John Rougeux
Founder at Flag & Frontier
On Pipeline
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How to Build a B2B Strategic Narrative That Buyers Remember
John Rougeux, Founder of Flag & Frontier, says a strategic narrative is built through structured debate among the executive team. Handing it to a marketing department or an outsourced PR or comms group misses the point. On Pipeline, he…
Key takeaways
- Take strategic narrative work to your executive team as a structured debate. John Rougeux says a strong POV never makes its way to the market until the executive team agrees on it.
- Work through the questions John Rougeux poses: what are we trying to achieve, how are we trying to differentiate ourselves, what are we trying to do that no one else is, and how do we see things differently than competitors?
- Tell the same story beyond your website: to the people you're trying to hire, to investors, to partners and, for a public company, to analysts.
- Keep talking about the problem as well as your solution, and expect to get tired of your point of view far sooner than your buyers do.
- Before rewriting anything, ask what's preventing the business from going further or faster. John Rougeux says the narrative isn't always the thing that needs fixing first.
In John's words
"If you ever go to a hotel, you see the artwork on the wall, and it's completely... It's fine. It doesn't offend anybody, but it's completely unremarkable."
"A strong POV never makes its way, to the market until the executive team agrees on it."
"We need them to understand the story behind our business, why it's worth their time and the risk of their career to join us."