The document discusses how to craft memorable customer stories using the SOAR framework: Situation, Opportunity, Action, Results. It provides an example of a software company that was generating many new leads but few sales. They developed a content marketing program that cultivated relationships over time, resulting in a 400% increase in qualified sales opportunities and 30% shorter sales cycles.

1. “How to Tell Memorable Customer
Stories that Spark the Imagination”
Marcom Productions presents Point of View the on-demand webcast of B2B marketing best practices. I’m Rich Cunningham .

2. Stories. Stories are memorable. Stories are motivational.

3. That is why every business needs to craft its own set of core stories that spark the imagination of prospects and customers.

4. S
O
A
R
Crafting these stories is easy when you follow this simple acronym: SOAR.
Business is a lot like football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.

5. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
S is for Situation. This is where we tee-up the story. For example:
I worked with a company that sells software to other businesses throughout the U.S. They have a direct sales force that relies on marketing to generate a large portion of their sales leads. The marketing department
Business isnew leads football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.
generates a lot like with sponsorships, search marketing, social media, and events.

6. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
S is for Situation. This is where we tee-up the story. For example:
I worked with a company that sells software to other businesses throughout the U.S. They have a direct sales force that relies on marketing to generate a large portion of their sales leads. The marketing department
Business isnew leads football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.
generates a lot like with sponsorships, search marketing, social media, and events.

7. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
O is for Opportunity – or the problem that existed. In this story,
The software company creates a lot of new leads, but the sales force complains that the leads are weak. They would try to follow up by phone and email, but more than 90% never responded. Those leads would end
up falling through the cracks, and rarely touched again by marketing. They were spending a lot of money for relatively few sales conversations.
The CEO is a losing football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, of each qualified sales the commitment to too high.
Businesswas lot likefaith in the marketing director because the cost a winning attitude, andopportunity was wayexcellence.He started scrutinizing every marketing decision, and the budget was tightened.

8. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
O is for Opportunity – or the problem that existed. In this story,
The software company creates a lot of new leads, but the sales force complains that the leads are weak. They would try to follow up by phone and email, but more than 90% never responded. Those leads would end
up falling through the cracks, and rarely touched again by marketing. They were spending a lot of money for relatively few sales conversations.
The CEO is a losing football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, of each qualified sales the commitment to too high.
Businesswas lot likefaith in the marketing director because the cost a winning attitude, andopportunity was wayexcellence.He started scrutinizing every marketing decision, and the budget was tightened.

9. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
A is for Action – what did they do?
So, we worked with the marketing director to devise an ongoing program that would continue to reach out to new leads to cultivate relationships. They wrote a series of informational articles, a white paper, and
started a monthly product webinar.
Each new lead that came to the company would receive this article series by email over a six-week period. Each of the articles also included a call-out in the margin that promoted the free whitepaper or the monthly
product is a lot like
Businesswebinar. football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.

10. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
A is for Action – what did they do?
So, we worked with the marketing director to devise an ongoing program that would continue to reach out to new leads to cultivate relationships. They wrote a series of informational articles, a white paper, and
started a monthly product webinar.
Each new lead that came to the company would receive this article series by email over a six-week period. Each of the articles also included a call-out in the margin that promoted the free whitepaper or the monthly
product is a lot like
Businesswebinar. football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.

11. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
R is for Results – the outcome.
Marketing was able to track the results, directly: They knew who clicked on one or more of the full article links, who downloaded the whitepaper, and who registered to attend a webinar. Based on how a lead
interacted with the company, marketing would either assign it to sales, or continue to nurture them over time.
What they found was that a much larger portion of people were reading the articles than usually respond to a promotional email. Half of those also downloaded the whitepaper. And almost every month, a handful of
companies attended the webinars.
In the first 12-months of this program, the number of qualified sales opportunities grew by over 400%, and as they began closing these deals, the average sales cycle was 30% shorter. The company started hitting its
revenue goals, the sales reps were making more money, and the marketing director was a hero.commitment to excellence.
Business is a lot like football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the

12. Situation
Opportunity
Action
Results
R is for Results – the outcome.
Marketing was able to track the results, directly: They knew who clicked on one or more of the full article links, who downloaded the whitepaper, and who registered to attend a webinar. Based on how a lead
interacted with the company, marketing would either assign it to sales, or continue to nurture them over time.
What they found was that a much larger portion of people were reading the articles than usually respond to a promotional email. Half of those also downloaded the whitepaper. And almost every month, a handful of
companies attended the webinars.
In the first 12-months of this program, the number of qualified sales opportunities grew by over 400%, and as they began closing these deals, the average sales cycle was 30% shorter. The company started hitting its
revenue goals, the sales reps were making more money, and the marketing director was a hero.commitment to excellence.
Business is a lot like football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the

13. S.O.A.R.
S.O.A.R. – A simple acronym that can help you write memorable customer stories that spark the imagination.
Business is a lot like football. Both require strategy, passion, focus, a winning attitude, and the commitment to excellence.

14. “How to Tell Memorable Customer
Stories that Spark the Imagination”
Marcom Productions presents Point of View the on-demand webcast of B2B marketing best practices. I’m Rich Cunningham .