• Tech Go-to-Market: Embrace Authentic Storytelling That Links Business Value With Capabilities to Engage Technology Buyers
• Hank Barnes
• 30 January 2015

Organizations use technology to achieve specific business outcomes, but product features often dominate spoken and written communications from providers. Move to a storytelling approach, which brings facts to life and makes the buyer the focus of the story, to capture interest and build trust.

• The use of traditional messaging documents (such as messaging houses, brand communication guidelines or key message lists) to guide communications reinforces bad behavior, focusing on developing a long list of features and benefits without linking them to contextual stories, a common complaint from technology buyers.
• Developing strong storytelling skills can be difficult without training on specific storytelling structures.
• Shifting communications to more of a business-value orientation is harder than it sounds, due to internal pressures and long-standing practices that cause a deep inside-out focus on capabilities and a desire to share every detail to convey how great the product is.

• Move away from traditional messaging documents in favor of authentic, fact-based stories that are tailored to your buying audience and their buying process.
• Adopt the Situation-Impact-Resolution format to develop storytelling skills, then use positioning and customer stories as key elements in developing specific stories.
• Start with shorter stories, using a progressive engagement approach that communicates just enough value to gain buyers' interest and make them say or think "tell me more," then provide additional details as they are ready for it.

Authentic storytelling is the path that providers can take to connect your product and service capabilities to business outcomes that clients care about.

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