the prospect's thinking and feeling for them.
Read →February 14, 2026
Write to a Person, Not a Persona
Stiff C-suite copy is built on a wrong assumption about how executives want to be talked to.
Read →February 10, 2026
Nobody Cares About You. Use That Freedom.
Your prospect's life is full without you. That's liberating, not a problem.
Read →February 6, 2026
You Are a Distraction. Get Good at It.
Accept and optimize for the glance instead of resenting distraction.
Read →February 2, 2026
Why Your B2B Copy Is Really About You
Most B2B copy is written to make the writer feel good.
Read →January 29, 2026
Every Weakness Is a Strength. Reframe.
The practice of reframing a supposed weakness into an advantage.
Read →January 25, 2026
Artists, Artisans, and Assemblers
Three types of copywriter. Hiring the wrong one produces irrelevant work.
Read →January 21, 2026
Prevention, Mitigation, or Suffering
Naming a problem's lifecycle stage changes everything downstream.
Read →January 17, 2026
Why Your B2B Buyer Is Not Responding to Logic (They Are Responding to Threat)
The SCARF threat-detection framework, applied to vendor evaluation.
Read →January 13, 2026
Your LinkedIn Page Is a Message
Your About section and headline are the first thing a stranger reads.
Read →January 9, 2026
The Prospecting Gift
A well-written PDF does more prospecting work than a cold email sequence.
Read →January 5, 2026
Showing Beats Telling
Live events show expert thinking in real time instead of telling people about it.
Read →January 1, 2026
The Four Bad Assumptions Every Cold Message Makes
Four false assumptions cold outreach makes about the reader.
Read →December 28, 2025
Your Opening Twenty Words Are Worth More Than the Next Thousand
Effort is misallocated — the first twenty words are the whole game.
Read →December 24, 2025
The Opening That Breaks Something
The best openings identify something wrong in the audience's world and name it.
Read →December 20, 2025
Your Subject Line Has One Job. It's Not the One You Think.
Subject lines have exactly one function: get the open. Not describe the contents.
Read →December 16, 2025
Telling Them It's Not Their Fault Is a Strategy, Not a Gesture
Naming that the negative present isn't the prospect's fault changes how they listen.
Read →December 12, 2025
What Your Buyer Cannot Say Out Loud
Every prospect carries an unadmitted fear. Your copy has to name it first.
Read →December 8, 2025
The Four Resistances Every B2B Buyer Brings to the Room
Distrust of claims, reactance, inertia, and scrutiny — before you've said a word.
Read →December 4, 2025
The Twelve Questions Every Buyer Is Secretly Asking
Buyers evaluate you against a hidden checklist of trust, risk, and timing questions.
Read →November 30, 2025
Three Openings That Always Work in B2B Marketing
Three frames to reach for when you don't know how to start.
Read →November 26, 2025
Attention Is Not Free
Attention is a scarce business asset that most B2B marketing treats as a gift.
Read →November 22, 2025
Hope Starts the Sale. Safety Lets It Continue.
A future worth wanting, plus reassurance that pursuing it isn't reckless.
Read →November 18, 2025
Urgency Without Yelling
Fake urgency destroys trust. Real urgency shows the actual consequences of delay.
Read →November 14, 2025
Claims Create Debt
Every claim you make asks the buyer to loan you a little credibility.
Read →November 10, 2025
The Story Your Market Actually Wants to Hear
The market wants the relevance story, not the founder's origin story.
Read →November 6, 2025
How to Help the Buyer Who Has to Resell You Internally
Your champion needs a one-sentence pitch, a business case, proof, and a risk answer to resell you.
Read →November 2, 2025
An Offer Is Not a Menu of Tasks
Strong offers are promises of movement, not lists of deliverables.
Read →October 29, 2025
The Client Does Not Experience the Same Project You Do
Clients think in risk, confidence, and outcomes. Providers think in time and effort.
Read →October 25, 2025
Different Is Not Enough
A difference has to be tied to something the customer actually cares about.
Read →October 21, 2025
When Your Best Argument Is Not "We Are Better"
A position built on a changed reality, not on product superiority.
Read →October 17, 2025
One Page, One Argument
A template for the single page that has to make the whole argument.
Read →October 13, 2025
The Webinar Skeleton
A webinar is a structured argument for belief change. Every section has a job.
Read →October 9, 2025
Repurposing Is Not Chopping Content Into Fragments
Real repurposing translates the argument for a new attention environment.
Read →October 5, 2025
Good Editing Is Not Making It Shorter
Editing removes what stands between the reader and belief.
Read →October 1, 2025
The Buyer's Words Are Better Than Yours
The best copy is collected from sales calls and support tickets, not written cold.
Read →September 27, 2025
The Awareness Mismatch
Sending the wrong message to the wrong awareness-stage buyer is a top failure mode.
Read →September 23, 2025
A Workshop Is a Trust Format, Not a Teaching Format
A workshop's job is letting prospects feel the quality of your thinking.
Read →September 19, 2025
Service Businesses Sell Trust Before Output
Deliverables aren't what clients buy. Confidence is.
Read →September 15, 2025
If You Sell Expertise, Your Message Is Part of the Product
For consultants and advisors, the message is a sample of the paid thinking.
Read →September 11, 2025
Events Are Not Only Content. They Are Reasons for Contact.
The underused part of an event is the legitimate excuse it gives you for outreach.
Read →September 7, 2025
The CTA Ladder
Not every buyer is ready for the same commitment.
Read →September 3, 2025
Ten Questions to Ask Before You Publish Anything
A ten-question buyer-centricity test to run before anything goes out.
Read →