Balancing storytelling, culture, martech and AI for long-term profitability

Let’s flip a coin. It’s a marketing coin. One side is your business today and the other is tomorrow. As this is a coin, you might have guessed this is about money. I am always interested in improving today’s revenue but passionate about long-term profitability.

Given that this is a coin and it’s about your company, we can also say one side is very human and the other is all tech. Yin and yang. A cycle of opposing but interconnected forces. Complementary and self-perpetuating. Together, they succeed.

Embracing this duality is all about your company’s maturity, which in business is profitability. To be clear, profitability does not happen by accident. You will need both sides of this coin. It is unlikely you will luck into your future.

Storytelling

In an article claiming to address business, maturity and profitability, does “storytelling” sound a bit contrived? I mean, are we all around a campfire? Is the storyteller strumming a guitar?

This is side one, and it is the title track. It’s all about being very, very human. Let us remember that B2B is personal — people buy from people.

Your story is a powerful differentiator, but its power is in how you tell it. It’s not about how wonderful, smart and good-looking you are. That’s just noise. Prospects and customers don’t care. They want and need to hear the story of how deciding to do business with you will make them wonderful, smart, good-looking and successful.

They need to hear the story from beginning to end, and it must be reinforced with every interaction. It’s central to every single purchase decision. That includes renewals — inertia won’t take you where you want to go.

“Stories are an indirect way of communicating a message using a narrative. They are often more memorable and engaging than other communication styles. Effective stories can transform complex data into digestible information, make messages that stick, build trust with your audience and create relatability. People naturally remember stories better than facts, statements or data.”

Abdulaziz Alnaghmoosh, “The Power of Storytelling: Inspiring Audiences in Business Development”

People are biologically hard-wired to use storytelling to process and internalize critical information and bond with other humans. “The Power of Storytelling: How Our Brains Are Wired for Narratives,” from Human Capital Innovations, cites recent research in neuroscience to offer three theories why:

• When we hear a story, our brains react as if we are really experiencing the events first-hand. The auditory cortex activates to process the sounds of the words, while the sensory cortex ignites to imagine details like sights, smells, tastes and movements. This transportation into the narrative creates a deeply immersive experience that captivates our minds. 

• The human brain is wired to detect patterns. When we encounter information, the pattern-making hippocampus arranges it into logical sequences and narratives. Stories serve as contextual organizers that help turn disjointed information into meaningful episodes.

• Because humans are inherently social animals, we are wired to connect with others. Stories allow us to simulate social experiences. Brain scans show that hearing vivid sensory details activates the same regions that would light up if actually experiencing the event first-hand. This neural mirroring helps create empathy and understanding.

This is why it makes perfect sense for marketers to harness the power of storytelling. A well-crafted story can guide decision-making, align internal stakeholders and motivate customers to act.

Storytelling isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a vital driver of customer lifetime value and a cornerstone of effective marketing.

Consider this example:

• Company A was a leader in SMB data backup and aimed to expand into the enterprise market. It focused on telling a story of expertise and innovation in backup solutions. But it didn’t resonate with enterprise decision-makers. The only story that mattered to them was about expertise and innovation in data recovery. That’s what aligned with their goals for success.

Storytelling creates the arc that begins with first impressions and carries into preference, commitment and relationship and becomes embedded in culture.

Dig deeper: How to harness storytelling’s impact in B2B marketing

Culture

Culture, writ large, is the ocean of symbols and stories in which we swim. Corporate culture is (and I am using an AI-generated definition because it’s good at this stuff):

“The set of values, behaviors and goals that define a company’s work environment and operations. It’s the sum of the written and unwritten rules that people in an organization follow and it can be influenced by employees, employers, clients and business partners.” 

If we succeed in embracing our story, with our clients’ needs and successes at the forefront, we can better understand their culture and eventually be seen as “one of them.” There is no greater honor, nor better predictor of future success — meaning long-term profitability.

Two quick examples:

• A manufacturer ops leader was asked why they chose company A from their shortlist of six SaaS providers. The executive replied that everyone else said, “First, get on our platform.” Company A said, “First, let’s figure out how we address your challenges.”
• When a CEO was asked what the greatest benefit company B provides is, the executive replied, “Our salesman. He understands us and what we need.”

Dig deeper: The marketing ROI problem has its roots in marketing culture

Martech and AI

We are blessed with ever-expanding, eye-poppingly effective technology. Martech and AI appear so potent together that they make this side of the coin much shinier.

But these tools, as powerful as they are, are largely episodic or focused on the occurrence. They won’t reliably bring the authenticity, values and emotional connection required to be that storyteller to earn entry into the corporate culture. (At least, in the near term.)

It’s a whole lot more than a flip of the coin

Here’s one other aspect of storytelling that is very important. Any new vendor relationship causes changes for and within the corporation. These changes impact culture — how people do their jobs, interact and are measured.

It is often said that culture eats change for lunch. However, one of the tenets of successful cultural change is to provide a coherent and believable vision of the future state and how everyone will prosper once it is reached. This sounds a lot like storytelling to me.

Dig deeper: How wisdom makes AI more effective in marketing

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