S2E3: Andy Raskin: How A Strategic Narrative Can Fuel Sales Growth
With so much change in the marketplace there’s never been a better time to craft a strategic narrative. In this episode of Revenue Harvest, Nigel Green talks with Andy Raskin who helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative — a story that powers success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product, recruiting, everything. Learn how savvy entrepreneurs from Marc Benioff to top venture firms apply a core narrative as a selling strategy for their companies. Listen now>>
Show notes:
A strategic narrative has nothing to do with the customer. It has everything to do with where the market's going and the reality that in every big strategic decision or every big shift in the market, there are winners and losers.
A good strategic narrative is saying, in a very boiled-down simple model, “hey, the old game is over. There's a new game that the winners are playing”. Want to win?
Andy will ask the team to ask customers a bunch of questions and these questions are not so much “what do you love about our company? What don't you love about our product?”. It's more, “what is changing in your world, such that what we're delivering to you is so much more valuable now than it would have been?”
What is the asset that we should use to define the story that everyone's telling? Andy believes the sales deck, and the sales deck and sales pitch is really the core narrative of the company.
Look at all the companies that are thriving. In terms of the incumbents, if they haven't shifted from selling stuff to selling services, they're dead. Like the IBMs of the world and the HPs.
Links mentioned in this episode:
About Andy
Andy Raskin helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative — a story that powers success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product, recruiting, everything. His clients include venture-stage companies backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, GV, and other top venture firms. Andy has also led strategic narrative training at Salesforce, Square, Uber, IBM, Yelp and General Assembly.