Tell Your Company Story Like Tesla
Jon McNeill, President of Global Sales & Service at Tesla Motors, is running late for his INBOUND 2016 session. We’re here to learn about Tesla’s mission. When he gets on stage he apologizes, “I just got back from Germany where we accepted the car of the year award.”
We willingly forgive him for the lateness.
Then he begins his dizzying lesson in how to tell your company story.
First, it’s the industry facts:
- The biggest source of energy consumption is transport. The 1st portion in that category is personal, the 2nd portion is cargo trucking.
- If you live within 1 kilometer of a highway your chances of developing lung cancer are 60% higher.
- The tailpipe is 20x more lethal than the car itself.
Whoa! Those numbers are incredible! You’re impressed. Then he tells a story about the first time he became aware of how deadly car emissions are.
A fellow board-member on a non-profit he served on passed away from lung cancer. He was shocked, wondering how that was possible when she never smoked a day in her life? She lived next to a highway.
Facts fade. Stories stick.
Then it’s the product facts:
- Tesla spends $6 on advertising for every car sold (compared to the $2k+ that Lincoln spends per car).
- There is only 1 moving part in every Tesla engine.
- Tesla is opening a new location once every 3 days.
Impressive, right?
And then he tells a story. Stevie Wonder visited Tesla HQ. He put his hand on the car and said, “You’re going to enable people like me to drive someday.”
The audience gasps.
Facts fade. Stories stick.
An audience member asks the persistent “innovation” question. How do you make sure you don’t become the bloated car dealers you’ve just disrupted?
Jon answers with a story.
He talks about the problem with solar panels — neighborhood associations don’t like them. They’re ugly. Elon says they should look like terracotta shingles.
The next morning the engineers come back and say, “I think we can do this.” The engineers suggest using tempered glass that’s strong enough to withstand hail, and super efficient.
“Great,” Elon says, “Let’s take some molds of the shingles on my house.”
The team calls 3M to see how the glass used on phone screens work.
Meanwhile, in the design studios, clay modelers have started working on the shingles.
The head of marketing says, “We need this on real houses. Let’s get these on Wisteria lane.” They call Universal Studios. The launch is going to happen on the old set of Desperate Housewives.
The team at Tesla achieved this in 8 weeks.
In 8 weeks Tesla went from idea to real, working panels on real homes in 5 different styles that connect to a power-wall and solve the problem of intermittence.
