What's the Meaning of Command of the Message?

If you've never been through a Command of the Message engagement, it's difficult to understand what commanding the sales message really means  and how your organization achieves it.

We write and talk a lot about having Command of the Message^®  because we believe that without it, no sales organization can thrive in a competitive environment. Command of the Message is the hallmark of a high-performing sales team.

We define Command of the Message as: "...being audible-ready to define your solutions to customer problems in a way that differentiates you from your competitors and allows you to charge a premium for your products and services.”

The Core Principles of Command of the Message

Let's break down that definition to help define how a sales organization truly gains Command of their Message:

"Audible-Ready"

You’ve heard the concept of being audible-ready in football. When a quarterback calls an audible, the players need to adapt quickly and effectively to changing conditions on the field. In business, it's often called  “situational fluency.”

What It Means for Your Sales Team

Being audible-ready means being flexible in front of the customer, ready to respond and adapt, based on what the customer communicates about their genuine business need. Audible-ready does not mean that your sales representatives are flying by the seat of their pants. It most definitely does not mean they’re speaking “off message” or “off topic.”

Great football teams invest thousands of hours in practicing scenarios, memorizing moves, and coordinating alternate plans so that they are ready to respond to the situation on the field. Successful sales organizations train their teams to be audible- ready in the same way, so that sales people are prepared to quickly and effectively respond to customer needs as they arise during sales conversations.

"Solutions to Customer Problems"

Many sales teams make the mistake of focusing on product features and solutions, without first understanding the problems the customer wants to solve. This mistake is especially prevalent in companies that rely too much on a demo to sell the solution. Having Command of the Message means starting with customer’ needs, and talking about your solutions in a way that demonstrates how they solve their business challenges.

What It Means for Your Sales Team

The person who owns the problem owns the customer. Sales teams that devote most of their time to discovering client problems,  and then aligning them with appropriate solutions, close more and larger opportunities. It’s difficult to commoditize a problem. Having Command of the Message means that your team is well versed in aligning your core products and services with real customer problems, and articulating that alignment.

"Differentiate from Competitors"

Do you know what sets you apart from your competition? In order to have true Command of the Message, your sales team must clearly understand your organization’s strengths—as they relate to the weaknesses of your competition. Aligning your strengths and differentiation with what’s important to the customer makes it easier for your team to close sales.

What It Means to Your Sales Team

Differentiating from competitors means articulating how your specific solutions align tightly with the customer’s problems. This moves customers closer to choosing your solution because they see the value in picking yours over your competitors.

Differentiating from the competition does not mean bad-mouthing competitors or overstating your solution’s benefits. Those approaches create unpleasant tension for the customer, and foster distrust for your sales team. Instead, teach your sales people to differentiate themselves with effective discovery and helpful consultation, accompanied by tight alignment between your solutions and the customer’s problem.

"Charge a Premium"

Organizations that have true Command of the Message charge a premium for their products and services because customers can easily defend the spend for your solution. The high value of the solution has been articulated and demonstrated. Elevating customer need and urgency, by tying your solution to the business impact of the problem, helps your customers see the value in paying the premium price. 

What It Means to Your Sales Team

By listening to the customer, responding to their needs, aligning your solution to the problem, and differentiating from your competitors, your team sets the stage for truly capturing the value you provide in the final stages of the sales process. Back it up with solutions that follow through on the promise, and your team will drive more repeat business, as well as cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

Leading a sales team that truly has Command of the Message drives:

• Higher competitive win rates

• Higher average deal size

• Greater deal margins

• Stronger and deeper customer relationships 

Drive consistency in your sales organization. Arm your salespeople with the skills they need to truly articulate the value and differentiation of your solution.

How Command of the Message Applies Across the Entire Company

Stop for a minute and think about the departments and the sheer number of people that communicate with your prospects and customers throughout the sales engagement process. If you are selling a complex solution, these buyers may interface with dozens of your people and perhaps hundreds of messages throughout the process. It is up to your organization to ensure that those buyers receive consistency in that message.

We write a lot about what needs to be part of that message – your value, your differentiation, the business outcomes you're able to achieve, etc. – but the underlying value you get from applying Command of the Message to your entire organization is consistency in those components.

Sales organizations often struggle to create a framework that is actually used not only by the reps, but by managers, customer success, marketing, product and all other customer-facing departments. A Value Framework is the tool that can provide this consistency. We believe that an organization will simply fail to thrive in a competitive environment without this consistency and focus on their buyer message.

Alignment Across Teams

When you align your organization around the same messaging framework, it is easily adapted to all components of the customer engagement process. We’ve trained services, marketing, ADRs, and SDRs around the globe because our engagement approach aligns the entire company on the process, mindset, tools and content we roll out in our trainings. Command of the Message applies to these organizations because all of the people within them need to have the same message with a customer.

At your company, how many times has something been promised in the sales process, but not executed? Perhaps, your services or customer success team didn't know that this facet of the project was promised, or it never should have been mentioned because there was no way they could deliver on it. Or, how many times has a prospect seen something on social or on your website and misunderstood the offer or the value they would receive from doing business with your organization? These challenges all come down to an inconsistent message. With a framework that helps command their message, you have a consistent buyer-focused conversation.

Benefits for Key Departments

How Does Command of the Message Help Marketing?

Command of the Message ensures return on marketing's hard work and their investments in campaigns, tactics and compelling content. Because those assets are aligned with what the sales team is saying on calls and in presentations, they're used more and are ultimately, more valuable to the consumer.

How Does it Help Services and Customer Success?

The framework ensures that the sales reps are capturing how the customer will measure success throughout the engagement. Defining these metrics in advance helps these departments ensure that they can deliver on the value promised in the sales cycle.

How Does it Help Inside Sales?

There's no better way to get someone's attention than to have a crisp and compelling message on the value you provide and what makes your solution different than others in the market. At the same time, inside sales reps need a simple tool that helps them to deal with objections, ask the right questions and be audible-ready to deliver their message in seconds. When you have alignment across the organization on the content behind that conversation, a BDR's job becomes much easier.

Command of the Message content is customized to your organization and developed specifically with your buyers in mind. This outside-in concentration ensures that it has cross-functional value, ensuring that anyone engaging with those buyers will be able to execute a value-based message.

How to Drive Command of the Message Success with Sales Enablement

According to sales enablement leaders who have implemented Command of the Message, success comes from treating it as a change management initiative, not just a standard training event. That mindset shift is critical to ensuring adoption and impact across the organization.

Marco Davi, a certified Command of the Message facilitator who implemented the program in a global sales force, outlines several key takeaways for driving adoption:

1. It’s a Change Management Project. Treat it as Such.

Do not think of Command of the Message as a standard sales training course. It is a change management project. Because the Value Messaging Framework (VMF) is not created by sales alone, it creates a mindset shift within the organization at the leadership level and beyond. After our leadership team completed the workshop, the program was delivered to our global team in a highly interactive, role play–driven training. The application of what you learned and the immediate feedback during the role plays made a real difference and improved the confidence of everyone who would have to actually use these techniques with buyers.

 2. Customize the Rollout to Your Team

Command of the Message is customized through a facilitated workshop that brings together sales, marketing, product and other cross-functional leaders. The goal is alignment around the value and differentiation of your solutions. The workshop output is the Value Messaging Framework (VMF), which provides a guide for sales reps to articulate value and differentiation in a way that is meaningful to the buyer.

The customization makes the program practical — "sales-consumable" — and immediately usable, whether by new hires or experienced reps.

3. Reinforce Through Coaching and Certification

After attending as a participant, I became certified to deliver the course to new hires and existing reps looking for a refresher. Being a certified instructor within my company helped us sustain adoption because I could conduct internal trainings and refreshers. The supporting tools — including the VMF and other materials — could be used immediately in day-to-day selling and onboarding.

As with any change management initiative, reinforcement is essential. Without consistent support from all parts of the organization, old habits return, and adoption stalls.

4. Include and Involve Sales Support Teams

To maintain alignment across the organization, it’s important to continue involving sales support teams like marketing, customer success, and inside sales. This ensures your VMF stays relevant and that all roles are trained consistently. Developing role-specific content — such as Discovery Guides for BDRs or Deal Coaching Guides for leaders — helps embed the language and concepts of CoM into different daily workflows.

For example, including customer success teams in training helped us ensure that customer language remained consistent from the sales process through delivery.

 5. Consistent Use of CoM Terminology Across the Business

One of the biggest drivers of success was the consistent use of Command of the Message terminology across all levels of the organization. Whether in sales meetings, deal reviews, or CRM fields, language like “Before Scenario,” “Value Driver,” “Required Capabilities,” and “Positive Business Outcomes” became part of the company’s operating vocabulary. This consistency helped reduce confusion and reinforced the new behaviors long after training ended.

This kind of alignment often starts with a well-planned enablement initiative, especially during major moments like your annual kickoff. If you're preparing for an upcoming SKO or enablement push, you may find our Sales Kickoff Resources Guide helpful to support messaging adoption across your teams.

3 Key Metrics That Prove Command of the Message Is Working

Measuring impact is critical to sustaining any sales initiative. Command of the Message provides a clear structure, but to know it's working, leaders need tangible evidence. These three simple metrics can help you validate whether the framework is driving bottom-line results.

1. Shorter Sales Cycles

Track the average length of your sales cycles over time. Shorter cycles often indicate that reps are conducting better discovery and aligning value more effectively. You can benchmark by measuring a sample of closed deals and comparing cycle duration before and after implementing Command of the Message. Look for steady improvement month over month.

2. C-Level Language and Access

Evaluate how often your team is engaging with executive-level buyers and whether they’re using business-focused language in those conversations. Sellers should be uncovering high-level needs, aligning to strategic initiatives, and articulating business outcomes, not just product features. This shift signals real adoption of the value messaging framework.

3. Use of Customer Proof Points

Monitor how frequently reps reference customer success stories and proof points during calls or presentations. Consistent use reinforces credibility, demonstrates value, and helps customers visualize their future state. Managers can reinforce this behavior through coaching and reviewing how proof points are used in sales conversations and collateral.

Unifying Sales and Marketing with Command of the Message

Command of the Message is often misunderstood as belonging solely to sales or marketing, but its greatest strength comes when both functions are aligned. The framework is designed to create a consistent buyer message that’s supported by the entire organization — from strategic positioning to in-the-moment conversations.

We view messaging alignment in three broad categories:

Value Comprehension refers to your company’s ability to identify and respond to trends in the market. This is typically owned by corporate and product marketing through content, messaging, and campaigns.

Value Offering is how your company translates that understanding into products and services — including product-specific messages that address business needs and customer pain points.

Value Engagement is the ability of your sales and customer-facing teams to articulate value and differentiation at the moment of truth — in real-time conversations.

Command of the Message lives in the Value Engagement layer. It connects marketing’s insights and product positioning to the way sales teams communicate with prospects, ensuring alignment across all buyer touchpoints.

When marketing builds compelling messaging, it’s only valuable if reps can actually use it. Command of the Message ensures that value-based language becomes part of daily selling — fluent, repeatable, and impactful. That alignment helps teams accelerate deals, improve margins, and increase win rates.

More than a methodology, Command of the Message becomes a growth engine that unites strategy and execution, and makes your value clear at every stage of the buyer journey.

What It Means to Truly Command the Message

Command of the Message is more than a sales training — it’s a company-wide discipline that connects strategy with execution. When sales, marketing, and product teams align around a shared message, every conversation becomes an opportunity to create value, build trust, and differentiate in the market. From onboarding new reps to closing complex deals, the framework equips your organization with the clarity and consistency needed to win. The companies that succeed long-term aren’t just the ones with great solutions — they’re the ones that know how to communicate those solutions in a way that resonates. That’s what Command of the Message makes possible.

Force Management's Command of the Message training has produced transformative sales results for hundreds of companies and thousands of salespeople. If you're looking to take your go-to-market team to the next level, a messaging initiative can help drive greater productivity and efficiency in reaching your revenue goals. Let's start a conversation about how we can create a customized solution for your organization's solutions, customers and business objectives.