About three years into my consulting business, over 20 years ago, I hired my first executive coach.
One of the first things he asked us was:
🔅 Who is your ideal customer?
🔅 Who are you really helping?
I said, anybody who needs software built, that's what we do.
Ok, that's a little broad. Can we narrow it down?
I said, well, Healthcare, FinTech and Media Companies who need software built.
Also not very narrow.
This started us on a journey of figuring out how to reach customers…how to get the signal through the noise.
How do you actually figure out who you're helping? And then more importantly, how do you reach them effectively?
And one of the methods I really like for this is Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework.
He breaks it down into a journey, a story of your customer. It helps identify who you'll help and how.
The framework goes, something like this:
🔅 There's a character, the hero, who's the customer who has a problem.
🔅 So the customer is facing a problem that they need to solve.
🔅 They meet a guide and your brand is the guide.
🔅 Who gives them a plan and provides clear and actionable ideas.
🔅 Who then calls them to action.
🔅 And that helps them avoid failure. That's big!
🔅 And then of course it ends in success.
I love this framework because it's very simple. It helps you focus on who you're helping.
It also gives a clear way to communicate your brand and offerings.
Each of these stories becomes a “Brand Script”.
Once you have this Brand Script for your customer or your offering, you can use this for really effective messaging.
We use this for all kinds of offerings at ThorTech.
🔅 We have Brand Scripts for our fractional CTO and Chief Software Architect services.
🔅 We have Brand Scripts for our fractional DevOps services as well as several other offerings.
When I’m helping business owners who are struggling with messaging or people who are struggling with content creation, I have them go through this framework and build some brand scripts.
It's not just about your brand overall, but also specific offerings that your brand may have.
It's really useful for building effective and direct communication, identifying pain points and solutions for your customers.
If you're struggling with your messaging or finding your target customers, give it a try.
It can be a powerful way to help you get your signal through the noise!
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