Why the StoryBrand BrandScript Fails to Take in the Big Picture

By Chad Alexander
on June 06, 2023

Is your business adopting some of these Story Brand flaws?

If you’re familiar with Donald Miller and his book, Building a Story Brand, you obviously are familiar with the Storybrand Brandscript, a distillation of the key points made throughout the book in one nice, handy .pdf file.

This is a broad overview of the main character, the struggles they face, and the mentor figure that takes them under their wing (think Gandalf or Morpheus or even us if you want a growth agency on your side) that will symbolically guide your buyers through their own magical and wonderful buyer journey.

Here’s the problem: Real people and their real-life journeys are complicated and messy. We know because we do buyer journeys for businesses a LOT. And we discover things late in the process that neither us nor the client saw coming, because humans are unpredictable at times.

And to think that you can distill their decision processes down to anything simplistic is, well...

…to borrow a quote from Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “That is one big pile of s#!+”

And just like his chaos theory, we're about to introduce some chaos into the Story Brand framework.

When the team just won't use the CRM

By David Mills
on June 05, 2023

It might not be them, it might be the CRM. The average salesperson has to use 10 tools to close a sale. If your CRM is adding value to the sales process, then getting salespeople to use it isn't a problem. It's when the CRM is just another chore that it becomes a drag - not only psychologically but on sales outcomes too.

HubSpot Vs. Pipedrive

By David Mills
on June 01, 2023

HubSpot and Pipedrive are both easy to administer and easy to use. Both HubSpot and Pipedrive offer sales teams powerful tools for lead organization, pipeline management, and deal tracking. However, HubSpot distinguishes itself from Pipedrive in several key ways that could significantly impact your business. To help you determine which platform is the best fit for your needs, we've provided a brief overview of their respective features and differences.  

Zoho or HubSpot The Real Story

By David Mills
on June 01, 2023

While both HubSpot and Zoho are popular CRM solutions, they offer distinct approaches to customer engagement. It's crucial to understand these differences as they can significantly impact your organization's growth and evolving needs.

So, is it Zoho or HubSpot?

How to increase sales without adding more hires

By David Mills
on June 01, 2023

In the past, companies that needed to grow simply added more staff or increased productivity per employee to scale their operations. However, with tighter budgets and a focus on sustainable growth, improving productivity per representative has become even more critical. To set your team up for success, it's essential to identify ways to avoid tactics that will lead to delays or escalating costs. 

How Cold Visits and Calls Burn Out Salespeople

By David Mills
on May 23, 2023

What used to be our stand-by approaches have changed. If you’re relying on old-school sales tactics like spreadsheets, cold visits, and cold telephone calls, you may be burning out your salespeople and your reputation at the same time. Every time you get one of those vendor cold calls, there is a salesperson on the other end who feels just like you do about how much making these calls sucks.

De-Clunk Your Sales by Streamlining Your Software

By David Mills
on May 22, 2023

How to approach sales and marketing software to improve sales outcomes and reduce frustration and time waste.

Credible estimates tell us that sales reps spend only one-third of their time selling with the rest of their time spent on administrative tasks or data entry.

It’s a safe bet that your sales team is spending at least 5 hours or more each week just managing the technology they need to communicate.

That’s more than half of a day, wasted every week.

But that’s not all, 72% of salespeople spend another hour a day in data entry.

There went another half day.

Ten Essential Skills for Face-to-Face Sales

By David Mills
on May 22, 2023

Refreshing face-to-face sales skills

Remember when sales were mostly in person or on the phone? While many people relied upon the personal interaction of tradeshows and vendor visits, it all got shut down during COVID. Is it possible that some of those in-person skills have gotten a little rusty? If you have salespeople who are new to the team or industry, they may have skipped the hard-won lessons of your veteran salespeople and might need a refresher on the skills of in-person meetings.

Here are a couple of ways to refresh those in-person skills. First is a quick refresher on the essential skills for in-person sales. Following that are four classic sales books that can spark fresh insights into the skills for effective sales.

5 Videos [+ examples] that Leverage Brand Storytelling in Your Buyer Journey

By Amy Alexander
on March 23, 2023

As buyers navigate their way through the purchasing journey, they will research many brands and solutions for their problems. And, in such a noisy marketplace, it can feel almost impossible to set your brand apart. The good news? Brand storytelling can provide a powerful solution for engaging customers and enabling a truly differentiated brand. The little-known reality is that every brand (whether or not you're a media or marketing company) should include video as a core activity of enabling their buyers in the journey. And, it doesn't have to be as hard as you think!

Does Search Engine Optimization - SEO - Help Your Brand Story?

By David Mills
on March 06, 2023

Does all of your effort on search engine optimization, help or hurt your brand? It’s easy to miss the brand impacts of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) while you are working to ensure that customers can find you online. Search strategy is deeply interwoven with the experience that potential customers have with your brand.