Sure youâre standing in front of a room full of important people. And youâve got a deck full of pretty slides. But are not here to present anything.
Sure youâre standing in front of a room full of important people. And youâve got a deck full of pretty slides. But are not here to present anything.
Youâve got a sale to make. But be warned â this sale is not business as usual.
You are not selling digital marketing expertise. Or strategy. Or CRM, or search and analytics, or scale platforms or websites or banner ads.
If you read Resonate by Nancy Duarte, or attend her training, youâll understand that a story is the most important tool in a salespersonâs arsenal.
The best stories â even the ones in galaxies far, far away â reveal insights, emotions and truth that paint a unique â yet familiar â picture for your audience. Â
The best stories also create the promise of a world heroically committed to serving those insights, emotions and truths.
Itâs easy to default to templates and bullet points. Telling a story is hard. But I believe you can do it.
Youâve worked tirelessly all weekend to create brilliant ideas that could change the game for your client. Awesome. But sorry, youâre not the hero. So donât pretend to be.
Remember when you walked out of Star Wars and immediately turned a cardboard gift-wrap tube into a light saber? You want your audience to feel the same way. But your story is not about blowing up the Death StarâŠ
If they were, every adventure story would be about 2 minutes long. Frodo hops in a helicopter and throws the ring into Mt. Doom. The End.
Luke, Han and Chewy get their medals in a lavish ceremony. The End. Rocky wins the heavyweight title. Credits.
Bilbo is perfectly fine being a simple â whatever his occupation was. He doesnât really want to have an adventure.
Neo canât escape the Agents in the beginning of The Matrix because heâs afraid heâll fall from the ledge of his employerâs building.
Luke canât raise the X-wing fighter from the swamp. Neo canât make the jump between buildings. Rocky canât beat Clubber Lang.
Every montage sequence in the world.
Aragorn gets crowned King, but Frodo and the other Hobbits return to the Shire where this guy gives them the stink eye.
Your story shouldnât be easy. Your audience needs conflict, surprising turns, and something worth fighting for.
This isnât new to you. Here are just a few of the films that use this storytelling technique:How many audiences have they inspired?Go read about it in detail.
We all struggle with complacency and fear every day, and have to redeem ourselves over and over again. We want to see our own reality reflected in our stories.Â
You donât want head nodding. You want an audience on the edge of their seat, begging to know what comes next.
You want them storming out of your theater, ready to go back to their desks and start making light sabers.
So I just pulled a heroâs journey on you.
I started with your ordinary world â marketing guys.
Then challenged your identity, and called you to become something greater: a storyteller.
I told you what might await you on that path. Let you know it would be hard to change. I gave you a chance to refuse the call.
I was the creepy old wizard. The Gandalf, the Obi-Wan, the Morpheus.I tested you by telling you you werenât the hero â even though I made it apparent you absolutely are.
And I gave you allies and enemies â complacency, fear, failure, and mastery - the elements of the Heroâs Journey.
And I told you that you still have a huge battle to face. Getting your audience to own the story.
That battle, will be selling a story. And the Heroâs Journey can help you win.
Just like Homer, Steve Jobs, George Lucas and Tolkien before you.Now I want you to return to your desks tomorrow ready to make lightsabers, to rethink the way you sell your ideas, and come share them with us next time.
And help make our ordinary world a little less so.
