How it works

Each of the Storyselling steps comprises several tasks.

I don’t want you to sit down at the table and me plonk a massive elephant on your plate with the eating irons to get the job done.

That could not be favourable to anyone.

I’d much rather do a nice balsamic reduction, slow cook that beast, and then present it to you in modest portions of bite-sized chunks.

Hypothetically, of course. Please note, I’m not encouraging anyone to go out and eat elephants. They are a protected species, and you shouldn’t thank me for writing this book with a lawsuit from the WWF (the not-wrestling one).

Tusk, tusk,. Sorry.

I’ll use a fictional company to show you the importance of each step in this system.

I’ve always been a massive fan of watching experts at work.

Carpenters, town planners, farmers - whatever.

I think you learn best when you see these people do their thing. They’re natural teachers; they don’t need to think about hacks, tricks, techniques, and tactics that will make your lives easier. They use them every day - and they’re muscle memory.

By documenting the workings-out that I’ve gone through to get to the result, you’ll hopefully learn way better than me laying things out in absurd detail.

Read between the lines. Join the dots.

And once we’re through with this section, I’ll give you all the resources and processes you’ll need to pull it off yourself.

So first you’ll live it. Then you’ll learn it. Then you’ll LOVE it.

What’s important as we get to know each other is that I have a pledge for you.

You’ll often get 97% of the way through a business book and still be waiting for the guidance you were promised in the foreword.

That’s not how things work round here.

This book is filthy with step-by-step guidance.

You’ll be exhausted, but delighted.

And thanks to this paint by numbers approach, you’ll have this playbook incorporated into your business within weeks.

Remember we said solving your clients’ biggest problem was your business’ greatest value?

That’s what I’ve done, here.

You thought, I need to get a new strategy that will sustain my business’ success. But surely that’s going to be an impossible mountain to climb?

That was your fear. That’s you telling me where I need to send the crampons and pickaxes.

This is your ladder across the glacier.

We’re walking the walk.

The result will be a solution story that is permeated across every aspect of your business. Many of your customers will be inspired by it. And, most importantly, your important metrics will reflect the commitment by showing your business is on the up.

There are five phases of the Storyselling system:

Phase 1: Big problem

This is the research phase. If you’ve ever worked with the Double Diamond process, you’ll know this as Discovery. It’s divergent thinking where we pull together all the information needed to identify the most important problem that you solve, and then frame it by incorporating all the found elements to be the catalyst for your solution story.

Phase 2: Writing your solution story

You’ve done all the tough work to establish where your business is at, and with the help of your colleagues and clients, have defined the profitable problem you’re most perfectly placed to solve.

You’re now ready to have some fun.

Pull all your Big problem findings into one place. Ideally a glass wall, like the Pelican Brief with Ben Affleck. But you don’t need Batman to be a superhero.

It’s entirely your call how you want to create this solution story. Whether you intend to involve those clients from the research phase  in the storymaking process, or engage them with senior stakeholders from your organisation once you’ve finished the first draft of your solution story.

This phase is creative, reflective, and thoroughly enjoyable. From the DNA of your business, as identified during the Big problem phase, you can start to assemble a fully-fleshed narrative that should exude all your best bits, be entirely practical in implementation, and provide your colleagues and clients with all the inspiration they need to take your business to the next level of success.

You’ll be immersed in some very exciting exercises. Depending on your perspective of AI, you might even want to get the latest technology involved, providing fresh perspectives as you work through these exercises or just new ideas on which you can build this bold and motivating story.

Though the methods and outputs you create are entirely up to you, and may flex to your business and client requirements, I’ve found these are generally a very good way to get what you need in different formats to drive the change you need to succeed:

Phase 3: Testing time

Get all your stakeholders in a room - and shoot them!

No, don’t do that.

Instead, ask them for feedback on your findings from the Big problem phase, and then share the dramatic reveal of your solution story.

Phase 4: Selling your story

What do you want to say to your internal and external communities? How about - gasp - messaging that appeals to everyone?

This is where a cohesive community of clients and colleagues is born.

Phase 5: Repairs and upgrades

You need a cycle for updating your solution story. We’ll give you a template to make that happen. I can only imagine how excited you must be.

BONUS! Storyselling greats

We’ll wrap up with examples of businesses that have grasped the value of a coherent, consistent, solution story. How they did it, and why it matters.

I may include Dave’s Donkey Sanctuary, a mythical animal home that launched its own mobile petting farm to generate income and inspire people with land to rehome these magnificent beasts.

Then you’ll have no end of ideas to get your solution story off the ground.

Who you need to succeed

When they say it takes a village, they’re underestimating the challenge.

All your customers - colleagues and clients - are your evangelists and mechanics.

There aren’t many organisations that have mastered the art of storyselling. Chiefly because marketing is seen as a cost centre, and typically in 2024 these teams are stripped to the bone (and impotent because senior stakeholders ensure they lack the autonomy you’d expect would be endowed on people who were hired specifically by their talents in recruiting and retaining customers).

Microsoft has always got it right. You had Robert Scoble leading its Channel 9 efforts in the noughties; my friend Stevie Bathiche, legend in human-computer interaction circles, now leading the charge - although in a very much more subtle, calming fashion.

He was often critical of Microsoft, visited industry rivals, and regularly wrote approvingly of non-Microsoft products, which increased his credibility, and made him virtually untouchable. For Microsoft PR staff, it must have been like living with an unexploded bomb. But he still had huge PR value to Microsoft, because his comments were widely taken up by other bloggers, and he could send vast amounts of traffic to Microsoft sites such as Channel 9, where Scoble posted videos of Softies talking about products they were developing.

The Guardian: Who is Robert Scoble and does anybody care?

But there are two roles essential to your ongoing Storyselling success.

The good news is, as a startup, established organisation, or even as an individual, you can assimilate these roles into your existing team or working day.

Once you’ve got your story straight, and those people responsible for these roles prove they have the passion and drive to manage its evolution, you should think about either promoting them or taking other tasks off their plate to make your story a sustainable success.

While it’s always best to have one person with a specific role - especially one important as this - if you have the capacity to let someone off the leash for a few months, you can train anyone to do the job that’s ahead.

Ready to get going?