Crafting a business story that soars

If your business does anything out of the ordinary—technical, innovative or downright disruptive—you’ve undoubtedly faced the challenge of explaining what you do. A clear story about your company, your services and how you’re better is a back-pocket essential for every entrepreneur and business owner.

You understand what you do inside and out, but telling the story is, well, another story. The great thing is that once you’ve got the basics down, you can easily adapt them for use with your internal team, customers, partners—even your in-laws.

• Mission statement
• Positioning statement
• Corporate boilerplate
• Elevator pitch
• Tagline

If you’ve struggled to build any or all of these core pieces for your company, relax. Even through they’re different in shape, size and application, they can all flow easily from the same storytelling exercise. Capture all the raw material then distill it into the essence of what you do. Here’s how to get started.

Think like a customer

First, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Instead of the excruciatingly vague, “What do you do?” imagine a prospect breaking the question into smaller chunks: 

1. What type of business are you in?
2. Who are your customers, and what do they want?
3. What problem do you solve?
4. How is your product or service different, better?
5. Why should I care?

Grab a piece of paper or open a new doc and answer these questions with as much richness as possible. Don’t worry about complete sentences—phrases, words, bullets are fine—just let the ideas flow. You’ll use more or fewer of these story details as you move ahead, but they’re all important to capture.

Read through what you’ve written and let it sink in. Edit, add, subtract until your notes ring true for each question. Now it’s time to spin straw into gold.

Accept the mission

If you don’t have one already, a mission statement is a great place to start. Use what you’ve written to answer three questions:

Who do you serve?     How do you help them?       What makes you unique?

Mission statements are short—usually one or two sentences—and they can evolve. They’re traditionally structured as continuations of the phrase: “Our mission is . . .” Here’s an invented example:

To help seniors live richer, fuller lives, Thrivence creates educational and recreational resources based on the latest cognitive and aging research.  

As your company grows, its mission may expand and change. Because your mission statement is primarily an internal tool for you and your team, don’t be afraid to revisit it as your scope and goals change. 

Clarify your position

Your positioning statement is another internally facing description that helps you and your team get on the same page about who you serve, what you deliver and how you prove you do it better. Use your initial brainstorming notes to fill in these blanks: 

For [target customers] with [pain point/need], [Name of company] is the [type of business] that [main activity] better because [proof point 1], [proof point 2], [proof point 3]. 

(Your positioning statement is the ideal jumping-off point for a messaging matrix that can guide communications to all of your audiences. We’ll look at how to create a matrix in our next article.) 

Fire up the boiler

Let’s move on to the corporate blurb or boilerplate. This chunk of About Us copy is a public-facing workhorse with lots of uses. You’ll often see company boilerplate at the end of news releases and on websites. Write your boilerplate with your positioning statement as the starting point.

Again, the goal is to convey who you are, what you do and how you’re better. Round out the blurb with details like history, size, locations and industry recognition. Include an invitation to learn more by calling or visiting your website. 

Keeping your boilerplate copy consistent with every use boosts your SEO. But consistent doesn’t have to mean dull. Check out these examples of boilerplate done right.

Elevate your pitch

You’ve heard the legend: Hollywood scriptwriters with only a minute-long ride had to sell their ideas fast and focused. Well, you need to do it too—whether it’s with customers, investors or members of your networking group. It’s how you tell your story in a clear, personal and customer-focused way. 

The positioning statement you polished is an elevator pitch just waiting to be put in friendly phrases. Read your positioning statement out loud a few times. Start with it as written then begin to put it in your own words. 

Your goal: a version of your story that flows easily and tells the listener, “Here’s why you should choose me.” Once it feels right, test it out on customers and colleagues and make adjustments based on their feedback. Keep the written version with you and practice until it’s second nature. 

Tag it for clarity

How well does your name convey what you do? If your products and services are tough to understand, your name should help tell the story. If you’ve chosen a name that’s obscure instead of clear, adding a tagline below or near your logo can boost understanding and interest. 

At this point in your storytelling process, you’ve thought a lot about what you do and how you do it better. With a tagline, you’re creating the ultimate distillation of that message—capturing the gleam of your unique value in just a few words. 

Taglines are short. They can be complete sentences or fragments: noun phrases like "Research-based resources for richer senior living” or gerund phrases like “Helping seniors live richer lives through research.” Again, use your positioning statement as your starting point. Trim it to its essence, then trim it again. The result should be the ultimate expression of your brand. 

It’s your story—tell it well

Crystalizing what your company does and how it does it better can strengthen your team and motivate your customers. Have fun and take the time to get it right, You’ll definitely reap the benefits.