Here at Brandpoint Strategy, we love a great story. Marketing professionals refer to this as your value proposition, messaging or sometimes even -- branding. We call it storytelling. Companies like Zuora, salesforce, and Active Campaign - each leaders in their space - have perfected the art of repeating their narrative, drawing in customers and attracting supporters.

Their stories address the problems they solve and the challenges their customers face every day. Stakeholders are inspired to act after hearing someone from the team explain what they do. Every marketing piece, each blog post, and every sales demo persuades us to listen and comprehend.

Is it any wonder why these companies succeed year after year?

And then there's the hundreds (thousands?) of excellent companies who just can't seem to get their story right. Despite an awesome product, a stellar team, prospects can't figure out why they should go with them.

The first sign is poor website copy. Ever spent 5 minutes staring at a website and wondering to yourself, "what do these folks actually do?".

Poor storytelling starts at the top. When executive teams rely on confused, old messaging, it reverberates through marketing, sales, and customer success. The stakes are too high: you have to get this right.