3 Examples of Strategic Sales Narratives and how to Build them

Everyone says to focus on the customer "pain" or "problem" but what if most
people are not experiencing much pain? They just get on with things. Strategic
sales narratives are sales stories that compel customers to understand why
they need a product. They work because they use stakes, not problems, they
make the client the hero and they begin with change rather than pain. Below
I've summarised Andy Raskin's posts to understand how he helps build
narratives for companies including examples and key points.

Next generation screen sharing for onboarding customers: See what your
customer sees

Also see: How 10 Companies do their Sales
Demos

Contents

What and Why

Positioning comes before the sales narrative. What is positioning?

There is an ongoing argument about which comes first "positioning" or
"narrative" and that's something to keep in mind as you read. Below is my view
as a bootstrapped startup co-founder with a product increasingly moving from
SMB to enterprise sales.

A sales narrative is something you build AFTER you've positioned your product.

Positioning is an input into the sales narrative.

"Product positioning describes the specific market you intend to win and why
you are uniquely qualified to win it"

Positioning has evolved from the old "positioning statement" to a
scientifically structured process.

Here's the modern way to find positioning for your product:

Start by focusing on your best customers.
List your unique attributes that service those customers.
List the real value of each of those attributes to those customers.
Find out exactly who cares about them a lot.
Find a market frame that helps those strengths stand out.

Positioning is something we consider as we build new products or change
direction with an existing product to find a better market.

Read 10 companies show your their market positioning
strategy.

How is positioning different to a sales narrative?

April Dunford wrote the modern book on positioning and is best qualified to
answer:

Below are the first two tweets from her twitter thread on narrative vs
positioning.

"I read an article today that was trying to equate narrative development and
positioning. I don't see these as competing things - I think one is an input
to the other. 1/

Positioning defines who your product is best suited for, what the alternative
solutions are, what value the product delivers for customers. These are inputs
to a narrative - you literally can't write a story until we know who the
heroes and villains are 2/"

A sales narrative is a story you write for the market you're already sure
about.

When you already know how your product solves a problem for your market you
can focus on communicating effectively. You communicate effectively via story
telling.

Why story telling?

Stories work. They always have. We are hard wired for them.

If we've got our positioning right then it's time to work on our story
telling.

Why do you need a compelling story? Because Obi-Wan FAILED to sell the

trip to Luke Skywalker

Even when people say they want something they don't really commit.

"In Star Wars Luke whines about wanting to be a pilot and have adventures yet
when Obi-Wan offers him the opportunity to do exactly that, Luke demurs and
says 'I can’t get involved'”

Luke only chose to go on the trip after they killed his uncle and aunt and
changed his world.

It's a little brutal but proves the point. Put your solution to their
problem in a story line that compels them to act.

Examples

1. What is an example of a great story deck? See how Uberflip used "The

Greatest Sales Deck Ever"

You've probably already come across the "Greatest sales deck ever
made".

Here's a brief summary of the 5 key points of the story it told.

Name a big relevant change in the world
Show how there will be winners and losers
Tease the promised land
Introduce features as magic gifts that overcome obstacles to that promised
land
Present evidence that you can make this story come true

I always thought of that as more of a VC pitch but it appears Uberflip used
that same pitch as their sales narrative.

It worked.

"... in the two quarters since introducing a sales narrative based on that
post, Uberflip has met or exceeded revenue targets, which was not happening
before."

Critically, they also start with the change in the environment rather than a
problem.

What's interesting to me is that everyone says start with the "problem" but
I've always felt that pointing at the problem is like pointing at the
customer and saying "you suck".

As Andy Raskin points out: "when you start with a change (rather than a
“problem”), you build trust with prospects because they’re likely to see you
as a partner in navigating the shift"

The Uberflip example is a great read because it shows you the before and
after decks for comparison.

2. How do you use one sales narrative for multiple different industries

you work with? See Zuora's example.

I love this post because while trying to create a sales narrative you start
thinking "But how can I apply this to all the segments we market to?"

Fortunately, Andy Raskin expands on the initial Zuora "Greatest Sales Deck"
example by showing us how they use that narrative across industries.

"A better approach, clearly, is to have a simple, powerful, high-level story
that connects the low-level ones together"

I especially like how they bring that idea of change to each individual role.

3. Intercom used the same narrative to announce a big update about 21

features they added

I got this email from Intercom today and straight away boooom, I was hooked
into reading it because it sounds epic.

The funny thing is that this update does not really apply to our company.

The features are not really relevant to us.

Yet it's still somehow compelling to hear about a big change happening and
it's almost as if humans are wired to focus on change as a survival skill.
We're curious primates knowing that changes mean opportunity or danger.

Here are their key sub-headers of that Intercom post.

Customer support is undergoing massive, irreversible change
Internet scale and changing customer expectations are driving and
accelerating the change
The Conversational Support Funnel has three layers, and using each one
makes the others better

The headers don't exactly follow the process of the greatest sales deck but
read through it and you'll see they follow the structure within the quotes and
sub-headers.

See Intercom's announcement on their new features starting with
'Change'

4. LiveDocument's narrative: Unlock the volcano of growth trapped in dead documents

You have ZERO interest in this LiveDocument product at present.

Let's see if we can shift your emotions using a sales narrative structure for a product that is great for sales.

Here it is: Unlock the volcano of growth you have trapped in dead documents

Essential points to remember in building your own sales narrative

Below I put together some of the key points from Andy Raskin's blog posts
along with input from some other organisations on sales narratives.

Most people you’re selling to are not experiencing much pain. Don't pitch

problems, pitch stakes

It's almost comical to think about it but I don't go through my working day
thinking about pain points and which software is going to solve that.

Yes, for some absolutely critical problems I will do but most things don't
feel critical until some big catastrophe.

I think people just get on with things.

If someone tells us we have a big problem it may not fully resonate until they
put it in perspective.

Why are stakes better than pain points?

Pain point: You're unhealthy, eat this and you'll be healthier.

Stakes: You're going to die if you don't eat this. Eat this so you can
carry on living a happy life.

What's more compelling?

It's the stakes. It's an ugly truth.

How often do people fail to make a lifestyle change until they get a bit of a
health shock? I guess stakes are a better way to communicate the loss from
inaction.

They are the hero and you are the side-kick

Both Andy Raskin and Cathy Salit mention a similar metaphor, the Hero <>
Side-kick / Wizard metaphor.

You are not the hero solving the problem, they are the hero.

You are the wise guide or side kick helping them navigate the problem.

They are Luke.

You are Yoda.

"Rather, they are entering a preexisting story as a supporting character who
is there to help the hero — the client — achieve his or her goal.

The client as hero. It was a revelation — and one that led to many successful
new practices. Once salespeople understand they are supporting the hero’s
success"

Get your own teams buy-in to the sales narrative by getting them to

"That's right"

You've not only got to pitch the strategic sales narrative to the client but
first you've got to internally sell that same narrative to your own team
members.

This is a good technique.

Andy Raskin mentions the book "Split the difference" by a FBI hostage
negotiator named Voss.

"When Voss analyzed the transcripts of his most unlikely hostage negotiation
victories, he discovered that the turning point frequently occurred right
after his team took the time to listen to the captor’s argument, summarized
that argument back to the captor, and then got the captor to say, 'That’s
right.'"
They said the captor's story back to the captor "So, let me see if I have this straight, your cause is this and america is messed up because... "
Oddly enough, that's also a common copywriting technique.

There's a blog introduction formula I like simply because I find writing
introductions to be difficult and I just want something that works so I can
get in with writing the blog post.

The formula is called APP which stands for Agree, Promise, Preview. The Agree
part comes right after the main headline and has to be a statement which makes
the reader say to themselves "Yes, that's true".

Why?

If they agree then it means the rest of the article is going to be relevant to
them. If you write any articles, emails or blog posts then read more about
Agree, Promise,
Preview.

Also, read the full article getting to That's
right.

Don't overdo the story and end up in the uncanny valley

When I first heard of "The Hero's Journey" I started thinking I've got to do a
Star Wars level story for our company, Upscope
Co-browsing but that's not good story telling.

If you overdo it then you end up in the "uncanny valley" which is summarised
here.

One of the examples given is the Polar Express animated movie which used
realistic looking characters and went into the land of creepy very
quickly. They entered the uncanny valley by being too real.

"We can improve our storytelling with techniques applied from the wealth of
storytelling techniques used by the best screenwriters, playwrights and
novelists, but only to a point."

If you try too hard to be a story teller when you really need the right tone
for your customers then you end up trying too hard and it shows.

A good way to get started on your sales narrative. Who is your Vader?

This is a nice table of company messaging and the Vaders they are battling.

The questions to ask would be as follows:

What, ultimately, is the state your customer desires to reach?

What stands in the way that you can help your customer overcome?

What does it look like when your customer defeats Darth Vader?

What are three ways your company can help your customer defeat Darth Vader?

Once again, read the full article here. I'm just summarising stuff for myself
as much as for you
:)

It's been a pleasure.

Read about Go-to-market strategies as it's another part of the jigsaw
puzzle.

Also see how 10 companies do their
demos
as it has some of the same vibes

Pardeep Kullar

Pardeep overlooks growth at Upscope and loves writing about SaaS companies, customer success and customer experience.