Sparking a Movement with a Strategic Narrative - Andy Raskin - GTM Unfiltered - Episode # 014
Jan 12, 2024
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Guest Andy Raskin, known for The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen, discusses sparking a movement with a strategic narrative. They explore the importance of shifting messaging, creating a movement over a category, defining a movement, and utilizing a strategic narrative beyond sales and marketing.
Crafting a strategic narrative allows companies to shift from pitching products to championing a movement, engaging and resonating with customers, investors, and employees.
A strategic narrative goes beyond sales and marketing, becoming a guiding force for the entire company, influencing product development, investment decisions, and overall culture.
Deep dives
The Power of a Strategic Narrative
Crafting a strategic narrative can be a game changer for companies. It involves shifting from the traditional approach of pitching products and features to championing a movement or new game. This narrative defines the company's purpose, captures the essence of the industry shift, and conveys the high stakes involved. It allows companies to go beyond the arrogant doctor approach and tap into the power of storytelling to engage and resonate with customers, investors, and employees.
Examples of Successful Strategic Narratives
Numerous companies have effectively implemented strategic narratives. Salesforce's narrative of the end of software and the rise of the cloud positioned them as champions of a new game. Gong's narrative of shifting from opinions to reality for sales professionals opened up new opportunities with C-suite executives. Zwara's narrative of embracing the subscription economy allowed them to target various personas and verticals within a unified story. These examples demonstrate the impact of a clear and concise narrative in driving growth and differentiation.
The Wider Reach of a Strategic Narrative
A strategic narrative goes beyond sales and marketing, becoming a guiding force for the entire company. It influences product development, investment decisions, and the overall culture. The narrative acts as a filter for evaluating features, attracting investors who align with the movement, and ensuring decision-making consistency across functions. CEOs and leaders find the narrative invaluable in communicating the vision, empowering employees, and driving alignment towards a common goal.
Crafting a Powerful and Aligned Strategic Narrative
Crafting an effective strategic narrative involves understanding the industry shift, identifying the life and death stakes for customers, and brevity in conveying the narrative. It should be concise, capturing the essence of the movement or new game in a few compelling words. The narrative should also allow for wider reach, engaging various stakeholders and aligning different functions within the company. By leveraging the power of a well-crafted strategic narrative, companies can differentiate themselves, drive growth, and create a shared understanding of the company's purpose.
Today's guests wrote The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen, one of the most famous blog posts in the history of B2B go-to-market and has worked with some of the largest B2B SaaS companies on the planet. Special guest Andy Raskin joins Host Craig Rosenberg to discuss the power of strategic narratives and how to create a movement around your company. Andy shares the importance of shifting from an "arrogant doctor" approach to messaging to a strategic narrative that sparks a movement of dire importance. Additionally, Host Matt Amundson explains how a veteran CMO thinks about storytelling and Craig shares his experience with first using ChatGPT recently.
Also, Craig shares why you need to know your audience your when pitching a Narcos rewatch, Matt shows off his great view, and Judd put serving customers ahead of this recording.
Chapters:
00:00 - Craig doesn’t know how to start the show
01:20 - A Silicon Valley veteran CMO’s approach to Messaging
08:05 - Craig wrestles with Category Design
12:27 - Do kids sit in first class on planes?
15:17 - Recounting Craig’s first foray into using ChatGPT
18:41 - Introducing special guest Andy Raskin
27:10 - Is it better to create a category or spark a movement?
34:31 - Key prinicples for defining a movement
39:51 - Using a Strategic Narrative to sell higher in an organization
46:57 - The impact of the Strategic Narrative beyond Sales and marketing
Quote of the Show:
“The building of this narrative is not just a go-to-market thing, but a company thing, a CEO thing. The go-tomarket team, of course, has a huge role to play here, but it's not just them.” - Andy Raskin
Sponsor:
Ringmaster Conversational Marketing - GTM Unfiltered is sponsored and produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through Branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/