![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() What evidence do you have to prove that you can take them there?.How are u getting them over the obstacles? what are the obstacles on the way to the new ‘promised land’ - we know there are some, otherwise customers would already be there.What is the new ‘promised land’ - where is it that customers have to get to.Showing how this change is creating winners and losers.Naming the change in the world that’s creating stakes for customers.There are five pieces of framework to focus on when creating your strategic storytelling: ‘ Why great pitches come from customers’.There are a couple of posts you can read on this: You should always start by talking to the customer, but not to ask them what they love about the product etc (as valuable as this is), but to focus on what has changed in their world over the last few years and how those changes have made your services or product more valuable and a must-have. The internal team usually has some sense of what’s changing in the world of the customer, but the best person to ask is the customer. This structure flips the main character from the product or company to the customer and focuses on what’s happening with them. The product or company is usually the main character in a company’s storytelling. A traditional approach is to describe the product. Look at all the different elements of your story and think ‘whose story is it?’. How do you find the change you need in your storytelling structure when it isn’t apparent? Build the story alongside sales, then tell that story everywhere. They should spend a couple of months crafting the story and then making sure everyone is aligned (though the aligning part is often the hardest part!). The strategic story team should consist of the CEO and around 4 or 5 other people. It’s also then a sales first approach, rather than a traditional marketing approach, or someone else’s view on the story. It’s also an asset which can be tested out on customers, so you can see if it’s resonating. What makes this a good idea, is that it has all the pieces of the strategy in a narrative flow, rather than the ‘promise’ of a brand statement. What I’ve found works best, is to begin the positioning exercise using the sales deck as an instrument for aligning the narrative. In reality, this never actually happened. This often would come in the form of companies wanting customers to see something they’d never seen before and whatever this positioning would end up being, it would then be the guiding light or DNA for everything the company did. In my career I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of positioning work. How do you approach the process of strategic storytelling? I haven’t worked with the aforementioned VCs directly, but have worked with many of their portfolio companies, and have had interest from bigger companies such as Salesforce and IBM. This question is the impetus for all the work I do, but I’m still learning and have picked up some great lessons along the way. So the key question all CEOs should be asking themselves is what does it take to align the whole team around a simple story? Companies, especially those in B2B SaaS, who are focusing on having a customer centric story, are leaving everyone else behind - even those with a comparable or better product. What has since happened is that CEOs have seen their story as a strategic asset, maybe the most important strategic asset for the whole team. Product was the really important thing and the story was just the dressing for it. It used to be that the story was the wrapping paper for the product. ![]() When I started out there was a real shift towards strategic storytelling. You can watch the full video here or read a summary below. He’s also led strategic storytelling training at Salesforce, Square, Uber, Yelp, VMware and General Assembly. Clients include teams backed by Andreessen Horowitz, KPCB, GV, and other top venture firms. Here’s why.'Īndy has built a career around helping hundreds of Founders and CEOs align their teams around a strategic stories to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product, and recruiting. Notion’s Stephen Millard first came across Andy when he posted an article in 2016 called ‘The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen. Andy has become the go-to guru in Silicon Valley and beyond for aligning CEOs and their leadership teams around a strategic story - a category-defining narrative that powers success in sales, marketing, fundraising, recruiting, everything. Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting strategic messaging and positioning expert, Andy Raskin, for an AMA (ask me anything) session with the Notion Family. ![]()
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