Strategic Storyboarding

“I’m losing customers because they don’t know where to go on our website! I have to spend hours handholding customers just so they can sign on for our online training. How can I sell my boss on using a storyboard to outline the steps and help customers find their way?”

Jerry A., Sales Representative for National training company

I hear this complaint just about every day of every week. Jerry plus ten regional sales representatives know exactly where customers have trouble. They see precisely where new people bail out of the confusing and maze-like sign-in process originally designed 2 years ago at the corporate headquarters.

“If It Ain’t Broke…”

But the folks at corporate don’t want to fix what’s broken…they are just happy counting the dollars from all the customers who do sign-up. Somehow the folks at corporate don’t recognize the super high cost of not storyboarding a clear path of steps for new clients. And they underestimate the value of making every customer’s experience easy, fast and no-brainer.

It’s Friday afternoon. I just got off the phone with Jerry, who was stuck in an airport waiting to fly home after seeing clients all week. In between flights, from a crowded airport, he described the problem that is making him tear his hair out:

He’s flying around the country, meeting with potential customers at their location. He’s done all the front-end work of closing the sale. His new customers ready to take their first online training program. But when they log onto the website, there is no “you are here” map…and they get confused.

The first time they think ‘it’s just me’…maybe the instructions are somewhere else and I just have to keep searching. At first they assume it’s their own fault that they can’t find the way through the sign-in maze. But after several minutes of frustration, they bail.

Now Jerry has to win them back and keep them from switching to a different vendor. It’s like starting all over again!

“Ouch! Painful High Cost If This Isn’t Fixed…”

There are several obvious costs here:

Jerry’s time is getting eaten up with handholding, walking the client through the steps, restoring trust and getting the client back on track. Now multiply that times 10. All the regional sales representatives are in the same position and the amount of time re-claiming customer trust is growing by leaps and bounds.

And here’s the real kicker…if the customer bails, it’s not just one person. It’s an entire organization that goes somewhere else for training. The loss of income can run in the millions of dollars.

So what’s your alternative?

“How To Show The Steps From The Start”

Storyboard your online training. Make the sign in steps crystal clear. Organize the information with colorful graphics and clear markers so any user can see where they are orient quickly and sign in with ease. On their own.

One of the best resources for examples of this is to explore how information designers organize “you are here” maps of physical buildings that serve international travelers. Look at maps from airports, city maps, malls and subway systems. You’ll find powerful examples of visual orientation diagrams. Every viewer understands the map and finds their way— no matter what language they speak.

“First, How To Present A Winning Financial Story”

But there’s something else to you must do first. Even before you create the storyboard for the user of your online trainer. Jerry has to do this too. He has to win over the corporate folks…because they’re the ones who will write the check for creating an online map or storyboard.

This is the very first hurdle to overcome. And here’s how to do it:

Make a storyboard that clearly shows the current problem. Lay out the alarming and shocking loss of income for the entire organization. Put a dollar sign to each area of loss. When the cost of the problem outweighs the solution by multiples, you will have no trouble getting corporate to buy-in.

Here’s how it works:

Cost of Jerry's hourly work: $50/hour x 20 hours per month $1000

Cost of 10 other reps: $50/hour x 20 hours x 10 = 10,000

Cost of losing one corporate client = 1,000,000

Cost of loss of sales representatives time not being spent getting other new clients…

220 hours of sales representatives times … put a price tag on it.

It’s HUGE.

After you lay out all the facts and figures to your executive team…which will run in the millions… you should step back and let the information and loss of income sink in. Ask for the check to create a storyboard…that will run you a tiny fraction of what the company is losing.

Get ready to watch your executive team fork over the money. It’s a no-brainer decision.

What to do next?

Use the storyboarding system to create a physical storyboard for customers. Gather input and improvements by running it by current clients. Next, put up an orientation storyboard map showing sign-in steps, training options and any information your user needs to easily benefit from your online training course.

Get strategic about winning million dollar customers for your online training business. Don’t make the customer think. The easier it is for customers to sign on, instantly see where to go, and quickly follow an intuitive and logical flow, the more people will stay.

And it doesn’t just happen once. Easy steps and strategic storyboard maps help more people sign on, come back often and recommend your services. Make your program easy to use and easy to understand. That’s how to build your multi-million dollar online training business.

To your strategic success!