You know what stalls growth faster than anything? No one on your team being able to explain, in plain English, what your company does. If I ask five of your people, “What do you do?”… will I get five different answers? If I land on your LinkedIn page and your website on the same day, do they sound like the same business? If the answer is no, don’t be surprised that your pipeline has slowed to a crawl.
Welcome to edition 18 of B2B Marketing Simplified, the LinkedIn newsletter for CEOs, founders and marketing leaders in B2B businesses.
This is Part 1 of a 5-part series on the VALUE Builder Method™—a simple, proven framework I use to help B2B companies break through growth plateaus. Growth doesn’t happen by accident; it comes from following a straightforward process that works, and in an AI-driven world, this structure matters more than ever.
How the VALUE Builder Method™ fuels growth for B2B companies
The VALUE Builder Method™ is a proven, practical framework that drives growth for B2B CEOs, founders, and marketing leaders.
Why does it work? Because we know your marketing shouldn’t feel like guesswork, and we know no one buys from a business they don’t understand or trust.
Each letter in The VALUE Builder Method™ stands for a key pillar within B2B marketing strategy:
- (This month) Vision + Voice
- Assets + Authority
- Launch + Lead generation
- Understand + Upscale
- Expand + Evolve
This month, we’re diving into the first pillar – Vision + Voice, because without clarity on where you’re going and how you communicate it, you’re scaling confusion.
What do we mean by Vision and Voice?
Let’s break it down:
- Vision is your direction. What you’re building, who it’s for, and why they should care.
- Voice is how you show up. It’s the way you speak, the tone you use, and how your audience recognises and remembers you.
If either is unclear, everything else, such as your content, campaigns, and ultimately conversions, becomes harder to achieve.
The cost of getting this wrong…
Harvard Business Review found that when leadership isn’t aligned on a clear vision, the same two problems repeatedly appear:
- Inconsistent messaging that confuses teams and customers
- Unclear decisions that slow down decision-making and lead to poor conversions.
The cost? Priorities change weekly. Budgets scatter. Growth stalls.
Whereas McKinsey’s B2B Pulse shows us what happens when companies get it right.
When businesses are clear on their direction and communicate that message consistently, they grow 14–18% faster than their peers in the market. Clear direction speeds up decisions and creates a joined‑up customer experience, leading to better conversions.
And when Figma reframed its story around one powerful idea, “Nothing Great Is Made Alone”. That clarity and consistent voice set them apart in a crowded market, fuelling rapid growth and putting them on the path to a $20B acquisition.
Vision and Voice aren’t soft business skills. They’re growth levers.
Take Gabor Logistics, a UK-based logistics pioneer
They had strong operations and a great team, but their marketing told the wrong story. Their website still positioned them as a courier, even though the Director and CEO, Gabor Szalay, had a clear vision to pivot the business into specialist event logistics.
The business was at a tipping point. Gabor could see the opportunity, but his brand couldn’t communicate it. So, the right customers couldn’t find him.
So Gabor reached out and we worked collaboratively to sharpen his Vision and Voice:
- Repositioned the business around events logistics
- Updated website copy and brand messaging
- Built SEO content that reflected the new direction
- Created alignment between internal goals and external communication
The outcome? Quality inbound leads…Tripled. All because the business finally said what it did, and said it clearly.
“Steve has helped transform our website into one that frequently generates inbound leads rather than a static brochure site.” Gabor Szalay, Director.
This kind of result starts with clarity.
👉 Access the full case study today.
What YOU can do about it today
Here’s what I recommend to every CEO I work with:
[Don’t forget to drop your answers in the comments/ DM me, and we can discuss it]
Exercise 1: The one-sentence test
- Write down one sentence that explains what your business does for its customers.
- Ask three other people across your business to do the same.
- Next, read out your answers. Do your answers differ significantly?
If the answer is yes, you’ve just uncovered your first growth blocker. And now we can take action. Continue with the following exercises to improve Vision and Voice.
Exercise 2: Define “Vision” using three questions:
- What’s the real problem you solve (in your customers’ words)?
- Where do you want the business to be in 3 years?
- What will your business say no to? You can’t be everything to everyone.
Exercise 3: Clarify your “Voice”
- Is your brand formal or casual? Serious or playful? Expert or approachable?
- How would your customers describe what you do?
- Now ask: Do your LinkedIn posts, emails, and website all reflect that voice? Consistently?
Exercise 4: Start here… Fix one asset:
- Pick just one place to start, such as your homepage, company LinkedIn page, sales deck, or marketing email.
- Update it so that it clearly reflects your “Vision” and “Voice”, using the answers from the above exercises.
Exercise 5: Ready to dig even deeper?
If you want to dig even deeper and find out which part of your marketing engine is slowing you down, take the Marketing Clarity Scorecard. It takes just 3 mins! We’ll help by identifying the blind spots that block growth for your business and provide targeted recommendations for improvement.
🎁 Use the FREE Scorecard today (Takes just 3 mins).
TL;DR – For busy B2B CEOs:
- If your team can’t explain what you do in one sentence and have it match up with your website, LinkedIn and assets, then you’ve hit a wall.
- Why it matters: Harvard shows misaligned leadership causes inconsistent messages and slow decisions; McKinsey shows clear vision and voice drives 14–18% faster growth compared with peers.
- Proof: Figma and Gabor Logistics both unlocked rapid growth when they clarified their direction and made their messaging consistent.
- What YOU can do next: Start with the one-sentence test above and align one key asset.
- Finally, take the FREE Scorecard today to uncover what’s blocking your business from growing.
Next up in the series… Part 2: Assets + Authority
In September, we’ll use what we’ve learnt today and build on those foundations to create a winning website and lead magnets that convert leads.
Until then: Go and fix that one sentence.
Want help bringing your Vision and Voice to life?
Let’s fix your foundation, find your market, and build a sustainable, scalable marketing engine.
