Four steps for thinking through your 
          storyline
           The process for structuring our ideas into a compelling piece of communication is simple, but not easy. It 
           requires a simple, repeatable process that allows us to correlate our effort with our end game.
           Here are four steps to help clarify your thinking so you can communicate the right 
           messages to the right people in the right way. Here is an overview of the steps followed by 
           templates to help you think through each element.
           1.   Brainstorm key concepts that need to be covered in the communication, and pull existing 
                material together
           2.   Design your strategy
                1.   Clarify purpose and understand audience
                2.   Develop stakeholder strategy if key decision makers are objectors, revisiting purpose if needed
           3.   Develop your storyline
                1.   ‘Hack’ the high-level structure using 3+ patterns to see which is most compelling
                2.   Use the most promising ‘hacked structure’ to populate the storyline one pager
                3.   Test storyline against Ten Point Test before socialising with stakeholders as a one pager, revising 
                     and reconfirming where needed
           4.   Deliver your communication by preparing your document based on the storyline. If PowerPoint, 
                create a storyboard using the boxes on page 8 to check the flow. You may like to use this with 
                stakeholders also.
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         STEP 1 - BRAINSTORM KEY CONCEPTS  
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                •   Sales – Microsoft – consultative sales – versus commercial sales – vendor provides tool / solution to the problem – vendors moving 
                    away from office of CIO and CTO to Chief Marketing Officer / Chief Revenue Officer
                •   Compete on value generated
                •   Azure – corporate offerings including Metaverse offerings
                •   Good translator - Good at both talking to business to understand the need and translating that into technical terms so the 
                    technical guys can understand what they need to do and vice versa
                •   Good process optimizer – who to talk to - during client discovery with multiple stakeholders, eg marketing and reports, 
                    understanding processes and technology, IT organization to understand how that is supported – usually unearths heavy IT 
                    dependence, identify redundant steps and automate
                •   Very thorough – thoughtful and strategic about building new relationships - Finding and keeping new customers – find 
                    opportunities for ‘real’ conversations with useful people during an engagement
                •   Nurturing relationships to identify opportunities - 
                •   How initiate new relationships and opportunities – example of previous role – given free reign, got org charts for prospects – 
                    identified who do we not have a relationship with yet (eg new person, new entity who might not be aware of the vendor) – 
                    emailed and followed up with a phone call – put something that is relevant to how the vendor can help them in the subject line
                •   Segments – personas in segments – create a communication strategy to personas, execute
                •   Great listener who takes into consideration other people’s needs and concerns – 
                •   Potential or experience?
                •   Potential – 
                •   Experience in a consulting firm driving business outcomes – translator, listener, create targeted solutions
                •   Understated and genuine - 
                •   consulting, understand problem domain
                •   Executive presence, Credibility at Csuite
                •   Verbal and written presentation skills
                •   Build trust and create interdisciplinary teams
                •   Translator
      Why should MS Industry Solutions hire Brendon into a consultative role within the sales team?
      1. I can help you win more deals because I have experience in consulting firms driving business 
       outcomes.
      2. He has the ability to understand client needs, build relationships and has technical knowledge to 
       deliver solutions
      3. In depth experience driving business outcomes through stakeholder engagement and investments 
       in technology.
      4. He has a quiet confidence that puts prospects at east that he will solve their needs/problems
      5. Brendon provides the sales team with an immediate uplift in deep industry knowledge, capability 
       to identify key marketplace opportunities and structure targeted and unique/novel solutions which 
       could open up previously unreachable clients.
      6. I am adept at collaboratively navigating complex business issues to develop specific high value 
       solutions for all parties
      7. He has a quiet confidence that puts prospects at ease that he will solve their needs/problems
      8. Brendon demonstrates the executive presence and credibility to engage customers within the 
       context of crucial and strategic decision making and provide well structured proposals that 
       address the needs across interdisciplinary teams...
      9. My signature strength is my ability to convince stakeholders of the value of a software investment 
       that delivers long-term performance improvements.  
      10.My signature strength is to engage stakeholders in the ways a vendor’s software can deliver 
       relevant and sustainable performance benefits.
      Why should MS Industry Solutions hire Brendon into a consultative role within the sales team?
      1. My signature strength is my ability to convince 
         stakeholders of the value of a software investment that 
         delivers long-term performance improvements.  
      2. My signature strength is engaging stakeholders in the 
         ways vendor software can deliver relevant and 
         sustainable performance benefits.
      3. My signature strength is helping stakeholders rise 
         above complexity to understand how vendor software 
         can deliver specific and sustainable outcomes.
      4. My signature strength is helping executives rise above 
         complexity to understand how plan and capture value 
         from key digital transformation initiatives.