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This is the sixth episode in our series about Selling Without Being Fake. In this episode, we talk about how to tell the story of your organization by creating an elevator speech and using the S-T-O-R-Y acronym.

Podcast Transcript:

Joshua MacLeod:
Some of the best service providers and some of the best products never go anywhere, simply because they don’t know how to tell their story. It’s so important if you’re just the good hearted person, to connect with somebody or work with somebody that’s actually a good storyteller.

Podcast Announcer:
Welcome to the Growability® podcast. Teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching, consultation, and business collaboration needs. This is the sixth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk about how to tell the story of your organization by creating an elevator pitch and using the S-T-O-R-Y acronym. Here are your hosts, Joshua Macleod and Bernie Anderson.

Bernie Anderson:
The discussion I’d like for us to start off today Joshua, is this question. How do you tell an effective story when you’re talking about your business?

Joshua MacLeod:
The beautiful thing about storytelling, stories work no matter what personality you are. If I start telling a story, they will sit there until the story is over. What is the most important element in any story? It’s the problem, it’s the pain, it’s the thing that gets your attention. If you are going to go watch a super action movie, the movie doesn’t really start until there’s a villain causing some major chaos. If you are going to sell your product or you’re going to talk about your product or you’re going to have a product that you bring in the market, first of all, figure out what the pain is that you overcome with your product or service. Let’s talk about two different ways to tell the story.

Joshua MacLeod:
First is the fast way. And then there’s the also fast but not as fast way. So the fast way to tell a story is called an elevator speech. So the concept of an elevator speech is, you step into an elevator with somebody else and they ask the question that people ask all the time. So, what do you do? The elevator starts going up to the second floor or the third floor or wherever the meeting is. Can you tell the story of your business in the 30 seconds that you have to get from the base floor of the elevator to where the meeting is? If I’m going to make an elevator speech, you’ve got three primary ingredients.

Joshua MacLeod:
The primary ingredients for creating an elevator speech are number one, tell the pain, what’s the pain. Number two, share the passion. And number three, talk about your product. Let’s say that I sell rubber ducks, I sell little yellow, rubber ducks. And so somebody asked the question, what do you do? I could answer and I could say, I sell rubber ducks.

Bernie Anderson:
That’s great. I’m going to get up to this elevator now.

Joshua MacLeod:
The chance of me buying rubber ducks it’s not that great. Let’s say somebody says, what do you do? So I’m going to start with the pain. You know how it’s so hard to get your kid to want to take a bath. So now everybody out there has experienced trying to get their kid to take a bath. What’s the passion, our company is super passionate about kids having the proper hygiene and cleanliness for bath time. So we make rubber ducks that are fundamentally safe for all bath time that you can’t choke on them, they’re not a biohazard, they’re not killing whales in the ocean and they’re the most unique rubber ducks that will make you laugh out loud.

Joshua MacLeod:
So now I said in the elevator, here’s the pain, here’s the passion, here’s the products of what we do. And by the time I get up there, that person might now think. Oh, yeah, I’m having a problem with my two year old, if I’m going to buy a rubber duck, this is the company that I’m going to buy a rubber duck from. So you can really follow that formula no matter who you are. This is the pain, this is the passion. Here’s the three points or here’s the three products or services that we offer.

Bernie Anderson:
Let’s make this a real life thing. We get a rubber duck salesman listening to this, you need to send an email. Can we do this with like a real life product? Let’s talk about vacuum cleaners. I had a vacuum cleaner salesman that came to my house one time, a long time ago, a Kirby salesman. And I bought from the guy. This was like way back a long time ago, we bought the vacuum cleaner. Maybe let’s modernize this and talk, Dyson.

Joshua MacLeod:
If I get in the elevator with the owner of Dyson. And I’m like, Hey, so what do you do? He doesn’t say I sell vacuums. He says, you know how your vacuum cleaner works really great on the first day and then six months later it’s just not working great. So here’s the pain. So now there’s the passion. Well, we designed the world’s best suctioned vacuum cleaner, proven by J.D. Power and associates. Then we offer these three products, if you want a cordless vacuum, we’ve got the best one. If you have animals, we’ve got the best one. If you got hardwood floors, we’ve got the best one. If he just came and said, we sell really great vacuums.

Joshua MacLeod:
Then the next time I use my vacuum, I’m going to be like the person that sold me this vacuum said, they sell really good vacuum. everybody’s selling really great vacuums is just a chump. I hate vacuums. But if I start with the pain and I make that impression. The next time I’m using my vacuum and it’s not sucking well, then I’m like, oh, I remember that the guy said, you know how your vacuum always run. And now I’m looking at $900 vacuum purchase.

Bernie Anderson:
Let’s elaborate a little more on how to tell a great story for your business and thinking about beyond the elevators speech.

Joshua MacLeod:
I spent seven years in 21 countries, making short films. When I first started making videos, they would take about 200 hours of editing. So I would go with a camera on my eyeball and videotape everything, and then I’d come back and I would have 200 hours of video. It was such a tedious process that drove me crazy and is removes all profitability from making a video. If you take 300 hours to make a video, you’re not going to get paid very well on that video. So I had to change around and say, okay, let me be intentional about the story that I’m going to tell. If I’m going to tell a story, what are the key elements that filmmakers use?

Joshua MacLeod:
Here’s an acronym that is really telling the story of an organization. This is not for telling the story of an individual, but this is a good acronym for telling the story of an organization. So the S, is the setting. Start with the pain. The T is the theme, so the theme is the big idea. What belief or idea must my customer buy into before they’re going to desire my product or service. So for Dyson, their big idea is that better suction equals better vacuum. If I don’t have that theme, if I don’t have that big idea, I’m not going to be able to convince anybody to actually buy my product. So that’s the T. Then the O, is the opportunity. How do I prove that I’m likable and that I’m trustworthy. I’m not just giving the opportunity to buy a product or service, I’m giving the opportunity to work with me. But then I also got to have the ask, what is it that I’m asking for? So that’s the O, the opportunity and the ask.

Joshua MacLeod:
So the R in the story is the reward. That to make a promise to my customer that explains the value of what they’re going to achieve if they purchase my product or service. So what’s the reward? What impact is my product or service going to make on your life? And then finally the Y, is the yes, the no or the maybe. When somebody watches this video, in their mind they’re either going to go, yes, I want that, no, I don’t want that, or maybe I want that. Yes, might look like check out now, here’s where I can go buy this thing. Maybe might look like I need more information. So if you need more information here. No is like, do you want to be contacted ever again in the future or would you never want to be contacted again in the future? So it’s yes, no or maybe.

Joshua MacLeod:
So story as an acronym is really a good way of consolidating thought to make sure that your product or service gets a fair shot. Like you go to a website and there’s all these random items on the website they don’t have anything to do with the customer or the product. The way to keep with people not be distracted is, S-setting, T-theme, O-opportunity, R-rewards and then Y-yes, no or maybe. If you format information using that kind of story acronym, building brands, building marketing, building videos, building websites, building whatever you going to build.

Bernie Anderson:
Just so often I see people not having their story right. And you’re right. They’re all over the place, it’s confusing. It’s like reading a novel that has four plots in it. And they’re all like not really going together and it’s confusing. And it doesn’t really bring to a satisfying conclusion because you’ve got all this stuff that’s going on , I mean, I don’t know what happening.

Joshua MacLeod:
Some of the best service providers and some of the best products never go anywhere simply because they don’t know how to tell their story. It’s so important to connect with somebody or work with somebody that’s actually a good storyteller. One of the reasons why you hire a good marketing company is because they’re able to tell your story more objectively. You might think the most important thing about your product or service is feature A, when 90% of the population thinks that the most important thing about your product or service is feature B. Well, that person that’s helping to tell your story is going to get you to stop talking about feature A and start talking about feature B.

Joshua MacLeod:
If you’re going to spend marketing dollars, spending money with somebody that can actually help you tell your story in an effective way is really important. It’s counterintuitive or people don’t think about it a lot. But the people that do think about it sell products, and grow non-profits, and do really good because they become really good storytellers.

Bernie Anderson:
I come back to this just because this is where a lot of my passion is, Joshua. I don’t know if we could just talk for a minute about, Just nothing else, the critical nature of why nonprofits need to tell a good story and how they can use this framework to do that.

Joshua MacLeod:
People give to nonprofits because the nonprofit is able to do something that they’re not able to do. So when I think about communicating as a nonprofit, I really want to make sure that I am sharing the story of who needs help and how we helped. And so it’s really not about us as the nonprofit. The real story is who needs help and how did we help? There’s an organization called HOPE International, and they give micro finance loans to people who are poor all over the world. I was looking at their website earlier. So right on there, what we do.

Joshua MacLeod:
Listen to this for an elevator speech, this is so great. HOPE International. We believe families in poverty have the God-given talents and skills to provide for their families. What they don’t have is a lump sum of money to invest in their potential, by paying school fees, saving for the future or investing in businesses. So right there, like in one paragraph I’ve got a great elevator speech. Here’s the pain, families in poverty. Here’s what they’re passionate about, these people have God-given talents skills to provide for their family.

Joshua MacLeod:
So what do we do? Well, we give money for school fees, saving for the future or investing in businesses. So that’s just awesome. That’s just like a really good elevator speech. If you go in and look at their video, what they’re going to do is they’re going to tell you the story about, here’s Mary, Mary lives in this impoverished community. And Mary is an excellent seamstress, she can sew great. She can build a business sewing because she’s so good. The problem is for Mary to actually be able to afford a sewing machine would take 20 years. If you only make $200 a year and you need $200 to buy a sewing machine, 20 years later I can buy a sewing machine. So what they do is they say, so we give Mary a loan for $200, so she can buy a sewing machine today.

Joshua MacLeod:
And then Mary pays off that loan in two years. And so now after two years she has the rest of her life provided for. And now 10 years later, Mary has six sewing machines and six employees. And she’s creating a total impact in her community. So what’s the setting? The setting is Mary that’s poverty and she can’t afford a sewing machine. So what’s the big idea? The big idea is that it’s not her fault and she’s not poor because she’s choosing to be. And that people who actually can make a difference should make a difference. Okay, well, what’s the ask? Well, invest in Mary. What’s the reward? Well, you’ll feel good because you invested in Mary and Mary is going to have a better life. And then, the opportunity is, are you the kind of person that invests in Mary or not the kind of person that invest in Mary? Yes, no, maybe. You really can just walk through that as a nonprofit. Then stories are stories. And I think this is one thing I’ve learned about if you’re nonprofit particularly, don’t tell the story of a population, tell the story of an individual.

Bernie Anderson:
It’s a good point.

Joshua MacLeod:
It’s a little bit too hard for me to get my head wrapped around. There are 645 Mary within this vicinity of this thing and blah, blah, blah. I’m lost. If you just say, let me tell you about Mary. Mary is the kind of person that we serve. And then at the end of telling Mary story, you say we’ve served a hundred thousand Mary. Then it’s like, okay, now I get what you do and I can invest in that thing.

Bernie Anderson:
Yeah. And go to hopeinternational.org to check out what HOPE International does. They are not sponsoring this podcast or this live lunch and learn. But this live lunch and learn will sponsor them today. So hopeinternational.org go check them out.

Joshua MacLeod:
Incredibly effective organization. Maybe one day we’ll get Peter Greer on here to talk about it. I’ll be happy do that.

Bernie Anderson:
That will be fun. Well, Joshua we’ve covered a lot today. And if there is anyone who does want further help on your marketing, on your storytelling and trying to figure some of this stuff out for your business or for your nonprofit. Go to growability.com and we would be more than happy to set up a time to talk about this with you.

Joshua MacLeod:
All right. Bernie we’ll talk soon.

Bernie Anderson:
Sounds good.

Joshua MacLeod:
Thank you everybody.

Bernie Anderson:
Have a great week.

Joshua MacLeod:
Have a great week.

Podcast Announcer:
Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of grow ability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified grow ability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps grow ability equip leaders throughout the world. And we appreciate your support.