Your Messaging Alignment is just an Illusion: When Your Team’s “Shared Language” Isn’t Shared
- Vivien
- Nov 12
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Every team I’ve ever worked with swears they’re “aligned.”
Everyone repeats the same tagline.
Everyone agrees on the messaging pillars.
Everyone nods in the meeting.
But most comms teams mistake word agreement for alignment.
You’re united around language, not the meaning.
It reminds me of the story of a group of blind men who had never come across an elephant.
Each person feels a different part of the animal's body, such as the side or the tusk, and describes the animal based on their limited experience.
One touches the side and says it is like a wall.
Another feels the tusk and describes it as a spear.
The third takes the trunk and insists it is a snake.
The fourth feels the leg and declares it a tree.
The fifth touches the ear and is sure it is a fan.
The sixth grabs the tail and calls it a rope.
The real test of alignment doesn’t happen inside the meeting room.
It happens when your message leaves the building.
Your B2B message doesn’t land in one inbox.
It travels through 10 different buying minds
Each with their own goals, anxieties, mental filters, and definitions.
When your internal language isn’t clear, your external message fragments as it moves.
Take that tagline: “We’re your strategic growth partner.”
Inside, everyone knows what it means - You’re "combining software with advisory services."
But here's what it looks like on the Outside:
Their CMO thinks “strategic partner” means “trusted long-term advisor.”
Their CFO sees “Pricey vendor.”
Their Tech Expert wonders if they'll have to overhaul their systems.
The CMO hears “Agency support” and “more work.”
While the end user hears… nothing relevant and leaves the conversation.
So while you may feel aligned internally, your message fragments externally. And that one word — “partner” that everyone agreed on internally — means something different to every external buyer.
And that’s the Alignment Illusion — the false comfort that comes from using the same words without agreeing on what those words actually mean.
It feels like unity inside the company, but outside, it reads like confusion.
Here’s why this matters
By the time your message hits the final decision-maker, it’s been translated, softened, reinterpreted, and stripped of meaning.
And that’s how teams lose deals — not because the product is wrong, but because the message didn't survive the 10 minds who mutated it on the way.
The Misalignment Message pattern
Message alignment isn’t about getting everyone using the same tagline.
It's about getting your messaging anchored in a meaning that your audience can believe or needs to know, because it will fracture the second you send it.
If you’re “aligned” on vague words, you'll notice:
Buyers keep asking questions that you thought your website already answered.
Buyers compare you to competitors you’re nothing like — because your category, value, or approach wasn’t clear enough to stick.
A supportive influencer disappears mid-process because they can’t justify the value when the CFO “needs more clarity."
You find yourself constantly having to explain what you do.
All of which slows the buying momentum and dilutes trust — inside and outside the company.
So here's what you can do instead, or ask me to help you with:
The 7 Steps to Alignment
Quick Language audits that expose misalignment:
Ask your product, sales, and comms teams to answer these questions. You in the same way:
Who are we talking to?
What problem are we solving for them (not us)?
What words do they actually use to describe that problem?
How would we prove that we do what we say?
If your team struggles answering those questions, you don't have alignment.
Gather 5 assets. Pick a sales deck, one-pager, web page, internal presentation, and press release.
Ask your team: “Would our customer describe themselves this way?”
Listen for hesitation. If the room goes quiet, you’ve found your gap.
Collect your core messages — taglines, value props, one-pagers, and slide decks.
Then ask:
What words do we use over and over?
Which of these are internal shorthand (e.g. “empower,” “strategic,” “transformation”) that we understand, but buyers might not?
Do these words describe what we do, or what our audience experiences?
Example: Internal message: “We enable organisations to unlock efficiency.”Translation audit: “Enable” and “unlock” are vague. Efficiency of what? Who feels it?
Find your audience’s actual language
You’re not guessing — you’re mining real words your buyers use.
Look at:
Call transcripts from sales or customer success
RFPs or incoming inquiries (“We’re struggling with…”)
LinkedIn comments or community forums where they describe their pain
Case study quotes — how do customers describe the “before and after”?
Capture recurring phrases — not just keywords.
Buyers often say things like:
“We’re drowning in manual processes.”“Our reports never match Finance’s numbers.”“Our tech stack is 10 tools that don’t talk to each other.”
Those are gold. They’re emotional and concrete.
5. Translate internal words into external meaning
Now line up your company’s “inside” terms with the audience’s “outside” words.
Internal Language: “Digital transformation”
Audience Translation: “Getting rid of outdated systems that slow us down.”
Internal Language: “Empower teams”
Audience Translation: “Give people the data they need without chasing spreadsheets.”
Internal Language: “Scalable solution
Audience Translation: “It grows with us, so we don’t have to rebuild next year.”
6: Test for “retell value”
Your message has “retell value” when someone in the buying group can repeat it accurately to someone else.
If you can't ask your real clients, try asking someone in your Sales or Customer Success to explain your value prop — then have a second person repeat what they heard.
If the message stays consistent, you’ve nailed clarity.
If it changes shape, you’re still stuck in internal speak.
7: Use “shared meaning” as your alignment test
Before sign-off, ask every team lead:
“When we say this — what does it mean in your world?”
If the answers diverge, alignment isn’t real yet. Clarify until everyone can describe the message through the customer’s eyes, not through theirs.
Stop chasing alignment on slogans.
Start building alignment on shared meaning.
People don’t remember what you said.
They remember how it made sense to them.
And if just one person sees no value in your offer, they won't move forward in their decision.
Just for Fun Watch Timothy Chalamet trying to align his PR team.
If your team’s messaging is getting stuck, I can help you build one that creates movement.
🎯 Hi, I'm Vivien,
I work with Heads of Communications, CMOs, and B2B internal and external comms teams who desperately need messaging that:
Sticks
Travels accurately
Gets repeated and remembered
Ticks internal alignment
Creates momentum in buying committees
And moves decisions forward
