Done right, business Storytelling can entice your audience and demonstrate the need for your offering. A good Story can evoke emotion, attract customers and make them curious about your product or service. However, when a story is done wrong, consumers can lose interest in your product and possibly your brand.
As leaders in their respective fields, the members of toptecheasy.com Business Council have learned how important storytelling is to business and why it is crucial to hone those skills. Below, they offered some actionable tips for entrepreneurs who want to create and tell effective stories.
1. Practice your story and get input from your team
Provide real-world examples of the new product or service to show where you are solving a problem or need. The best way to hone something is to do it repeatedly, to the point where it doesn’t sound practiced. I would recommend doing blitz roleplays with your team and current clients to improve it as people will tell you what you are missing in your story along the way. – Brandy Whitmire, The Brandy Whitmire Mortgage Team
2. Be an active listener
Engage with clients and other industry professionals to better understand their needs, challenges, priorities and tone. Don’t just listen to what they say, but also how they say it. Ask questions to dig deeper. The more you understand and the better you can connect, the more skilled you will be at storytelling. – Kermit S. Randa
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3. Sharpen your story and test it on those who aren’t familiar
Practice, practice, practice to get it short, tight and right. Then test for people who aren’t familiar with what you’re trying to sell. To understand that a stand-up comic takes an average of a month for every five minutes of good material. – Howard Rosen, LifeWIRE Corp
4. Think back to your “why” and use that to shape your story
The art of storytelling is similar in many ways to other species. In a article by Peter Guber he says, “A great storyteller never tells a story the same way twice.” Remember why you started working on your idea in the first place. With your company you tried to fill a void. What was it? Focus on that and retell your story in a compelling and relatable way. – Udi Dorner, Set Schedule
5. Focus on the customer’s story instead of your company’s
Tell the story of your client’s pain, research, cure and solution journey. Customers look for solutions to a problem; they are not looking for a good business story. Mirror the customer’s emotional experience and you demonstrate your understanding of their needs while increasing their brand and product affinity. – Samuel Johnson, n enterprise
6. Demonstrate your personal connection to the product
A personal connection with your product is essential. For example, I just launched a new digital platform for professionals in my industry, which happens to be real estate. Being able to share my own story and how it led to the development of this platform is critical. It helped convey my investment in the product and sends a clear message that it was built by and for insiders. – Kevin Markarian, Roopler
7. Learn and Address The obstacles customers face
No problem is no chance. Storytelling should not focus on benefits, but on solving customer problems. Focus heavily on figuring out what your customer’s pain points are and listen to the keywords they use. Use this information to tell a story that helps them overcome their obstacles or challenges. This will result in more deals won, repeat customers and satisfied customers. – Ammar Dayani, Prince Distribution
8. Use your company’s value to create a story
Bet on the value that can be derived from your product or service. Then work backwards to come up with a story. Identify your target audience. The pain points you address should become your starting point. Make the story ambitious. Also try a few storylines and get feedback on which ones get the best reactions. – Saravana Kumar, Kovai.co
9. Be personal and relatable
Customers like to interact with and have a real human face behind a product rather than simply a company name. In your product pitch, you can include details about how you came up with the product idea, the process your team went through to develop it, and how it helped you improve your performance (if it’s something related to your own industry). – Zain Jaffer, Zain Ventures
10. Listen to your customers when shaping your story
The days of companies that only tell stories about their products and/or services are over. The only meaningful, groundbreaking communication comes from customers. Customers must determine which stories are told and how they are shared. Storytelling is as much, if not more, about hearing as it is about being heard. Leverage social listening to hone your storytelling skills for your business. – Avy Punwasee, Income management laboratories
11. Demonstrate the value of your business
Storytelling can be hard! Start by researching the stories that resonate with your target audience. The best stories address your audience’s concerns. Identify their concerns and then clearly discuss how to resolve them. Too often, storytelling turns into feature dumping and customers get lost in lists instead of the actual value we provide. Always discuss the problem. – Ty Allen, SocialClimb
12. Use logic and emotion in your story
Roman oratory is useful in storytelling. It touches on logic and emotion to evoke action. Cicero was quoted as saying, “Nothing is therefore found more rare among mankind than a consummate orator.” There are fundamental blocks to stories for which the branding sets the tone. This allows the truth in marketing to be tied to the story and the company can be held accountable for what they do. – Paul L. Gunn, KUG Corporation
13. Listen to your customers
Learn to listen carefully before you become a storyteller. Next, make sure you follow the fundamentals of good communication by practicing listening to and responding to customers. It will help you gain customer trust and loyalty and increase customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer wants to hear your new story much sooner. – Michael Podolski, PissedConsumer.com
14. Be clear about the benefits your company offers
Storytelling is a great way to establish your story for your brand’s reputation. Paint a clear and detailed picture of the benefits of your services by sharing a real case study. People are interested in how you solved customer challenges, so it helps create common ground with your audience. As a professor once told me, you have to lead your audience by the hand. – Francisco Ramirez, The ACE group (TAG)
15. Tell stories that demonstrate triumph
Tell concise stories about the challenge without your solution and then the result with it. Clearly incorporate key features and associated benefits, but lead with the value they received. Make sure that what you “believe” in is underlined and noble and that others strive to join it. Intentionally appealing to the right emotions of pride, fear, greed, etc. – Michael Koopman, 2Swell Corp.
