Shawna Suckow

45-90 minutes or half-day workshop

Whether you’re a retailer, manufacturer, or wholesaler, shifting consumer behavior is (finally!) giving smaller businesses new leverage. Small is having its moment, and you can take advantage of it if you understand what is getting attention and influencing today’s buyers.

Customers now discover businesses and develop trust in them in entirely new ways. This gives smaller brands more opportunities to compete using brand personality, flexibility, and strong customer relationships. More than ever, people want to know the humans behind the business. That’s your edge.

In this session, consumer behaviorist and small business champion Shawna Suckow will show you how to turn your size into your biggest advantage. You’ll discover inexpensive, manageable ways to stand out wherever you find customers: online, at events, or in your community. You’ll learn how to use Microstories™ to create connection and conversation, and give customers solid reasons to choose you even when you are not the lowest-priced option.

Your audience will be able to:

• Recognize the changes in how consumers and buyers discover, evaluate, and choose businesses, as well as the opportunities those changes create for smaller brands.
• Get better traction without breaking the bank or turning marketing into another full-time job.
• Craft Microstories™ that create emotional connections, start conversations, and make your business easier to remember.

This is perfect for:

• Small business and entrepreneur conferences.
• Association events and cooperative networks.
• Marketing and customer experience tracks.
• Audiences who are stretched thin, burned out, or stuck and need fresh strategies.

45-90 minutes or half-day workshop

Your customers are surrounded by businesses making the same claims about quality, service, and trust. If your marketing sounds like everyone else’s, you become part of The Blandscape™. Customers may see you, but will they remember you?

Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than stated facts, making Microstories™ the #1 way to stand out, build trust, and stay in your customers’ minds. These short moments reveal who you are, why your work matters, and what customers can expect from you.

Consumer behaviorist and marketing truth-teller Shawna Suckow will show you how to find the stories inside your business and use them across your marketing, sales, and customer experience. You’ll learn how to leave The Blandscape™ and become easier to trust, remember, choose, and recommend.

Your audience will be able to:

• Recognize where your marketing blends into The Blandscape, and how to escape it.
• Identify everyday moments within your business that can become memorable Microstories™.
• Use storytelling to build trust, strengthen your customers’ recall, and give them more reasons to choose and refer your business.

This is perfect for:

• Businesses of any size looking to stand out and connect better with customers.
• Marketing, branding, and customer experience tracks.
• Sales, entrepreneurship, and small business tracks.

45-90 minutes or half-day workshop

Your customers want badly to trust businesses. The problem is, they are finding fewer reasons to do it. Shawna’s research found that 98% of Americans distrust businesses more than they did 10 years ago. That trust crisis can become your advantage.

Customer Brandships™ are the business version of friendships. Both consumers and buyers crave connection, honesty, consistency, and the feeling that a business actually knows and cares about them, not just their money.

In this session, Shawna shows you how to Out-Human the Competition™ by replacing polished promises with believable proof and creating more personal customer experiences. You’ll learn how to turn transactions into relationships and become the business customers choose, return to, and recommend.

Your audience will be able to:

• Recognize the behaviors and business practices that weaken customer trust.
• Find overlooked trust-builders and trustbreakers throughout your customer experience.
• Apply simple ways to Out-Human the Competition™ through more personal interactions that customers crave.
• Turn everyday transactions into stronger relationships that encourage loyalty and referrals

This is perfect for:

• Business owners and sales teams who want customers to remember more than their features, facts, and prices.
• Sales, entrepreneurship, marketing and customer experience tracks.
• Businesses of any size looking to understand, stand out and connect better with today’s evolving customers.