Stop Talking About Yourself: How to Build a Brand Narrative That Works

The #1 issue I see in B2B marketing materials? They’re self-absorbed. All about the company.

No one likes a self-absorbed website or social post. Especially your buyers (assuming they even see it).

Most SaaS companies and service providers talk about themselves in the language of features, frameworks, or product roadmap. Prospective buyers don’t think that way.

Your buyers are busy, skeptical, and drowning in options. They are looking for relief from frustrations. Sometimes they don’t even know what they need yet. They just know something is wrong, slowing them down, costing them money, or making their lives harder than it should be.

Do You Even Have a Brand Narrative Problem?

You might not realize you have a brand narrative problem. Quick gut check:

• Your website isn’t getting traffic

• Website traffic isn’t converting (no one is signing up for that demo you keep pushing)

• The wrong people are filling your lead database

• Your sales team can’t close

If you nodded along to any of these, this blog is for you.

Start With Buyer Pain Points, Not Your Features

Most companies lead with what they have built. Check out this feature. Look at our interface. Let me give you a rundown of every spec.

But what really makes buyers lean in is when you reflect their daily struggles back to them. Here’s what real buyer pain points can sound like:

• “I need to save time on a process that’s eating my team alive.”

• “How can I reduce errors or risks before they cost us money or reputation?”

• “I need to reduce employee turnover before it tanks our growth.”

• “How do I build a better training program so customers actually stick with us?”

• “I need ideas to improve our customer response time.”

• “I need to cut the costs of our tech stack and stop juggling a dozen different tools.”

Think about the last time you were trying to solve a problem. Did you type into Google, Reddit, or ChatGPT: “Show me the all-in-one content marketing software”? Or did you ask something more like: “How do I create great content without spending a fortune”?

If your messaging doesn’t sound like this, it is still centered on you instead of them.

Speak to Every Role That Touches the Deal

Even small SaaS and service providers face multi-stakeholder buying decisions. Gotta love those buying committees, am I right?

Not only do you need to speak to high-level pain points, you also need to build strong narratives that flex to each audience:

• Executives care about growth, cost avoidance, and risk reduction

• Functional leaders want their teams’ jobs to be easier or deliver better results

• Technical or ops leads need reassurance that your solution will not create integration nightmares

• End users just want to know the tool or service will make their lives simpler, not harder

When your story acknowledges these perspectives, you reduce friction and build interest and trust faster.

Yes, it takes extra effort up front, but it gets you into sales conversations sooner and moves you to closed deals more easily.

Shift From “What We Do” to “What You Unlock”

Listing services or features doesn’t move the needle. Buyers want to know what changes once they start working with you.

Instead of: “We provide workflow automation.” 

Say: “No more double-entry or spreadsheet chaos. Your team gets hours back every week.”

Instead of: “We deliver managed IT services.” 

Say: “Sleep better knowing your systems are monitored 24/7, not just when something breaks.”

Instead of: “We offer employee training programs.” 

Say: “Your managers will handle tough conversations with confidence instead of avoiding them.”

That shift from what you do to what buyers gain is where connection happens.

Stop Selling the Same Playbook

You can only get so far if you sound just like your competitors. It is tempting to look at the biggest player in your category and think, “We’ll just do what they do, only better.”

Here’s the truth. You cannot outspend them, and you don’t have their brand recognition. More importantly, why would you want to? Your company was started because you saw a better way to solve a problem, not to copy the same script.

In crowded categories, most solutions blur together. If you mirror your competitors, you will end up fighting for scraps. Differentiation has to come through in other ways. In how you talk about buyer pain. In the outcomes you promise. In the experience you deliver.

Even if you succeed at looking like your competitor, you will never surpass them. All you do is make the space blurrier. The goal is not to blend in. The goal is to take their market share, win their unhappy customers, and show buyers there is a better option.

Back It Up With Proof Buyers Can Trust

Every company claims to be “trustworthy,” “innovative,” “scalable,” or “customer-focused.” Buyers don’t buy adjectives. They buy evidence that you understand their problems and can solve them.

Trust is earned.

Innovation is shown in your thinking.

Scalability is demonstrated in real case studies.

Customer focus is proven through renewals, upsells, and loyalty.

Go beyond generic claims by showing:

• You understand their world. Speak their language and reference their challenges

• You’ve solved this before. Case studies and use cases prove you are not experimenting on them

• You deliver measurable outcomes. Metrics make results tangible (“Clients cut manual processing time by 40%”)

• Others trust you. Social proof validates their choice (“Trusted by 500+ companies across SaaS, healthcare, and professional services”)

• You improve life, not just workflows. Stories highlight how customers’ jobs got easier, teams grew more confident, or customers got happier (“Helped a startup shorten sales cycles by 30% with clearer messaging”)

Proof transforms claims into confidence. Proof paired with empathy for the buyer’s world builds lasting trust.

Make Your Narrative Show Up Everywhere That Matters

If you take nothing else away from this, hear this loud and clear. Your brand narrative is not a slick sheet or a tagline. It is the through-line in every way you communicate.

Buyers and influencers recognize it when they see their own pain points reflected consistently across:

• Articles, blogs, and papers that show you understand their challenges

• Webinars, speeches, and podcasts where you share insights, not just product pitches

• Booth messaging and sales decks that speak to outcomes, not just features

• Customer stories and practitioner voices that bring your solutions to life in a human way

What it is not: plastering screenshots of your platform and feature lists everywhere.

What it is: demonstrating again and again that you understand your buyer’s frustrations and how you can make their lives easier.

When your narrative shows up consistently across these touchpoints, buyers don’t just remember you. They start to lean in.

Create Clear, Buyer-Friendly Next Steps

Once your narrative clicks, don’t leave buyers hanging. Give them obvious ways to move forward. And please stop leading with that demo request. There is a time and place for it, but it doesn’t need to be shoved in their face at every turn.

Better calls to action look like:

• “Get a Buyer Readiness Checklist.”

• “Learn How to Eradicate Your Tech Stack Pain Once and For All.”

• “See How Your Customer Support Processes Stack Up.”

• “Learn the Secrets to the Best Training Programs.”

A good narrative creates recognition. A clear call to action creates momentum.

Final Thought

Your brand narrative is not about what you want to say. It is about what your buyers need to hear in order to feel understood and take the next step with you.

By focusing on pain points, speaking to multiple roles, and backing it up with proof, you don’t just create a better website. You create buyer traction, trust, and growth.