5 that went beyond “We’re a ___ platform that does x, y, z.” — Two weeks ago, I found myself with a ticket to SaaStr Annual, so I roamed the sponsor area, listening to pitches from SaaS startups large and small. Conference booths are a great place to gauge how deeply a company’s pitch (a.k.a. strategic narrative) has permeated its ranks because they’re usually…

5 lessons from helping CEOs align their teams around a story — The most Japanese of Japanese proverbs, to my mind, is “Three years, even on a rock” (石の上にも三年). The literal meaning is that even a stone is worth sitting on for a long time because it will eventually heat up. In other words, persistence begets rewards. A little over three years…

The greatest sales deck isn’t—until your sales team buys in. — Bellies full of beignets, my parents and I were exiting San Francisco’s Just for You Cafe when when a middle-aged man called my name. “Andy, it’s Christoph!” he shouted. “Do you have time for a quick question about messaging?” (Later, my mom asked, “People stalk you for messaging advice?”) It…

Lessons in crafting—and rolling out—the company story from younger leaders — Millennials are popularly defined by their tech-savviness, but in that sense I’ve never felt I had much to learn from them. By the time they reached their 2000 coming-of-age, I had been coding for 21 years and editing digital video for six. Texting? …

How to structure your story to resonate with different personas — In helping CEOs align their teams around a strategic story, there’s one question I hear more than any other. Recently, I heard it from a marketing leader at a public tech company valued at over $1 billion: “We’re in an unusually complex situation in that we have to speak to…

Drift thrives by acting less like a software company and more like a reality TV show. Here’s how to follow their lead. — Embarrassing, but true: I know more about the daily lives, hopes and dreams of some employees at Drift—the Boston-based sales and marketing software company that’s raised over $107 million in VC cash—than those of some of my closest family members. Of course, I’ve barely spent time with anyone at Drift…