How to Build a Story Stack for Your Startup

When you hear “stack,” you probably immediately think of a tech stack — the set of tools and software utilized by your startup.

And then you think, “Phew. We already have that.”

But we’re not here to talk about your tech stack. We’re about to tell you about something much more important: your Story Stack.

“Wait, what? A STORY Stack??”

Unfortunately, many companies either don’t have one or have it in disparate pieces. Let’s take a closer look at what Story Stacks are, what they accomplish, and why your company should have one right now.

Tech Stack vs. Story Stack

The key difference between a tech stack and a Story Stack is that your Story Stack is fully dedicated to messaging. It is the words you use to communicate your brand to potential buyers. A tech stack, on the other hand, is the set of software your company uses.

For example, you might have Mailchimp, Hubspot, Salesforce, and Outreach within your marketing tech stack, but none of that really matters if you don’t know what you’re saying in those outputs. The messaging of your company is what makes the sales and marketing matter, which is why it’s crucial that your team has a Story Stack in its playbook. This is what bridges the customer acquisition gap.

Why Your startup Needs a Story

Story is the foundation of your brand. Without a story, you’re just a piece of software that’s easily replaceable by another piece of software. Your story is what gets people to buy into your company beyond your features and implementations. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors because it gives people a “why” to buy into.

That’s hyper-important because in today’s market, the best story wins. When your company doesn’t have a story, you risk becoming a commodity to your audience. And if you’re a commodity, it means that you’ll be easily compared to similar companies and the audience will pick whoever has the cheapest price — cheapest price is how consumers shop for a can of peas at the grocery store.

Be better than a can of peas.

Instead, make a connection with the audience and prove that your brand offers something different. Something more impactful, inspiring, understanding, or creative. Sell your vision. This is where your Story Stack comes into play.

What’s Included in a Story Stack?

Your Story Stack includes everything that communicates your brand’s story to potential buyers, partners, and customers. This includes:

Demo Audit
Elevator Pitch
Sales Deck
POV Statement
Brand Manifesto

The Story Stack ‘sits’ on top of ongoing demo call coaching to ensure delivery and make updates based on market feedback.

Demo Audit

Most companies and agencies rebuild their messaging and story completely backwards. They start with marketing and try to make it ‘work’ for sales. Inevitably, sales doesn’t make use of it, and thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars later you’re back to where you started. That’s why the Story Stack process is designed for sales — building the messaging for them first before anyone else. If you can figure out your story in a 1-to-1 customer setting, figuring out how to broadcast it to the masses becomes exponentially easier.

With that in mind, successful Story Stacks begin with a Demo Audit. Listening in to your existing calls using software like Wingman or Gong to understand customer pain points, what messaging is working, and what needs to be improved.

The Demo Audit includes determining the optimal flow for a demo call, and lays the groundwork for crafting the story.

Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is your frontline message. The piece of information that you can get across in the simplest way possible, getting a potential buyer to say they want to learn more. Every single person on your sales and marketing team should be able to deliver a crisp elevator pitch. This is the sound bite --the teaser trailer--that gets prospects hooked and interested in your company and its products.

Your elevator pitch is the foundation for all other messaging:

It forms part of your Brand Manifesto
It guides your outbound cold emails and cold calls.
It builds the base for your sales deck, which is an expansion of the elevator pitch.
Your case studies reinforce the value proposition of your elevator pitch.
And so forth.

Pitch Deck

Your pitch deck is the lynchpin of your Story Stack. It’s your full narrative comes together, taking the buyer on a journey from where they are today to where they need to go that they won’t hear anywhere else.

Without a sales deck, you’re prone to a feature-driven demo call that takes the prospect on a 45-minute tour of your admin portal.

An impactful, high-converting sales deck pulls your buyers towards a particular vision.

POV Statement

Your Point-of-View Statement is your company’s perspective on the industry, encapsulated in about 10-20 seconds. It’s a tool to help your customers see the world in the same way you do. Deliver your POV statement at the beginning of a call to kick off Discovery. You have a perfect dovetail to learning about them by asking, “Tell me how you think about [POV],” AND you’ll end up having more strategic conversations as a result.

Brand Manifesto (BM)

Your Brand Manifesto is the end-to-end story of your company and its vision: What are your roots, Where are you today, and what’s your vision for the future. Your BM lets your team know the “why” behind the company. It enables your sales team to stop thinking PRODUCT, and start putting forth BRAND in their prospect interactions. It gives your marketing team a tool to capture and brand the company’s knowledge in the market.

A good BM can also be used on your company’s “About” page. This gives customers a closer look into your backstory.

For example, Startup Hypeman client Wicked Reports has a BM that includes details around how their CEO noticed a few inconsistencies in the eCommerce marketplace when he was in the early days of building their company. Instead of talking in broad terms about inconsistencies, we repackaged and branded this portion to say:

“We discovered The 3 New Truths of eCommerce Marketing.”

Their Marketing team took this and ran with it, running content and ad campaigns about ‘The 3 New Truths’. The sales team asked prospects on demo calls if they were familiar with ‘The 3 New Truths’. Together, this has positioned Wicked Reports as a thought-leader in its category of ecommerce ROI analytics.

PUTTING YOUR STORY STACK IN PLAY

Always Make Improvements to Your Story Stack

Just like you would do with the software you sell and the tech stack you deploy, don’t simply create a Story Stack and then say it’s done. Instead, treat your newly created Story Stack as the starting point.

What you have today is your Story Stack 1.0. As you gather market feedback and undergo company changes, optimize and update to your 1.2, 1.5, 2.0, etc. versions. Treat story like software -- never let it be static, or it will become stale.

But what else do you need to add? How can you find out what needs to be changed or explained better? How do you know what’s working well? Story Stack improvements come through ongoing demo call and outbound coaching with your sales team.

Demo Call Coaching

Perform 1-on-1 demo call reviews using your coaching software with your sales team on a regular basis, offering coaching and feedback.

Every month, pick one call to review together as part of a Game Film Review Session for a shared learning experience.

Through call reviews, your sales reps not only fine tune their delivery of the story and improve their sales skills, but you also learn what needs updating and what needs to be added to your Stack.

Create Your Own Story Stack

Need help creating your Story Stack? Startup Hypeman specializes in developing these for growing companies. Through a deep collaboration process, we work closely with your sales and marketing team to develop a Story Stack tailored to YOUR brand to stand out to your audience, improve close rates, and shape the market in your image.

Want to hear specific examples of Story Stacks in action? Check out Startup Hypeman’s appearance on the Blissful Prospecting podcast.

Rajiv NathanJune 22, 2020