How to market your business with stories – case study

Bryan Driscoll connects people who want to sell their homes fast with investors who are ready to buy.

Motivated Leads has hundreds of clients all over the United States. Bryan knows his stuff. He’s worked as a real estate investor and a marketer for over 12 years, but he felt like he’s not telling his own story well enough.

So, he came to Storyteller Tactics and asked for my help. I’m Steve Rawling, author of Storyteller Tactics. I’m going to share a before-and-after comparison to show how Storyteller Tactics helped Bryan market his business.

The Challenge: Clarifying Bryan’s Story

These are the kind of YouTube shorts Bryan was using to reach new customers:

Trouble is, Bryan’s story wasn’t clear. Sometimes he offered general advice for investors. Others times it was life tips for entrepreneurs. Either way, I struggled to see what Bryan actually did. Ok, I’m not his target audience, but even so, it shouldn’t be as hard as this for a newbie to see how Motivated Leads works.

The Solution: Three Storyteller Tactics

Bryan’s first task was simple: help potential clients “see” what he does. The first card I told Bryan to use was Movie Time. This helped him tell a story about a specific example, not just give generalised advice.

The second card I suggested was Story Hooks, so Bryan would always get our attention at the start of each video. Notice how these new videos follow the same pattern:

• Story Hook: “How can inheriting a house be bad news?”
• Movie Time: “Let’s talk about Mary. She’s just inherited a hoarder house.”
• Call to action: “We connect Mary with investors like Dustin. Hit us up if you’re looking for deals like this.”

Here’s another story, using the same pattern. Check out the stinking chicken in this Movie Time story:

Bryan had a wealth of video testimonials from investors who love working with Motivated Leads. He just needed to make the moral of these stories explicit: “big investors trust me, so you can too.”

So I showed him how to use the Simple Sales Stories tactic.

But There Was More…

So Bryan’s happily improving his video shorts.

But then he told me he was taking a break from storytelling. Something needed fixing at Motivated Leads.

“I thought we were running a tight operation here,” Bryan told me. “Then one day…”

Well, let’s hear the story from Bryan.

As soon as Bryan explained this situation to me, I knew he had a great Man in a Hole story.

All he needed to do was play up the complacency of the Comfort Zone, then contrast this with the Crisis of realising he was actually wrong. The improvements he’s made to his business become the Recovery to a Better Place.

It’s a satisfying end to the story of a lesson learned the hard way.

The Results: Building Trust with Stronger Stories

Stories like this build trust: there’s an honesty in admitting you were wrong. And notice how Bryan keeps using little Movie Time stories along the way so you can always see what he means.

Final word from Bryan: “Steve helped me a ton. I know what I am trying to say, but was never able to present it in a manner that got my point across.  Storyteller Tactics helped me craft stories in a manner that captures attention, explains the point I’m trying to make and close the video with a CTA.”