Just as every B2B company stakes a claim to a market position, each of them has a story to share. The challenge is in figuring out how to share that story in a way that aligns with the needs and priorities of prospects and customers. But, it’s not just sharing the story, it’s about making it so compelling that it elevates perceptions of value and urgency resulting in more qualified leads and faster purchasing momentum. B2B marketers are facing a business environment with an increasingly complex mix of channels and skills needed to create a content and eMarketing strategy that, when executed well, results in quantifiable proof to downstream revenues.

1. Apply Company Positioning to
Power Storytelling in B2B
Ardath Albee
Marketing Interactions
@ardath421 • #cmworld
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2. Content Marketing is about more than
producing content your buyers care about.
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3. 5 Core Goals for B2B Content Marketing
Produce
Catch Grow Create Shorten Buy
Viable
Attention Engagement Conversations Cycles
Opportunities
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4. Positioning
The art of sharing your distinct value
in ways that resonate with your
buyers, compelling them to
engage, trust, and ultimately buy
from you.
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5. Distinct Value
The intersection of your company’s
strengths with customer needs.
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7. Apple = Intuitive Use
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8. Find
Anything
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13. Simplify and Automate IT Processes
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14. Corporate Positioning is the Pivot Point
Applying Manual
processes
positioning
in support
of buyers’
Tool sprawl Cost reduction
needs. Simplify &
Automate IT
Processes
ITSM
Performance
Missed SLAs
improvements
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15. Buyer Value Statement as Premise
As the Director of IT Service
Delivery, I need to eliminate
manual processes for the
service desk in order to improve
performance and meet SLAs.
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16. Corporate Positioning is the Pivot Point
Applying Faster service
provisioning
positioning in
support of
buyers’ Capacity
planning and Lower CapEx
needs. scalability Simplify &
Automate IT
Processes
Cloud
Lifecycle
Management
Unified
Improved time
management for
to value
virtual services
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17. Buyer Value Statement as Premise
As the VP of IT Infrastructure, I
need faster service provisioning
to keep up with the demands of
business objectives. Cloud
seems to be the answer, but…
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18. Story: a narrative meant to inform,
educate or entertain.
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19. “Story gives people enough
space to think for themselves.”
Annette Simmons
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21. 3 Critical Components of Stories
Hero
Villain
Mentor
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22. Crafting a Story
A story starts with trouble.
What’s gone wrong for your prospect?
ITSM: Missed SLAs due to manual processes
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23. Respond to Trouble
How to evaluate your ITSM maturity level
What to do when you’ve outgrown your service desk processes
3 Steps to service desk evolution
How to ensure your service desk meets SLAs
Is your service desk holding back business productivity?
Tip: In each piece, make sure the underlying
theme is “simplify and automate IT
processes.”
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24. Anticipate What Comes Next
Stan: Okay – so we’re only at level 2 of our ITSM maturity – what do I do now?
You: What to do when you’ve outgrown your service desk processes.
Stan: Well, that sounds great, but also hard and too expensive to deploy. I’m not even
sure my team has the right skills for this.
You: Oh, but you can do this. And you can do it iteratively with 3 steps to service desk
evolution.
Stan: Hmm. Sounds interesting. But will those steps really help my team meet SLAs?
You: Absolutely. Take a look at how to ensure your service desk meets SLAs.
Stan: You make it sound easy. But I’m not convinced. I’m not sure I can make the case for
budget.
You: Have you thought about the costs of stalled business productivity? How much is that
costing your business?
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25. Story Drivers
Objectives Obstacles
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26. Storytelling and Interactivity
Make sure you connect the dots for your prospects.
They will not do it themselves.
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27. Channel Consistency in Storytelling
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28. As long as the “trouble” exists, the story works.
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29. 6 Mistakes Made in B2B Storytelling
1. Too much about YOU
2. Not serializing the story
3. Failing to tell the story across channels
4. Addressing the wrong “trouble”
5. Forgetting about conflict
6. Talking about your company in 3rd person
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30. 6 Things to Remember
1. Distinct value drives story theme
2. Distinct value allows pivots for all offerings
3. Always start where there’s trouble
4. Anticipate what comes next
5. Tell consistent stories across channels
6. Connect the dots
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31. Thank You!
Ardath Albee, CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist
Marketing Interactions, Inc.
Web: www.marketinginteractions.com
Twitter: @ardath421
Blog: http://marketinginteractions.typepad.com
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