Emma Stratton from Punchy reveals the curse of knowledge killing most B2B conversions and the proven messaging framework that makes prospects say “yes”

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The Data Faces Podcast with Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

How to make your B2B messaging more punchy

Your prospects spend 8 seconds on your homepage before clicking away. Your sales team says demos are going great until someone asks, “So what exactly do you do again?” Your marketing qualified leads aren’t converting because they can’t figure out what problem you actually solve.

The culprit isn’t your product. It’s language like “enterprise-grade, AI-powered, cloud-native solutions” that makes prospects disappear faster than free donuts at a tech conference.

About Emma Stratton

Emma Stratton is the founder of Punchy, a training and consulting firm that focuses on positioning and messaging for B2B SaaS companies. She’s been helping technical teams and software founders communicate the value of their products for almost 10 years and is the author of “Make It Punchy,” which lays out her complete process for writing simple messaging that resonates with buyers. In our conversation, we discuss why technical teams naturally overcomplicate their messaging, how to find the right “altitude” for your audience, why even technical buyers are driven by emotion, the biggest differentiation challenges facing B2B companies, and her proven framework for testing messaging with sales teams.

The curse of knowledge is costing you deals

Emma once worked with a sales tech company that had the best platform in their space. Analysts called them the gold standard. Customers loved the functionality. But prospects took one look at their website and thought, “This looks complicated.”

A competitor showed up with a decent but nowhere-near-as-good product. Their B2B messaging was simple and human. Prospects flocked to the competitor. Not because they had a better product, but because they made their product sound easier to understand.

This is the “curse of knowledge” destroying B2B marketing. The more you know about your product, the worse you get at explaining it to normal humans. You naturally assume everyone else understands as much as you do, so you talk like you’re presenting at a technical conference instead of solving someone’s problem.

You can have the best products in the world. That is actually the answer to this person’s dreams, but if you just spit a bunch of jargon and technical gobbledygook at them, they’re not going to see it, and they’re going to go. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

This costs you leads and deals to competitors with inferior products. People choose the option that sounds simpler, even if yours is objectively better. But the solution is simpler than most marketing teams think.

What punchy messaging actually means in B2B marketing

Hot Jar used to describe their product as “Understand user behavior without drowning in the numbers.” Compare that to “Advanced behavioral analytics platform with simplified dashboard UI.”

Both describe the same product. The first sounds like something a real person would say. The second sounds like committee-speak where everyone got their buzzwords included.

Punchy B2B messaging means saying something forcefully and effectively with as few words as possible. The goal is respecting your reader’s time and brain power. Emma calls this “accessibility for your reader.” You’re not dumbing anything down – you’re making it quickly understood.

Processing jargon-packed sentences takes mental energy, even for smart people. Clear marketing copy lets prospects focus their energy on deciding whether they want what you’re selling instead of decoding what you’re saying.

Making something simple isn’t about dumbing it down… making it simple is about making it quickly and easily understood by your reader. That’s what simplicity is about. So it’s almost like accessibility for your reader. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

The Hot Jar example works because it’s conversational. You immediately understand what they’re offering and why you might want it. No translation required.

Finding your messaging altitude and testing what works

Emma has a simple test for B2B copywriting that’s too vague. If you write down your value proposition and think “my refrigerator could say that,” you’ve gone too high level.

Messages like “reduce risk” or “increase efficiency” sound important but mean nothing. Your refrigerator reduces the risk of food spoilage. These phrases are so broad they could apply to anything.

The fix is getting specific. Instead of “reduce risk,” try “pick out fraudulent documents two times faster than manual review.” Now you’re saying something meaningful to someone who deals with document fraud.

But you can go too far in the opposite direction. If your message sounds like “real-time AI-digestible self-serve analytics,” you’ve buried the value under technical jargon.

If you put down, like reduced risk, and you’re like, Yes, that’s true. But also my refrigerator could say that, right, you want to go lower and that’s too high altitude, too vague, too broad, so you want to go lower in altitude. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

Your sales team knows immediately if messaging works. They pitch your product daily, watch prospects’ faces, and see what makes people lean in versus check their phone. Have them test your value propositions in conversations and emails. Do prospects’ eyes light up? Can they easily repeat back what you’re selling?

Emma’s “cheat code” is even better. Talk to existing customers and listen to how they describe your value. She interviewed fourteen customers for a conversational intelligence company. Four independently used “eyes and ears on customer interactions” to describe the benefit. That phrase captured more value than any marketing brainstorm could produce.

I’m a big fan of leaning on the sales team and using sales throughout the process of messaging… they have such a finger on the pulse of prospects, and also they’re basically message testing their their own stuff all the time, so they kind of know what doesn’t work, what does work. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

Why even technical buyers are driven by emotion

Emma was interviewing IT professionals for a client project, expecting logical, feature-focused conversations. Instead, she heard about stress, fear, and family life.

These technical buyers talked about maintaining clunky solutions that break at the worst times. The dread they feel knowing that crashes will come back on them. Getting weekend calls that interrupt family time. Worrying about looking incompetent when systems fail during critical business moments.

Technical people are more emotional because their jobs are so critical to business infrastructure. System failures don’t just affect one person – they can bring down entire departments.

It was amazing how much emotion was in these interviews. They’re talking about how stressful their jobs are. You know, how hard it is to maintain these clunky solutions, the dread and fear they have that something is going to go wrong and it’s going to go back on them getting calls in the weekends and how that interacts their family life. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

Most B2B messaging ignores this emotional reality. We write like we’re selling to robots who only care about features and ROI. Nobody wants to operate in “corporate mode” all the time. People want human connection, even in business settings.

Emma shared a personal example. Struggling with finances in her twenties, she saw a headline: “take the fear out of checking your account balance.” It stopped her in her tracks because someone finally understood her specific anxiety. She wasn’t looking for a new bank, but that headline made her keep reading.

Connect to how people feel in their current state, then show how that emotion shifts with your product.

Standing out through clarity, not complexity

Four different customers used the exact same phrase to describe Emma’s client’s product: “It gives us eyes and ears on customer interactions.” Four out of fourteen interviews. Same words, unprompted.

That phrase never would have emerged from a marketing brainstorm, but it perfectly captured authentic value. This is how you differentiate – through customer language that feels real rather than manufactured.

Emma hears the differentiation struggle constantly. How do we sound different when there are so many competitors saying the same things? The natural response is listing every feature and capability, but that makes everything sound complicated.

Worse is the category creation trap. Companies think they can solve differentiation by inventing new categories. “We’re not CRM software, we’re conversational customer engagement orchestration platforms.” Now prospects have no idea what you do.

I think differentiation is really one of the biggest things that people come to me and are kind of struggling with. You know, how do we differentiate? How do we sound different? There’s so many competitors that is a really tough one. I think it gets harder every day. — Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy

Emma has worked with companies who tried category creation and eventually abandoned it. Creating new categories requires massive marketing budgets and months of market education. Most companies can’t afford to teach the entire market about their made-up category while explaining what their product does.

Sometimes competitors win deals not because they have better products, but because they make their products sound easier to understand. In a world full of jargon and confusion, clarity beats cleverness.

Start simple, test fast

Your sales team knows messaging isn’t working. Your prospects are telling you with eight-second bounce rates and confused demo questions. The fix doesn’t require a complete overhaul.

Start with your core value proposition. Ask Emma’s refrigerator question: “Could my competitor say this?” If yes, get specific until you’re saying something that actually differentiates your product.

Test it with your sales team this week. Have them use it in three conversations. Do people’s eyes light up? Can they easily understand what you’re selling?

Call two existing customers. Ask how they describe the benefits they get from your product. Listen for repeated phrases – Emma’s “cheat code” for authentic language.

The sales tech company with the superior product lost deals because they made it sound complicated. Their prospects chose the option that sounded simpler to understand.

Make one message clearer this week. Then do it again next week.

Based on insights from Emma Stratton, founder of Punchy and author of “Make It Punchy,” featured on the Data Faces Podcast.

About David Sweenor

David Sweenor is an AI, Generative AI, and Product Marketing Expert. He brings this expertise to the forefront as the founder of TinyTechGuides and host of the Data Faces podcast. A recognized top 25 analytics thought leader and international speaker, David specializes in practical business applications of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.

Books

With over 25 years of hands-on experience implementing AI and analytics solutions, David has supported organizations including Alation, Alteryx, TIBCO, SAS, IBM, Dell, and Quest. His work spans marketing leadership, analytics implementation, and specialized expertise in AI, machine learning, data science, IoT, and business intelligence.

David holds several patents and consistently delivers insights that bridge technical capabilities with business value.

Follow David on Twitter @DavidSweenor and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Podcast Highlights – Key Takeaways from the Conversation

The curse of knowledge problem

David Sweenor (2:22): Why do B2B companies over complicate their messaging and what does it cost them?

Emma Stratton (2:22): I do think that it’s almost default human nature to over complicate things, especially when you know a lot about it. So maybe you’ve heard about the curse of knowledge, that cognitive bias, that if you know tons about something, you naturally assume that everyone else understands as much as you do… And it doesn’t help that you also have other people in the industry kind of doing the same thing.

Emma Stratton (4:36): You miss out on connecting with customers, potential customers, or getting their attention. You risk, kind of, you know that that whole, the metaphor of, like, drinking from the fire hose, right? It’s like that, you know, someone’s like, maybe interested, and you blast them in the face with a full powered hose of information, and they’re, they’re gone.

What punchy messaging means

Emma Stratton (7:02): Punchy was a phrase that people use a lot in the UK. And that idea of, like, something with oomph, you know, something with pop… It’s really about saying something forcefully or effectively with as few words as possible.

Emma Stratton (9:06): Making something simple isn’t about dumbing it down… making it simple is about making it quickly and easily understood by your reader. That’s what simplicity is about. So it’s almost like accessibility for your reader.

Finding the right messaging altitude

Emma Stratton (10:52): If you put down, like reduced risk, and you’re like, Yes, that’s true. But also my refrigerator could say that, right, you want to go lower and that’s too high altitude, too vague, too broad, so you want to go lower in altitude.

Emma Stratton (13:26): If you’re talking to a technical, technical practitioner, engineers, you naturally want to be lower in altitude in your message, right? You still want to show the value, the why, but you want to show more detail, more specifics. Whereas a CEO, a business buyer, would naturally be higher altitude.

Using sales teams for message testing

Emma Stratton (22:17): I’m a big fan of leaning on the sales team and using sales throughout the process of messaging. So when I work with clients, I always have sessions with the sales team where I ask them questions, because they have such a finger on the pulse of prospects, and also they’re basically message testing their their own stuff all the time.

Emma Stratton (19:13): I also look at reviews, and when I’m feeling stuck, I’m like, Well, how are they saying it? And sometimes you can pick up on a repeated phrase that’s probably a good thing to put in your messaging… I interviewed about 14 customers, and four of them talked about how it let them have eyes and ears on all of these kind of customer interactions.

The emotional side of B2B buying

Emma Stratton (26:11): I interviewed about 14 customers, and they’re kind of in the conversational intelligent… And I interviewed about 14 customers, and four of them talked about how it let them have eyes and ears on all of these kind of customer interactions… It was amazing how much emotion was in these interviews. They’re talking about how stressful their jobs are. You know, how hard it is to maintain these clunky solutions, the dread and fear they have that something is going to go wrong and it’s going to go back on them getting calls in the weekends and how that interacts their family life.

The differentiation challenge

Emma Stratton (24:36): I think differentiation is really one of the biggest things that people come to me and are kind of struggling with. You know, how do we differentiate? How do we sound different? There’s so many competitors that is a really tough one. I think it gets harder every day.

Emma Stratton (28:17): It takes a lot of marketing spend, takes a lot of things to build a category, and to not only do people have to explain, like, what your category is like, what is that category? And then what is our software? And then Who are all these layers of mystery, and so it’s like, it’s a lot easier to just, you know, win in an existing category.

Key advice for getting started

Emma Stratton (35:17): Get my book. Make it punchy, because it really covers everything I put everything I know in that book, and it not only shows you how to go from complexity to that simple messaging framework. The last chapter talks about implementation. And getting alignment and buy it and working with others, because that’s part of messaging as well.