Tell a good story and you’ve got a customer for life

I have plenty of fun doing nighttime baths with the kids. In kids’ bathtubs, animals, boats, floating books take up nearly every inch of the tub.

Our children’s imaginations run wild in the tub (amongst other places!). Recently, they’ve wanted to ‘create a story’ based on whatever toys they could grab in the tub.

While our daughter grabbed a floating duck and a cow and wove an intriguing tale about friendship, forgiveness, sharing; I sorted through the floating alphabet letters and selected ‘M’ and I was off….

‘M’ always felt stuck in the middle.

‘M’ listened as children recited the alphabet, but felt anxious. To ‘M’, children were also quickly rushing through the middle of the alphabet; it seemed as if it were a race to the letter Z. No one stopped to appreciate what ‘M’ had to offer.

‘M’ wasn’t a vowel.

‘M’ wasn’t glamorous like ‘S’ or ‘T’.

‘M’ wanted out of the alphabet. This ‘A to Z’ game just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

The other letters noticed his dejection.

“Hey M, cheer up. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Kids love you,” exclaimed the letter O.

“Yeah M; you start some pretty cool words you know. Think about how kids love the words: Monster, Marshmallow, Mustard, Monkey,” added K.

M began to smile. “You know what? You are right. I do bring happiness to children’s lives.”

As a business owner or marketing manager, I am not recommending bathtub brainstorming sessions. Your business, however, can benefit from some creative storytelling when it comes to matching customer need with the exceptional successes that you potentially already have at your disposal.

• Do you have a small business success story that nearly saved a company from ruin and now they are thriving?
• Do you have some customer stories that you could share from a few verticals where you’re continually losing deals? Show the prospects in this industry that have a proven track record of dealing value.
• Is the founding of your company or product a unique story? People love to hear how Groupon, Google, Amazon got started. Why not dazzle your prospects and customers by taking them back in time?

Don’t be afraid to ‘break the mold’ and get those creative juices flowing to unlock some hidden stories that can help your business communicate its special offer in the marketplace.

It’s getting late. In fact, it’s close to kid bath time. I think there’s a letter Z that needs a little boost. I am hearing through the grapevine that he loathes being at the end.

Until next time,

Dan Naden