What Truth Smells Like

Businesses that break through have found their truth. I call it their true story. It’s that fundamental essence that describes in a very concise and intuitive way, exactly why they exist, exactly who they help, and what is that benefit that their target gets from working with them. A true story is it’s not something you can follow a quantitative strategy to create. It really comes from triangulating on all the things you know about your value and who it’s for and what happens. It’s your expertise brought to just a few words, three to five words, and I found that that truth, that resonance is hard to quantify. But you know what, when you see it, and I want to share, I want to describe some aspects of that truth that I’ve seen in common among companies that really nail this.

Infinity
The first is, it has an aspect of infinity. It’s unbounded. It’s, it’s not limited by 30% more or half as much or something like that. Their story, their value is aspirational. It creates opportunity beyond today that could go and go and go.

Paradox
Secondly, that truth has paradox. It has a contrast. Simple example that people can recognize is less is more. There’s so many different ways you can describe how, how less of something, something more focused is more potent. Something that’s cleaner is more impactful and it’s true in your message as well. When you find a way to talk about a contrasting qualities of your business’s value, when you see that, there’s a play on words and there’s things that just kinda roll around in your audience’s head, that’s a sign that you’re getting close to the truth.

Change
And then the third thing is transformation. Your story has some aspect of taking your prospect from here to there, that they can’t stay where they’re at. That this opportunity is fleeting and that time is of the essence. And that things will be totally different when we move forward. I found that so many businesses that’s in essence what they need and what they’re looking for. They can’t stay where they are and they need to get somewhere else. So the amount that your story communicates, that opportunity, that open door to a different place and a way to get there, it really resonates with your audience.

B2B Clarity
Truth is not a formula. It’s something that you, you have to work on and understand from listening to your market and your business and your team and yourself. And I encourage you to take the effort and spend some time wrestling with this messy process. Because even progress along this path of truth, your truth is gonna be really good for your business.