Strategic narrative vs positioning
A strategic narrative is the sales story. Positioning is the set of decisions that story has to be true to. April Dunford writes that a storytelling structure assumes you already know the customer, the competitors and the differentiated value, and that a story written before that work can sound strong and still be wrong.
On this page
The story needs the positioning as an input
Dunford’s essay on storytelling and positioning says the two are easy to confuse and are not the same. She likes structured storytelling. She also writes that those structures assume a tight customer, differentiated value and a known set of competitors. A team can brainstorm a compelling story from guesses. Her sequence puts the inputs first: competitive alternatives, unique features, the value those features drive, the customers who care, and the market category. She is explicit that positioning is not the result of a story. The story requires the positioning. In her workshops, the storyboard that becomes the sales narrative comes after that work.
A sales narrative has an order
Andy Raskin’s essay on a Zuora sales deck names five elements, in this order. Name a big, relevant change in the world. Show there will be winners and losers. Tease the promised land, which he says is a future state, not your product. Introduce capabilities as what helps the buyer past the obstacles to that future. Present evidence you can make the story come true. He treats a line like “you will have the most innovative platform” as a failed promised land, because it is the product, not the life the product makes possible. Use the order after the positioning is true. Used first, it can invent a world your deals do not support.
Where each decision shows up
| Positioning decision | Where it shows up in the story |
|---|---|
| Competitive alternatives | The old way the change makes costly |
| Unique attributes | The capabilities, after the future state is clear |
| Value | The promised land, in the customer’s outcome, not your feature |
| Best-fit customer | Who the change is urgent for |
| Market category | The frame that makes the value obvious once the story names you |
Steps
Finish the five decisions
Alternatives, attributes, value, customer, category. In writing.
Then name the change
Only a shift your best-fit customer already feels.
State the future without the product
If the sentence needs your name, it is a pitch, not a promised land.
Attach capabilities to obstacles
Each one answers a reason they might not get there.
End on evidence you can show
A deal like theirs, or a demo of the outcome. Not a logo wall at slide one.
FAQs
Should we start the offsite with the narrative?
No. Dunford’s warning is that the story will sound finished before the inputs are real. Do the positioning first.
Is a strategic narrative the homepage?
It is the sales story. The homepage still has to say what you are in seconds. The narrative is too long to be that sentence.
Can the category be the name of the change?
Only when buyers already use that frame. A coined shift that your customers do not say is a story looking for a market.