AMA: Lattice VP Product Marketing, Emi Hofmeister on Storytelling

A common mistake I see when shaping a new narrative is failing to involve sales or other customer-facing teams in the process. The best narratives I've developed across my career have been directly influenced by top sellers and account managers within the company. And while deep customer insight is core to product marketing, there's simply no way we can replicate the experience of our colleagues that talk -- and pitch -- to buyers daily. The risk of not including sales is that you will spend a ton of time building an amazing story, and no one will use it. The process of building a narrative is likely to look different depending on your timeline and use case, but at a minimum, I recommend the following: 1. Build a tiger team of top performing reps. Start by understanding what's working today and where they get stuck. Align on what you believe your company should be saying that is either new (upcoming launches!), different (new positioning), and better (more resonate) than what's used today. 2. Identify a sales champion. Ideally this individual is Director+ or a widely respected sales rep and can therefore bring credibility to the narrative when you're ready to share it. This person can help you shape the story, but their key role is creating buy-in with reps. 3. Test and iterate. Invite the tiger team to test the narrative with customers and prospects. Make their job easy by asking them to provide specific feedback on the concepts that resonate, talk track that feels awkward, and likelihood of using the narrative again. Also, get out there and try it yourself. Set up calls with friendly customers, share the narrative, try out different versions, and learn more about what resonates or feels truly authentic to your company or product. 4. Where possible, use data to drive adoption. This is easier said than done, but do spend time to identify clear goals for the narrative. If the objective is to get everyone in the company speaking the same language, assess how many times the new narrative is used or % of reps downloading the deck. If the objective is to improve win rates or funnel conversions at critical junctures, set a baseline before the narrative is released, so you can determine impact. Coming forward with data like 80% of our top performers use this talk track or reps that use this narrative have a x% higher win rate is really powerful.

To measure the effectiveness of a story, start with clear objectives. Below are a few common scenarios that require storytelling and associated objectives and metrics. * Messaging Alignment * Objective: Ensure consistency in messaging across sales, marketing, and the executive team. * Metrics: Rep adoption (% certified on narrative, # of deck downloads), company adoption. * Product Launch * Objective: Accelerate sales of a product or package. * Metrics: Total pipeline, win rate, # of deals closed * Repositioning: From point solution --> platform, from x buyer to y buyer. * Objective: Engage new audiences and increase total deal size * Metrics: Opportunity types (are you attracting the right companies or engaging the right level within a company?), ACV, win rate. Of course, tying deal metrics to a specific narrative is tricky, especially if you don't have tools to ensure a specific narrative or positioning message was used as part of the deal cycle. Still, it's helpful to establish a baseline and assess whether a new story, positioning, or package moves the needle. It will help you make the argument for increased usage or enablement... or trying something different. Storytelling is iterative, so figure out how to reinforce what's working and quickly move on from what's not.

If you have 15 seconds, then I have to assume you're referring to creating differentiated messaging for a video ad. In this case, I would consider the medium and the channels you're using to promote. * If the medium is video and channels are third-party, then this is most likely an awareness play. You don't necessarily need to differentiate, you need people to know that you exist and what you do. * If the medium is video and the channel is owned (e.g. your website or social channels), then you can assume they know who you are and you can instead focus on driving consideration. You might offer an example about why you're special or build credibility by highlighting the number of customers you serve (think McDonald's xx millions of burgers sold daily), or results you've driven for your customers. Video aside, the attention span of potential buyers is undeniably short. I'll highlight Gong for their use Linkedin (and other social) to build brand and emphasize a key point of differentiation: data. Gong regularly published insights gleaned from their platform about the most successful sales habits. This approach not only delivered meaningful guidance and insight to customers and prospects, but helped Gong build a reputation for the breadth and quality of data captured and delivered through its platform.

The outputs from a great story or narrative can take many forms, including a pitch deck (probably the most classic form), a keynote, customer story or use case, even web pages! My recommendation is not to fixate on the number or even the style of value propositions, but rather the resonance of the story or statement for your target audience. For example: * If you're launching a new or category defining product to the market, help your audience by defining clear and specific use cases for when and why this product is valuable to them. I took this approach when launching a data product to an audience that doesn't typically buy data. We made it clear why the product was valuable and contextualized use cases within our target buyers' existing workflows. * If you're building a story for a product or company in a particularly crowded space, you'll want to spend time really defining what makes you different. Here, I wouldn't spend so much time on the value props -- because they risk sounding generic -- but rather spend time on why people choose your product over the many other options. Do you have the best customer support? Are you the best choice for a specific persona? Or maybe you have a strong brand reputation? While you should still showcase what's great about your product, your story and outputs need to emphasize what makes you truly unique. * Of course, the classic approach to value propositions is a good one, but wherever possible quantify or qualify the value. Do you save people time -- how much time and on what? What type of results will your product create for customers? Do you have an awesome customer story? If so, how can you package it and help other customers understand how to replicate those results? I know that in some cases you only have a few lines to tell your story, but understanding your anchor points will help you craft more authentic and resonate messaging that gets people excited about your product.

Typically, the best strategy to align the organization is to lean into data. When defining -- and agreeing on -- what makes you different from the competition, here are a few tactics to deploy: 1. Identify key value drivers: Often done via survey research, identifying and aligning on features and capabilities that create value for buyers and users is incredibly helpful. You can use this insight to align product and sales teams on the "must have" features, including requirements to meet or exceed customer expectations. 2. Ask your customers: It's too easy, right? Understand why your customers chose you in the first place. Use this knowledge to determine whether you should double down on your existing differentiators or expand your capabilities. This also creates a great opportunity to level-set. If your customers' perspective on what makes you different is inconsistent with your company's expectations, it's an opportunity to refine your positioning and/or re-evaluate where your product delivers the most value. 3. Deliver consistent and detailed competitive intelligence: This tactic is not quite as easy, but so helpful when done well. At a minimum, you can track what your competitors are saying, what features or capabilities they're highlighting, and even if new products have launched. Use these insights to align teams in your organization on table-stakes in the market and where your brand stands apart. When in doubt, go back to the beginning. What was the hypothesis behind the product or company? Presumably there was a gap in the market or an opportunity to do something better. Determine if the original hypothesis is still true, and if so, realigning teams against that vision can be a powerful way to cement your position and brand in the market.

To craft any messaging, I recommend always starting with the customer and defining specific value your product delivers. Depending on how technical your customer is, you can either lean into the specifics of what makes your product special or zoom out to focus on expected results. For example, a more technical audience may get excited about some of the specific inputs into your algorithm, or critical milestones achieved across the past decade. Whereas a less technical audience will want to ensure that your technology will fit their needs and use cases ... and is easy to use. You don't want to scare them away with complexity.

Customer stories are an effective mode of storytelling, and help prospects imagine the type of success they might experience with your product or platform. If you can't use customer names or logos, here are a few tips to build trust and resonance with your audience: * Contextualize the story: Provide sufficient detail to help your prospect relate to the story. Offer the industry, company size, and relevant details about the customer. You may also want to share who you worked with. For example, "We partnered with the CMO of a growing retail company with >500 employees, currently expanding from US operations to global." * Share data! Data bolsters any story. You can say, "customers like you have seen X results working with us. Let me tell you how they did it." * Use third-party validation: Whether its an analyst or review site (like G2 or Capterra), use a third-party to bring credibility to anonymous customer stories or quotes.