Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.

Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

You're reading this because you know that your business needs content... No, that word is worn-out.

Content - it's a trash heap these days: 2-cents-a-word garbagio churned out and slapped onto 90% of the web.

Yuck! Time to toss it out, it's not what your business needs. (Welp, there goes my title for this post, too)

And what of the advent of this AI-drivel? Soon we're gonna need Internet Trash Collectors to clean up after the Prompt Engineers. Else we end up with Great Internet Garbage Patches clogging every fiber of the web.

But I digress.

What your business needs is tell its story in the most effective way possible. To connect the dots between the value of your business to your customers.

The art of telling your story is of vital importance to your business. It's a matter of making the sale or not. Of growing or going bankrupt. Of riches or ruin.

It's really as simple as that.

If you can tell your company's story really well, sales become effortless. Think of the Futurama meme: Fry waving cash in hand, "Shut up and take my money!"

Is that what you want?

Then read on.

Does Your Business Need to Tell Its Story?

I can't answer that for you.

Maybe your revenue and profit margin are exactly where you want them to be. Maybe you have a hard time keeping your shelves stocked.

Maybe you have to whack away a never-ending labour of clients like the moles they are - blind, ugly things burrowed in the dirt, oblivious to the world and their own desires. (Your average client, iykyk)

But if your revenue and profit margins are lacking. If you are stuck with a warehouse of goods collecting layers of dust. If your idea of business development is cold emailing pitches like tales told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing...

Then this guide might be for you.

First, Who Am I?

Twelve years in the trenches as a sales trainer, business development manager, writer, and rainmaker.

From Fortune 500 to solo entrepreneurs, SaaS to industrial supplies, I've sold it all - using only one gift: my words, both written and spoken.

I'm here to share what I've learned along the way.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The Training Begins

The first step is to empty your cup. None of what you'll read from me here will work if you come to my tea-shop with a full cup.

All your ideas about content - dump them.

It's time to do something different for once. Something that might actually work.

This is where we begin.

Now Is the Time

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths. Lord Takanobu said, ”If discrimination is long, it will spoil.” Lord Naoshige said, “When matters are done leisurely, seven out of ten will turn out badly. A warrior is a person who does things quickly.” - Hagakure, 62

The second step is action.

None of this will work if you're not ready to take action, both with speed and intention.

If you know you need to up your game when it comes to telling your business story, then you must act on this.

Listen to your gut. Make the decision within the space of seven breaths.

I'll ask you now: are you 110% satisfied with the way your company sells itself? Do you know you can do better?

Now is the time to act. Now is the time to tell your best story.

Now, The How

You've made it this far. You're wondering where the listicle is. You want savory little digestible bullet points. You want specific, simple instructions on how to knock it out of the park when it comes to telling the story of your business.

You want customers lining up with cash in hand, telling you to shut up and take their money.

So, here's how you will do it.

Note: These are exercises, meant to get ideas on the page. Trust me: go with it.

1. Open a new document. Google Sheets, Word, Notion - whatever works for you.

2. Close your eyes. Think about your business, your service, your product - whatever it is you're trying to sell. Picture the most ideal version of what you do. The best of what you offer.

3. What did you see? How did it make you feel? What did your service or product look like? Write down the answer to these questions.

4. Close your eyes again. Now, imagine your customer, your client, your buyer - whoever it is that you're trying to sell to. Picture the most ideal version of your customer. The one you want to reach.

5. Who did you see? What did they look like? Why are they buying from you? What are their hopes, dreams, desires, and emotions? Write down the answer to these questions.

Here is what I came up with for my business:

My service helps forward-thinking, creative companies take their revenue and profit to the next level. My customer knows the power of storytelling for their business. They know the power of storytelling, they know it works, but they don't have the time or skill to create effective stories for their business. Therefore, they need a trusted advisor to help them reach their growth goals. My customer is a delight to work with. My service is effective and profitable for my customers.

See, it's simple. It doesn't have to be Shakespeare.

The point of this is to begin to articulate the foundation of who you are and who you are trying to sell to. Without this foundation, any other story telling for your brand will be ineffective. You can refer back to these points any time you are struggling with any storytelling for your business.

Know thyself, as was scrawled on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi.

And as Eugene Schwartz wrote in Breakthrough Advertising, "The copy writer in his work uses three tools: his own knowledge of people's hopes, dreams, desires, and emotions; his client's product; and the advertising message, which connects the two."

We've chipped away at two of these points: now it's time to tackle the third, "the advertising message, which connects the two."

This is where the rubber meets the road.

If you've made it this far, there's no turning back now. You must finish what you've started.

You're not a quitter, are you?

No, you're no quitter.

You want the prize, and bad. You want to be a winner. You want record profits. You want to double, triple, quadruple your sales.

You want the best year your business has ever had.

You want to make your family proud.

You want to be able to look in the mirror with a beaming smile, knowing that you made it.

Look, there's no question that you have an awesome product. There's no doubt that your service will help your clients.

Now it's time to act like it.

So, what to do?

Let's slap some more bullet points down here, it's time for your next task.

1. Open another blank document.

2. Write down all of the marketing channels and methods you've told your company's story through. SEO blogs, LinkedIn posts, Tweets, radio, billboards, Instagram stories, podcasting, newsletters - anything and everything you've tried.

3. Next, write down all of the marketing channels and methods you've wanted to try to tell your company's story through, but haven't yet - whether that's for lack of time, resources, or perceived lack of ability.

4. Now, with the marketing channels and methods that you have tried, which was the most effective so far?

5. And with the marketing channels and methods that you've wanted to try, which one do you think will be the most effective?

We are going to focus on these two: what's worked in the past, and what you earnestly believe will work in the future.

For those who've had no success with any marketing channel - or have no idea where you would go next - I'm sorry, but I can't help you.

Maybe this guide just isn't for you.

For everybody else still with me, let's make some magick.

Here's the spellbook:

Whatever has worked in the past, it's time to double-down on your efforts.

Look, let's be honest: you're not telling your story enough. Your message is being drowned out by an ugly horde of competitor ads, personal distractions & disappointments, flits of pleasure, and utter sloth from your prospective customers.

So, take what has worked in the past with one marketing channel, and repurpose that content on the new marketing channel you've chosen.

This is the simplest, most direct way to double your efforts.

For example, if you've written 50 blog posts, it's time to turn those into podcasts.

If you've written 500 newsletters, it's time to turn those into blog posts.

Now for the fun part. The risky stuff. The part that will make you uncomfortable.

This is where many will stop. They won't believe that it works. Why? Because they don't believe in themselves, in their business, their product.

I'll give you 5 specific ways of telling the story of your business.

This isn't an exhaustive list. It's not meant to be. They're simply ideas that work.

Use these wisely.

1. In a blunt, bold way, tell the story of how your business helps your customers.

Be as specific as possible.

Why is this important? Many of the clients I've worked with don't even do this first step. They haven't formulated the specific ways that their product or service helps their customers. But if you don't clearly articulate how your business helps your prospective customers, how will anybody ever know?

Don't assume your prospects are mind readers.

Tell it to them straight.

Just like this:

"You get in touch with me. We sit down for an hour and work out your business's story together. You sit back, relax, and without lifting another finger, your business will attract more customers than it can handle - all through the power of storytelling.

For years, you've tried it all: content marketing agencies who write the same ol' dribble, ad agencies who want that retainer and not your success, bored account managers and slimy salesmen...

Enough! It's time for something different. It's time for something that actually will work for your business.

My promise? To do everything in my power to make that happen. Nothing less."

2. Tell the story of customer success.

Go through your rolodex, your CRM, and find your happiest customer.

Give them a call. Shoot 'em an email. Ask them if you can have a conversation about how your business helped them.

Have a 30 minute chat. Record it all - with their consent, of course. Publish the key points of the conversation.

Be proud that you helped them. The world needs to know.

3. Compare and contrast with your competition.

There's no need for derision here. But, you can't just put your head in the sand and fingers in your ears and chant "la-la-la-la" and pretend that your competition doesn't exist.

Step one is to get to know your competition. Their features, benefits, pricing. Everything that's relevant to your product or service. Put this all in a spreadsheet under Column A.

Under Column B, you write everything that you do.

Be as thorough and detailed as possible here. More importantly, be honest and transparent. There might be some things that your competition will beat you on.

In a way, this is a discovery process. You might uncover reasons why your competition is winning more sales than you. You might find something that you're missing in your offer.

Or, ideally, you'll find something that you do better - but needs to be communicated your company's storytelling.

Once you finish this discovery process, it's time to tell the world through those two marketing channels you chose above.

4. Tell the world the pain they'll be in if they don't buy from you.

So far, we've mainly focused on the light. The good. The beautiful.

But there's a dark side to every solution: the pain of not buying.

Speak candidly about the risk of what will be lost if your prospects don't buy from you. What are they risking? What are the pitfalls they will face if they don't do business with you?

Detail these as clearly as possible. Now, what you come up here is very powerful. Use the dark side sparingly and with purpose. There's no need to guilt trip your prospect, but they do need to know what they are losing out on by not buying from you.

5. Now, it's time to eliminate risk.

What do you guarantee?

How do you make it as easy as possible for your customer to buy from you.

Make it a no-brainer.

Or to put it another way. When was the last time you bought something, without thinking twice, because it just made sense?

And how do you get your product or service to that level?

Put it into words. It's not easy, but even moving the dial here a little bit can make a huge difference.

A Time for Chaos

Riding the Shark of his desire he crosses the ocean of the dual principle and engages himself in self-love. - Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure

I'll end this guide with one last piece of advice.

There's no one set way to do any of this. What works for others might not work for you.

The only way to find what will work for your business is to experiment. It will take some bravery and willingness to be vulnerable to create the kind of stories that will effectively sell your business.

In this day and age, authenticity is key - your customers can smell bullshit from 1,000 miles away.

To be authentic, one must understand one's own desires. To tell the world about your value requires a great deal of confidence, and at the end of the day, self-love.

You must love your business to tell its story effectively.

The real secret to success in content won't be found in some listicle.

It will only be found within.

I offer a free service where I roast your company's content. I have 7 spots open this month. Subscribe, or comment below, if you want to know the truth about how well your company tells its own story.