Customer Story Framework & Procrastination

Hey stranger,

It’s been a little while. Three weeks to be exact.

After I published the?last podcast episode of season two, I took a break from the newsletter to prepare the next steps for this publication.

They will be announced soon. I know. So much suspense. ??

What else, let’s see…

…ah yes we’ll move to NYC for 3 months beginning of April.

So if you start getting emails from me at 11pm, rest assured it’s not because I am close to a burnout.

Anyhow, a lot of words to say:?The newsletter is back on track. ??

So hop on the train and let’s get to…

...Today's topics

?? Brand Strategy: Customer Story Framework

??? Tools of the Trade: Articles, Tools and Inspiration for Marketers

??? Reflections from the Trenches: Preparation is Procrastination in Disguise

?? Brand Strategy

Customer Story Framework

If you think back at any larger purchase that you made, it usually goes like this:

1. Something big in your life or in your environment has shifted or is about to shift (e.g. a new baby is on the way).
2. You decide to start investigating possible solutions helping you with this upcoming big event (e.g. shopping around for a bigger car).
3. During your research, you are faced with a flurry of decisions that you need to make in order to choose what’s right for you (e.g. electric vs. gas, size of car, brand of car, design...)
4. After a lengthy process you decide to go for the Tesla Model Y, because?you just felt?that this particular car and model suited your needs best.

But whether you realize it or not, you actually purchased that car because you have?first?bought into the story that you were told (or more often than not: told yourself)?about?that car.

You see, we humans have a need to justify our actions in a way that they fit in with the overall story we tell ourselves about who we are.

As a company you have two options: Leave it up to the potential clients’ imagination to fill in the gaps of how your product or service fits into their story, OR take them by the hand and intentionally craft and tell a story around your product that they can identify with and makes them feel understood.

The following?framework by Scott Schwarzhoff?introduces us to a simple methodology to do just that.

The three why’s to crafting your customer story

Let’s have a look how you can tell a story around your product, brand and company, that actually helps people see how your product fits into their current reality.

1. Why buy anything?

Explain how your customers world is changing

In the first step you are making the customer see what you see. The very reason that your product or service even exists.

• What big shift is your industry undergoing that if not addressed could lead to a negative impact or a major missed opportunity?
• How can you align with your customers behind a shared belief of how their world is changing?

→ Example from our agency GrowthBay:?Relying on your sales team alone to bring in new customers doesn’t cut it anymore. In today’s world, prospects are educating themselves online about possible solutions in your industry sometimes years before a sales rep ever reaches out to them. You need to educate your customers early and often where they already hang out (without trying to sell them anything). Because when they are ready to buy they will remember where they got their information and education from, and if it wasn’t you, it was probably your competitor.

2. Why buy now?

Identify critical business initiatives and urgent existing problems

In the second step, it’s your job to link the changing world you just painted with an actual important or urgent existing problem the customer has.

• Understand what key growth initiatives or urgent business priorities you can tap into.
• Understand the customers current (in)ability to meet their most important and urgent priorities.
• Connect how the world is changing with how their business is changing.

→ Example from our agency GrowthBay:?In a call with a prospect we learn their sales team underperformed three consecutive quarters in a row and their board decided something needs to change. For next year they have defined a key initiative to overhaul their go-to-market strategy.

3. Why buy you?

Prove that you are the right solution to their problems

In the third and final step, you connect one of the existing problem or key initiatives that you identified with what you offer as a company.

• Explain how you can help them succeed with their most pressing priorities.
• Prove why you are in a unique position to solve their problems vs. other solutions they might consider.

→ Example from our agency GrowthBay:?We show the prospect how we tripled inbound sourced leads within a year for several of our clients (in a similar situation as theirs) by following a tried-and-proven demand creation strategy. We explain the process of how we find existing customer acquisition bottlenecks and identify dormant growth opportunities that scale. This shows that we understood their problem and provides a clear path how we contribute to the boards’ laid out priorities.

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Why are the “Three Whys” so powerful? Because answering these three questions concisely and completely leads a prospective customer through the three stages of the buyer’s journey to arrive at a decision that your company has the one and only answer to a very urgent problem. Keep in mind, of these three questions, understanding customer urgency is the single most important and hardest part to get right.

So make sure you truly understand the triggers and priorities of your customers before you blindly sell your product or service to the market.

???Tools of the Trade:

Articles, Tools and Inspiration for Marketers

?? The Importance of Rest

"I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.”

- Poet May Sarton

?????Marketing & Leadership Education

• 10 Lessons from Great Businesses?- The magazine?The Generalist?takes apart businesses to figure out what made them successful. This is a distillation of their biggest learnings over the years.
• You’re Repurposing Content the Wrong Way?- There are a million articles about how to make the most of your content. Most of them miss the point, this one doesn’t. “Active Repurposing” is the way to go.

???Brands and (digital) Products that caught my eye

• Jam?(Chrome Plugin) - Post-its for Websites. Found a bug? Take a screenshot, record a video, or share the last activity of your session in one click. Such a smart solution.
• Opal Webcam?- Why on earth did it take so long until we got a webcam that looks stellar and delivers DSLR-like high quality images. I’m in love.
• Rize?- A personal time tracker that logs in the background how much time you spend on which website and in which app on your computer. Spits out detailed reports on how you spend your time, so you can decide and focus on what matters.

???Interesting reads

• How our System Revenges Rest?- It seems like our work-life’s are setup so that we are punished for resting and taking a break. Thought provoking!
• Questions Concerning Technology?- “I can safely say that we in tech don’t understand the emotional aspect of our work, just as we don’t understand the moral imperative of what we do. It is not that all players are bad; it is just not part of the thinking process the way, say, ‘minimum viable product’ or ‘growth hacking’ are.” → We need to ask ourselves better questions UPFRONT when we design software so that they don’t have so many negative externalities down the line.

?? Reflections From the Trenches

Preparation is Procrastination in Disguise

We humans love to plan, don’t we?

It seems the expected approach to life is to only do things we are completely ready for.?But the faster the world changes, the more that mindset no longer works. By the time we’re ready for the next meticulously planned step, the situation has changed, and we’re three steps behind.

So as the world speeds up ever faster, I boldly proclaim:

The people who are going to thrive in this new world are those who know how to take a leap before they feel 100% prepared.

Don’t fool yourself

It is SO EASY to fool ourselves into believing that we are responsibly researching, planning and preparing, when in fact we are procrastinating on taking the next action that moves our priorities forward. On the surface, these two paths look the same, but they lead to entirely different places.

Preparation is important. Planning is important.?To a certain degree.?Past that, ask yourself: I am planning or am I procrastinating?

To the rescue: Questions to keep yourself in check

I tend to over-plan frequently, so I try to review the following three questions once a month:

• What are you endlessly planning and strategizing but never taking action on?
• What activity that you call “preparing” is actually a form of procrastination in disguise?
• What action that you insist you are not ready for is in fact ready and waiting for?you?

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In the end,?only by taking action on your plans will they interact with reality. And the earlier you can do that, the more accurate your picture of what is required next will be.

That's it for this week.

Talk soon,

Sandro