One of my clients recently came to me with a problem. Their corporate brochure didn’t reflect how they were different from their competitors. When I spoke with the owner, I discovered that they regularly performed amazing feats of customer service.
For example, a member of their team flew halfway around the world to get a client what they needed on time-with only 48 hours’ notice. What a story!
Even if you’ve never personally flown around the world for a client, you may have similar stories about your unmatched service or amazing products. However, you could be taking these stories for granted or you simply don’t know how to find stories that will “wow” potential customers.
Here are 3 ways to uncover your hidden gems:
1. Get your sales and customer service teams involved
Review your upcoming marketing and communications plans and determine where you need stories. For example, are you short on success stories to send to leads who express interest in a specific product? Make a story wish list and forward it to your sales and customer service reps. Your frontline staff may know of a match.
2. Use social media
Did one of your fans or tweeps say something great about your company? Fantastic! Try asking them if they would be willing to be featured in a case study. You can also integrate social media functions into your website to allow customers to interact with each other, find support and discuss your products or services. Some of their comments may form the basis for a success story.
3. Make it easy
Do you want to know how not to get compelling stories from your best customers? Ask them to “please send me a testimonial.” You’ll either get back a generic comment such as, “Your product works as it should,” or your customers won’t know what to say and will fail to send in a response.
Instead, you need to make it easy for your best customers to share their stories. You can send them a specific list of questions to answer. However, you can make it even easier for them by having someone from your team interview them over the phone. The interviewer can guide them through a series of questions, type their responses into a publishable format and email it to them for their approval. I find this method ensures you will get the most compelling stories and some surprising feedback that will make you smile.
Once you have the systems in place to collect stories, you’ll uncover a wealth of content for all your marketing needs.
3 Ways To Leverage This For Your Business:
1. Read “How Not to Get Your B2B Content Blocked by Your Ideal Customers” to make sure you get your message in front of your target audience.
2. Download Content Marketing Quick Fixes to learn the 10 things you can do improve your story writing content.
3. Click to share this article on Linkedin. Sharing quality content increases your visibility and credibility with your existing contacts, creating conversations and potentially new business.
“Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
We just wrapped up one Story Selling Coaching program and the feedback was great. Members raved about the results they got with their first tries at using stories in their business.