“Indian MSMEs do not lack stories. They often lack the spare capacity to collect them, the means to prove them and a route through which the right buyer will hear them. Storytelling earns its place in a small firm’s budget when it helps close that distance between the work done and the value a customer can recognize.” Sowmya Iyer, Founder and CEO of Clarity Communication
For a small enterprise, the story behind a product can build trust and command attention. But telling it well requires time, evidence and control over how the product reaches buyers.
Consider a small food processor that sources its ingredients from nearby farmers, tests each batch and employs women from the surrounding villages. A prospective buyer might value all three facts. Yet the enterprise’s catalogue may contain only a photograph, a weight and a price. The missing story is often taken as evidence that its owner does not understand branding. That is too easy an explanation.
Storytelling takes work. Someone must establish which claims are true, photograph the process, explain what makes the product distinctive, and carry that account consistently across packaging, sales conversations and digital listings. For an owner occupied with wages, inventory and overdue payments, the return from that work is less certain than the cost. Underinvestment in storytelling is therefore partly a question of scarce cash and managerial time.
It is also a question of how many MSMEs sell. A manufacturer supplying components to a larger firm may win orders through specifications, price and delivery records. A craft producer selling through a trader may never meet the final customer. In both cases, someone else controls the conversation with the buyer. Why spend scarce money building a public identity when the intermediary’s name is the one on the invoice or the shelf?
This does not mean a business buyer has no use for a story. The account that matters to a procurement manager may concern quality checks, reliable lead times or how a factory solved a difficult production problem. A consumer buying a textile may want to know about its material and makers. “Tell your story” is unhelpful advice until the enterprise knows whom it must persuade and what that person has reason to believe.
The distinction matters because storytelling is often sold to small firms as social media activity: frequent posts, a founder on camera, perhaps a polished account of humble beginnings. Those things may help some businesses. They can also consume hours without bringing in a suitable buyer. A good business story is more exacting. It connects a claim to evidence and gives a customer a reason to choose one supplier over another. It cannot compensate for a product that fails to arrive or perform as promised.
Public policy has begun to recognize the market-access problem. The Ministry of MSME’s Trade Enablement and Marketing initiative, launched in 2024, aims to help micro and small enterprises enter digital commerce through the Open Network for Digital Commerce. Wider access is valuable. But placing a product online does not, by itself, explain why a buyer should trust it. A listing that shows only a generic photograph and the lowest possible price can make a distinctive enterprise look interchangeable with every other seller.
NITI Aayog’s work on MSME competitiveness likewise identifies market access among the sector’s constraints. This is where storytelling deserves a more practical place in the discussion. The task is not to give every enterprise a grand origin myth. It is to help firms make their strengths visible and verifiable. A clear account of materials, certifications, repairs, worker skills or repeat orders may do more than an expensive campaign.
There are obstacles within the enterprise, too. Much of its knowledge sits with the founder, a production supervisor or a long-serving worker. Sales staff may describe the product one way, while the packaging says something else. Useful records may exist but remain scattered across notebooks, phones and invoices. Turning that knowledge into a credible account requires organization as well as writing. For the smallest firms, even a modest amount of outside help can be difficult to afford.
The consequences are uneven. Producers whose goods carry a strong association with place or craft may see that association used by traders and larger brands, while the makers remain anonymous. At the same time, romantic accounts of “traditional” production can obscure present-day workers and technical improvements. An enterprise should be able to speak in its own voice, with a story that reflects what it actually does now.
There is a practical starting point. Ask three recent customers why they bought, what nearly stopped them and what evidence helped them decide. Compare those answers with the claims on the website, quotation and packaging. Document one process that the firm can show honestly. Then use the same account wherever a buyer encounters the business. The first useful investment may be a better product description or a case study, rather than a stream of promotional videos.
Industry associations, cluster programmes and digital commerce initiatives could make this work more accessible by helping enterprises document products, translate descriptions and substantiate claims. Those services would be especially useful where individual firms lack the time or bargaining power to reach buyers directly. They should leave businesses with material they can keep using across channels.
Indian MSMEs do not lack stories. They often lack the spare capacity to collect them, the means to prove them and a route through which the right buyer will hear them. Storytelling earns its place in a small firm’s budget when it helps close that distance between the work done and the value a customer can recognize.
The author is Sowmya Iyer, Founder and CEO of Clarity Communication
