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Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.

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May 10, 2023 By CathyG

How to End Your Selling Story: Show the transformation.

Image by Soulsana on Unsplash

We know how fairy tales end: they live happily ever after.

We know murder mysteries end with “case closed.”

In romance novels, two people become a couple. Never mind political correctness. It’s what the audience wants.

These are genres.

Business stories also fit into a genre, which means they follow a structure. As with other genre stories, readers and listeners expect to find this structure, consciously or unconsciously. If you violate the structure, they complain.

Your selling story ends with a  transformation. A good selling story moves FROM a starting point TO a transformation.

==> Check out the Strategic Storytelling podcast episode #99 for more examples of transformation in stories.

Start with the goal.

Look at Cinderella. I’ve talked elsewhere about how Cinderella isn’t a good marketing story. But let’s make a few revisions.

Cinderella really wants to go to the ball.

To make this a marketing story it has to be from the godmother’s perspective…She’s positioning herself as someone who helps clients reach their goals. So she would talk about how much Cinderella wanted to go to the ball. She’d talk about using her special powers to get Cinderella the horse-drawn coach, slippers, and gown.

And the story would end with her success at the ball – she made it, she caught the eye of a prince, she achieved her goal.

If her goal was to meet the prince we’d tell the story differently. We’d have more about how she went, she met the prince and she achieved her goal of marrying royalty to escape her home. She was transformed from a drudge to a princess…and a confident young woman. 

More realistically, let’s consider a life coach who wants more clients. Does she want more clients or does she want to sell more products? Does she want to be more productive with her time?

Does a financial advisor want more clients? Or more clients with a certain net worth?

Does a therapist want more high-end clients who can self-pay without insurance? 

Make it a TO not a FROM.

Think of the transformation as creating a vision board for the client and saying you’ll help them get there. 

I hate stories about retirement…because it’s all about FROM. Leaving work. No more commuting. It’s not about what they’ve left behind.

When you tell a selling story … you don’t end with “and now they don’t have to put up with demanding clients, working late hours and loss of sleep.”

You emphasize how they’re working with good clients and the rewards…increased revenue, time with family.

Make the story come alive.

Share specific details. One business consultant set up her business to take 3 months off in summer. She shares details of her time at the beach and her playtime with the children. You can imagine yourself there, near the water, splashing away.

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, Professional Services Marketing, Story-Centered Marketing, storytelling

March 11, 2023 By CathyG

How to use swearing (or not) in your stories

Image by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash.
[Read more…] about How to use swearing (or not) in your stories

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, archetypes, Content Strategy For Small Business

March 4, 2023 By CathyG

Make Your Marketing More Productive With These 3 Storytelling Tips

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[Read more…] about Make Your Marketing More Productive With These 3 Storytelling Tips

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, Marketing Productivity

January 16, 2023 By CathyG

Here’s how they’re hearing your story…

Cropped from an image by Dushawn Jovic on Unsplash
[Read more…] about Here’s how they’re hearing your story…

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, Copywriting Tips, Professional Services Marketing, storytelling

November 13, 2022 By CathyG

How to tell a business origin story to build your brand

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay.
[Read more…] about How to tell a business origin story to build your brand

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, Copywriting Tips, storytelling

April 20, 2022 By CathyG

3 ways to win clients as a storyteller

Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
[Read more…] about 3 ways to win clients as a storyteller

Filed Under: also in medium, also podcast, Content Strategy For Small Business

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