specific with your details—think red stapler in
Office Space
. Not only will you
draw them in via the co-creative process we discussed in
chapter 1
, but you’ll be
flexing your empathy muscles. If you know they likely order pizza during after-
hours meetings, include that. If you know they likely have a collection of
branded pens from a hundred different sales reps, include that. Each specific
detail you include builds a scene that looks and
feels familiar to the audience,
and in doing so, they will say to themselves, “They get me.”
A word of warning, though. This is a step you cannot fake. Much like the
sales leader at Jack Henry said, you have to
actually know
your potential
customer. Either with time, research, or experience, get to know your audience.
Once you do, include details in the story you tell
that will make the scene
familiar and show them you really get it.
The Real Value of the Value Story
The most important characteristic of the value story is, of course, that it works. It
takes terrible sales and marketing and turns it into something that can captivate,
influence, and transform. The value story makes it easy for your potential client,
your future loyal customer, to understand how great your product or service
really is. No matter who you are or what your story is, when you shift your focus
to the people you want to serve and relieve the pain they might feel or want to
avoid, you’ll stop having to wonder why your marketing seems flat or
ineffective. Create a value story for your offering and you’ll see the results. In
some cases immediately.
At least, that was the case for Sara, a portrait photographer. Like many
photographers, her services were pretty straightforward:
she took pictures of
people. Mainly senior portraits or head shots, sometimes family photos, and a
very occasional wedding. Sara made money when people wanted high-quality
photos. Of course, high-quality photo sessions aren’t cheap, and when you
consider a smartphone can take pictures that satisfy most people’s photo needs,
Sara was constantly trying to bridge the value gap.
One spring Sara decided to offer special Mother’s Day mini-sessions. But
not just any mother-baby photos. Sara wanted to take photographs of adults with
their
parents or grandparents. An interesting twist on a classic offering. Sara
went about marketing it in the usual way. She put
out basic advertisements on
social media and elsewhere, announcing the promotion, the pricing, the times,
locations, what they would get, and how to book.
Crickets.
Not a single session booked.
Needless to say, Sara was disappointed. But she refused to give up, because
this was really important to her.
A few months before Mother’s Day, Sara lost her grandmother. A
grandmother she adored. A grandmother she lived with for ten years as an adult.
A grandmother who, because
of those extra ten years, Sara had the rare
experience of getting to know as an adult. Not just the grandma you know as a
child. A grandmother whose memory, once she was gone, prompted Sara to
search every discarded cell phone and old shoebox for a photo of the two of
them together from those last ten years. A decent
photo with decent lighting
illuminating their matching, imperfect smiles.
But those photos didn’t exist.
Because Sara and her grandmother never took them.
And now Sara would give anything for the opportunity to sit down and, for
thirty minutes, have a few moments captured on film with her beloved
grandmother.
If only people understood
that’s
what this photo shoot was about.
And that’s when it hit her. She should tell that story.
So she did.
Sara rereleased the advertisements for her Mother’s Day sessions, but this
time, instead of focusing on what it cost or the deliverables, Sara told the story
of her grandmother. The response was huge. No one questioned the cost. Instead,
they shared their own stories and how deeply they connected with her story.
What was almost her biggest failure ended up being Sara’s most successful
portrait session ever. Bookings were double any previous sessions, all because
she shared the story.
That is the essence of a value story—to illustrate value in a way nothing else
can. No matter how big or small your business, if you want more sales and better
marketing, start with your value stories. And if you’re
suddenly planning a
Mother’s Day photo session with your mom or grandmother, you’ll have to get
in line behind me.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Founder Story
How Entrepreneurs Use Story to Attract Money,
Customers, and Talent
If a person asking you to invest doesn’t believe her own story, why would you
believe it?
—AMY CUDDY,
PRESENCE
I
n 2013, I was in Las Vegas, at an event and expo for handmade artists,
hundreds of whom journeyed from across the country with truckloads of bins
and boxes filled with their delicate, valuable wares. Each artist set up a booth
inside the football field-sized exhibition hall with
the hope that when the expo
officially opened and a flood of big-name buyers walked through the door, their
booth would stand out enough to draw in a buyer and make a sale.
I arrived the evening before the event began and, as a speaker for the
educational session, was offered a tour of the expo floor during setup. I strolled
by endless rows of booths offering everything from delicate beads to paintings to
scrap-metal statues and painted fabrics and glassware. While each booth was
certainly a little different, many of them were essentially selling the same things.
It wasn’t long before I had distinct feelings of déjà vu. As I approached the very
last row I came across a booth filled with beautiful handblown glassware. Plates,
glasses, serving bowls, and platters swirled with vibrant colors. It wasn’t the first
glassware booth I’d seen at the expo, but it certainly caught my eye. I
approached the man in the booth and greeted him partly out of curiosity and
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