CustomerHero
Every story needs at least one main character . . . a Hero. In The Wizard of Oz, the main character Dorothy is relatable because her journey reminds us of our childhoods, when the world was filled with wonder and challenge. So ask yourself: âWho is the hero of your story?â Perhaps youâre tempted to yell, âCreatives On Call!â While our services are fantastic, avoid positioning Creatives On Call as your sole focus or hero. Position your client as the heroes transforming their business. Your audienceâs journey is more relevant and compelling.
In this section, weâll use an example of a marketing client challenge. For those who focus on other specialty, think about your clientâs challenge and how you can make them the Hero!
OK, so letâs say youâre preparing for an upcoming client conversation/presentation with Jose Summers, the owner of a local business. Jose is interested in improving client satisfaction, so you create two relatable charactersâa marketing manager (your hero) named Sherry Wilson, and a client. These characters tackle similar challenges your clients face.
Find Your Clientâs Hurdle
Itâs important to recognize and weave your audienceâs challenges into your story. What will they relate to on a human level?
- Is a poor-quality pipeline causing salespeople to miss their numbers and putting their jobs at risk?
- Are poorly trained service agent receiving abnormally low customer satisfaction scores?
- Is a lack of insight into prospects behavior confounding the marketing team?
- Are large corporate training events impacting the bandwidth of the learning & development teamâs ability to onboard new employees effectively?
Challenges with personal impact matter on an emotional level to audiences and are far more powerful than general statements.
For example, Dorothy’s main challenge is finding her way home from the strange and dangerous world of Oz. In our case, Sherryâs daunting journey doesnât include overcoming witches or flying monkeys. Instead, through discovery, you find that Sherryâs clients are not generating as much revenue and her personal income is at risk due to dropping client satisfaction. Now that is some scary stuff!
We Are Better Together, After All
Stories usually have hero-helper relationships. In Wizard of Oz, Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man are all helpers, catalysts that cause Dorothy to grow-up and achieve her goal of getting home.
Guess who the helper is in your conversations and presentations? If you guessed Creatives On Call, you’re on your way home! The value of our services doesnât just rely on bells, whistles, and cool new things. The biggest factor in your clientsâ buying decisions is how our services help them through their challenges. Most of the time your client is looking for a service that makes problems disappear, and weâre here to deliver that.
Compare these two statements, for example:
- We can build a Marketing journey that can send Sherry’s clients emails, text messages, and push notifications.
- Using tailored marketing journeys designed by Creatives On Call, Sherry sends her clients customized messages over any channel they prefer. This guarantees her marketing campaigns are as meaningful as possible to her clients. Sherry automates improved client success measures which improves her client success scores, increases revenue to the company (and her), and Sherry is a hero to her boss.
See the difference? The first statement is weak, whereas the second is a strong helper statement that delivers value. Clients care more about business outcomes than they do about features.
So in your discussion, show your clients how Creatives On Call capabilities keep Sherryâs clients happy and coming back for more.
MarketingStories
How do we show prospects that others have been in their shoes and reached victories? Telling stories about our clients, of course. Stories about our clients is a powerful way to elicit emotion, build creditability, and provide evidence that Creatives On Call has helped others.
So where do you get these stories? Start with the great examples of clients youâve helped. Donât have one thatâs a fit with your prospect? Then reach out to Marketing, they have a bunch of examples or they can help you find them. These include overviews with the clientâs logo, their challenges, Creatives On Call services, and some value numbers.
Good stuff, except these overviews lack a narrative about a Hero and the emotion that others can relate (the pain associated with the Heroâs challenges and the sweet victory of success).
HINT: Take these client success stories one step further by finding out more about the account. Talk to team members who were engaged on the account, to get the story behind the story.
When you can tell their story with enough detail, like visualizing Dorothyâs anticipation of going home when clicking the heels of her red ruby slippers together in the Wizard of OZ, then you know youâre telling a great story!
SUMMARY
In the world of business, storytelling takes the spotlight, and there’s one key player in every story: the hero. But here’s the trickâwhile we know Creatives On Call is amazing, we arenât the star of the show. Instead, let’s shine the spotlight on our clients as the heroes, making the story more relatable and engaging
Now, let’s talk about the challenges our clients face. These challenges need to be woven into our stories, not just as general issues but as real, relatable struggles. This adds an emotional punch that resonates with our audience.
Next up, think about the hero-helper dynamic. In many stories, there’s a helper, and that’s where Creatives On Call comes in. We should show how our services can solve our clients’ problems and bring them real value.
Lastly, the power of client success stories should never be underestimated. These stories stir up emotions, build credibility, and prove that we’ve made a real difference. To make them hit home, we should inject the hero’s challenges and victories. This approach ensures our storytelling is on point and drives action from our prospects.