(This is a guest post by Ken Revenaugh, VP of Sales Operations at Oakwood Worldwide. Prior to joining Oakwood, Ken served as Director of Sales Operations at Exhibitgroup Giltspur and FedEx-Kinko’s. His areas of expertise include Sales Ops Management, Talent Development, and Sales Process Design.)
Is storytelling appropriate in business? Is there a place for incorporating an engaging tale in the commercial world? I believe there is, but after sharing my ideas about storytelling in the boardroom and beyond for the past year, I encountered many who disagree.
I am no longer surprised when someone sends me a disparaging note expressing disgust when I encourage incorporating a fairytale or fable to get a key point across in a business environment. Critics say, “Business is moving way too fast to endorse storytelling; it’s a waste of time.” True enough – no one has time to waste.
This year, the familiar red holiday coffee cups at Starbucks have a matching sleeve that reads: Stories are Gifts – Share. Anecdotally, I realized that many people are doing just that – sharing their stories. So, I decided to conduct a little (albeit unscientific) study.
I have been tracking the number of stories I hear per business day for the past three months. You may be surprised to know that I made at least two hash marks in my notepad each day. On average, my colleagues shared 10 stories per work day. The all-time high was 48 stories.
The day I heard nearly 50 stories taught me a lot. My schedule included financial meetings and a training seminar gone wrong. The droning analysts, offering spreadsheet after spreadsheet, nearly put everyone to sleep. No one at the front of the room told a single story all day; it was all stats, facts and rules. So, why all the hash marks then? During breaks, storytellers came out of the woodwork! With a pent-up demand for engaging conversations, everyone naturally relied on storytelling to overcome the day’s monotony.
What do I remember most from that day? What I learned at the snack table during breaks.
To be memorable and engage your audience effectively, you have to collect stories and factoids. You may think the best stories you hear are random, but they are usually shared by those with a repertoire of ideas that they re-tell many times, but rarely in the same way. To be relevant, you have to tailor stories to your audience.
Keep a keen ear out and you will be able to collect stories and factoids to help make you a great teller of tales. Think about the potential analogies and comparisons to business problems you can draw using these examples:
Factoid:
What do Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man all have in common? Other than being films and superheroes, they are all the intellectual property of Marvel Comics, a company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996, but is now valued at over $4 billion. Marvel turned it around by focusing on what built their company – storytelling! They licensed their products to some of Hollywood’s top studios. Today, comic books account for over 5% of source material for new movies and comics have become the highest grossing film genre in recent years.
Story:
In 1999, Zappos.com was just another online retailer trying to corner the shoe market; they did “almost nothing” in sales. Ten years later, they have grossed over $1 billion. How did they do it? They focused on the customer experience and made sure they shared their story with potential clients. Zappos engaged customers and built trust by offering free shipping both ways, a 365-day return policy and a call center that has no maximum call time goals (the current record is 8 hours and 3 minutes). Zappos is now on a 20+ city tour to spread their message across the country. Who says there is no time for storytelling in business?
While you collect stories and factoids, make sure some tales in your repertoire are personal; don’t get too consumed with ensuring all of your ideas directly relate to business. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get to know your co-workers better via the occasional personal story?
Our interest in and affinity for storytelling extends from the cave-dweller days. We are storytellers by nature, and we like to share. So take Starbuck’s advice. Your co-workers and customers will thank you.
(To read more from Ken on storytelling and sales enablement, check out his blog Fast Track Tools.)
Related posts:
on December 2, 2010
Respond
Stories are what get remembered, so make sure they are on target and to the point. A story can emphasize the most important points of your presentation or proposal. They can trigger emotions, memories etc that can help solidify your objectives.
on December 3, 2010
Respond
If stories are gifts, they’d better be well wrapped and well delivered. In reality, most people are not good at telling a story. In business world, where concide e-mail communication is key, we lost the habit of telling a good tale. What are the ingredients of good story telling in a business context ? Maybe the objection received in the boardroom would give us some clues.
on December 6, 2010
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Businesses are all about stories, each an every successful business creates (at least) one that they ask their employees, customers and others (eg suppliers) to buy in to. It is not always true but it is essential to their purpose. This goes right from the top – the CEO is the Chief Storyteller and there is an old adage that “whoever tells the best story wins”
on December 8, 2010
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Ken is dead on. People buy from people and telling stories is one way people can connect and let their guard down. In such a competitive business world, you have to stand out and present yourself in a way that people will remember you. However, there is an art to telling stories and sales reps must practice this skill set in order to get good at it. And not do too much of it- there is a definite time to get down to business and not waste time. Make sure to know that time.
Great article Ken- thanks for sharing!
!
on December 13, 2010
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Story-telling is definitely an appropriate way of getting your key messages across. I wouldn’t doubt it. However I think a more pertinent question to ask is at which part of the conversation/pitch should you incorporate story-telling. Between your verbal diarrhoea of facts and figures? Or right before a deal-braker statement for a strong impact? The point is, use story-telling strategically.
on March 15, 2011
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[...] Help people “feel” the problem: John Kotter tells a good story in this piece about how one manager persuaded his CEO to centralize their procurement processes by dumping on the boardroom table the 424 kinds of protective gloves that the firm’s factories were buying under a decentralized process. Good influencers are maybe not always as dramatic but they understand that if they can’t help people feel the extent of the problem then they’ll never make any progress with the solution. (Check out our past post on storytelling in business). [...]