PPB May 2018

70 | MAY 2018 | THINK us and our product and onto the client and his or her objectives. What this does in the minds of our clients is transformative. Much of what resonates with us and a story is our empathy toward the characters. A story is both personal and universal, ecumenical and intrinsic. A story is at once both a window and a mirror. Immediately, intimately, we personify story, we peer into the plot and simultaneously look within ourselves. When we hear a story, watch a movie or read a book, we are looking both outside ourselves and within, and we engage with a story when we identify most with the people in it. It is the same with prospects who read or hear your marketing message. They only care about what’s important to them; they don’t care what you’re selling, but they will respond to your marketing message if they identify with the characters in it. To paraphrase the writer Wallace Stegner, “A work of art [a story] is not a gem, but a lens.” Prospects will engage with your marketing message when they can see themselves through the lens of a story. I first tried this method at a large marketing conference when I was seated next to the vice president of a mega-corporation. She posed the dreaded question asking, “What do you do?” Instead of relying on a canned elevator speech, I told her the story about how several hundred employees would show up at work that day and learn that their company was being rebranded. I shared the story from the perspective of the company’s marketing director and conveyed her initiative and how it was important to deliver the rebranding news in a manner of celebration and to strive to cultivate brand champions for this significant new initiative. The minor character in the story—the promotional product—was the vehicle for this critical message. Each employee received a beautiful mug with a simple note from the CEO tucked inside, inviting them to the online store to select their own apparel featuring the new branding. I knew the story had caught her attention when she continued to pepper me with questions about the project, which ultimately led to her final question, “And you guys did all that?” Mission accomplished. Instead of diminishing what we do to rehearsed taglines, I had told her a story about a real project with real people. The product didn’t hog the spotlight; it served its supporting role in a much larger drama. The purpose of the product was to reinforce the company’s initiative. She identified with both the people and the challenge in the story, and the message became more memorable than simply talking about products. Our industry is complex. Countless products confuse the work that we do. The reason you freeze when someone asks, “What do you do?” is because it’s too big. There are too many products, too many objectives. And if you’re a seasoned sales rep, you’ve worked on so many initiatives by now that your only choice at that moment is to reduce your life’s work to a handful of products, instead of focusing on the transformative power that a product can initiate. Poet David Whyte wrote, “Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.” With our marketing, we must consider the products we are so familiar with but see them through the perspective of the customer and their objectives. Telling a story is both art and discipline, but it is a craft that can be learned. Author Stephen King wrote, “I believe large numbers of people have at least some talent as ... storytellers, and that those talents can be strengthened and sharpened.” By shifting the perspective of our stories, we enchant our audience with a message that matters to them, and once we do this with regularity, we’ll strengthen our storytelling muscle and begin to craft stories that pulsate with life andmeaning. Marketer Seth Godin wrote, “The most valuable forms of marketing are consumed voluntarily.” When we craft our marketing messages through the vehicle of a customer story, we not only invite our audience into an experience they can share, but we create that moment novelist Barbara Kingsolver talks about that is only possible with story—we “carve something hugely important into a small enough amulet to fit inside a reader’s [listener's] most sacred psychic pocket.” We craft a marketing message that endures. Bobby Lehew is chief content officer at commonsku, an industry business management platform. He has won multiple PPAI Pyramid awards and was named to OKC Biz magazine’s 40-Under-40 in 2009 and to ASI’s Hot List in 2010. The reason you freezewhen someone asks, “What do youdo?” is because it’s too big. There are too many products, toomany objectives. And if you’re a seasoned sales rep, you’ve worked on so many initiatives by now that your only choice at thatmoment is to reduce your life’swork to a handful of products, instead of focusing on the transformative power that a product can initiate.