You’re a B2B technology company … and you know the power that customer stories can have on sales.

That's why they're the #1 ask from your sales team.
You likely have several case studies in rotation already…
…and you’re always looking for more customers to feature.
The problem is your case studies aren’t really doing much for your sales.
Despite how critical they are to your sales team, they aren’t having the impact that you wanted.

And when you look critically at them, you have to admit ... they're really just the same story over and over again.

● The same problems and pain points● The same solution to the customer's problem● And the same general rundown of the results they got
It’s a cookie-cutter story that you could substitute any of your clients’ - or competitors' names - and the story would essentially be the same!
More importantly, the story is so high-level, it doesn’t provide prospects with helpful information — so how can it possibly persuade them to buy your solution instead of your competitors??

LIMITATIONS LIKE

The good news is ...

... there is now a playbook that teaches you EXACTLY how to create truly unique and powerful customer stories that will become your sales team’s best ally at winning new business!

It’s a playbook that shows you who to invite to a story, when, and how - so that customers are excited to share their story ...
A playbook that comes with comprehensive and powerful interview guides for capturing answers to common questions buyers have as they evaluate solution providers ...
A playbook that shows you how to conduct interviews like a pro and capture deeper, more valuable story insights ...
And a playbook that helps you write stories that feature your customer’s voice to tell a more authentic, engaging, powerful and persuasive story.

And I can't wait to share this powerful story playbook with you!

LESSON 1

Best Practices for Getting Customers to Share Their Story

We’ll kick off the workshop by reviewing how you will transform your case studies into stories that deliver value to all stakeholders: your customers, your buyers, and your sales team. 
We’ll review the story objectives and interview topics - and discuss how they address common questions that companies have when evaluating a solution and trying to determine which solution provider to buy from.
Next, we’ll review when are the best times to ask a customer for a story, who are the best people to interview based on the level of insights that they can share, and how to get customers to see the value of sharing their story and invite them so that they say, “Yes, count me in!”
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to help you get started with your customer stories:

● Story Transformation Goals Slide Deck: Share this with your stakeholders to get them excited by your plans to transform your case studies into stories that buyers crave
● Who to Interview and When Cheat Sheet: This handy reference will remind you of key customer milestones and the best times and people to invite to a story.
● Email Invitation Template: A ready-to-use template for inviting customers to share their store, and emphasizing the value it offers them.

LESSON 2

Tailoring the Interview Guide for Your Solution and Customer

In the next lesson, we’ll review the pre-built interview guide and how to tailor it for your solution and customers.
First we'll look at how the interview guide and questions are structured, including the role of set-up statements, opening questions, and follow-up questions. Next, you’ll learn how to tailor the interview topics and guide for your solution and customers.
We’ll then put theory into practice by workshopping how to tailor key interview questions. We'll hone in on questions that capture your customer’s thoughts on the value of your solution, critical functionality needed to solve their problem, your strengths and differentiator, and overcoming a buying objection or challenge.
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to help you create your interview guide:

● Pre-Built Interview Guide designed to help you capture compelling insights and proof points that justify investing in your solution and choosing your solution instead of your competitors 
● Instructions for Tailoring the Interview Guide to help you to tailor the pre-built interview guide for your solution and customers
● Key Customer Info Cheat Sheet to remind you of what customer information to get from your account team in order to tailor the guide for your customer

LESSON 3

Techniques and Tips for Interviewing Your Customers Like a Pro 

In the third lesson, we’ll dive into how to interview your customers like a pro, and capture deeper and richer insights that go beyond surface-level answers to your interview questions
We’ll start by reviewing a typical interview workflow from start to finish, and discuss some common interview challenges and pitfalls and what to do to avoid them.
Next, you’ll learn how to use your interview guide flexibly in a 30 vs. 60-minute customer call, including how to use Gordana’s Eight Powerful Probing Techniques. You’ll learn and practice how to ask follow-up questions and probe for deeper insights on any topic. You'll never get stuck asking follow-up questions again - even if you have ZERO knowledge about a topic!
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to help you interview your customers:

● Interview Workflow and Checklist to remind you of what to do before, during, and after your customer interview
● Interview Techniques and Tips Cheat Sheet to help you conduct effective 30 and 60-minute interviews 
● 8 Powerful Probing Techniques Cheat Sheet that you can use during interviews to help you pivot and probe for deep insights on any topic

LESSON 4

Writing and Designing Stories That Showcase Your Customer's voice

In the fourth lesson, we’ll explore ideas for creating stories in the customer's authentic voice. This includes first person narratives and a hybrid case study and Q&A interview story.
We’ll start by reviewing real-world examples of customer stories in a variety of web and document formats, both with and without video snippets. We’ll also look at how to create short, lead generating versions of your stories that inspire people to download the complete Q&A interview with your customer.
Next, we’ll review some best practices for writing a powerful Q&A interview story. We’ll cover how to write a compelling executive summary that cuts through the noise and differentiates you from your competitors. Then we'll dive into how to edit and improve your customer’s answers to interview questions, while maintaining their authentic voice and the meaning and intent of their original answers.
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to help you write and design your customer stories:

● Real-World Customer Story Examples that you can consult to inspire you and remind you of the power of leveraging the customer's authentic voice in stories
● Writing Template and Instructions that you can share with your internal and external writers to guide them through the writing process
● Story Design Ideas that you can share with your graphic design team to illustrate the different possible ways of formatting a Q&A interview story

LESSON 5

Repurposing Customer Stories in a Variety of Marketing and Sales Assets

In the fifth lesson, we'll review how to easily repurpose your customer stories in a wide range of marketing and sales formats. 
The beauty of creating Q&A interview stories is that: 1) they contain comprehensive and rich insights, and 2) 95% of the story is essentially a quote. This makes it extremely easy to create new assets and campaigns without having to interview your customers again.
We'll look at examples of how to repurpose a single customer's story in a variety of formats, as well as how to create single-topic stories featuring multiple customers answering the same interview question.
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to help you repurpose your customers stories: 

● Assets Featuring a Single Customer: Examples and design mock-ups for repurposing a single customer's story into other formats
● Assets Featuring Multiple Customers: Examples and design mock-ups for creating stories featuring multiple customers 

LESSON 6

Creating Stories for the Entire Customer Journey and More

In our sixth and final lesson, we'll discuss the value of creating stories for different stages of your customers' journey and leveraging story insights to align your stakeholders.
First, we'll explore how creating stories for different stages of the customer journey can help your customers to share and learn best practices from each other, as well as support your customer acquisition, retention, and expansion goals.
Next, we'll discuss how insights from your customer stories can be used to create a unified view of your customers, align your stakeholders, and inform decision-making. This includes how to use story insights to create actionable personas and ideal customer.
After the lesson, you’ll get the following tools to raise awareness among your stakeholders on why and how to take your customer stories to the next level:

● Customer Journey Stories Slide Deck: for sharing how customer journey stories can support your customer retention and expansion goals with your stakeholders ● Unified View of the Customer Template: for aggregating story insights in a document to create a unified view of your customers
● Company Persona / ICP Wireframe: for illustrating how to create a company personas and ideal company profile from your story insights

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