Bring Storytelling Into Your Product Pitch

Hi, I’m  the new Sr Director of Product Marketing at SmartRecruiters, and I’m here to help you pitch your product. I’m also a mother to a 17 month old daughter. Lately her favorite time is “story time.” To tell a great story in your product pitch, you must have a clear beginning, middle and end.

To me, telling a great story is not much different than doing great marketing. Stories create an emotional connection. As product marketers, our mission is not to just create content with our company; our mission is to create memorable feelings with our content. The product needs a narrative, but it’s more than a narrative.

Nail the three sections in your product story, and you’ll have a great product pitch.

1.  Beginning: The Problem

The beginning is the set up (or better yet, the build up). It is all about your buyer’s pain that exists without your product.

Our beginning: Understand that hiring great people is really important. But the process is frustrating. For everyone: employers, candidates and hiring teams. There’s been limited innovation for decades.

There are three problems that really upset us: lack of high quality candidates, lack of engagement from existing hiring team, and lack of control in the process – too often, recruiting and hiring is a fragmented mess.

2. Middle: The Solution

The middle is your solution to this pain. Communicate value. How is your solution unique and different than others? What are your “product’s onlys”? Even better, do you have customer stories that validate your product differentiators? Such as:

• “The SmartRecruiters platform has totally streamlined our hiring process, enabling us to find specialized candidates more efficiently in key markets,” said Lisa McIntosh, Vice President of HR at EnergyOne. 
• “We’re finding more of the right candidates faster, which is essential given how quickly we’re growing,” said Amy Brewster, Head of Recruiting at The Melt. “Our hiring teams are constantly analyzing our talent pipeline to keep track of every candidate and collaborating on the go through the SmartRecruiters mobile hiring app.”

Above all else, don’t do “death by product feature.” Instead tell a compelling story with your live product demo.

Our middle: Well, it’s our secret sauce. Request a demo and we’ll be happy to show and tell.

3. End: The Emotion

The end is the close. It answers the “so, what?” How do you want your future customers to feel? Communicate value. Show validation through customer adoption. Do you have interesting stats? What action do you want people to take e.g. sign up for your product, request a demo, or contact sales?

Our end: Well, it’s our secret sauce. Request a demo and we’ll be happy to show and tell.

As Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Helen leads product marketing at SmartRecruiters. She has more than a decade of high-growth technology marketing experience including roles at GoodData, Zendesk and Vontu (now part of Symantec). Prior to SmartRecruiters, Helen earned both her BS and MS in Electrical Engineering at UCLA. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring new kid-friendly restaurants in the city and choosing outfits for her fashion blog. Photo Credit Prezo.