The Mother of All Scenarios

Scenario modeling - as a strategic planning technique - has become popular because it gets you out of your own ego. When used correctly, scenario modeling helps you see your world through the eyes of an outsider.

Our friends in experience design showed us how valuable scenarios can be in understanding how users want to interact with computer software. In fact, experience design professionals have created an entire discipline around scenario development.

Business strategists have long discovered the value of scenarios. They love to shake things up by asking questions such as: "What if Google acquired Amazon? How would it impact our customer value proposition? What would we do to retain our customers?" Business strategists use scenarios to prepare their executives for the unexpected.

What if Google acquired Amazon?

Marketing leaders can make use of scenarios too, with storytelling. One way to develop your story, through the eyes of your customers, is by imagining that it's one year from today. You've just delivered a bang up year -  so successful, that a reporter from The Wall Street Journal wants to write about it. 

What would make your story something your audience would want to read? By thinking about this question, you develop a story that outsiders (and prospects) will want to hear. You'll tell the story from a customer's viewpoint, by asking yourself why customers are loyal. Why customers consider you indispensable. Why they come back.

Of course, to write the story, you need to solicit information from your organization's business leaders using good interviewing skills. Often, this is a skill which is best acquired from outside your organization.

What would make your story something your audience would want to read? 

To understand how you can benefit from something like The Wall Street Journal exercise, request a free copy of our workbook, What's Your Story? 

In this book, you'll quickly see how storytelling techniques can effectively inform all your communications with a customer mindset.

Too often, brand managers want you to see the world - not from your eyes, but from their's. But as we've seen, telling your story from your own ivory tower is what causes people to move on. If you don't care about them, they sure as hell won't care about you.

By using techniques such as The Wall Street Journal exercise, you can get out of your own head and into the hearts and minds of customers. 

Request your free copy of The Wall Street Journal exercise and workbook by sending an email to richard.fouts@comunicado.us. Put STORY into the subject line.