I had a client grumble that the marketing wasn’t working. After years of doing this, I have come to understand that that statement is shorthand for the sales numbers are down.

It's a funny thing. When sales numbers are up, it's rare to hear, "The marketing must be working!" But when those numbers dip, salespeople can be quite vocal about marketing's effectiveness.

But I digress.

What my client was experiencing was not the abject failure of marketing. It was an unrealistic expectation of marketing's ability to quickly deliver results for an offering that:

• Was complex – making it challenging to help prospects understand why they should care

• Had a long sales cycle

 Of course, this led them to lots of monkeying with the message. Highlighting this feature. Then trashing that and switching to another. None of which had any real impact.

If anything, it pointed to the fact that if you can’t find a way to make it easy for your prospects to understand how you bring value to their lives, everything else you do is only going to generate small gains at best. And, most likely, a lot of frustration along the way.

The answer is a story.

When faced with this situation, I counsel to start telling a story. A simple way to start is to tell the story of an existing customer. I'm not talking about just grabbing a testimonial. Testimonials are great. And they have their place. What I'm talking about is diving deeper into a customer's story. What was their challenge? How does the company’s solution help them address it? You might consider interviewing a customer to gain a deeper understanding.

After you've gone through this examination, create a story about it. Telling this story does a number of things.

1. It makes you relatable. Our defenses go up when we think we are being sold to. But when someone is sharing a story, the chances of us engaging rise. Humans have been telling stories since our beginning. That ought to tell you something about a story's power to help us connect.

2. It demonstrates real-world success. We like to hear from others like us. We want to know their experience. It helps us validate our decision.

3. It's genuine. It's not just hype. It's real. In fact, be careful about the story coming off as too polished. You can still showcase your brand, just make sure it's genuine.

4. It helps you hone your story. As you tell these stories, you will begin to find the most powerful elements of your message. And you will find ways to simplify your story. These things can help you overcome challenges like a complex offering and a long sales cycle.

Structuring your story

If you feel like you're stuck, thinking in terms of a story can get you unstuck. I have a strategic tool that I developed while writing the book Big Audacious Meaning – Unleashing Your Purpose-Driven Story. It's called the Thrust Story Framework. Here is a post that shows you how it works.

Give it a try. It will help you tell a better brand story. The most relevant and meaningful one. The one your prospects just might find irresistible. That sounds like a story worth telling.