Our Best Story is Rarely Our History
All your listener cares about is their here and now, and what you can do for them
As a fierce advocate of value-driven #CorporateStorytelling, I coach speakers on how to deliver a presentation or lead a meeting that creates value for every individual in that particular moment. Each person I train quickly learns my trifecta of value for successfully communicating our stories to another person…
Create Differentiation
Clear an Obstacle From Their Path
Motivate Them to Take Action
It all boil's down to WIIFM: What's In It For Me. This is the question our audience is subconsciously asking before the meeting begins, with each word during the engagement, and as we thank them for their time and walk away.
An audience doesn't care about our brand history, the awards we've won, or our command of market share. They're not interested in where we've come from or how we got here, only what they hear from us today, and how we promise to provide value for them tomorrow.
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Q4 Intelligence says your customers don’t care how long you’ve been in business, and that people are not choosing your company, product, or service because of your resume. “There was a time when the “we’ve been around forever” story was an important part of an organizational marketing message. But that was back when businesses ran on handshakes and cigars, and people associated longevity with quality.”
Emanuele Mascherpa says that our past is irrelevant to an audience, which is why starting a presentation with a dry recitation of historic facts and figures will likely bore them and lose credibility. Instead, our story should focus on proving today's expertise and authority to solve our audience's current problems. History refers to the past, but you must sell a solution that simplifies their future.
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It's not that our brand history doesn't matter at all, only that it's a more powerful internal than external story. Knowing where we've come from and how and why we got to this moment is deeply valuable in terms of perspective and learning vital lessons on a path to success. How we successfully leverage that origin and development story publicly is a delicate matter.
Innereactive believes we can intelligently use our history as a tool to connect with listeners based on aligned beliefs and values, to strengthen our brand messaging, and to showcase our expertise. But this only works when our history creates obvious, clear, compelling benefit for our employees, customers, and media platforms.
Bottom Line
History to impress will fail every time. History to create market differentiation, clear an obstacle from the market's path, and inspire the market to action in pursuit of a new goal or target can be #CorporateStorytelling gold.
In every engagement, think of how much you truly care about the past rather than the present of the people you engage with and the brands you trust. Are you more interested in the history of where they've been or in the value they provide for you today and tomorrow?
