You tell children stories to put them
to sleep,
and you tell them to adults to wake them up.
Jorge
Bucay
Business
storytelling seminars are currently selling like hot cakes.
With a little help from the storytelling gurus, business
developers, sales executives and marketing specialists around the globe are
learning to craft better stories that sell more – a lot more!
Many of the
resulting business sales stories are so well crafted, with the underlying commercial
intention woven into the narrative so elegantly, that their sales messages
manage to bypass the critical conscious thinking filters, thus directly
influencing and impacting the subconscious of the listeners.
Business
sales stories speak directly to the part of the clients and prospects where the
real decisions are made.
As a
result, such stories can get people to make decisions they normally wouldn’t.
The fact is: stories sell!
But if you
tell stories with the sole intent of tricking people into making decisions they
normally would not, something deep down within your listeners will begin to
distrust you - over time.
Manipulative
storytelling tends to leave a lingering bad taste.
In recent
years I have seen many business executives developing a strong resistance to
such manipulative business storytelling techniques.
Now, don’t
get me wrong!
I am not
against storytelling.
To the contrary - I
really love to hear a good story!
Storytelling
is a wonderful, powerful leadership skill.
Indeed, I
sense that many corporations are in dire need of an engaging, inspiring,
trustworthy Chief Storyteller.
But having said
that, if your only reason for telling stories is to push your products or
solutions, you will find your audience wising up to your tricks very fast.
When this
happens, you will see your clever plans fail quickly and miserably.
The key is
to tell true stories, free from manipulative intent, focused on enabling an
honest, respectful, deep dialogue.
Creating Engagement And Commitment
Throughout
history, there have been people with a special gift and responsibility to
uphold traditions and impart age-old wisdom to their people through stories.
Fables, fairy stories, parables, metaphors and folklore all conveyed deep
insights and learning to the young children – and anybody else willing to
listen attentively. Some stories were based on experience, some on pure
fiction, and many would seem to consist of a blend of both, resulting from
conscious reflection and subconscious processing of events into a tapestry of
wonderful tales and legends. In the days before Hollywood these stories would
provide mental movies, filled with emotion, tragedy, victories, and happy ends.
Some would
contain subtle messages, providing opportunities to gain new insights, to learn
and grow.
Others
would drive home their points with a sledgehammer.
But all of
these stories used words to paint pictures and energize emotions as the raw
material which our subconscious needs, in order to pattern, structure and design
our lives.
Why is it
that most of us like a good story?
Why do
children want to hear the same story over and over again, and never tire of it?
And why do
they want to hear the story told in the exact same way again and again, no
modifications or enhancements allowed?
Stories
fuel our subconscious mind.
Mind-movies
paint pictures of the world.
Storytelling
helps us identify patterns and meaning in the midst of the frequently hectic,
chaotic context we live in.
As far as
we know, a large part of our mental processes are based on creating and
recognizing patterns. Even small children feel intuitively drawn to pretty
patterns, elegant designs, and well-defined structures.
Stories
extract patterns out of the chaos we are surrounded with.
By
listening to stories, we begin to sense that chaos itself may just be a
different form of order, with a more subtle pattern to it.
Business
stories help us to identify the relevant patterns in our business context. They
also speak to us at a deep level of our being, involving us emotionally, thus producing
a positive bonding effect.
In
contrast, many high-tech PowerPoint presentations and prescriptive pep-talks
tend to speak primarily to our intellect. They allow us to lean back, evaluate
what is being said intellectually and analyse what effects the presenter’s talk
might have on us, our business, and our personal plans – without necessarily
creating any sense of true engagement.
Relevant stories
respect the fact that the listener has all the resources he or she may need to
solve problems. Our subconscious mind responds to the challenges, which such
stories provide, by finding unique solutions that fit our personal experience
and needs. Such solutions are much more likely to find our commitment and
willingness to take action towards producing the desired results, as the
process allows us to participate in the creation of the solution and actively
design it with our unique set of resources.
Relevant
business stories naturally lead in to a deep dialogue, engaging all parties
involved in exploring the situation, the underlying causes and the resulting
problems, various options and potential solutions, relevant scenarios and
required resources, as well as possible obstacles and ways of overcoming them.
Such
profound business conversations tend to result in a substantially higher degree
of engagement, commitment and a willingness to take focused action.
So don’t
try to trick your clients and prospects with clever business storytelling
techniques.
Instead,
tell your powerful business stories in order to open up a profound, respectful,
two-way conversation.