65 - You Don’t Need a Better Pitch. You Need a Better Story
If your pitch isn’t working, your story isn’t clear. This episode unpacks the framework for a magnetic business story that attracts customers, partners, investors, and talent by aligning your mission with a massive opportunity.
You Don’t Need a Better Pitch. You Need a Better Story
When a business fails to scale, most founders assume they need a better pitch. However, what they truly need is a better story —one that fosters alignment, magnetism, and momentum at scale.
This episode unpacks how to build a story so compelling that people want to join before you finish telling it.
Here’s what the most magnetic business stories include:
1. A Unique Superpower.
Start with what makes you special: a skill, advantage, or technology that no one else can replicate. But it’s not enough to be different. Your uniqueness has to matter in the context of a much larger challenge.
2. A Giant Problem Worth Solving.
The more important the problem, the more compelling the mission. The best stories are rooted in issues so critical that the market feels them viscerally. You’re not just building a solution; you’re confronting an industry blind spot or a leadership pain point.
3. A Vision No One Can Reach Alone.
The future your business makes possible must be so ambitious, so transformative, that you have to bring others along. That’s what attracts top talent, strategic partners, and committed investors; they see their future inside your vision.
4. A Story That Powers Itself.
A powerful story spreads without you. It becomes the tailwind behind your brand. Investors repeat it. Partners align with it. Customers advocate for it. Skilled employees seek it out not because you’re hiring, but because they want to matter.
From Pitch to Pull:
Great businesses don’t need to sell harder; they need to tell a better story.
When you build a clear, bold, and differentiated story, you stop chasing.
You start attracting.
This episode provides you with the blueprint to craft a narrative so strong that it becomes your most strategic asset, one that builds lasting momentum, even when you’re not in the room.
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:06 The Journey of James Cook
00:32 Organizing an Expedition
01:30 The Four Investor Groups
02:10 Crafting a Unique Story
03:22 Creating an Epic Growth Opportunity
04:03 The Power of a Single Story
05:25 Building Momentum with Your Story
07:25 Conclusion: Make Your Business an Expedition
Links:
Website: https://www.marcogrueter.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcogrueter/
Transcript:
Hi, everyone. Hi. Hi. It's great to be here in Chen with all of you at that wonderful day. And I'm going to tell you a bit, a bit of a story about a journey.
Most of you know James's Cook, and he was famous for his specific voyages. The first one was 1768, where he discovered Australia and claimed it for the United Kingdom. Put yourself in his shoes. If you need to organize such a journey, not just a journey, like an expedition that might change the maps, how they're drawn today, what do we need to do? What do you do first? You need to attract people to your id. You can't do this alone. No. At first you have to enter the rising the stars C. That's absolutely. And how do you attract, this is the art of making your business magnetic.
There are four groups that are. Attracted by your business. Your business. That's the ship. And you need to make sure you have investors, partners, employees, and customers attracted, and they are all investing in your business. That's important there. I call them the four investor groups. The investors are investing money.That's clear, but. The employees are, are investing their time, and the partners are investing their strategic decisions with your business.
And how do you attract it? It's by having a unique story that attracts people. Here you see the three elements for a unique story. First, it's your superpower. It is what makes you your ship very special. It can be a unique technology you use. It can be your experience that is very special. It can be anything that is your superpower that makes you stand out.
And it's not enough just to be different. It needs to be a unique. Something that you are equipped with or your, your ship that you can talk about, then you need a huge problem to solve. The bigger the problem, the better something that no one has there dared to do before you. It can be the root that no other ship wanted to go because it's too dangerous in business it is.
When the leaders of industries can't sleep at night, it's these big, huge things. The better you can formulate such a huge problem, the easier it becomes for your story, and then you create an epic growth opportunity out of this. You paint the picture of what's possible after that problem has been solved.
And it needs to be so big. You can't re, you can't reach it alone. You need people, you need partners, you need support. Otherwise, this is, it's not a huge growth opportunity. And what's the beauty of such an opportunity? Such a story. It is one story that attracts everyone. You don't need to have a special story for your investors or a special story for your customer, for your employees.
It's one story for everyone. It speaks to everyone. For instance, the merchants, they see new markets, they see faster trade routes. It's not just buying massage for their goods, for the crew members. They're inspired by your story. They see how they can grow through that huge opportunity. They will be part of history.
They're not just signing up for a job. Your partners together, you establish a mutually exclusive route. It's not just a service they provide to you and the investors. They secure a lucrative opportunity for the future. I. It being part of something unique and exclusive, saving, securing themselves a future market that is exclusive to them. They're not just investing in your story,and here is what makes a powerful story unstoppable.
This story creates its own momentum. It's wind in your sails. Long after you have met someone, the story will continue to be told. You don't need to be there anymore. A nice crafted story becomes its own momentum. Clients will talk about the great opportunity your ship has. Employees, skilled employees are attracted to your story. They want to be part of something big like this, and they want to be, to make an impact. You get the big skilled employees for such big stories. Partners speak of your plan in strategic meetings and you, your idea becomes even a strategic. Decision of, of your partners and investors are generally retelling your story because they're being the cause. They're being attracted by your cause and they will make your story sound nicer and want to be part of such a, an amazing future, uh, opportunity because they know it can make them fortunes.
And this is how momentum builds naturally. Story become tail. People want to be part of each person who hears. It will give you an additional wind in your sails. The collective effort creates that fast moving force that drags you into the future. When your story is this clear, you don't need to convince people.
You're people are being attracted by it. It's not just joining a voyage. It is part of a story that will be told for many years. Remember, greatest expeditions were not just well funded, they were well storied. Make your business an expedition worth joining and watch the winds of momentum fill your sales. Thank you.