When storytelling skepticism creates decision making mistrust, your storytelling strategy falls short of convincing customers to do business with you.
Now, you think you do the right things the right way. First, you invest a lot of money in a content marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website. Then, marketing automation provides follow up on these “leads”. Sometimes, even a live inside sales person calls the individual downloading the asset.
So, why is isn’t your storytelling converting decision-maker leads into customers?
When skeptical decision makers are not able to place their trust in the stories you tell, you generate storytelling skepticism.
In working with growth-oriented organizations and associations, like yours, three reasons emerge for storytelling strategies which fall short.
Your stories are too good to be true.
When the stories you tell always have perfect products and services creating perfect endings, they sound unrealistic. First, the stories sound cherry-picked. Next, these stories lack behind-the-scenes details which anticipate questions the decision maker has regarding the story’s context. Then, the stories solely focus on your organization’s or association’s solutions.
As a result, decision makers are left asking themselves one question: How does this story apply to me? Too-good-to-be-true stories lack relevance to that decision maker’s day-in, day-out context. So, decision makers are not drawn into your story in a trusting manner.
The stories are too dramatic and epic.
Are the stories you tell primarily focused on crisis situations, featuring deployment of field service teams and after-hours support? Let’s face it. These big, sexy stories truly showcase the breadth and depth of an organization’s product, service and people offerings. Except, these stories can marginalize organizations and associations who typically do not experience these dramatic scenarios.
Yes, you say. But what if that situation happens? Ever? Will customers be prepared? Now, think about it. No customer does business anticipating customer experience angst: an epic crisis or urgent, dramatic situation requiring your organization’s triage. Do your stories ever consider the quality of everyday support for everyday scenarios? Can your organization even be diligent about ho-hum customers? If dramatic stories cause decision makers to be skeptical about the level of attention they will receive, post-sale, how can they place their trust in you?
Storytelling is being told by hired guns.
When organizations and associations outsource to professional content creators, storytelling quality often becomes a trade-off for endorsement or, simply, promotion. Consider that content creators often create content for a variety of brands, using a specific writing formula. However, are these writers truly engaged in telling your organization’s or association’s story in a manner inviting a targeted decision maker’s trust?
Also, due to the plethora of content created to build brand recognition and promotion, your stories – even if told well – can be buried in social noise. When decision makers are skeptical about other brands’ storytelling, their skepticism can have a halo effect impacting their trust in yours. In spite of your best, and most sincere, intentions.
Consider the impact of your storytelling strategy on initial customer experience of your organization or association. Are you telling trust-building stories, or creating something else?
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Babette Ten Haken delivers One Millimeter Mindset™ speaking programs and workshops to organizations and associations, like yours, who want to leverage collaborate business models and a profitable workforce to retain the customers and members you work so hard to win. Her playbook of collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform.
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