How to Teach Your SaaS Team the Fine Art of Brand Storytelling

Build rapport. Qualify the lead. Explain the benefits. Close the deal. Move on to the next.

Is that how your sales team is currently treating prospects? If so, they may be mislabeling the brand you’re trying to create.

The SaaS industry is lucrative and fast growing which has attracted some of the best sales talent in the world to this sector. Their tactics are often high pressure and hard closing which has (without a doubt) added to the success of many programs.

Although, SaaS creators strive to create quality solutions, having a high level of customer service, and typically understand that their products require customer retention to yield profit.

When you put these two things together, there is a potential for prospects leaving with less than stellar opinions and customers entering your doors with unrealistic expectations. So, where’s the balance?

There is a way to maintain a goal oriented sales team while not ruffling the feathers on the other end of the line. It’s called brand storytelling.

Teach Your Team the Art of Brand Storytelling

Who you are and what makes you different should permeate deep into everyone on your payroll, and we’re going to help you do it. Stories usually have three acts, and brand storytelling is no different.

45% of a brand’s image is attributed to what you say and how it’s conveyed.

Act One: The Setup

You have to set the stage for brand storytelling. It begins with your storytellers, and there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

The wrong way to motivate your sales staff is to send an email with a blurb about how your company began along with instructions to incorporate it into their conversations with prospects. Then, following up with meetings.

The right way is to tell your staff (not just sales team) about what your company is trying to accomplish for customers and for them. Tell your team that they are part of your story and brand.

Go office door to office door, cubicle to cubicle, or Skype to Skype; everyone needs to hear the story of your start, your clients, themselves, and the future. Your brand’s goal is to create ambassadors who will send likeminded people your way.

How do you expect that to happen if you don’t start in house?

In a Gallop poll, only 41% of employees believed they knew what their company stood for and how the brand was different from competitors.

Act Two: The Climax

Every story needs great characters, and yours needs a hero. Before you go kicking yourself for not being as cool as Elon Musk, don’t worry. It’s not you.

It’s Your Customers.

Most sales teams use scripts over the phone. These have a tendency to have very little interaction with potential customers (if they’re in at all). A team that is equipped to turn customers into the hero of your brand’s story will create loyal users while meeting quotas. Here’s a snapshot of what it looks like.

Ask your leads questions about their backstory to find out what led them to your brand’s products.
Introduce the villain (pain points that your solution solves) as the story thickens.
Create a world where your new hero might be able to function without the problems of the past.

Key questions that have to be answered yes:

Does the prospect feel like you understand their business?
Did you hit the real pain points or challenges your client’s face?
Are they ready to hear about the solution?

Be sure your staff understands the important “Hero” role long standing SaaS customers play in the overall success of the business.

Act Three: The Happily Ever After

Now, it’s time to empower the hero and give your brand storytelling another happy ending. You can do this by introducing your solution at the right moment. Make sure the potential clients understand they really are the hero.

You do this by introducing your SaaS as the tool to fend off those villains. Maybe you’ll tell tales of others who’ve used it, who have enjoyed similar victories (testimonials, case studies, metrics). Finally, you make sure the hero understands that all of the possibilities you have conveyed are possible.

If you do all of this correctly you aren’t asking for a sale, you’ll be asking someone to save the day.

The only thing left to do is make sure the product delivers, but that’s another post.

If your brand is looking to tell its story through video, you’re in the right place. Explainify has made some of the highest quality branding videos available on the internet (for some of the biggest brand names too). Feel free to take a look at some of our work, or have a chat about how we can make you a hero.