The Conference Table Test: Is Your Brand Messaging Working?

Collecting ALL your verious external communications — and perhaps your internal ones — may be the most challenging part of this exercise.

We lost two major client renewals to a competitor down the street. Their feedback? “You talked more about yourselves than about us.”

That one stung. But it led to one of the most clarifying exercises I’ve ever run—a simple, no-fluff audit that exposed our brand inconsistencies and helped us turn things around.

We called it the Conference Table Test.

What Is the Conference Table Test?

It’s exactly what it sounds like:

You take every piece of content you send into the world—slide decks, social bios, emails, web pages, computer-generated customer letters—and lay them all out. On one table. At one time.

The goal is not just to look—it’s to see.

Would someone who’s never heard of you instantly understand who you are, what you stand for, and why you matter?

If the answer’s fuzzy, you’ve got Brand Garbage. And it’s time to clean it up.

Step 1: Collect Everything That Speaks for Your Brand

Grab these:

• Website homepage, about page, and key landing pages

• Sales decks and pitch presentations

• Social media profiles and recent posts

• Email templates and signatures

• Brochures, one-pagers, and customer letters

• Support scripts, chat logs, internal memos that leak out

If a client or prospect might see it, it goes on the table.

Insert anecdote here: story of realizing your “About Us” page contradicted your sales pitch.

Step 2: Ask the Questions Most Teams Avoid

🔍 Clarity

• Is our value prop clear within five seconds?

• Can a stranger describe what we do without guessing?

🔁 Consistency

• Do our visuals and tone feel like they came from the same brain?

• Is our voice steady—or does it whiplash from buttoned-up to bro-y?

🎯 Relevance

• Are we answering customer concerns—or reciting our resume?

🚩 Differentiation

• Could our copy be swapped with a competitor’s and still make sense?

❤️ Alignment

• Does this reflect our mission, purpose, and actual culture?

• Would our own employees recognize this version of us?

📣 Calls to Action

• Is it clear what the next step is—and why it matters?

What We Found (and Fixed)

We had more than 250 people touching sales and marketing. Everyone had his or her own spin. The result? Mixed messages. Confused prospects. Weak outcomes.

So we built a framework:

• A clear core message with room for team personalization

• Appendix pages with vertical (sector)-specific data

• No more freelancing tone of voice

The shift was immediate. Fewer “What do you actually do?” moments. More, “We know you’re the team for us.”

One benefit: A top university’s credit card carried the image of the alumni association. We felt the school’s high-profile mascot would perform better. The agreement was up for renewal so we used a new deck designed to start with a discussion about program performance, had a discussion about the alumni association’s needs, and our proposal about the mascot on the card. We brought the athletic department in, and cut a deal everyone was happy with because we listened. As I walked out of the room with the alumni president, he said, “That discussion was different that the usual approach.”

Why This Works

You’re not just fixing words. You’re rebuilding trust.

Misaligned messaging creates friction. Confusion. Doubt.

But when your message sings across every touchpoint—website to contract to thank-you note—something powerful happens:

Your prospects stop second-guessing. They start buying.

Try It For Yourself

Seriously—book a room, bring printouts or screens, and start the conversation. The awkward silences you hit? That’s where the truth lives.

If you want help running the full process—or want to find out what your messaging actually sounds like to clients—I do this with teams all the time.

Reach out here and we’ll talk.

Or join the community of leaders who want clearer, more human brand messaging—subscribe to the newsletter and get frameworks like this delivered monthly.

Let’s clear out the Brand Garbage—and make your message impossible to ignore.

I can help your company do the Conference Table Test and help with the review of your computer-generated Customer letters. My team and I revised 1,400 of them over a 10-day period after the CEO got a call from a good friend ripping him for a collections letter he got.

Just drop me a note, or hit the Contact Me button on the site.