Tell Me A Story
Over the last couple of months, I've had two entrepreneurs come
into our offices to present their respective companies, only to get the
same reaction from me. You see my day-to-day job deals with helping companies find the working capital they need. Out of those two data points, a more generalized
issue is lurking.
Both CEOs waxed passionately about their technology and their
business opportunity. But in both cases, I had a real problem
understanding exactly what the product did, and why customers would
care. They had fallen into the trap of their being too close to their
forest to describe the trees to me.
In the first case, I came up with the somewhat awkward request
to, "Give me an example use case." However, after the second one, I
found a better way to convey my need:
"Tell me a story."
What I was asking for was to be walked through an example of a potential customer encountering the product.
- What is their problem?
- What would they see?
- What would they do?
- Why would that matter to them?
Years ago, as a partner for World Financial Group in MD I went through some media training led
by a guy named Alan Meyer. At one time, he served as a speech writer in
the Reagan White House and happened to be the one on call when the
Marine barracks was bombed in Lebanon. He recounted how he drafted the
address Reagan was to give to the country on that tragedy, and took it
up to the personal residence side of the White House for the President
to review. His draft was very factual, calling out what happened in
straightforward terms. Reagan was sitting there in his bathrobe,
waiting for the draft. He looked at the yellow pad with the speech
written on it and had a response that was immediate and memorable.
He took a red pencil and put a big "X" across the text on the
first page. Needless to say, this is about as strong a slap in the face
as a speech writer can get at any level, but particularly at that
level.
Reagan then turned to him with a somewhat softer tone and said
something to the effect, "The American people don't want the facts, they
need the story." And with that, Alan started work on a second draft. You may recall some of these words:
"This past Sunday, at 22 minutes after 6 Beirut time, with dawn just breaking a truck, looking like a lot of other vehicles in the city, approached the airport on a busy, main road. There was nothing in its appearance to suggest it was any different than the trucks or cars that were normally seen on and around the airport. But this one was different. At the wheel was a young man on a suicide mission..."The "Great Communicator" understood the most powerful thing you can do is put the audience in the picture. Have them feel like they are there, experiencing the issue first hand.
When you go pitch your company to potential investors, don't give them the facts, tell them the story!
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