Insights & Aha Moments…The Power of Story to drive business and the roles we play

Insights & Aha Moments…The Power of Story to drive business and the roles we play

As part of my work and passion as a life-long learner, I am constantly exploring new sources of information, many times recommendations from my network. Oftentimes there are connections among them that can create Aha moments! The Power of Story to drive business and the roles we play is one such connected Aha moment.

In Building A StoryBrand, Donald Miller talks about the universal structure of compelling stories and how that structure includes both a Hero/Heroine and a Guide. He says that "Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS. That’s really it.".

Miller also says "Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands."

In Retail, as in many fields, there has been a major disruption and power shift redefining the landscape and roles of customers and sellers.

In Remarkable Retail (2021) Steve Dennis tells us that "Whereas for most of the past several decades brands spent millions upon millions on big advertising campaigns and building temples of massive consumption designed to say “Look at us,” now it’s all reversed. Today, the customer is the one saying, “Look at me,” adding, “I am the captain now!”".

Whether in B2C or B2B relationships, there are people with needs and those looking to provide solutions.

Clayton Christensen's 'Jobs to be Done' framework tells us that customers don't so much buy our product or services as much as they 'hire' them to perform a specific job they need done. Specifically, Christensen said "When we buy a product, we essentially “hire” it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, the next time we’re confronted with the same job, we tend to hire that product again. And if it does a crummy job, we “fire” it and look for an alternative. (We’re using the word “product” here as shorthand for any solution that companies can sell; of course, the full set of “candidates” we consider hiring can often go well beyond just offerings from companies.)".

As Rita McGrath says in Seeing Around Corners "Whenever a system has a sufficient number of badly served constituents, an inflection point has fertile ground to take root."

What I've learned is that while it's natural for us to see ourselves as the hero/heroine of our own story it is very instructive and beneficial to consider how that may change when interacting with others.

As Donald Miller also says "It’s no accident that guides show up in almost every movie. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day."

We would do well to position ourselves as that trustworthy guide for our customers. A guide genuinely interested in listening to their needs ('Jobs to be Done') and helping to construct and deliver solutions to improve their lives.

As Daniel Pink says in To Sell is Human "Attuning yourself to others—exiting your own perspective and entering theirs—is essential to moving others. One smart, easy, and effective way to get inside people’s heads is to climb into their chairs."

As guides, we also need to constantly educate ourselves, continue to develop our listening skills, and explore & differentiate wants vs needs.

As Steve Dennis observed in the 2020 Edition of Remarkable Retail "To paraphrase the late, great Harvard Business School marketing professor Ted Levitt, people don’t buy a quarter-inch drill because they want a drill. They buy it because they want a quarter-inch hole." and has Henry Ford once observed: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse.’”.

As Dixon and Adamson?(2011) say in The Challenger Sale "The best companies don’t win through the quality of the products they sell, but through the quality of the insight they deliver as part of the sale itself."

Customers have more choices than ever, literally 'at their fingertips'. Why should they choose us? They will choose us because we understand them, and they can trust us to meet their needs.

In his 2021 update to Remarkable Retail, Steve Dennis tells us that: "Remarkable Starts with Why, Not What Let’s face it: your best customer probably doesn’t need what you are selling. And you are not likely to be the only company from which they can buy it. For this reason, it is often far better, as leadership guru Simon Sinek suggests, to start with why." and that "Starting with why means expanding the view of traditional customer research and data analytics. It requires us to tap deeply into how consumers see themselves and the brand stories that give them the feeling of belonging and a sense of distinction."

One additional common theme I see through these books and articles is the power of empathy which is 'the ability to understand and share the feelings of another'.

In Building A StoryBrand, Donald Miller comments that "Just like in stories, human beings wake up every morning self-identifying as a hero. They are troubled by internal, external, and philosophical conflicts, and they know they can’t solve these problems on their own."

By using our empathy to understand their story (including conflicts, needs, pain-points) and approaching them as a trusted guide who can help them navigate to success we create a win-win and build a stronger, deeper relationship with our customers.

To quote Zig Ziglar, “You Can Have Everything In Life You Want, If You Will Just Help Enough Other People Get What They Want.”

It's my sincere hope that you've found some Aha moments of your own in reading this.

I've also just scratched the surface of the wealth of insights in the books and articles I refer to here and am including a complete list of references to the sources as well links to the books and articles below.

I would love to hear about some of the books and articles that have given you some Aha moments!

Links to Articles & Books:

https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/clay-christensens-milkshake-marketing

https://stevenpdennis.com/remarkable-retail/

https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conversation-ebook/dp/B0052REP7K/

https://www.ritamcgrath.com/book/seeing-around-corners/

https://www.amazon.com/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers-ebook/dp/B06XFJ2JGR

https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Human-Surprising-Moving-Others-ebook/dp/B0087GJ8KM/

Citations:

Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done.” (n.d.). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing. (2011, February 14). HBS Working Knowledge. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/clay-christensens-milkshake-marketing

Dennis, S. (2020). Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Digital Disruption (Illustrated ed.) [E-book]. LifeTree.

Dennis, S., & Kodali, S. (2021). Remarkable Retail: How to Win and Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. LifeTree.

Dixon, M., & Adamson, B. (2011). The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. Portfolio.

McGrath, R. (2019). Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. Harper Business.

Miller, D. (2017). Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen (Illustrated ed.). HarperCollins Leadership.

Pink, D. H. (2012). To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Riverhead Books.