Building on Business Foundations
The Art and Science of Business Storytelling
Posted by Chris Sissons on Oct 23, 2024
Stories in Business ยป Chris Sissons
What business are you in? This should be an easy question to answer. My cleaner cleans and so she most likely claims to be a cleaner. Cleaning is what she does but is it her business?
To market her business or any other business, understanding the business is essential. It isn’t always clear from the label on the tin, what is actually in the tin.
Take an airport for example. We all know what an airport is but what business is it in? Its business actually has little to do with planes. Airlines run the planes. The airport is actually a landlord and generates income from fees to the airlines, the businesses that service the planes, eg fuel and of course rent from the shops in the terminals.
The airport is consistently a landlord. It may have different arrangements with its various users but once you know, you know what to expect and who’s responsible when something goes wrong!
Let’s go back to a cleaner. This is perhaps a little more complex. Their business will depend on their market. My cleaner saves me time. I’m not too bothered about absolute standards of cleanliness, so long as I’m not wallowing in filth. I could do it myself but my time is more important than the fee I pay.
A domestic cleaner may clean for someone who is disabled in some way. Here the business may be closer to caring or support services. Time saved is not usually an issue.
We can also distinguish between domestic and industrial cleaning. It may boil down to time saved but where the building and equipment are more complex they may need a co-ordinated team of cleaners who need to meet an agreed standard. In some industries, especially where hygiene is important, then there will be specialist cleaners.
Everyone who fits these descriptions (and there may be others) would describe themselves as cleaners and practically they may be doing the same thing. The difference they make is in the marketing. I don’t need a caring service with loads of interaction or an exacting standard of hygiene. I need someone who’ll turn up at an agreed time and do the work with minimum fuss.
To identify the business you’re in, you need to think about your market and ask how you can help them. This is why having a well-defined market is important. Not understanding this means your marketing misses the point. The people who hear will think your offer is not for them! That’s OK as long as the minority who are your market hear you.
This is the fourteenth in a sequence of posts about business storytelling. The first post was Marketing: Art or Science? The last post was Problems and Solutions and the fifteenth post will be Business Evolution.
To try out one of your business-related stories and receive feedback from me plus a few other business owners, please comment below to arrange an informal conversation. I run these sessions free of charge on the second and fourth Thursdays. Visit my website to find out about the Telling Stories Autumn meetings.
Minerva tells me she is in business as a cleaner and specialises in owl cleaning. This is her evidence. I don't know how much the owls pay but they seem to enjoy the experience!
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