# Podcast: Storyselling — The Ballmer Method
## Episode Title
**"Developers, Developers, Developers: What Ballmer Knew About Storyselling"**
## Runtime
~25 minutes
## Cold Open
*"In 2002, Steve Ballmer got thousands of developers to show up at 8:30am for a product pitch. Not a keynote — a pitch. For a development framework. At breakfast time. How did he do it? He'd been Storyselling for 34 years without knowing what to call it."*
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## Segment 1: The Problem With "Selling" (5 min)
- Why businesses default to feature lists
- The fear that "solutions" shrink your market
- Reality: solutions grow your market
**Hook:** "Most businesses sell products. The best ones sell... relief."
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## Segment 2: The 5-Phase System (8 min)
1. **Big Problem** — Research to find your highest-priority problem
- Solution Stack: 4-block simplicity
- Client deep dives (5 structured conversations)
- Colleague interviews (10 cross-functional)
2. **Write Story** — Multiple formats
- TED talk script
- Movie poster exercise
- One Newsletter (clients + colleagues)
3. **Test** — Stakeholder reveal
4. **Sell** — Unified messaging
5. **Upgrade** — Continuous evolution
**Key insight:** "You don't publish the story once. You perform it forever."
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## Segment 3: The Ballmer Case Study (7 min)
- 1998: Java is winning. Microsoft is worried.
- Ballmer's 34-year developer cultivation:
- MSDN (1992)
- MVP Program (1993)
- Conferences, events, recognition
- Result: .NET adoption despite competitor momentum
- "Developers, developers, developers" = the culmination, not the start
**Quote:** "Whether you're doing a product launch or a sales meeting, you have to instil understanding, confidence, and excitement in your people."
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## Segment 4: Client Application (5 min)
- **For Founder CEOs:** Solution Stack in one workshop
- **For Marketing Directors:** One Newsletter approach
- **For Sales Leaders:** TED Talk framework for pitches
- **For Product Leaders:** Customer deep dive method
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## Outro
*"Every business exists to solve a problem. Storyselling just helps you tell that story so everyone — inside and out — becomes a believer."*
Call to action: Visit wordandmouth.com/rabbit-holes/storyselling
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## Related Content
- [[research/storyselling]]
- [[newsletter/client-colleague-cycle]]