Storytelling has become a new discipline in the business world
We all love stories. Am I not right?
Storytelling is at the heart of who we are as a species, as it helps us bridge the gap between events in a holistic experience that spans time. Oral storytelling opens up endless possibilities for imagination and interpretation.
The storyteller has always had a great deal of influence over his audience.
Let us start with our own emotions and pick an example to explain.
Look at the faces of any child or group of children when they are listening to any story. There is so much silence and they are so much engrossed, attentive, some surprised, and some neutral mouth and these facial expressions keep changing with the story. I am sure you are thinking the same as me — — Yes, when I say a story to my children or group of children, that’s exactly is the beautiful expression. Let me tell you another secret, this expression is not only limited to Children, but it also happens the same in us adults.
Now imagine a scenario, you as an adult are out for a night out, picnics with your friends, family friends, or office colleagues. There is a small campfire or bonfire burning and someone among you all is sharing some form of a story — — — there is a pin-drop silence around you and what you are listening to is only the story with your concentration. You are overlooking the sound of burning wood, possibly the wind, or the sound of nature, etc. Right? And now since you are an adult, you are also watching each other faces and when you find some facial expressions not right for the moment there is a big laugh. Did it relate to you?
Stories are magical because they can create other worlds, feelings, and ideas, making the everyday seem extraordinary, they can teach us empathy and lead us on great journeys. They can make us laugh, cry, jump in fright, and then comfort us with a happy ending. We learn to love stories at a very early age both for enjoyment and to help us make sense of the world and ourselves.
What Is Storytelling?
Sharing experiences through stories comes before writing. The interactive art of storytelling is revealing elements of a story along with an image by using words and actions that stimulate the imagination of the listener. It helps you understand things better. Adapting stories to fit the needs of a generation is possible.
How storytelling is linked with Business?
It is through storytelling that businesses convey their purpose, and consumers or customers are attracted to businesses that share their purpose. A good product or service cannot be the only thing your company offers; your company must stand out. Regardless of your industry or scope of business, providing stories is one of the most powerful brand-building tools you can use. Stories are used in business to communicate internally and externally, collaborate, sell, and market. Using the power of storytelling can help to persuade peers, convince clients, create a marketing narrative, or even reposition the company in the eyes of competitors.
Stories can serve as a powerful tool for business people, empowering them to transcend the conventions and tropes of corporate talk, and breaking barriers in their message.
Understanding Storytelling in Business
We need to explore the different parts of storytelling and how they are put together in one component called “a story”.
They can be explained and called the Pillars of storytelling. The foundation of any story is based on 4 pillars.
- People
- Place
- Purpose
- Plot
The four pillars complement each other with the goals of connection, authenticity, meaning, and engagement: people focus on connection, places prove authenticity, purposes leave us with meaning, and the plot keeps us engaged. All of these things work together to make a powerful impact on our audience, as they enable our audience to connect, believe, and engage with our story until the end when they’re taken back to our purpose. While stories based on real experience often begin with People.
Reason of why storytelling is important in Business
Business Development and sales are a business idea that is always associated with a story — whether it’s about developing a new product or expanding the business.
Tell this story and explain the context so your clients and stakeholders will understand, relate to the problem they are trying to solve, and why they should buy or invest in your product or service.
Tell how your idea evolved from how you were affected by a problem and how it ultimately led to your product or service.
Use real-life situations in the story to demonstrate why your product or service is beneficial to the audience as this makes it easier for them to relate to it.
When you tell stories in this way, you help your audience connect with you, so they trust you, the brand, and the brand stays true to itself.
A story with a relevant plot is also known to make a lasting impression on an audience as it is personal and personally relevant — the audience can see themselves in the protagonist.
Advantages over competitors as there is so much information available to consumers/ customers, that it can be easy for a business to get lost in the noise.
A business may sell something that is better than its competitors, but decision-making is more emotional than logical, and telling a story can help your business stand out from competitors.
Increase Attention is Simple, emotional, human touched stories are very engaging. With an engaging story, you are less likely to lose the audience’s interest, whether you are pitching for sales, business development, advertising, marketing communication or a press release, etc. Furthermore, stories are highly structured communication formats, so they help the audience comprehend.
Marketing and Advertising for a good brand campaign should also be transparent, so you can tell people what your business objective was and how you came through as a business model addressing the challenges.
People want to connect with brands and businesses, and the best ads do this by being relatable or evoking emotions.
When you do this, the audience is likely to care about you and consequently, your product or service.
Be sure to tell the same story in all media, e.g., Advertising, social medical, your website, your employees, etc., you want your audience to understand your vision, and a consistent brand story will do this.
Employee engagement with People is the heart of the business, they are the company’s best asset, and a business only succeeds when its people succeed. Stories can foster the right culture at work. It will give them something to believe in, and they will continue to believe in the company, and their motivation to work will increase. By tying employees to the larger narrative of the company, you are effectively giving them a larger sense of purpose and meaning, and you can further cultivate this by allowing your employees to tell their own stories.
Humanize and Decision making as people looks for stories to make decisions, for example, when considering buying a product, you consult reviews which are essentially stories, rather than just facts and features.
This is the same for looking at businesses when people ask themselves “Why should I get involved with this business?” They want to figure out the reasons, so they search for stories.
Each business needs to use storytelling to answer the simple question of “Why should people care?”.
The most successful companies have deep and meaningful messages that infuse their products with a sense of a larger purpose and meaning.
Customers want to buy from companies that, in their mind, care, i.e. Empathetic companies are more likely to be successful if storytelling is used to show their empathy.
Remember that humans tend to make emotional decisions over rational ones, so storytelling is a powerful technique for evoking emotions.
Stories are remembered better than other types of information such as data and facts because they are more engaging. Try when you are giving a pitch or presentation, telling a story provides the audience with a break.
So are you telling a story in your business? Is your business development and marketing expressing the same story to the target audience selling? Share your experience of how storytelling has benefited you and increased your customer’s trust and increase your business volume and margins.
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