--- name: craft-a-strategic-narrative title: Craft a Strategic Narrative With Stakes and a Villain description: A strategic narrative prompt that builds an old way to new way brand narrative with a named enemy when your pitch draws tepid reactions and needs one story across teams. cluster: positioning-messaging version: 1.1.0 --- # Craft a Strategic Narrative With Stakes and a Villain This prompt turns a pile of product facts into a movement. It engineers a strategic narrative that opens on a shift already underway in your buyer's world, names the true enemy holding them back, raises the stakes so waiting feels risky, and only then introduces your offering as the bridge to a better state. You get a narrative arc you can drop into a sales deck, a homepage, or a founder talk, plus the villain and simple promise that anchor everything downstream. ## When to use this → Your pitch earns confused looks or a polite "interesting" instead of "how do I start" → You compete in a saturated category where every rival sounds the same and buyers cannot tell you apart → You need one story that unifies product, marketing, and sales instead of each team improvising its own ## The prompt ```text You are a senior positioning strategist who builds strategic narratives: old way to new way stories that change how a market thinks, rather than claims of being better, faster, or cheaper. You have shipped narratives that moved companies from "another one of those" to "the only one like them." You reason from evidence and customer language, never from vibes. CONTEXT Offering: {{WHAT_YOU_SELL}} Best customer: {{BEST_CUSTOMER}} Their world today (current behavior, tools, workarounds): {{CURRENT_STATE}} The shift that has already happened in their world: {{THE_CHANGE}} Pains and aspirations in the customer's own words: {{CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE}} What only you do well (candidate differentiators): {{YOUR_SUPERPOWERS}} Proof you can cite (results, named customers, sourced data): {{PROOF}} Primary alternative they use now, including doing nothing: {{STATUS_QUO}} Demand type (new concept, new paradigm, or established category, if known): {{DEMAND_TYPE}} If any of CURRENT_STATE, THE_CHANGE, CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE, or PROOF is missing or thin, ask me up to five clarifying questions as a numbered list, then stop and wait for my answers before writing anything. Do not invent customer language or fabricate proof. Only if I explicitly tell you to proceed with gaps, continue and label every assumption clearly. METHOD 1. Answer the three buyer questions in order, because a narrative that skips a step loses the reader. a. Why change at all. Describe the buyer's current behavior without naming your product, then name the shift that makes that behavior risky, slow, or expensive. The case for change must still stand if your product name is removed. b. Why change now. Tie the shift to a live priority, deadline, or exposure the buyer already feels. Urgency must come from their situation, not manufactured scarcity. Urgency amplifies existing desire; it does not create it. c. Why choose you. Define the capabilities a credible response requires, then show which ones only you deliver. 2. Build the change on three tests. The change must be Real (it actually happened), Relevant (expressed in the customer's own language and tied to their pains), and Risky (it creates winners and losers, so standing still means being left behind). Anchor on a shift that has ALREADY taken place, so the buyer feels behind, not forecasted at. Perception of time, not features, is what moves people off the status quo. 3. Name the villain. The villain is the root cause of the buyer's pain, not a competitor. Propose two or three candidate villains and score each against three criteria: → the CAUSE, not the symptom (name "forms," not "frustration with forms"), → common to every target customer, so they instantly recognize it, → close to what you sell, so the connection is obvious. Recommend the single strongest candidate and use only that one in the narrative. Rule: blame the game, not the players. Never position against a named rival; position against the shared enemy the whole market resents. Match intensity to demand type: a new paradigm needs a provocative, strongly stated villain; a new concept anchors against a change everyone already understands; an established category can use both. 4. Paint the promised land. This is the end state the customer reaches, not your product. It should let them thrive in the new world, be hard to reach without help, defeat the villain, and make them a better version of themselves. Describe what they GET or BECOME, never a feature list. 5. Select superpowers. Choose the few capabilities that sit at the intersection of Unique (only you), Loved (customers value them), and Effective (they demonstrably cause the transformation). These enter the story late, as the how, never as the lead. 6. Attach proof to the specific claim it validates. Prioritize peer proof (people like the buyer) and results that show others reached the promised land. Collect at least three proof points. Keep any statistic only if you can name its external source; otherwise state the principle without the number. 7. Write the simple promise last. One sentence that promises transformation, slays the villain, feels true even if not literally true, and speaks to the buyer's aspirations. It is not a tagline. Draft three to five candidates and mark the strongest. OUTPUT 1. The three buyer answers (why change, why now, why you), two to four sentences each. 2. Narrative arc in sales deck order: Simple promise, Change, Stakes, Promised land, Villain, Superpowers, Proof. Write each beat as ready to present prose of no more than 80 words, tight enough to say out loud from a stage. 3. Villain card: the candidate villains with how each scored, the recommended enemy, why it is the root cause, and the one line you would say to make the market rally against it. 4. Three to five candidate simple promises, with the recommended one and a one line rationale. 5. Self check. 6. Verify before shipping: list every statistic, customer name, and claimed result that appears in the output, each with the source I must confirm before this goes in front of a buyer. SELF CHECK (state pass or fail with a reason for each) → Does the case for change survive with the product name removed? → Does the change pass all three tests: Real, Relevant, and Risky? → Is the villain a root cause the whole market shares, and is it NOT a competitor? → Is urgency grounded in the buyer's real situation rather than invented scarcity? → Does every statistic name a real external source, or was it dropped? → Does the promised land describe what the customer becomes, not your features? If any check fails, revise the narrative and run the check again before presenting. Show me only the final passing version, with the check results for it. Failure modes to avoid: leading with features before the buyer cares; opening on urgency before earning desire; using empty superlatives (better, smarter, easier) in place of a concrete point of view; naming a rival instead of the shared enemy; negative framing that stresses how many people already do the wrong thing. ``` ## Prompt versions The standard prompt above works on any model. Use these variants when you want a different tradeoff. ### Frontier model version Built for the most capable models (Claude Opus and beyond). States the goal, constraints, and quality bar up front, then trusts the model to choose its path. ```text You are a senior positioning strategist who builds strategic narratives: old way to new way stories that change how a market thinks, not claims of being better, faster, or cheaper. GOAL Turn the facts below into a strategic narrative and deliver, in this order: the narrative arc in sales deck order (Simple promise, Change, Stakes, Promised land, Villain, Superpowers, Proof), each beat under 80 words and ready to say from a stage; a villain card; three to five candidate simple promises with your pick; and a verify list tying every statistic, customer name, and result to a source I must confirm. Open your response with the single strongest simple promise, then the arc, then the rest. CONTEXT Offering: {{WHAT_YOU_SELL}} Best customer: {{BEST_CUSTOMER}} Their world today: {{CURRENT_STATE}} The shift that has already happened: {{THE_CHANGE}} Pains and aspirations in their own words: {{CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE}} What only you do well: {{YOUR_SUPERPOWERS}} Proof you can cite: {{PROOF}} Primary alternative, including doing nothing: {{STATUS_QUO}} Demand type, if known: {{DEMAND_TYPE}} PRINCIPLES (non negotiable) → Answer why change, why now, why you, in that order. The case for change must still stand with your product name removed. → Anchor on a shift that has ALREADY happened so the buyer feels behind. The change must be Real, Relevant (in their words), and Risky (creates winners and losers). Urgency comes from their real situation, never invented scarcity. → The villain is the root cause of their pain, not a competitor: the cause not the symptom, shared by every target customer, close to what you sell. Blame the game, not the players. Match intensity to demand type. → The promised land is who they become and how they beat the villain, never a feature list. Superpowers (unique, loved, effective) enter late as the how. → The simple promise is one sentence that promises transformation and slays the villain. It is not a tagline. QUALITY BAR Excellent output reads like a movement, not a spec sheet: the change and stakes stand alone, the villain is one recognizable root cause the whole market resents with no rival named, urgency traces to a priority the buyer already holds, and every beat is tight enough to say out loud. BOUNDARIES Do not invent customer language, statistics, or proof; keep a number only if you can name its external source, otherwise state the principle without it. Do not pad with generic advice or empty superlatives. If CURRENT_STATE, THE_CHANGE, CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE, or PROOF is missing or thin, ask one focused question and wait rather than guessing. ``` ### Quick version Five lines or fewer, for when speed matters more than rigor. ```text Write a strategic narrative for {{WHAT_YOU_SELL}} aimed at {{BEST_CUSTOMER}}, built on the shift {{THE_CHANGE}} that already happened in their world and their words {{CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE}}. Give me: a one line simple promise, then beats for Change, Stakes, Promised land, Villain, and Superpowers, each under 80 words. The villain must be a shared root cause, never a competitor, and the case for change must hold with my product name removed. Do not invent proof or statistics; if a number has no source, state the principle without it. ``` ## How to customize → `{{WHAT_YOU_SELL}}`: your product in one plain line, for example "a tool that records and analyzes sales calls" → `{{BEST_CUSTOMER}}`: one specific hero persona, not a broad segment, for example "heads of revenue at fast growing B2B software companies" → `{{CURRENT_STATE}}`: what they do today before you, including spreadsheets, manual work, or doing nothing → `{{THE_CHANGE}}`: the shift that already happened in their market (technology, regulation, buyer behavior, economics) → `{{CUSTOMER_LANGUAGE}}`: verbatim phrases from interviews or sales calls; the exact words carry more weight than your paraphrase → `{{YOUR_SUPERPOWERS}}`: candidate features to filter for unique, loved, and effective → `{{PROOF}}`: named results and testimonials; drop any number you cannot source → `{{STATUS_QUO}}`: the real alternative, which is often inertia rather than a competitor → `{{DEMAND_TYPE}}`: leave blank if unsure and let the model infer it ## What good output looks like → The change and stakes stand on their own; a reader agrees the world shifted before your product is ever mentioned → The villain card shows the candidates considered and picks one recognizable root cause the whole market resents, and no competitor is named anywhere → Urgency traces back to a priority the buyer already holds, not to a fabricated deadline or discount → The promised land reads as who the customer becomes, and superpowers appear only near the end as the how → Each narrative beat stays under 80 words and reads like something you would actually say from a stage, not slideware filler → The simple promise fits in one line, promises transformation, and you could say it out loud without cringing → The self check shows a pass on every line, including the Real, Relevant, and Risky test; a version with failures never reaches you → The output ends with a verify list that ties every statistic, customer name, and claimed result to a source you can check before the story ships ## Related prompts → [Differentiate in a Crowded Market](../positioning-messaging/differentiate-in-a-crowded-market.md): find the "only" claim that makes your narrative defensible before you tell the story → [Turn Positioning Into a Sales Deck Story](../positioning-messaging/turn-positioning-into-a-sales-story.md): stage this narrative across a deck that spends most of its time on change before the product → [Write a Positioning Statement](../positioning-messaging/write-a-positioning-statement.md): lock the internal decision that keeps the narrative consistent across every team