Whether it’s meeting a founder friend, a potential hire, investor, customers, or even a bunch of product team leads, there’s one thing that stands out–the ‘narrative’ you want to tell, the story of what you’re building and why you’re building that. Strategic narrative binds all the folks who are directly impacted by your ideas and in turn gives you all the clarity and helps you articulate your vision well. But, how do you frame this narrative? What are the components of a great story?
Andrew Raskin is a Silicon Valley storytelling mastermind. Andy helps C-suite leaders and leadership teams align around a high-level story that powers success—in sales, marketing, fundraising, product development and recruiting—by getting everyone on the same page about strategy and differentiation. His post “The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen” is an internet sensation, with nearly 90+k views on Medium.
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0
Andy and Aishwarya discuss about:
00:00 Intro to Andy and his work
01:18 How Andy transitioned from product marketing to strategic consulting
04:22 What makes a good pitch? [From the time none knew what it is]
08:33 Mark Benioff and Salesforce setting the pitch
11:14 How to align the company towards the strategic goals
16:59 What's a strategic narrative? What are the components?
20:04 Gong's example of good narrative and what made them win over competitors
22:38 How all parts of problem and story need to tie together
24:33 Why product is not the only thing customers look at
26:31 More examples of tweaking the narrative for better market fit
29:39 How external factors (like pandemic) influence strategic narrative
32:51 Category creation and narrative: The connection?
36:55 How to bring in people from different functions contribute to narrative
45:17 Andy's general observations and how these help him in his work
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