Andy Raskin, the Guru of storytelling in the business context has written some of the most educative articles on the subject. I have had the opportunity in experiencing his presentation of “The Promised Land” narrative at the Drift Hypergrowth Conference at SFO last September. On the back of his Greatest Sales Deck article, where he exemplified the Zuorapitch deck, he wrote how it is critical to get buy in from the sales team before the narrative can be taken public. Never assume it is the lone job of the founder or the top management team to take the brand story to the market.
In this article he codifies the best way to take the steps after you have got your deck ready.
- Make sure your new deck facilitates discovery – when you are pointing to a shift that impact everyone is your team asking the customers or prospects – “How is this shift playing out for you and your team?” You will be surprised at the amount of validation it will generate.
- Nurture advocates for the new deck inside your sales team — before rolling it out – ensure your sales team is on board and thinks this deck will help communicate the value, they are closest to your customers so why should you not learn from them?
- Have customers speak at the unveiling – sometimes your promised land definition or any part of the deck could fail to resonate with your team. though you are certain that that is what your customers would identify with. It would make it easy for your team to get the perspective if a customer came in and shared the vision that mirrored your articulation.
- Tell the new deck’s story everywhere – When you have this new deck ensure everyone and everywhere the narrative is repeated. Andy writes “Like Zuora, treat the sales deck (in particular, the change in the world you’ve highlighted) not as something separate from other communications, but as a strategic blueprint for all of them.”
and finally
- Ask what your sales team wants – There is deep cynicism around sales decks. Ask and involve the team and see their need and requirements are answered. Spend the coaching the team on how to deliver and leverage the deck. And keep it short.
The article is educative and will make you reflect. As many of us know, it is neither easy nor feasible to structure all business stories in “The Promised land” narrative. But if yours can be told – it will be foolish to not recast your deck and get your sales team on the right side of it.
Link to Andy Raskin’s article :
Selling Your New Sales Deck to Sales https://medium.com/firm-narrative/selling-your-new-sales-deck-to-sales-a7dc032a57bb
