The Society of Professional Consultants

The Society of Professional Consultants (SPC) offers networking, mentoring, and education for consultants, solo professionals, and entrepreneurs. We sponsor monthly lunch and dinner meetings for Boston-area business owners, and provide nationwide support and mentoring for both new and seasoned consultants.

Zen Marketing: Telling Your Story by Telling Their Story

When you see an ad, what do you do? When you read a glossy brochure, naturally you believe every word, right?

Or do you ignore the ad and discount the hype?

The problem with marketing today is that your customers are used to all the standard tropes. Rather like Lake Wobegon, they expect you to tell them that everything you do is above average. That, as the old expression goes, is “What they all say.” And we all know it. We are all trained to ignore or discount marketing claims.

The challenge is in telling your story without triggering the reader’s defenses. You do this by telling your customer’s story, as a story, from their perspective. Make it about them, so that your prospective customers will see themselves in the story. In this talk, you will learn:

1. How to structure a customer story
   
2. When to talk about yourself (later than you think)
   
3. What questions to ask your customers so that they’ll talk about why your products or services matter to them
   
4. How to turn what customers say into a marketing story
   
5. How to talk about yourself so that you don’t get ignored
   

About Our Speaker

Stephen R. Balzac is a consultant, author, and speaker. He is the president of 7 Steps Ahead, an organizational development firm focused on helping businesses get unstuck and turn problems into opportunities. His two books are “The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development”, published by McGraw-Hill, and “Organizational Psychology for Managers”, published by Springer Scientific.

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