​Read online​

Welcome to Unpacking Meaning. If you received this from a friend and enjoy it, ​subscribe here.

Your website is becoming a sales conversation

Nearly every B2B buyer visits your website before they ever talk to sales.

And not just once. They’re there multiple times. Researching, comparing, and forming opinions.

By the time they show up to a demo, they already think they know what you do, how you’re different, and whether you’re a fit. The call is just to confirm what they think they already know.

Where did those opinions come from? Increasingly ChatGPT or Perplexity, G2 reviews (they're acquiring Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner btw), Google, and Peer recommendations. Plus, your website.

Your website is one source among many. But it’s still the one you control completely. And it’s still the one most of them will visit before they make a decision.

Your website isn’t a brochure anymore.

It’s not even a marketing asset in the traditional sense.

It’s a decision-making tool. The first, most critical sales conversation you’ll ever have with a prospect.

And I don’t mean with chatbots or some interactive widget. I mean the structure itself, the way you organize information, the value props you use, the paths you create, the questions you anticipate… all of it needs to work like an actual conversation, not a fire hose pointed at everyone who lands on your homepage.

Because when a CMO lands on your site, they’re asking completely different questions than a Head of Growth, or someone in IT.

The CMO wants to know if you’ll make them look smart to the board, they’re comparing you to the category leader, to the brand they already know. To the safe choice.

The Head of Growth wants to know if you’ll hit pipeline targets in Q2.

And the IT lead might need to know how you integrate with their stack.

Same product. Different conversations.

But all of them—hell, every buyer who visits—are asking the same fundamental question: “Why should I take a risk on you instead of going with the name I already know?”

The problem is that most websites try to answer every question for every person on the homepage.

And worse, they bury the answer to that fundamental question under generic value props and buzzwords. Your visitors aren’t reading your feature wall in detail. They’re scanning for a reason to believe you’re worth the risk of not choosing the safe option.

The best websites I’ve seen lately let you choose your own path early. They guide you based on what you care about and who you are, not what the company wants to say.

​Peep Laja says it’s about understanding what you do that others don’t or can’t do. I’d add: it’s also why and how you do it.

Especially now, when every SaaS site is starting to sound like it was written by the same person (cough, cough… AI), people are looking for something different. They’re looking for a point of view. A strong opinion.

The safe choice isn’t safe anymore if it’s also boring and indistinguishable.

So the question is “what do you believe that your competitors don’t? And can someone figure that out in 90 seconds on your homepage?”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth most teams aren’t ready to hear:

You can’t have that sales conversation on your website if you haven’t documented your value proposition first.

According to HubSpot’s research, nearly 6 in 10 businesses haven’t documented their unique value proposition. And it gets worse: over three-quarters of teams without a clear value proposition “moderately to highly” miss their goals.

Most teams think “documenting your value proposition” means writing one statement and moving on.

That’s not enough.

If you want messaging that actually converts and that can shape different conversations for different ICPs on the same website, you need value propositions documented at multiple layers. Each one serving a different purpose and feeding into the next.

Here’s how I think about it:

Layer 1: Positioning statement

This is your strategic anchor. Even if it’s not customer-facing, it’s the first value-oriented artifact in your system. It answers: Who are we for? What do we do? How are we different? Why does it matter?

This is the foundation.

Layer 2: Key messaging pillars

These are the 3-5 core themes that support your positioning, seen through different lenses, for example pain, gain, logical, emotional. They’re the big ideas you want every piece of content to ladder up to.

Think of them as the chapters of your story.

Layer 3: Value proposition canvas (by ICP)

Now you go deeper. For each persona, you map:

• The problems they face (and the implications of those problems)
• The solutions you offer
• The benefits they get
• The jobs they’re trying to get done
• And turn these sequences into JTBD value prop copy.

This is where you stop talking about your product only and start talking about how it fits their world.

Layer 4: Product-specific value propositions

You document how each product or feature delivers value, seen through the lens of each persona. Especially useful if you have a product suite or sub-products that solve very different use cases.

Layer 5: ICP playbooks for enablement

This is where it all comes together, especially if you’re selling to 4+ different ICPs. You take everything from Layers 1-4 and package it into playbooks that your sales, customer success, and marketing teams can actually use.

Each playbook includes:

• The persona’s specific pain points and desired outcomes
• Which messaging pillars resonate most with them
• Value propositions tailored to their world
• Ways of addressing their objections
• Product positioning that speaks to their priorities
• Real-world examples and talk tracks

So why does this matter for your website?

Because when you document value propositions this way, you’re building a system that lets you write copy that speaks to the right problems, for the right personas, at the right stages of their journey. You’re giving your website the raw material it needs to become that sales conversation. The one that answers “Why you instead of the safe choice?” before they ever need to talk to sales.

And here’s the extra juicy win: your teams (and your LLMs or agents) finally have the context they need to make decisions, write with confidence, and stop guessing what resonates.

DISCOVERY

If you read anything else this week, read these...

• I loved this piece by Dharmesh on the 3 AI agent quotients, especially the idea that context is multiplicative, not additive. You can have a super intelligent, and "emotionally" capable agent, but without the right context, it will be useless.
• Alina Vandenberghe shared what makes a great PMM in 2026. As AI eats the mechanics, the edge shifts to meaning-making (look at this newsletter's name 👀) systems thinking, emotional translation, and aligning product, sales, and marketing around a shared narrative.
• Finally, this one hit home. Vex King’s framing of “the death of depth” feels uncomfortably accurate in a world obsessed with speed and surface. Depth is one of my 3 words of the year, and a big focus, so this was a timely reminder that meaning, mastery, and real connection all demand slowness and attention.

RESONANCE

Tor Norretranders, The User Illusion

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Silvestri Founder & conversion alchemist

🙌🏻 Let’s be friends (unless you’re a stalker)​

When you're ready, here's a few ways I can help

Not sure where to start? Take our free message-market fit scorecard.​