A Marketing Mix

Story time isn’t just for kids. In my analysis, top sales reps use stories at almost every stage of a deal -- clarifying the product, overcoming objections, answering questions. No matter what step they’re at or what the issue might be, they have a story on hand.

But the powerful art of sales storytelling is only mastered by a few. One reason is that salespeople aren’t taught how to talk about case studies and other marketing content as stories. It’s great to create written case studies, film an accompanying video or two, and put those resources on the website for potential customers. But the next step should be to provide training that walks salespeople through the talking points in the context of a story.

Also, too many sales reps use case studies as a way to puff out their chests. But they’re much more effectively put to use as a way to talk through challenges from the buyer’s perspective. Less “look how great my company is” and more “here’s how our client’s life got better thanks to our help.”

Here are the elements that should be in every sales story, to help both sales and marketing determine how to structure these valuable tales....

If there's an overall caution, it's against, in the words of Ms. Nelson-Field, "putting a disproportionate amount of effort into engagement and strategies to get people to talk about a brand, when you should be spending more time getting more light buyers."

Following the collapse of the social network Friendster, computer scientists have carried out a digital autopsy to find out what went wrong.

"Starting today, we’re launching a pilot of sorts that will allow partners to promote eBay on any site in a manner that fits within the spirit of our Code of Conduct."

A decision made by another party, one they had no control over, took a wonderful business and destroyed it.And that’s precisely what you risk every day you make your business completely dependent on another company.  It might be Facebook. It might be eBay. It might be Google.  It’s called digital sharecropping, and it means you’re building your business on someone else’s land.

And it’s a recipe for heartbreak and failure.

public relations, marketing, advertising and branding?  Then you'll enjoy this!