Introduction. Nobody wants to be sold to. I don't know about you. But when a company or sales rep descends on me like a vulture, I don't really like that. And I'm willing to bet you don't either. In fact, nobody likes to be sold to, because that can be a personally demeaning and time wasting process.

So it's not an accident that those b2b companies that engage in storytelling, rather than blatant in your face by now messaging tend to do better. This is because the topics and themes of their stories are relevant to the target buyer. In fact, the most effective stories are the ones that engage the prospect so they respond with the three little words we most want to hear. Tell me more. Here's a story you may find of interest. On April 28 1990, The Washington Post ran an article about the increasing level of noise in the marketplace.

The title was ads They're everywhere. In these pre internet days, the reporter estimated that the average person you when I received more than 3000 messages from companies every day. I remember one day trying to count them all. I gave up after reaching 200 just by the time I arrived at work, think about it. From the time you wake up listening to the news from your alarm clock radio, to reading the newspaper, to driving to work past scores and billboards and company signs and logo placements everywhere, to the word of mouth gossip around the watercooler to TV etc, etc, etc. The constant drumbeats continued 3000 times every day, somebody somewhere trying to influence you or sell you something.

It was the equivalent of visual noise. And to make matters worse, the reporter estimated that 99% of these messages were irrelevant. To the people who heard them. Then along came the internet. Some estimates place today's noise level at more than 10,000 messages every day. And that assumes you have a good spam blocker.

So what does this mean to us marketers? It means we must take extra care to make sure that every message we communicate, and every marketing vehicle we choose is relevant and meaningful to our target audience. It's not about mass marketing anymore. It's not even about niche marketing. It's about promoting a personal dialogue via one on one marketing techniques that speak to the needs of prospects and customers anticipate their reactions and get results. We must fight the temptation of blasting irrelevant messages to large groups of people and instead become relevant to our target audiences.

We can only hope to achieve success if we are thoughtful and pay attention to what we are saying and when and how we are delivering the message. Success today requires marketers to apply the discipline of campaign development to better our chances of being able to cut through the clutter and be heard. And that requires we develop a different approach to communication. It requires storytelling. Okay, so how does storytelling fit with b2b? Before I answer that, let's take a page out of literature.

Literally, good storytelling follows a simple formula. And this formula has worked for thousands of years. You can find it at work in Greek mythology, within the Bible and in today's popular fiction. These are a few books from my home library. Perhaps you've read some of these question. What do all of these books have in common?

Yes, they are fiction or fantasy, but that's not what I'm looking for here. There is something else. Consider the formula hidden inside these in the vast majority of books you've read. These books all follow a simple formula. There are four parts to this formula. One, something happens to upset the status quo, creating dramatic tension and provoking and emotional response.

Case in point, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old business partner to tell him his soul is doomed if he doesn't change his ways. Harry Potter is the boy who lived and yet his life is in mortal danger. Hercules must successfully complete 12 tasks to capture his destiny. We are introduced to a hero and a problem they must overcome to our hero must restore balance. Three, ultimately he or she prevails, and for life returns to normal or better than normal. Ebenezer soul is saved, Harry Potter wins the day.

It's not any more complicated than that part of being Human is connecting with our heroes. We want them to win. We take satisfaction and inspiration from their winning and through them, we win. How can we apply this to b2b messaging, we can apply the very same logic to our b2b messages. In fact, there are four primary components of effective b2b messaging. Our messaging can be best thought of as a customer use case story, where the customer is the hero.

One, first we need to engage our target persona with a problem or opportunity they care about. This is how we capture their attention to next we offer some of our own thoughts on how the hero can restore balance and solve their problem. This is a thought leadership message. Three, tell how and why our solution will help them prevail and win. And finally, for we highlight the value and rewards they'll receive from you Using our products or services, in other words, we illustrate how their life will be back to normal or better than normal as a result of using our product or service. Our short little story does not need to carry the weight of every feature and benefit.

We just need to engage long enough. So the prospect responds with those three magic words. Tell me more. That is our invitation to dive into a deeper, more detailed conversation. The formula for b2b storytelling is called the message box technique. The message box is a tool used to tell our story in one minute or less.

It's the conversation starter. It's the outline or framework from which more detailed messaging will flow. However, the message box is not to be confused with a creative brief ad copy taglines or press release headlines. All of these marketing assets will be influenced by the message box The message box will become the foundation for your entire integrated marketing campaign. More on that later. For now, the most important thing I want you to take away from this introduction is that the most effective b2b messages show the customer as the hero of the story, not your product.

Here is the template we'll use. It's not complicated, but it's far from simple. The message box technique is a tool for storytelling. There are five ingredients to creating an effective b2b story, persona, and for messaging components, and we'll cover all in the next few lessons. Please download the message box template now if you haven't already done so.