How to Run a StoryBrand Marketing Session

You and your team made a wise decision: you want to clarify your messaging. You know confusion is expensive. Prospects are slow to convert. People don't understand why you're great. Sales are flat. And revenue isn't growing. So you turn to StoryBrand, a framework proven to work by tens of thousands of brands and leaders. One of the best ways to implement StoryBrand is by spending a day focused on this work with the right people and no distractions. You have one goal: leave with a clear, compelling message. But how do you do something like this, especially when you've never done it? Maybe you’re a StoryBrand fan and have read Building a StoryBrand or attended a StoryBrand event.But can you lead your team through the framework?If you think the answer is yes, keep reading. Below is a step-by-step plan for running a successful StoryBrand session.

The exact roadmap I’ve used dozens of times

Since 2016, I've personally applied StoryBrand to more than 200 organizations, not including hundreds more as a StoryBrand event coach for the last five years. One of the things I've done for dozens of brands is a Messaging Strategy Session. This one-day workshop helps teams clarify their messaging, build a strategy, and get aligned. I'm about to show you exactly how I approach a day session for clients. Everything you need is below.

How to run a StoryBrand Messaging Session

Before the day

• You know this approach is right for you if any of these are true:
• You have a leadership team that doesn't say the same thing about the company
• Marketing & sales are slow
• You offer a confusing or complicated product or service
• You feel that you talk about your company too much and not enough about your customers
• You need to move quickly to revamp marketing and sales
• Deals get stuck
• -People balk at your price

These are just some of the problems solved by a StoryBrand day session. Doing a StoryBrand day sounds fun (because it is!). If you need more clarity on the problem the day needs to solve, the time spent may be wasted. Knowing the core issue at hand is half the battle.

Who should be there

Whenever I do a day session with clients, they always ask, “Who should be there?"My answer is the same every time: "I need the least number of necessary people. I define necessary as anyone with a vote or veto in the final result. I also want someone who has frontline expertise with customers."To explain further, here's what I mean:

• Vote These are usually the leadership team and whoever heads up marketing or sales.
• Veto This is obvious: it's the owner or CEO. I added this after a client didn't tell me the CEO needed to review and approve everything we did. I found this out the day before the website was supposed to go live. That was fun (not.) Now we get ahead of it.
• Frontline Experts In B2B, this is your sales team or customer service team. These people talk to customers every day. They may not have hard data on demographics, etc, but they know people. Having them in the room helps us get specific insights for a clearer story.

Two other audiences don't get invited:

• Voice These are people with opinions, but they sit outside of voting power. We may bring them in later to refine the work, but they don't get to create the work.
• View These are people further down the line who will hear what we create in a company rollout.

There's one last person who should be there: a facilitator.Allow me to be shameless for a minute: this is the role I play in these sessions. I'm an outsider in charge of leading the day, getting to consensus, asking questions, and creating results. I'm separate from the decision-makers in the room, so I can untangle the confusion, separate what's important from what's not, and lead the group to something clear, compelling, and (most importantly) profitable. You can also get a Private Workshop Facilitator through StoryBrand to lead this.There's a chance you have someone internally who can fill this role. If so, great! It could be a head of marketing or sales. Whoever it is needs to be comfortable with:

• Pushing back when needed
• Asking deep questions
• Resolving disagreements
• Keeping people on track with the StoryBrand Framework
• Leading to a clear, compelling message

Once the attendee list is decided, it's time to determine the agenda.

What to do in the day

I once had a job where I was on the executive team. We met every Tuesday. A new leader came in who spent a couple of hours on Monday crafting the meeting agenda. He didn't want to send it ahead of time. He preferred to surprise people. So each week we scrambled for comments, struggled for ideas, and needed clarification about what was happening. Summary: no one likes surprises. Unless they win a trip to the Bahamas. You need to determine an agenda ahead of time and send it to people. This helps them be prepared. Deciding an agenda needs to happen after you have clarified the problem to solve. The issues guide the day. Once those are known, the day is simple to plan. Here's a look at a typical agenda for my StoryBrand sessions. Plan to start at 9 and end around 5:

• Walk through the StoryBrand Framework
• Messaging for the overall brand
• Messaging for 1-2 audiences, verticals, or products
• Draft a new homepage
• Draft a new marketing and sales plan
• Whatever else we have time for

Lunch usually happens after the brand messaging is done, usually 11:30-12. I give a 5-10 minute break every 90 minutes or so. People need a mental break. As someone once told me, "The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure."Note: You'll notice tons of great ideas come up in your time together. Ideas that may turn into campaigns, emails, and so much more. Assign someone to capture that list so you have a project list after the day is done.

Running the session

Offsite is great. Even if you rent a conference room nearby, get people out of their normal environment and separated from the usual demands of their jobs. Even better if you fly everyone to Honolulu (still waiting for this to happen).If you stay in the office, set hard rules for people coming in and out. Unless there's an emergency, everyone is in all day. No email, Slack, or texts. Keep focused on the work at hand. Now you start. I usually introduce StoryBrand so everyone understands what we're doing for the day. This helps people think in the right direction and take ownership of the process. From there, start asking questions. I usually ask questions in the order of the StoryBrand Framework, capturing notes on MyStoryBrand.com along the way. Here are some of my favorite questions to ask:

• What do customers want from you?
• What keeps them from getting what they want?
• What are their feelings and frustrations about this?
• Of all the things you could do every day, what makes you keep doing this? In other words, what makes you want to eliminate the problems people face? Be ready: This is the hardest question because it's the philosophical problem. Everyone gets stressed out here. If you do, you're in good company.
• How do you understand your audience?
• What case studies, expertise, metrics, etc, do customers value most?
• How do people go from prospect to raving fan? This is the StoryBrand "plan" question. You'll be amazed at how many teams spend a ton of time on this because everyone needs to learn the sales process.
• Once someone buys, what happens next? Or what should happen next?
• What's the next step someone takes if they want to buy?
• What free thing can we offer that people will want? This is the Transitional Call to Action. Think downloads, checklists, webinars, etc. Think of a specific problem people often have, then answer that problem in a free offer. Bonus points if the title points to loss aversion, like Expensive Mistakes.
• How is life better with your company?
• How is life worse without it?

If you know StoryBrand, then those questions walk straight through the framework. There are other questions I ask to dive deeper and expose other marketing and sales problems:

• What seems obvious to you but you must explain to every customer?
• Think of a customer from the last 12-24 that you wish to replicate and have all your customers be like. Easy sales process, high value, they got results, and now they're a repeat customer or referral source. Talk about this story. This is one of my favorite questions because it unlocks most of the BrandScript.
• What makes you different from competitors?
• What testimonials do you have? Most testimonials are boring. Testimonials should be a sales tool. They should address objections, show life after hiring you, or build trust. If the testimonials aren't good, get them rewritten.
• What is unique about our work or our process? Is that on the website anywhere?
• If you could stop selling to any customers and still hit revenue goals, who is it? I ask this so we know who isn't a fit. Marketing attracts. Like a magnet, it should also repel the wrong customer.

Know you're on the right track

As you go along and hear the pieces of the BrandScript, capture those. Restate them and get affirmation from everyone in the room. As you go on, return to the beginning and show how the story connects. Make sure everyone is on board with what you have. Here’s how I do it: I start with Character. Once I feel like I know what this is, I say “So it sounds like people come to you because they want X, right?” Look for head nods and verbal affirmations. If someone disagrees, pause. Don’t move on. Find out why they disagree. This is where things can get tricky. Strong personalities may try to force their opinion. Or it may create indecision. When in doubt, stick to the framework. Remember: the goal of the day is to create a single, clear, compelling story. So if you get dissension, ask yourself: “Does this create a singular story, or does it feel disconnected from the other elements?”These moments may happen throughout the day. As they do, refer to the question above. The dissenting opinion may still be a great idea. Capture it! The idea may not fit into your messaging, but it may be useful in an email, a campaign, or elsewhere. Great movies leave so much material on the cutting room floor. Your day session may result in the same thing.

Managing expectations

It will be easy for things to drift. People don't normally dedicate seven or eight hours to focus on topics like this. So all kinds of ideas will arise. Without focus, you'll wind up chasing all kinds of tangents. That's why I recommend having a notetaker. Have them capture ideas, tasks, and potential projects to revisit later. The goal of this day isn't to brainstorm every possible marketing and sales issue; it's to get clarity in your messaging.

Ending the day

If you stay on track, avoid tangents, and follow your agenda, then you should be ready to wind down by 4 or 4:30. Don't skip this part: make sure to spend time reviewing the day and discussing next steps. Here's your Day End Checklist:

• Recap the messaging you created and get confirmation everyone is aligned with it.
• Review the Action Items list captured by your designated notetaker. If possible, assign owners to those items and dates for follow-up.
• Remind everyone of the importance of clarity and why their contribution is so important.
• Dismiss.

Then what?

The bulk of the work is done in the day session; the real battle is won in the execution. Once the day ends, it's time to put the messaging and actions list to work. Like this:

• About a week after the session, get everyone together for one hour. The goal of this meeting is to review and finalize what you discussed in the day session. Why a week? Because it gives people time to think about what you discussed live. They may come back with more insights. Or they may affirm what was done.
• Spend time prioritizing the next actions necessary to roll this messaging out, like:
• Updating the website
• Updating sales material
• Creating new sales and marketing talking points
• Writing a lead magnet and email campaign
• Rolling it out internally
• Training the internal team

These initial projects are critical. The faster you communicate a clear message, the greater your chance of success. You and the team put in a ton of work in that day's session; now it's time to bring it to the world. Long-term, there are more things to do, like:

• Getting everyone to memorize your elevator pitch
• Creating StoryBrand messages for every audience, product, and service
• Revamping advertising content
• Creating new print material for trade shows and events
• Updating sales enablement collateral
• Creating objection handling points for sales
• Creating sales and marketing emails
• Defining a content marketing strategy for the website, email, and social

These are just the beginning. Here's the thing: you can implement StoryBrand in every area of your business. Clarity is critical everywhere. No single project or action will change everything; the big shift is the mindset shift. You and your team change your thinking to make everything about your customer. You focus on their problems. You make everything easier for them. You help them see what's at stake if they do or don't move forward. Do this in everything you say in marketing, sales, and customer service, and you maximize your chance at success. All because you spent one day clarifying your message.