Why You Shouldn’t Learn Storytelling From Microsoft and IBM

Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and other marketing gurus advocate storytelling as the best way to sell an idea. You need to tell a story, they say. How did you start IBM? Great stories are trusted, they say. That’s a good advice. I like stories, too. But what if most businesses can’t even tell in one sentence what they do? How can they craft a storythen? Yet they try, and fail because telling a story without first telling what you dodoesn’t work.

Let’s say I am a potential customer or investor. Whenever someone is saying they are a leading company with a reputation for high quality and excellent service and a team of experienced professionals who love what they do and look forward to new challenges, I am leaving the page. I don’t have time for figuring out who the heck they are and what they do. That’s it, 3 seconds, and I’m gone forever. Is that the story they wanted to tell?

I think these storytellers learn wrong from the world’s biggest brands who tell fairy tales that don’t quite fit the reader’s world. I’ll show you what I mean.

What is ‘full potential’? What do you mean by saying ‘realize their full potential’? Toilet manufacturers also help people realize their full potential. How do you help exactly?

Who are your clients? What is ‘every client’s success’? What are the innovations you are talking about and why do they matter?

‘Changing the world one idea at a time’… You’ve got to be kidding, guys.

That’s the kind of copy you DON’T want to write unless you are Microsoft, IBM or GE (I wouldn’t even if I were, though). Failing to tell what the company offers, such descriptions convey zero value. And for most businesses in the world, of any size, from any industry, answering this simple question is a must for starting a dialogue with a potential customer.

Most customers don’t want you to be another Apple. They want a reliable vendor that will deliver quality goods or services on budget and on time. If you are this kind of vendor, cut the crap and state clearly on your website what, when and how you are going to deliver. Let me show you several examples of valuable company descriptions.

Plain and simple.

Great! After reading this description, I know what awaits me on the website. The action verbs — see, compare, calculate — are helping me to imagine. Thanks to the list of vehicle types, I know right away whether they have what I am looking for. If they don’t, I’ll just go on down the results page and find more relevant websites.

Thank you, Google.

Again, pretty clear.

Lesson 1. Most customers don’t want you to be the best vendor. They want you to be a reliable vendor.

Lesson 2. First of all, they expect relevant and precise information about your products or services and processes.

Lesson 3. Describing your company, cut the words that have zero impact, such as ‘highly innovative’, ‘top-notch’, ‘cutting-edge’, ‘changing-the-world’ and so on. Use action verbs to show experience, benefits and features.

Lesson 4. Only then think about telling a story. Remember though, great stories and bullshit stories are different things.

Mikita Cherkasau is CEO at Your Extra Marketer, a small content marketing agency that helps IT companies create powerful messages across channels.

Originally posted on LinkedIn.