Helping the Hero aka Your Customer

I'm refreshing myself on storytelling mechanisms.  One of the themes I'm looking at is the Hero's Journey.  As a professional offering services to other businesses, your market is more narrowly defined as a people who are business leaders or members of a department or group with a specific objective to accomplish. 

The hero's journey starts with the a conflict or uncertainty (competing stakeholder needs?  How to get all the MBOs (objectives) completed with the few resources on hand?)  As an organization offering them a solution for their needs (including making other stakeholders happy), you can deliver the story of their journey through your communications - your sharable articles, your guides and studies, or thought leadership tips and how-tos. 

Here are a few things about crafting the framework of your story:

• Create a positive context for a lasting impression.  Focusing on the negative or problems could leave a bad taste for anything coming from you.
• Give the hero-in-waiting a feeling of empowerment by showing them how they are cued up to succeed.
• Provide the understanding of the story through knowing the world the hero is in.  Invite them into your world with the appeal of the solution that's in their hands.

By following these concepts, you'll give them a context to relate to, so they will want to take the hero's journey with you. 

This post was inspired by this article on storytelling tips for fundraising.