Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

partners, regulators, advertisers, and most of all, angry spouses who need
convincing your late hours are worth the effort. Here are some selling strategies
to get your productocracy moving.

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TELL A STORY
If you want to sell more of anything, give your product or company a story.
People love stories because it’s how we make sense of our world. Linking a story
to your company or product gives the customer a chance to become part of the
narrative. When the story resonates with your customer’s identity, it strengthens
your brand.
Remember the story about Arnel Pineda, Journey’s lead singer? I was a casual
fan. However, once I learned the captivating story behind Arnel, I went from
casual to engaged—I searched for tickets and started buying songs. That’s story’s
power.
Stories and their powerful effect on buying psychology has been proven.
SignificantObjects.com
is one such experiment that demonstrates how narrative
can impact the perceived value of any object. At Significant Objects, common
thrift-store items were purchased cheaply and then resold on eBay, except with
one difference: 
A powerful story was linked to the objects
. As a result, items
purchased at an average of $1.25 resold for many times more, nearly $8,000 in
total. A one-dollar jar of marbles, storied and sold for fifty dollars.
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A one-
dollar wooden apple core, storied and sold for over one hundred dollars.
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And
dozens more.
Another benefit of the story is it frames your brand.
Take for example Stur flavor enhancers (
SturDrinks.com
), which are natural
water sweeteners. I originally found this company while addressing my pain
point: I sweeten San Pellegrino mineral water but avoid doing it unnaturally. I’ve
been reluctantly using the Skinnygirl brand, which is an obvious brand
mismatch: I’m not skinny or a girl. Skinnygirl was the only flavor enhancer that
didn’t use artificial sweeteners and colors. In search of something stevia-
sweetened and without artificial colors, I found Stur in my local supermarket. On
the tiny bottle was a short story behind the brand. On their website, the story
goes long form:
Stur was born while my wife was pregnant with our twin girls. The doctor had
recommended she drink 8-10 glasses of water a day— but like most Americans,
she wasn’t drinking even half of that! And she was getting dehydrated. So to help
her, I started looking for healthy ways to flavor her water. I went to the store and
searched the drink mixes, but found that they were all made with artificial

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chemicals that we didn’t feel comfortable putting in my wife’s body. Finally we
started making them ourselves, using real fruit and stevia extracts. It took us over
a year and hundreds of different combinations to land upon a blend that tasted
better than most bottled sugary drinks! 
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Using this story further, their website continues the brand strategy by
apportioning sales to a nonprofit organization dedicated to water resources.
Anyhow, notice how businesses are founded based upon real needs, not what’s
convenient, easy, or loved. The founder then explains how his friends reacted to
his venture:
When I first told my family and close friends about Stur, they told me I was crazy
to launch a product in this category, competing with established, multi-billion
dollar companies.
This powerful statement tells a potential Stur customer that their purchase
helps a man with a family—not a faceless giga-corporation. Who would you
rather do business with? Tell your audience WHY you are in business; be
fiduciary about it. When they make the connection, they will choose you over the
big bully on the block.

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