Don’t try to sell your product. Sell your story.

Your audience mentally unsubscribes from you if you try too hard to just sell your product. Instead, tell a compelling story around the product that people will want to share with their friends.

That’s what we’re talking about in this episode with the help of special guest, Director of Content & Thought Leadership at Clari, Devin Reed. Together, we talk about creating a piece of fiction, painting a “before” and “after” picture, and including a moment that resonates emotionally with your audience in every piece of content.

About our guest, Devin Reed

Devin is a sales pro turned marketing leader. He built and scaled Gong's content strategy, one of the most successful B2B SaaS brands, and now he's Head of Content at Clari. He's also an advisor, newsletter author, and writer for his consulting firm, TheReeder.co.

About Clari

Clari’s Revenue Platform improves efficiency, predictability, and growth across the entire revenue process. Clari gives revenue teams total visibility into their business, to drive process rigor, spot risk and opportunity in the pipeline, increase forecast accuracy, and drive overall efficiency. Thousands of sales, marketing, and customer success teams at leading companies, including Okta, Adobe, Workday, Zoom, and Finastra, use Clari’s execution insights to make their revenue process more connected, efficient, and predictable.

About niche sports documentaries

Niche sports documentaries are by definition about a small, specialized segment of the sports world. And “niche” can be considered as a relative term. So for instance, instead of being about football, baseball, basketball, or soccer, it’s about golf, tennis, boxing or even more niche like rock climbing, fencing, Formula 1 racing, skydiving, etc.

These documentaries attract and retain viewership because they focus on the drama behind the sports to appeal to more viewers. There’s an emphasis on high stakes, and the character-driven drama helps viewers connect more deeply with the competitors. The documentaries also take the time to teach you about the sport, including the rules, jargon, major competitors and their relationships.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From Niche Sports Documentaries:

Create a piece of fiction. The storytelling in your campaign doesn’t have to be true. Ian says, “You control the narrative, you control the characters, you control everything, and you can tell the exact story that you want, rather than finding the story.” It gives you control to craft a great narrative around your product. Devin says - though it’s not about a sport - The Queen’s Gambit was a piece of fiction and it sold a ton of chess sets. He says, “The best way to promote chess boards is not to tell me about chess boards.” It’s to share the human stories that viewers will relate to and draw them to the product.
Paint the “before” and “after” picture. Show your prospects the benefits of your product by showing them the struggles and frustrations the product will solve. Make the case for doing business with you by juxtaposing their life before the purchase, and the improvements after. Devin says, “Typically, the execs are so obsessed with their product that they want the case study just to say all the good things that the customer got once they started using the tool, but that's only half of the story. What people really want is conflict, tension, and controversy, because that's what makes a good story. Most case studies don't have the ‘before.’ Who was the customer before? What were the struggles before? What were the feelings that they had before? And then what was the catalyst or the climax of like why decided something had to change? All of that needs to be in your customer stories.”
Is there an “Oh, sh*t” moment? Devin says when he’s editing content, there needs to be a moment of revelation or relatability or surprise. In other words, you need to make your audience think and engage more deeply about the topic. To feel something. Devin says, “where their eyebrows move because there's something emotional, whether it's confusing - and when I say confusing, I'm thinking like, ‘Oh, I'm not sure I understand that all the way. Let me think through that,’ or it excites them. It has to have some sort of moment like that, because that’s what makes it shareable. That's what makes people want to talk about it. And that's what gets people in the pocket that you want to sell to.”

Quotes

*”There's not really such a thing as ‘too long.’ Because it's not about length; It's about potency and pace. How much value, insight, and actionable tips are in as few words as possible. And is it kind of a breeze to read or a breeze to watch where you're not checking your watch? Like, ‘Oh crap, there's still an hour left in this movie.’” - Devin Reed

*”That hook and that compelling untold story, that's what I like to hear. It infiltrates my head and then I can start to use that in my marketing. We're like, ‘How can I use suspense? How can I use a hook in 30 seconds? How can I shock people and move their eyebrows every two minutes so they stick with me?’ And then when the show's over, they're like, ‘So when's the next thing Devin's putting out? Cause I need more of this.’” - Devin Reed

*”If you press product on people, they don't want to hear it. They mentally unsubscribe. You’ve got to create content in some way that does what's happening right now, where we are all excited to tell each other about what we're watching or we consumed and how we feel about it.” - Devin Reed

*”When I'm editing content, video, written, pod, whatever, I'm like, ‘At what point is the payoff?’ When I click that link, there's an automatic timer that starts in your head, even if subconsciously, of ‘When do I get the payoff? When do I get what was promised to me?’” - Devin Reed

Time Stamps

[0:55] Meet Devin Reed, Director of Content & Thought Leadership at Clari

[2:04] Learn more about Devin’s role at Clari

[2:57] Tell me about Devin’s newsletter, The Reeder

[5:41] Why are we talking about niche sports documentaries?

[8:03] Why are these documentaries remarkable?

[18:36] What are niche sports documentaries?

[26:24] What are marketing lessons we can take from these documentaries?

[33:08] How does Devin get executive buy-in on his content?

Links

Check out niche sports documentaries like Losers on Netflix

Subscribe to Devin’s newsletter, The Reeder

Connect with Devin on LinkedIn

Learn more about Clari

About Remarkable!

Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.

In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.

Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

#659 - Aiden Gabor - Conflicting Loyalties, My Life as a Mob Enforcer Turned DOJ Informant