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In this episode of Enabling Buying: A B2B Sales and Revenue Podcast, host Paul Kirch speaks with Thom Van Dycke, founder of Van Dycke, leadership consultant, and business strategist. Together, they explore how story based marketing helps businesses connect with buyers, build trust, and overcome growth barriers.

Thom spent nearly two decades in pastoral leadership before transitioning into business consulting. Today, he helps founder-led companies identify the challenges limiting growth and build systems that support long-term success. Throughout the conversation, he explains why the best salespeople act more like diagnosticians than persuaders. Instead of focusing on features and benefits, they help buyers understand the transformation they want to achieve.

Paul and Thom also discuss the relationship between leadership and sales performance. Many organizations struggle because leaders unintentionally become bottlenecks. As a result, talented employees often feel restricted from using their expertise. Thom explains why humility, trust, and delegation are essential for sustainable growth.

The conversation also explores the disconnect that often exists between marketing and sales. While marketing builds trust before the sale, sales converts that trust into action. Thom argues that businesses achieve better results when both teams work together and focus on the entire customer journey rather than isolated metrics.

Finally, Thom shares his practical framework for story based marketing. Using the concepts of disruption, confrontation, and transformation, he explains how businesses can create messaging that resonates emotionally and helps buyers move forward with confidence.

Story Based Marketing and Business Growth

In this episode, Paul and Thom explore:

• Why great salespeople diagnose before they sell
• The difference between features, benefits, and transformation
• How leadership bottlenecks limit company growth
• Why humility is a critical leadership skill
• The relationship between marketing-qualified and sales-qualified leads
• Building trust before the sale and converting trust into action
• Why referrals and lifetime customer value matter more than many realize
• How founders transition from generalists to leaders of specialists
• The role of story based marketing in buyer engagement
• The disruption, confrontation, and transformation framework for storytelling

Resources Mentioned

• Van Dycke
• Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson
• Collavia
• Enabling Buying in a World of Selling methodology

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