![]() It is them that ultimately owns the strategy. This became a bit of an obsession for me and my team, and I strongly urge every managing director to read it. How do I create a good framework for storytelling that I can spread to my colleagues? My late-night googling of ‘best sales-deck’ led me to an article by Andy Raskin called The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen. “I had of course seen and read much by Simon Sinek, and seen various TED Talks on the subject of product marketing. We know you to be a storytelling junkie – the best kind! Recently you took a leap from your 10 years in product management, to dig further into product marketing and later strategy. The companies who best understand the customers are the ones who can communicate this most clearly – and win the customers’ trust.” “You have to know your customers on a very detailed level in order to form the strategy and later the strategic narrative. You have to know your customers on a very detailed level in order to form the strategy and later the strategic narrative. This is why data and insight are your best friends in both processes. We sometimes see companies with great ideas, but if the customer benefit and willingness to pay isn’t clear, the idea doesn’t become commercially successful. If this resonates, you build your profit. ”In my opinion, to create a good strategy you should start with the value you create for your customers. A strategic narrative comes first – then marketing can use it to build the message – but the narrative really is the raison d’être for the company.“Īnd how exactly do you approach strategy with storytelling in mind? If you make your story better, you make the strategy better’. To quote one of my other house gods, Ben Horowitz from Andreessen-Horowitz: ‘The mistake people make is thinking the story is just about marketing. They’re the ones who have to develop and own the strategy, take potential consequences and talk about the strategy internally and externally. When I work with companies in Visma, I always involve the owner of the product and, if it is a company story, the managing director, to create clear ownership. So is storytelling just a new way for marketing to convey a message? I have a feeling you think it is something more? I firmly believe that all companies, products and services could benefit from a strategic narrative, or a story.” Liza Collin, Director of Strategy and Commercialisation ![]() Not to mention recruiting the right people. Wouldn’t it be more effective if your customers had an emotional connection with your company and products? Just think how much easier it would be to have the initial conversation, as well as nailing the deal when the communication speaks directly to the customer. Yes, but often, websites and presentations boil down to complicated technical illustrations, features and graphs? For those representing a company, it feels quite nice to be able to show and tell the customer, or their neighbours for that matter, that – yes, we understand these challenges, and we’ve found a solution to it. “Yes, that’s what makes you more credible. So the important thing here isn’t to push your product or the solution in itself, but explaining how you can provide the audience with the outcome they strive for? They want to feel that our offering actually resonates with their daily challenges.” “Customers no longer, if they ever, wish to hear about features and new modules. We want them to imagine what their work life would be like if someone solved their biggest problem.” That we exist to make their life better in one way or another, and that what we spend months and years developing, actually has a connection with the reality they live in. ![]() They want to feel that our offering actually resonates with their daily challenges. That’s a whole lot! I guess we live and act in a world right now where company growth is impacted by how well we connect with our customers. I then gave examples of how to do it and my experiences throughout the years creating over 50 strategic narratives at Visma. As a result, you and your strategy are infinitely more relevant for your audience. “Yes, I spoke about aligning your company strategy and message with your customer’s experiences. Hi, Liza! As our director of strategy & commercialisation, you recently guested the SaaS Nordic conference-known to be the largest B2B SaaS Community in the Nordics.
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