White paper: Nine ways to communicate the value you offer

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Nine ways to communicate the

value you offer

CONNECT

Patricia McMillan

www.patriciamcmillan.com

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3 challenges in technology and research

With shrinking budgets and

increasing competition, it has never

been more important to give your

stakeholders a compelling reason to

work with you: to subscribe to your

service, select your product, fund

your project, partner with you.

This paper delivers a framework and

a set of tools to help you

communicate value and resonate

with your stakeholders.

Challenge 1: What is it you do again?

If you work in technology or research, the nature of what you offer is usually abstract or

conceptually new. It may be innovative and ground-breaking, but it’s hard to explain it

quickly to anyone else in a way that makes sense.

Challenge 2: Demonstrating impact

Your contribution to measured outcomes may be indirect with a significant time lag.

Instead of demonstrating impact, you wind up measuring the cost savings you offer, and

that doesn’t represent the real value you provide.

Challenge 3: Differentiation

Why should your customers and partners work with you instead of outsourcing to a

global company that can provide apparently similar services cheaper and more reliably?

A value proposition that focuses on features and price may not provide a satisfactory

answer to this question.

White paper: Nine ways to communicate the value you offer © Patricia McMillan 2015

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the activation ladder

5 “I’m in!” (meaning) x10

4 “I like it” (connection) x 8

3 “I get it” (sense) x 4

2 “Huh” (attention) x 2

1 “Blah blah” (data) x 1

People engage with information at different levels.

The greater the connection, the more sway the

information has over the person’s decisions, actions,

and beliefs.

Think of a set of levers. If you have only a short lever, lifting a

weight requires a large force. But with a long lever and a

fulcrum, a small force can be amplified many times, and you

can move a large weight with very little effort.

It is the same with communication. Creating a deep connection

is like creating a long lever. With this kind of leverage it takes

much less effort to activate your audience: to influence their

decisions and actions.

how likely is your audience to act?

To address these challenges, it’s important to be able to connect with your audience.


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levels of activation

1: “Blah blah” (Data)

At the lowest level, information is just data.

Your audience is surrounded by much more

information than they can consciously

process.

The vast majority of this information has

about as much impact on their thinking as

the ads in their spam folder. It’s filtered out

unless they know it’s relevant.

Although extremely useful in context, data

has no leverage on its own.

2: “Huh” (Attention)

A small amount of this data works its way

through unconscious and conscious filters

and attracts your audience’s attention, if

only briefly.

A message that captures attention is more

likely to generate action than one that

doesn't, but attention alone is not enough;

it’s necessary but not sufficient.

Attention is a short lever.

3: “I get it” (Sense)

With effort and empathy for your audience,

you can craft a message that makes sense

to them: they will understand what you are

saying.

Reaching this level is not easy; if you doubt

this, look at a few technology service

provider websites and ask yourself, “What is

it they actually do?”

Examples, diagrams, and metaphors

provide leverage for making sense.

the ladder explained


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levels of activation

4: “I like it” (Connection)

You message starts to have real impact when your audience

connects with it at a personal level, when they not only

understand it but they feel something about it.

Decisions—even rational ones—have their basis in emotions.

We intuit something is the right course of action long before

we’ve had a chance to think through the pros and cons. This

means that in order to influence decisions and actions, your

value proposition needs to reach people at an emotional level.

Stories and images are the keys to activating emotions.

5: “I’m in!” (Meaning)

At the highest level of activation, a message taps into a deep

meaning for the audience. It fits into a larger, archetypal story

they want to be part of. This is when they say, “I’m in!”

For example, Steve Jobs helped Apple customers to see

themselves not just as product users but as creative rule-

breakers, challenging the status quo in order to change the

world. At this level, your message captures your audience’s

imagination and comes alive for them.

Archetypal stories are the longest levers, the levers with which

you can move the world.

the ladder explained


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9 tools to communicate value

moving up the ladder

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personal

archetype

4

personal

stories

1

what

you do

8

company

archetype

5

company

stories

2

what

you offer

9

customer

archetype

6

customer stories

3

who your

customers are

you

meaning

company customers

connection

sense


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3 explanations to help you make sense

Make sure you have a simple, jargon-free explanation for:

1. What you do. What is your role in the organisation?

2. What your organisation offers. What are your products and services?

3. Who your customers are. To whom do you provide products and services?

Try to get each of these down to one or two sentences that express only the core idea. You may

be amazed at the clarity this step provides, both to your audience and to your company.

Making sense is the first

priority. This is the place to

start if you struggle when

you need to explain what

you do.

making your value proposition simple and clear


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3 stories to help you connect

4. Your personal stories. You may be tempted to think these aren’t relevant, but your

audience is much more likely to listen to you if they know who you are and what your motivation

is in talking with them. You are an intrinsic part of the message of your organisation. Why is the

message important to you, personally?

5. Your organisation’s stories. Now that they know who you are as an individual,

stories that help your audience get to know the company you represent will let them form a

personal connection with it too. Who started your organisation and why? What principles can be

seen in the way you do your work today?

6. Your customers’ stories. Let your prospects experience what it is like to work with

you through the eyes of your existing customers. What challenges have they faced? How have

they overcome them? These stories demonstrate that you empathise with your customers and

understand their needs.

With these stories, your

value proposition becomes

much more than a

discussion of

product features and price.

It creates a human

connection.

making your value proposition more human


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3 archetypes to help you capture the imagination

Archetypes are story patterns that have appeared over and over again in all cultures since the

time stories have been recorded and presumably much longer. They are the story patterns that

capture our imaginations, such as the story of the hero who saves the village, the outlaw who

breaks the rules, the sage who is the source of wisdom, the magician who transforms the

ordinary into the extraordinary, the explorer who forges new paths.

When you have built a collection of stories as outlined in the previous stage, some of these

patterns will naturally begin to emerge. You will start to see which archetypes you, your

company, and your customers identify with, and this understanding offers opportunities for the

highest levels of connection and influence.

7. Your personal archetype

8. Your organisation’s archetype

9. Your customers’ archetype

When you have built a

collection of personal,

company, and customer

stories, they will begin to

point to archetypal story

patterns: the larger stories

people use to create

meaning.

making your company part of a larger story


10White paper: Nine ways to communicate the value you offer © Patricia McMillan 2015

No one can duplicate who you are. Your stories give your prospects a compelling reason to work with you and you alone.

Patricia McMillan is a business storytelling consultant, helping organisations and

individuals uncover and work with their own, real stories in a way that resonates.

She has a background in information technology and worked as a programmer, business

analyst, project manager, and director of strategic initiatives before starting her own

company.

Since 2006 she has participated in projects related to Australia’s National Collaborative

Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), ), including the $50 million Research Data

Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) project and the $47 million National eResearch

Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) project .

Patricia is a popular speaker and a performing storyteller. She is an accredited member

of the Australian Storytelling Guild NSW and a Certified Technologist with the Australian

Computer Society.

About the author


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want to know more?

Contact Patricia’s office if you would like to know more about

how you can uncover, craft, and use real stories to:

Communicate the value you provide

Engage your audience and deliver a brilliant presentation

Create a compelling narrative to launch your new strategy,

product, or plan

Gather input to inform strategic direction or solution design

www.patriciamcmillan.com

[email protected]

+61 434 602 050

using stories in your organisation


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