In B2B, You Can’t Claim to Be Customer-Centric If You Ignore the Needs of the People on Your Front Lines.
Case Study | How Storyline Helped a Global Brand Stop Guessing And Start Listening to the Needs of People Closest to the Customer.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A global B2B Marketing Communications team recognized that digital resources intended to support Sales and Service teams were being consistently underutilized in the field. This wasn’t just a content problem, it was a signal of something deeper: a growing disconnect between corporate and the day-to-day realities of the field. In response, leadership commissioned an ethnographic, insights-driven initiative powered by Storyline’s narrative framework. By surfacing and sharing the authentic “voice of the field,” the initiative illuminated frontline challenges for internal stakeholders across functions. Through compelling storytelling formats and a shared language, this voice became a catalyst—galvanizing cross-functional teams around a clear, actionable vision of the future. The result was renewed alignment, organizational empathy, and a surge of momentum behind initiatives that were not only relevant to Sales and Service teams, but also elevated the experience for B2B customers.
THE CHALLENGE: A TOOLKIT MEANT TO HELP THE FIELD REVEALED A BIGGER PROBLEM
A Marketing Communications team at a global organization released a centralized digital resource to over 3,000 Sales and Service employees. Designed to support consistency across customer communications, it was intended to be a single source of truth for the field. But shortly after its launch, feedback began to surface: employees weren’t using it.
“The word on the street was they didn’t know what the Healthcare Toolkit was,” recalled the program’s lead. “They didn’t know where it was. They didn’t know what it consisted of or where to find it, or they had never seen it before. So nobody was using it as we had intended.”
What began as a concern over underutilization quickly became a reflection point. A senior leader recognized that this toolkit was only the most visible example of a broader pattern—solutions developed by corporate teams were routinely missing the mark. “We’ve been using the same tools with our reps forever,” he shared. “They’ve been using a hammer for 20 years, and instead of asking if the hammer is the right tool, all we try to do is put more gloss and bells and whistles and chrome on the hammer.”
Pressed by tight timelines and limited contact with the field, the MarCom team had been working in isolation. New tools and resources were being built based on assumption rather than firsthand insight. “Nobody was really thinking about what the sales force might actually need,” one leader admitted. “All these things that are developed in isolation make sense until they reach the account manager who gets 400 emails at the end of the evening.”
THE APPROACH: RETHINKING THE FIELD AS A CUSTOMER
Rather than push more resources out into the void, leadership opted to pause and listen. They launched an ethnographic research initiative in partnership with Storyline to understand the real-world experience of the field—and to reposition internal employees as a customer audience worthy of deep discovery.
More than thirty interviews were conducted across metro regions including Atlanta, Dallas, New York, and Boston. Participants were nominated by regional leadership and represented a variety of roles: Account Managers, Field Service Engineers, Strategic Business leads, and specialists. Conversations took place in home offices, where employees shared their environment, their pain points, and the tools they actually used (or buried in drawers). Whenever possible, researchers shadowed employees during sales visits, strategic meetings, and service calls to better understand the customer journey.
“We pride ourselves on insight development,” noted one leader, “but I started wondering about the typical day of a sales rep and realized—we really don’t know what their day is like.” The ethnographic model, rather than surveys or secondhand feedback, gave the team a rare view into not only what wasn’t working—but why.
“Instead of just throwing stuff against the wall to see if it sticks, let’s try to really understand the problem… we really don’t know what their day is like.”
– Vice President, Marketing Communications
THE INSIGHT: A GLIMPSE INTO THE FIELD’S DAILY REALITY
The research illuminated much more than issues with one toolkit. It surfaced systemic disconnects between corporate assumptions and the practical needs of the field. The selling dynamic had evolved. Expectations were rising. And field teams were overwhelmed—often on the road, managing a flood of communication, and navigating complex customer relationships without enough support from centralized tools.
One insight was especially simple but eye-opening: most field employees were spending so much time traveling between customer locations that they didn’t have time to engage with lengthy emails or resource-heavy platforms. This reality, once seen, began to reshape how the organization thought about access, simplicity, and timing.
“There were so many small moments,” said a senior insights leader, “that, when taken together, gave us a completely different picture of what our employees were up against.”
THE BREAKTHROUGH: LETTING THE VOICE OF THE FIELD TELL THE STORY
To ensure internal teams could fully absorb what had been learned, Storyline captured over 3,000 employee quotes, each one anonymized and categorized into “facts” and “feelings.” The result wasn’t a research report, but a raw and unfiltered chorus of frontline experience.
“When you speak with the voice of the customer, you’re never wrong,” said the insights leader. “When you interpret the information and tell people what it means, you have a real good chance of being wrong. But when you just let people speak for themselves? That’s where the power is.”
Instead of condensing the material into a typical slide deck, the team opted for interactive storytelling. Storyline facilitated live workshops, video-based sessions, and an immersive walk-through exhibit at the company’s North American headquarters, where the voices of the field were printed across 8-foot-tall foam core boards. “What really struck me were the boards,” said one team member. “I spent significant time walking around, reading the comments. To me, that really drove home the value of the project.”
THE ACTIVATION: FROM INSIGHT TO ACTION
With insight in hand, the next challenge was ensuring it led to real change. During a structured ideation workshop, key stakeholders from across Marketing and Sales teams were invited to generate solutions. Storyline reframed dozens of field insights into short, dilemma-based prompts on individual placards—giving participants a simple starting point to spark creative thinking.
“The pre-distillation of a few thoughts was a best practice,” said one leader. “The enormity of the information can paralyze people. So you show what to do with a few curated moments, and then you let them explore.”
The session generated more than 75 concepts, many of which directly addressed long-standing frustrations in the field. To anchor the process in reality, a handful of field participants who had contributed to the research were flown in to take part in the workshop and evaluate final solutions. “To have the field in the room gave the project more credibility,” the project lead shared. “There was buzz—absolute buzz.”
THE LEGACY: LASTING TOOLS FOR A MORE HUMAN ORGANIZATION
To sustain the momentum, the team created seven illustrated personas—visual, story-driven profiles designed to reflect different field mindsets and preferences. Drawing on a comic book-inspired aesthetic, the goal was to ensure these insights didn’t fade into a slide deck or get lost in internal noise.
“I need something in my hand,” said one stakeholder. “That’s where the profiles do an excellent job of being that sustaining reminder.”
The personas, along with the full library of quotes and concepts, continue to serve as a foundation for internal planning and solution development. “The ideas generated and vetted in the voice of the field are a treasure trove of possibilities,” said one senior marketing leader. “As we plan, we can consult this library of ideas to inspire what’s next.”
Ultimately, what made this work so impactful was not just the internal alignment, it was what that alignment made possible. Field teams are often the only human contact a customer has with the brand. By listening to Sales and Service, the organization wasn’t just fixing internal misfires—it was reestablishing its connection with the customer. The more the company understood and empowered its frontline teams, the more credible, consistent, and responsive the customer experience became.
THE B2B CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CONNECTION
At its core, this was never just about a toolkit or internal adoption rates. It was about returning to the company’s stated belief in insight-driven decision making, and turning that lens inward. The Sales and Service teams were not just internal stakeholders; they were extensions of the customer relationship itself. Their unmet needs mirrored unmet customer needs.
By listening more deeply to those on the front lines, the organization took a critical step toward rebuilding a truly customer-centric foundation—one where insights, innovation, and experience are aligned from the inside out.