#91: How to Explain Why Your Product is Valuable

0:00The bottom line is this. If I asked you, why should I buy from you? Can you answer? Can you answer confidently? Can you answer competently? Can you answer in such a way that I want to pull out my credit card and purchase what it is that you offer? If you can't, you need to start with the five foundational soundbites. You're listening to the StoryBrand podcast based on Donald Miller's bestselling book, Building a StoryBrand. The StoryBrand framework is made up of seven key elements, all of them anchored in one powerful idea. Your customer is the hero and you are their guide. Each week on the podcast, you'll get exactly what you need to craft clear messaging that connects with more customers and grows your business.

0:47Now let's dive in with your host, Donald Miller.

0:54How do you talk about your business so that people actually pay attention to you? It's a really hard thing to do, and most of us screw it up. When we talk about our business, we just ramble on and on. We use vague language. We use inside language, and people don't pay attention. Today, we're going to solve that problem, and I'm going to teach you to write sound bites that help you grow your business. These are repeatable things that you can say. There's going to be five of them. Repeatable things that you can say that make people want to pay attention to you, that make people lean in. This is a really important exercise.

1:27And the reason is there are about 1.7 billion people who have paid not to see your ads. That is 42 % of Internet users are paying to never see your ad. And you've got to break through with your content in order to break through this barrier. Not only that, they're seeing already 4 ,000 ads a day. They are paying attention to fewer than 100 of them. I want to know what's going on with the 100 that they're paying attention to. What are those people doing differently? That's what we're going to answer in today's episode. The bottom line is we've got to ask the question, how do we get attention? Attention is really scarce, really hard to get.

2:06And if you want to bring attention to your brand, you are going to need some sort of formula, some sort of strategy. I'm going to teach you to write five sound bites today that get you that attention. All of it, by the way, is part of the StoryBrand messaging canvas. This is a one-page canvas in which you clarify the message that you use to talk about your brand and your product, and then you use that message to outline a marketing campaign, an actual map of the things that you're going to do with those messages inside of it in order to get that attention. If that sounds good to you, if you don't have a one-page messaging campaign, go to messagingcanvas.com and download it for free.

2:45When you go to messagingcanvas.com to download this messaging canvas, it looks like this. And there are parts to it. The part that is at the very top is the four rules of messaging. These are the four rules that you want to follow in order to clarify your message. And then right below that are the five sound bites that I'm going to teach you to write in this episode, your problem, empathy, answer, change, and end result soundbite. If that sounds like a mystery to you, I'm going to explain it in a second. But these are the soundbites that will finally cause people to want to pay attention to you and want to do business with you.

3:24Then you can actually take these five soundbites and you can write your tagline, elevator pitch, and brand story. I've got another episode about those three things. and then you can take those and you can create a marketing and messaging campaign that works in three phases. First, curiosity. Make people curious about your brand. Second, you're going to do that with your curiosity soundbites that I'm going to help you write today. Second, enlighten people. You need enlightenment collateral. You need PDFs. You need lead generators. You need videos. You need podcast episodes. You need case studies.

4:01You need to spend time with people and give them a way to sort of discover you. And you need to enlighten folks. And then you need commitment incentives. This is a three-phase marketing campaign. Peak people's curiosity, then enlighten them, then incentivize them to buy. The way I look at a business, I look at it like a house and a house with three specific parts as it relates to this sort of metaphor. First is you need front steps, five front steps represent the five sound bites that get people to pay attention. That's where they walk up to the front porch and the front porch is where they get enlightened.

4:36They're still not going to go through the front door. They're not comfortable doing that yet, but they get enlightened. They trust you. You become familiar and then you actually incentivize them to commit and come through the front door where they're doing business and become a brand evangelist because they have such a great experience. This is what a good, healthy business looks like front steps, front porch, front door, looks safe, looks warm, looks inviting, but most businesses look like this. They've got no front steps, nothing to invite me to do business with you, no way to be enlightened or grow familiar with you, and then you're not incentivizing them, which is the equivalence of basically boarding up the front door.

5:14All right, let's talk about those front steps. Let's talk about the sound bites that make people turn to you, they get They get curious about you, and they want to do business with you. Those front steps represent five sound bites that I think you should write. The first is called the problem sound bite. And the purpose of the problem sound bite is to attract attention. What that means is you need to identify one dominant problem that you solve in the market, whatever that is, fatigue at 2 o 'clock, a lack of productivity, company's not making enough revenue, your house has roaches in it that you just discovered, you're having trouble gaining muscle over 50.

5:55Whatever that is, it's a very specific problem. And the reason people pay attention to a problem is we are problem-solving machines. Human beings love to solve problems. We're really good at solving problems, but we need help solving problems. And so I really believe that every dollar I've ever spent when I pull out my wallet was spent to solve a problem. If I bought lunch, solved the problem of hunger. If I went to a movie, solved the problem if I was bored, needed to be entertained. If I took the family to Disneyland, we needed to bond as a family, we needed a little break, and we needed to create some memories.

6:30I was always solving a problem every time I pulled out my wallet. Now, brands that tend to make a lot of money, they own a problem. And what that means is, if anybody has that problem, I think of your brand. So how do I become a brand that helps people solve a problem? I own a problem. I identify a single problem and I say, if you struggle with this, come see us. If you are worried about this, come see us. That's your problem soundbite. Now, once you get your problem soundbite, you do the next soundbite and that is you empathize with people who have that problem. What the empathy soundbite does is it positions you as the guide in the hero's life.

7:14You are Yoda, they are Luke Skywalker. You are Hamish, they are Katniss. You are the one who says, you know what, if you have this problem, we see you, we feel for you, and we don't think you should suffer with that. So you need that empathy soundbite, because it's extremely effective to position you as the authority in that person's life who has decided to solve that problem or help you solve that problem. Next is the answer soundbite, and this is the soundbite that we all kind of go to first, but it really comes third. The answer soundbite is that's why we created this product. We created this product for people who have this problem.

7:51So in order, it's, look, nobody should have to struggle with this. We really feel for you if you found yourself in this situation. That's why we created this. Those three soundbites build on each other to invite people into a story in which they use your product to solve their problem. Three incredibly effective soundbites. But let's not stop. Let's actually add even more value with the change soundbite. The purpose of the change soundbite is to add personal value to the offer. And what that means is not only are we going to help you with this, but we're going to help you transform into a more competent version of yourself.

8:28You don't have to feel guilty anymore. You're going to be more productive. You'll have more money at the end of the day. You'll be, you know, it's an identity transformation that you are also offering when you offer to solve the problem. I'll explain that a little more in a minute. And then finally, the last soundbite is the end result soundbite. And that is the vision that you are casting for your customer's future. If you buy our product, you will be transformed and your life will look like X. It is a vision of your customer's future after that problem has been solved. Now, if you look, it's an acronym.

9:04Problem, empathy, answer, change, end result. These are the peace soundbites is what we call them. Just a way for you to remember what those soundbites are. But if I actually asked you, what problem does your company solve? Could you answer very succinctly and very clearly? If not, you need a problem soundbite. If I said, why do you care about somebody like me who's in this situation and you can't answer? You need an empathy soundbite. If I say, what do you have that will solve this problem for me? And you can't say, well, that's why we created this product and that's product specifically to solve this problem.

9:36You don't have an answer soundbite. If I said, what else do I get? And you can't say, Don, you're going to become a master at, or you're going to become really great at, or you're going to have a lot more peace of mind. You don't have a change soundbite. And if you can't answer the question of what does my life look like after I buy your product, then you don't have an end result soundbite. I believe firmly, these are the five soundbites that you need to grow your business. These are them. This is the foundation. These are the basic soundbites that you need to grow a business. And once you have written these soundbites and written them well, they go on headers on websites, on backs of business cards.

10:11They go in your booth, in the signage, at your trade show. They go on brochures. They go at the beginning and end of podcasts. You say them at cocktail parties when you introduce yourself. These are the soundbites that when you repeat them, they grow your business. Do you ever wonder why some marketing instantly grabs your attention while other marketing you just ignore? It's not about luck. It's not about a bigger budget. It's that the marketing that works actually follows just a few simple principles that actually makes it easier to understand, makes it memorable, and most important, impossible to overlook.

10:46That's why StoryBrand has a free guide, the four rules of messaging that will teach you those principles. In just a few minutes, you'll have a simple framework for evaluating every message you create from your website and emails to your ads and sales conversations. Download your free copy of those four rules today by clicking the link in the show notes. Now let's ask the question, why do these sound bites work so well? What's the magic of the five piece sound bites? Well, these work really well because they invite your customer into a story. And every story is about a hero who is at peace. The hero starts at peace.

11:25Everything is great, but that only lasts, as you know, for a few seconds. and then all of a sudden the hero finds themselves in a hole, in a pit. They are stuck in this pit and they can't get out. That's the problem soundbite. And as soon as people hear your problem soundbite, they recognize, you know what? I'm in that pit. I have that problem. I need to solve that problem. And your soundbite calls them to realize they have the problem that you solve. That's the importance of the problem soundbite. Then you come along and you empathize with them. Of course, you're not in the pit with them. you've already gotten out of the pit you've helped a lot of other people out of the pit but you say to them you know what we really care about people who are in this pit we we're worried about you we feel for you nobody should have to be in a pit that's the empathy soundbite and then you actually throw a rope down into the pit that's your product your product is the rope that solves the hero's problem helps them get out of the pit that makes them want to grab the rope and increases value of your product because they realize look it's not just a product.

12:25It's a product that gets me out of a pit, and that's why I need to buy it. Then they use your product to get out of the pit, and if they do, they will be changed. They'll have a new identity. They'll be better at whatever, feel less anxiety, get a great night's sleep, feel good about their parents going into senior living, become more productive, pay less taxes. Whatever that is, you have changed their life in some way, and then you give them a vision of their life as it looks like after you solve the problem. This is a 2 ,500-year-old formula in storytelling. It has been used in every movie you've ever seen, every novel.

13:02They just kind of repeat this formula over and over. Think about it. What's the last novel that you read, right? What's the last movie that you saw? Wasn't it about a hero who had a stable life, fell into some sort of metaphorical pit? Somebody came along to help them. They had to do something to climb out of the pit. at the end of the story, they were a changed and transformed person who had a better life? Isn't that what your favorite movie is about? Why isn't your brand about that? What's the story you were inviting customers into? If you haven't written these sound bites yet, they are foundational.

13:36So again, go to the StoryBrand Messaging Canvas, download it at messagingcanvas.com, fill it out, it will help you figure out, and I've got some instructions on how to do it, it will help you figure out your five foundational sound bites. All right, here's an example story brand messaging canvas from a company called YNAB, and it's a money management tool. It's a whole philosophy behind how you deal with money. They've helped hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, but they came to us and said, Don, we're doing great, but we're not reaching our potential like we'd like to reach our potential.

14:07We think tens of millions of people should be using the YNAB app. Will you help us clarify our message? So they brought their leadership team in. We all met for a full day and met several times afterwards talking about their messaging and their strategy. And I'm so proud of the people and the leaders at YNAB. They executed so extremely well. And they're doing very, very well, by the way, because they clarified their message. In fact, one of their five soundbites became the title of a book that hit the New York Times bestseller. If you're not familiar with the YNAB app, go download it. We love our clients.

14:41But let's look at these five soundbites. Their problem soundbite is, have you ever worried about money? It's a great choice. We've all worried about money. We've all been through a season where we've worried about money. So they actually chose this as their foundational problem soundbite. Anybody worried about money, pay attention to what I'm about to tell you. Now, notice how if you actually stand up in a crowded room and you're giving a keynote and you say, by the way, raise your hand if you've ever worried about money. Every hand in the room is going up. But not only is every hand in the room going up, everybody goes, well, now you're obligated to tell me what to do if I'm worried about money.

15:21It sounds like this guy is going to have some advice if I worry about money. Let me lean in. You've hooked the room. That's why it's called a curiosity soundbite. It piques people's curiosity. Next is the empathy soundbite. We know what it's like to check your balance before you swipe your card. Boy, that's a moment, right? We've been there. We understand that. That says to the person who's ever worried about money, I get you. I understand you. I'm a survival asset. I'm here to help you. Then the answer soundbite. If that's you, by the way, download the YNAB app. Now, notice we've connected the problem soundbite.

16:00Have you ever worried about money? To the answer soundbite. If you have, download the YNAB app, right? So problem, empathy, answer. They're all moving together to invite the customer into a specifically written story so that the customer understands what they're getting into here. And then the change soundbite, if you do download our app and you use our app, you're going to get good with money. That's your identity. You are somebody who is good with money. It's the identity that you also get, along with solving the problem, when you download our app. And then the end result, you will never worry about money again.

16:37Five incredible soundbites. Have you ever worried about money? We know what it's like to check your balance before you swipe your card. If that's you, download the YNAB app and get good with money so you never worry about money again. Do you see how tight that is? And how if you're at a cocktail party and somebody said, hey, what do you do for a living? You say, well, have you ever worried about money? Yeah, I don't think you should have to worry about money. I feel for you if you ever think about money when you're swiping that credit card. I have an app called YNAB. You can download it in the App Store.

17:05And when you download it, it teaches you all about money and how to spend money, how to save money, all that kind of stuff, so that you get good with money. And by the time you use it for about a year, you'll never have to worry about money again. So that is how you would introduce yourself at a cocktail party. It's also the first chapter of your book or something that you're going to say in your keynote address. You're going to put this language on your website. It's going to be really much better language to talk about your brand. And you basically want to take these five soundbites, memorize them, use them, repeat them over and over and over so that people know why they should do business with you.

17:44Now, you want to take those five soundbites, create taglines, elevator pitches, brand stories. Their tagline is get good with money. Their elevator pitch, most budgeting apps just show you where your money went after you spent it. YNAB is the only app that has you give every dollar a job before the month starts. so you get good with money and never worry about money again. Did you notice the same sound bites are in the elevator pitch that were in our foundational sound bites? Your tagline elevator pitch and your brand story are just those foundational sound bites that actually get used and massaged in all of your marketing collateral.

18:21And then if you keep looking at their messaging canvas, they've outlined what tools are they going to use these sound bites and what curiosity tools tagline booth signage elevator pitch the website hero section what enlightenment tools a money worry assessment a six email nurture sequence what commitment tools a sales page five email sales sequence an onboarding sequence free 34-day trial offer the messaging canvas allows you to to outline what tools you think you need to create to bring people's interest to your brand, to enlighten them and spend time with them and gain some familiarity and trust, and then also to incentivize them to actually commit all on one sheet of paper.

19:07The bottom line is this. If I asked you, why should I buy from you? Can you answer? Can you answer competently? Can you answer competently? Can you answer in such a way that I want to pull out my credit card and purchase what it is that you offer. If you can't, you need to start with the five foundational soundbites. You can get your messaging canvas at messagingcanvas.com. Make sure to go there. Start filling out today. I really want you to grow your business, but I don't think you're going to do it unless you figure out the right words to describe your offer. Do that with the five foundational soundbites.

19:46Thanks for listening to another episode. Thanks for listening to the StoryBrand podcast. No matter where you are in your marketing and messaging journey, get the tools, the training, and the support you need to start clarifying that message at storybrand.com. And don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. And if you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and then leave a comment letting us know what resonated with you and what we can unpack to help your business grow in a future episode. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.

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