Unlock the Magic in Your Story Now
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
Articles filed in: Storytelling
Gaining The Advantage
filed in Storytelling, Strategy, Success
This week you answered a customer query and solved her problem. You responded to every email, tweaked your resume and made your case well in the last meeting. You ticked off the things on your to-do list, had a look at your numbers and made solid plans for the weeks ahead. And that’s exactly what your competitors did too.
We spend a lot of our time doing the busy work of trying to gain an advantage in an attempt to compete and win. It turns out that the most sustainable path to significance is to do the things that the competition would never dream of doing—the things that only you would do.
You don’t need to compete when you know who you are.
Image by chat des Balkans
A List Of Alternatives To Winning
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Alternatives To Winning
- Caring
- Helping
- Being human
- Growing wiser
- Inspiring others
- Righting wrongs
- Upholding values
- Giving generously
- Learning patience
- Prioritising values
- Practicing empathy
- Building community
- Leading thoughtfully
- Acting with integrity
- Exploring possibilities
- Encouraging progress
- Making a contribution
- Teaching perseverance
- Fostering collaboration
- Experiencing fulfilment
- Working towards mastery
- Changing how people feel
- Questioning the status quo
- Putting people before profits
- Creating the future you want to see
- Doing work you’re proud to have done
It turns out there are more ways to matter than just winning. We get to choose which boxes to tick.
Image by Odwalker
One Or All?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
The blackboard on the pavement outside the florist reads; ‘Flowers for ALL.’
It’s a busy spot with plenty of foot traffic, behind a tram stop, a few doors down from the hospital. Maybe that’s why they’re marketing to everyone, instead of trying to resonate with someone. The marketing speaks to passers-by. But it doesn’t consider why they’re passing by, where they’re going, at what time, on which day. The message doesn’t invite the prospective customer to see how the act of buying flowers could change their day or even their week.
What would happen if the florist altered the message on the blackboard every day or even three times a day? There’s no doubt Monday morning’s marketing would be different from Friday afternoon’s. Perhaps, inspiring the office worker to brighten her desk for the week, or inviting the tired junior doctor to get his weekend off to a good start by surprising his partner.
As marketers, we have two choices, we can say something for the sake of saying something, or we can say the thing that will change something.
What would you write on your blackboard?
Image by Florian Lehmuth
Important
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
It isn’t just your mind that responds when you get an email with the subject line ‘urgent’ or ‘important’. Your heartbeat increases, your muscles tense and your breathing gets faster. You feel bad. Your day is thrown off course, if only for a moment. We hate these emails and resent people who fail to communicate with empathy. And yet our marketing is designed to create urgency. An online search for ‘how to create a sense of urgency’ yields 34 million results. In a commercial world, there is an appetite for knowing how to raise alarm.
How you convince and communicate, is just as important as the way your products are made or your services delivered. The measure of your company isn’t only your conversion rate, profit margin or some other conventional way of keeping score. The measure is how it felt to cross your path. Your goal is to be as proud of the way you’re building, as you are of what you’re building.
Knowing What You Don’t Know
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
The most unhelpful assumption we make as marketers is that our customers know why they need our products or services. From there we think our job is to offer proof—to tell people why we are the best alternative. The first rule of innovation, sales and marketing is to understand the customer’s pain points (often before the customer knows them) and then to show her what life will be like in the presence of your product.
Your success is often determined by knowing what you don’t know about your customers, and by being aware of what they don’t grasp about their problems. Double down on understanding before offering proof.
Image by UN Women
The Art Of Differentiation
filed in Storytelling, Success
We, humans, have always been good at noticing what’s compelling about others. Our species’ survival has depended on our ability to recognise strengths and weed out weaknesses. Today, that skill leads us down the road of unhealthy comparison. We have no trouble rattling off the positive attributes of a colleague, competitor or even the guy working out next to us at the gym. And yet we struggle to be as generous about our own.
It’s fine for Roger Federer to study a competitor’s gameplay before they go head-to-head because he needs to respond tactically in the moment. But the majority of Federer’s winning shots come from understanding his strengths and working on what he does well. Becoming more of who he is gets him over the line.
It’s doubtful that comparing yourself or your work to someones else’s will get you to where you want to go. Whether as an individual or a brand—you can’t own your unique identity if you’re spending the majority of your time looking over your shoulder. Differentiation happens when you authentically amplify the best of you. Not by finding ways to be a version of the competition, but by discovering how to be more of who you are. That’s where your search for clarity needs to begin.
Image by Marianne Bevis
The Power Of Constraints
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
What’s the best thing about the place where you live?
What word describes your favourite book?
What’s the first thing you tell a friend when you recommend a special restaurant?
What standout experience made your last holiday memorable?
What’s the main reason you shop where you do?
What’s the biggest benefit of flying with this airline and not that one?
Why choose Apple over Android? Coffee instead of tea? Vanilla above chocolate?
If you could tell a prospective customer just one thing about your product or service—what would that one thing be? Constraints can be a powerful way to get to the heart or what’s important to both you and the people you hope to serve.
Image by Edwin Bachetti
A World Built On Promises
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Today you woke in a bed the manufacturer promised would give you a good nights sleep. You ate something for breakfast that was made in a factory you have never visited or grown by someone you have never met.
You belted yourself into a car with a safety rating you have no way of verifying and drove to work on roads you didn’t inspect for potholes. You left your kids with teachers whose qualifications you have never seen.
You assumed the coffee the barista served you was decaffeinated, though you have no way of checking. And you drank tap water that you’ve never tested with your lunch.
You knew the free-range chicken you cooked for dinner was in date because the packaging said so. You didn’t question whether your broccoli really was organic because it came certified from a particular store.
You stacked and turned on the dishwasher knowing you would have clean spoons by morning. You set your alarm, certain it would wake you at the right time tomorrow as it always does.
We live in a world built on promises.
It only works when we each do our bit to make them and keep them.
Image by The 5th
How To Get Better At Pitching
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
Every day we fail to convince people about the value we can deliver. For every yes, we get ten no’s. Why? We’re quick to blame the quality of our ideas or our storytelling when we fail. But sometimes we fail because we’re speaking to the wrong person at the wrong time. Rejections often happen because we haven’t qualified the buyer before trying to close the sale, so we need to get better at doing the groundwork.
Five Questions To Answer Before Pitching
1. Am I pitching to the right person?
Often you’re pitching to someone who doesn’t have the authority to make the decision. Check.
2. What’s the underlying need (read fear) of the person I’m speaking to?
You must understand the client’s primary pain point before explaining how you can solve their problem. Question.
3. Is the prospective client ready to buy?
Sometimes the person wants to have a conversation about their challenge. They may not be in the market for a solution. Query.
4. Does your prospective customer’s budget align with your fee?
Make sure the numbers stack up before you have a conversation. Ask.
5. Why you (in particular)?
It’s important to know how the prospective client heard about you and why they felt compelled to contact you. A recommendation is different from a Google search. A reputation that precedes you trumps stumbling on your LinkedIn profile. Enquire.
We spend a lot of time telling our story to people who have no intention of buying. As my friend James Victore says, your work is a gift. Make sure you’re devoting your energy to the people who do want your help.
Image by Steven Zwerink
The Value Of An Internal Brand Narrative
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
In a commercial world, we use stories tactically to convince and convert prospective customers. We work hard to change minds and capture hearts, with persuasive words and evocative images in an attempt to make an emotional connection with the people we want to reach. The stories we tell our customers form our external narrative.
We’re less aware of how the stories we tell ourselves shape our sense of meaning, purpose and agency about the journey we’re on. Our internal narrative creates value by helping us to make sense of the difference we’re here to create. It develops our brand’s identity, influences our behaviour and ultimately helps us to differentiate and realise our potential.
It’s easy to describe features and benefits and far harder to demonstrate what you stand for and why. Your goal should never be to invite a like-for-like comparison. It should always be to affirm the truth about what makes your brand incomparable and worthy of the customers you hope to serve.
Image by Arjun. V