Many small business owners believe that telling their company's story will help grow their business, but this approach often fails. Instead, businesses should focus on the customer's story, positioning the customer as the hero and the company as the guide that solves the customer's problems. This customer-centric storytelling approach is more effective in engaging clients and closing deals.
Many small business owners have a strong desire to tell the story of their business. They believe that sharing their company values, history, and journey will help attract customers and grow their business. However, this approach often does not yield the desired results. In fact, telling your story in the traditional sense rarely helps grow your business.
A common scenario is when businesses open their pitch or presentation by talking extensively about themselves. For example, a company that cleans airplane engines once presented a pitch deck where the first ten pages were dedicated to their company values. Despite this, they struggled to close accounts and wondered why.
The problem lies in the focus of the story. When you start by talking about yourself, your company, or your values, you are not engaging the customer. You are opening with content that is about you instead of about the customer. This approach fails to capture the customer's interest or address their needs.
Storytelling in business should be about inviting the customer into a story where they are the hero. In any story, there are several roles: the hero, the victim, the villain, and the guide. In your business story, the customer is the hero, and your company is the guide.
You should never position yourself as the hero. Instead, your role is to guide the customer through their challenges and help them overcome obstacles. This shift in perspective makes your story relevant and compelling to the customer.
A well-structured business story follows a clear format:
This structure hooks the customer by first acknowledging their struggles and then offering a way out through your services or products.
In the case of the airplane engine cleaning company, their pitch deck was redesigned to focus on the customer's problems first. Instead of talking about their values, they presented the issues customers face with airplane engine maintenance and how their service solves these problems efficiently.
This approach made the pitch more engaging and relevant, increasing the chances of closing deals.
Telling your business story is not about sharing your company's history or values upfront. Instead, it is about crafting a narrative where the customer is the hero facing challenges, and your company is the guide offering solutions. By focusing on the customer's story and structuring your pitch around their problems and your solutions, you create a compelling story that resonates and drives business growth.
