Stop Telling Stories

Every expert is shouting "tell stories" at B2B marketers right now.

Unfortunately the advice is generically lifted from most screenwriting books or courses. And screenwriters aren't in our business.

A screenplay wants you to feel something. The lights come up. The credits roll. You walk out changed. It's cathartic.

That's a great night at the movies. It's a terrible sales cycle. Our buyers have to do something on Monday.

The story isn't the point. The story is the way the point gets past the part of the buyer that's trained to resist it.

It's not just trying to make you feel. It's moving you toward a conclusion that didn't exist before.

That's where the craft comes in. Not the prose. Not the metaphor. Not the hero's journey. Those are tools. The craft is the architecture underneath. The slow, deliberate stacking of a case. So that when the payoff lands, the reader doesn't feel persuaded. They feel recognized. And then they feel certain.

Most B2B storytelling stops one move too early. It names a shift. Paints a future. Expects the reader to draw the right conclusion on its own. They don't.

The conclusion is our job.It's the difference between saying, "Work doesn't have to be so hard. Our AI can help you get your job done" and "Our AI works alongside you all day long so you can get home to your kids at 5 p.m."