Core value storytelling communicates far more than a detailed technical account of what a team, technician or department “did” to solve an IoT (Internet of Things) customer’s problem. The “What We Did” stories are becoming a bit ho-hum and perceived as a commodity by many clients.
Why? These stories tend to be marketing communications exercises. As a result, these stories never tell the real story behind the story, do they?
After all, everybody has some sort of a business case to make for what they did to help their customers. However, the stories they tell end the story prematurely. As a result, very few individuals and organizations thoroughly tell a highly compelling story.
Consequently, ho-hum business cases and customer stories leave clients asking “So What?” rather than “Tell me more!”
Let’s explore together, shall we?
For starters, IT and engineering professionals understand that core value storytelling is a never-ending story rather than a transient marketing exercise.
Why? Because IT, technical and engineering design, development and deployment create a continuum of exploration between the need for innovation tempered by the requirement for stability.
And that’s the easy part.
The hard part is getting these talented technical and engineering professionals to identify the story that needs to be told. And then teaching them how to articulate it so the story develops more business for their organization.
Action Item: Is your team ready to learn how to tell more effective and valuable stories that leverage core values? Contact me. Let’s co-create a plan tailor-made for your needs.
The first objective of core value storytelling is cultural.
The focus of core value storytelling leverages the ethics, values and beliefs an organization brings to the client’s table, initially and subsequently. When current and future customers perceive a team’s professional core competencies are a good fit to deliver a specific outcome, the client is acquired.
However, customer retention is fueled by the quality of how a vendor or consultant contributes to client experience, competitiveness and enduring success over time. As a result, time allows clients to discover the story behind that vendor’s story.
Consider this. The attributes which catalyze clients to stick around and become loyal to the solutions an organization provides involve more than technical competency. The story behind the core value story develops deeper client insight about a vendor’s or consultant’s cultural core values, as well.
Both current and future (and perhaps more than a few former) clients need to chew on those core values, technical and cultural. They evaluate whether vendor and consultant values will motivate them to be loyal to that client organization over the customer lifecycle.
Also, there are no cheap emotional connection tricks involved in core value storytelling.
Manipulation has no place in IoT core value storytelling. These stories are not an artificial, emotional plea for trust from customers or colleagues.
Keep in mind that delivering on technical competencies is hard-wired into these professionals’ DNA. They eat, sleep and breathe their professional competencies. They wear their professional core competencies like a second skin.
The key to core value storytelling is catalyzing these professionals to wear their stories like a second skin as well.
Rather, clients are invited to become part of a continuous journey that lasts the duration of each IoT customer’s lifecycle. Will the value and competency bandwidth of the vendor / consultant organization support where each client needs to go to remain competitive and innovative?
As a result, core value storytelling focuses on the value of values: both technical and cultural. In creating enduring technical, engineering and business outcomes, the vendor/consultant organization becomes embedded within their clients’ organizations.
That formula creates a rock solid foundation for customer retention.
Consequently, core value storytelling leverages the enduring value of a vendor’s or consultants core values.
Before an organization jumps into storytelling head first, start by capturing one’s professional voice. Then take a deep dive into personal and professional defining moments.
By developing a deeper understanding of value of professional storytelling, IT, technical and engineering professionals continuously deliver their organization’s voice (and theirs, too) to the marketplace.
My advice: Crawl before you fly. Consider the value of a One Millimeter Mindset Storytelling Workshop. I’ve found that these workshops catalyze an organization’s value propositions, too. 😉
Babette Ten Haken is a corporate strategist, facilitator, storyteller, coach and speaker. She humanizes the Voice of the Industrial Internet of Things ecosystem. Her focus: customer success for customer retention. Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset workshops and speaking programs help professionals, teams and organizations achieve breakthrough performance results. Contact her today.
Image source: Fotolia.
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