If Sales Needs to Rewrite the Messaging, You’ve Already Failed

Messaging That Works Doesn’t Need a Rewrite

When Sales Enablement starts rewriting messaging, it’s not a sign of agility—it’s a sign of misalignment. And it’s a red flag I’ve seen too often: busy Sales Enablement teams—already stretched thin—spending time rewriting messaging. Not tweaking. Not localising. Completely reworking product messaging that was supposed to be sales-ready in the first place.

Let’s be clear: sales messaging shouldn't need a rescue mission. Product Marketing and Sales Enablement must align upstream to make sure it’s right from the start.

Great Messaging Starts Upstream

Sales is the final mile—but messaging has to be built with that endpoint in mind from the very beginning. If it falls flat in the field, the issue likely isn’t with the delivery. It’s with the design.

Product Marketing owns the development of messaging that:

• Speaks directly to buyer needs and objections

• Aligns to personas, problems, and value—not just features

• Translates technical depth into customer impact

• Reflects the competitive landscape and real-world deal dynamics

If that foundation isn’t solid, no amount of last-minute rewriting will save it. Great messaging requires time, insight, and strategic investment—none of which can happen without resources and support. Leadership needs to prioritise investment in Product Marketing to ensure that the team has the bandwidth to develop messaging that works from the outset.

Sales Enablement: The Multiplier, Not the Fixer

Sales Enablement exists to empower reps with tools, training, and content that fuels confidence and accelerates conversations. When Enablement teams are pulled into reworking messaging, it’s not just a distraction—it’s a misuse of their value.

Let’s not confuse motion with progress. Rewriting content to “make it work” creates ripple effects:

• Wasted cycles that could be spent scaling onboarding, training, and support

• Inconsistent messaging across teams and regions, making it less cohesive

• Missed feedback loops where marketing never hears that the message isn’t landing

And perhaps most critically, it slows down sales teams who need to spend less time editing slides and more time engaging buyers.

Sales needs to partner with Product Marketing early. This is a collaboration, not an afterthought. Sales should be providing feedback on what’s working and what isn’t during the creation process, not after the fact. Enablement should not be the backup plan. If we’re doing our jobs right in Product Marketing, messaging should be ready for sales, not needing rescue.

What to Do If It’s Already Happening

If your Enablement team is spending cycles rewriting messaging today, it’s a signal to step back and ask:

• Are we getting real sales feedback into our messaging process?

• Do we have strong product marketing leadership driving message creation?

• Are we aligned on the role each team plays in go-to-market?

The Fix Isn’t Rewriting—It’s Real Collaboration

The answer isn’t more revisions—it’s better alignment between Product Marketing and Sales Enablement upstream, during content creation. That means:

• Looping in Enablement and sales leaders early

• Building messaging grounded in real buyer insight

• Co-developing messaging frameworks that map to the sales process

• Pressure-testing messages with reps before launch

• Packaging it in formats that are frictionless for sales to use

This also means investing in Product Marketing to ensure we’re resourced, capable, and empowered to do the job. Product Marketing is a strategic function that enables sales success when we get the messaging right.

When we get this right, everyone wins:

·       Product Marketing delivers messaging that moves deals forward

·       Sales Enablement can focus on scaling impact, not fixing content

·       Sales teams go to market with confidence and clarity

Great messaging shouldn’t need a rewrite. It should be built right from the start—driving clarity and momentum across teams.

But to make this work, we need the right collaboration—and the right investment. Let’s stop treating PMM as a content vending machine and start treating it as the strategic growth engine it truly is.