Power of Stories - How Great Companies Win Customers & Ignite Performance - In Less Than 5 Minutes
Power of Stories - How Great Companies Win Customers & Ignite Performance - In Less Than 5 Minutes
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand."
Confucius
In a world where technology is advancing at the speed of light and the volume of information doubling every few years, we as human beings are just as rapidly tuning out the information clutter overwhelming our lives. We are starving for a new kind of communication that authentically connects us to ourselves and to one another. Proof is all around us.
In 1993 two then unknown authors sold millions of copies of their self-published book making it one of the best selling books of the 20th century. Most of us have (or had) a copy of that book Jack Cantfield and Mark Victor Hansen Chicken Soup For The Soul. Since then, more than 30 different Chicken Soup For The Soul themes have been published.
Why have they been so popular? The #1 reason: the power of stories. Stories, since the beginning of civilization, have been an unchanging form of communication that touches our heart, rekindles our spirit and bonds us to each other. Stories fill the void that no amount of information will ever be able to satisfy.
Why Stories Are The New Strategic Business Advantage of the 21st Century
1. Stories create trust.
People don't want more information. They are already on overload with the information they have. What they want is to trust you, your words and your intentions. Stories give your customers and employees a peek inside you, your values and beliefs and an authentic connection no amount of data can provide.
2. Stories appeal to our heart, emotions and imagination.
Stories communicate directly to our reptilian brain the part of the brain that controls sensory experiences and our emotional response to them. In my last article, "NeuroMarketing - 7 Secrets To Unlocking Your Customer's Brain For Instant Sales," I shared how your customers make all their buying decisions from the reptilian brain. Because stories stimulate our feelings, they can also ignite action, creativity, collaboration and instant rapport.
3. Stories are memorable.
According to story-telling guru, Doug Stevenson, memory is formed when a person's attention is engaged over a sustained period of time. By stimulating our senses, stories engage us for sustained periods of time and the message sticks; whereas data typically leaves our memories in less than 2 seconds.
4. Stories bypass conscious resistance and speak directly to our unconscious minds.
On a conscious level, we all have biases that create resistance to certain solutions, perspectives and messages. If you go up to someone and say "here's your solution," it will likely be ineffective. Expressing your viewpoint through a story, however, will bypass conscious resistance and be "heard" on a deeper level. This unique advantage of story-telling alone makes it a powerful tool in marketing, leadership, culture building and personal growth.
5. Stories are transformative.
Stories not only have the ability to shift our thinking. Stories have the ability to inspire us, awaken our potential and shape the way we live our lives. Stories can catalyze deep lasting change - whether for a single person or an entire organization.
The Magic of Story-Telling: How Great Companies Wow Customers, Ignite Employees and Become the Envy of Their Competitors
While there are many ways to utilize stories as a strategic advantage in business, below are three forms of storytelling with massive payoff.
BRANDING STORIES
The purpose of a brand is to stand out in your customers' minds and emotionally bond them with your product/service. In today's overcrowded, me too marketplace, it is the brands whose customers tell the best stories that win.
Super-brands and their super-stories are all around us. Apple, Pepsi, Southwest Airlines and, yes, even Harry Potter just to name a few. One of my favorite brand stories comes from my own personal experience.
In 1985, I worked as a sales temp at Nordstrom during the holidays for extra cash while launching my business. The most memorable part of the experience was the story shared by the HR manager the first day of employee orientation. After reviewing their return policy, she told us about a customer who brought back a refrigerator and the store gladly gave a full refund no questions asked. And Nordstrom doesn't even sell refrigerators!
It is Nordstrom's world class customer service and going the extra mile that creates word of mouth customer evangelism -- the envy of every retail business. If you don't have stories like this to tell, your brand may be in trouble.
Alain Thys, in an article titled "The 10 Truths of Branded Storytelling" (http://www.mpdailyfix.com), talks about the importance of identifying your USP - Unique Story Proposition - as your anchor for all other marketing activities. The best USPs not only make an emotional connection, they also say something about benefits.
What stories about your business make you stand above the rest? What unique stories can turn your customers into evangelical fans?
VISION STORIES
As every business owner or CEO knows, a clearly defined vision is critical to your future company's success. However, for many businesses, vision statements are nothing more than superficial, one-dimensional sound bites and meaningless wishes.
How do you transform your vision statement into a compelling message that pulls your business forward?
The key is a vision story. In my article "The Disney Difference," I talk about Disney's Imagineering process and their use of powerful visual stories - known as story-boarding - to depict how the company would get from point A (present) to point B (future vision).
In creating your vision story, you must imagine your desired future in your mind's eye as though you already achieved it. It must be described in sensory terms. Ie., what do you see, feel, taste, smell and hear in your new "imagined reality?"
One way to develop your vision story is to imagine that it is one year from now and Forbes magazine is going to write a story about your business. What do you want them to say? Who, why, where, when and how made that 1 year vision a reality?
VALUES AND CULTURE BUILDING STORIES
Every story is a values story on some level. Values stories - through fables, symbolism and metaphors, or real life situations - can be one of the most powerful tools for building high performance teams and cultures. Below are two examples how.
* "Values in Action" Stories
If you dig deep into your business' history, you can find many examples of values in action stories. These are real life situations in which you did the right thing in tough circumstances. They are stories demonstrating the core principles for which your business stands.
A great example of "values in action" story is Southwest Airlines' legacy story that not only put them on the map, but has also made them one of the largest, most profitable airlines in America. Every employee for the past 34 years knows that story -- the 4 years of courtroom battles that the airlines overcame to even win the right to fly from the very start. That experience set the stage for a unique, mission-driven culture and their Warrior Spirit that keeps them flying high to this day.
Where in the history of your business did you follow your principles of integrity or fight for a cause, even if it meant sacrifice or saying no to personal gain? If excellence, loyalty and generosity are your core business values, what real life stories speak of those values? How can you communicate those stories to your customers and employees on a regular basis?
* Metaphorical Stories
Metaphors - usually visual in nature - are like mental equations, substituting one thing for another. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech "I Have a Dream," equated the Declarations of Independence to a promissory note as an example of a metaphor.
Sources for metaphorical stories are endless such as, movies, songs, science, nature, art, even fairy tales. A great example of a metaphorical story for team building purposes is Flight Formation of Geese (http://fairy-tales-fables-business.blogspot.com/).
While it is beyond the scope of this article to go into depth, here's a simple way to get started. If your business were an animal, a movie, a color or a planet, what would you pick in each category to best represent your company? Why? How does that metaphor mirror your current or desired values?
The greatest challenge today for any business is to cut through the information clutter that knocks them off course from their vision, distracts their focus and prevents their message from being heard by the marketplace.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for meeting this challenge and provides the missing link in most failed business communications. As Steve Denning, author, The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative, says so eloquently "Stories fill our lives in the way that water fills the lives of fish."
What's your story? How can you use this powerful tool in your business to rise above the noise, gain trust, inspire action and communicate your authentic message? As Annette Simmons reminds us in her book, "Whoever Tells the Best Story, Wins."
Power of Stories How Great Companies Win Customers Ignite Performance In Less Than 5 Minutes - To learn more about this author, visit Denise Corcoran's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
"Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand."
Confucius
In a world where technology is advancing at the speed of light and the volume of information doubling every few years, we as human beings are just as rapidly tuning out the information clutter overwhelming our lives. We are starving for a new kind of communication that authentically connects us to ourselves and to one another. Proof is all around us.
In 1993 two then unknown authors sold millions of copies of their self-published book making it one of the best selling books of the 20th century. Most of us have (or had) a copy of that book Jack Cantfield and Mark Victor Hansen Chicken Soup For The Soul. Since then, more than 30 different Chicken Soup For The Soul themes have been published.
Why have they been so popular? The #1 reason: the power of stories. Stories, since the beginning of civilization, have been an unchanging form of communication that touches our heart, rekindles our spirit and bonds us to each other. Stories fill the void that no amount of information will ever be able to satisfy.
Why Stories Are The New Strategic Business Advantage of the 21st Century
1. Stories create trust.
People don't want more information. They are already on overload with the information they have. What they want is to trust you, your words and your intentions. Stories give your customers and employees a peek inside you, your values and beliefs and an authentic connection no amount of data can provide.
2. Stories appeal to our heart, emotions and imagination.
Stories communicate directly to our reptilian brain the part of the brain that controls sensory experiences and our emotional response to them. In my last article, "NeuroMarketing - 7 Secrets To Unlocking Your Customer's Brain For Instant Sales," I shared how your customers make all their buying decisions from the reptilian brain. Because stories stimulate our feelings, they can also ignite action, creativity, collaboration and instant rapport.
3. Stories are memorable.
According to story-telling guru, Doug Stevenson, memory is formed when a person's attention is engaged over a sustained period of time. By stimulating our senses, stories engage us for sustained periods of time and the message sticks; whereas data typically leaves our memories in less than 2 seconds.
4. Stories bypass conscious resistance and speak directly to our unconscious minds.
On a conscious level, we all have biases that create resistance to certain solutions, perspectives and messages. If you go up to someone and say "here's your solution," it will likely be ineffective. Expressing your viewpoint through a story, however, will bypass conscious resistance and be "heard" on a deeper level. This unique advantage of story-telling alone makes it a powerful tool in marketing, leadership, culture building and personal growth.
5. Stories are transformative.
Stories not only have the ability to shift our thinking. Stories have the ability to inspire us, awaken our potential and shape the way we live our lives. Stories can catalyze deep lasting change - whether for a single person or an entire organization.
The Magic of Story-Telling: How Great Companies Wow Customers, Ignite Employees and Become the Envy of Their Competitors
While there are many ways to utilize stories as a strategic advantage in business, below are three forms of storytelling with massive payoff.
BRANDING STORIES
The purpose of a brand is to stand out in your customers' minds and emotionally bond them with your product/service. In today's overcrowded, me too marketplace, it is the brands whose customers tell the best stories that win.
Super-brands and their super-stories are all around us. Apple, Pepsi, Southwest Airlines and, yes, even Harry Potter just to name a few. One of my favorite brand stories comes from my own personal experience.
In 1985, I worked as a sales temp at Nordstrom during the holidays for extra cash while launching my business. The most memorable part of the experience was the story shared by the HR manager the first day of employee orientation. After reviewing their return policy, she told us about a customer who brought back a refrigerator and the store gladly gave a full refund no questions asked. And Nordstrom doesn't even sell refrigerators!
It is Nordstrom's world class customer service and going the extra mile that creates word of mouth customer evangelism -- the envy of every retail business. If you don't have stories like this to tell, your brand may be in trouble.
Alain Thys, in an article titled "The 10 Truths of Branded Storytelling" (http://www.mpdailyfix.com), talks about the importance of identifying your USP - Unique Story Proposition - as your anchor for all other marketing activities. The best USPs not only make an emotional connection, they also say something about benefits.
What stories about your business make you stand above the rest? What unique stories can turn your customers into evangelical fans?
VISION STORIES
As every business owner or CEO knows, a clearly defined vision is critical to your future company's success. However, for many businesses, vision statements are nothing more than superficial, one-dimensional sound bites and meaningless wishes.
How do you transform your vision statement into a compelling message that pulls your business forward?
The key is a vision story. In my article "The Disney Difference," I talk about Disney's Imagineering process and their use of powerful visual stories - known as story-boarding - to depict how the company would get from point A (present) to point B (future vision).
In creating your vision story, you must imagine your desired future in your mind's eye as though you already achieved it. It must be described in sensory terms. Ie., what do you see, feel, taste, smell and hear in your new "imagined reality?"
One way to develop your vision story is to imagine that it is one year from now and Forbes magazine is going to write a story about your business. What do you want them to say? Who, why, where, when and how made that 1 year vision a reality?
VALUES AND CULTURE BUILDING STORIES
Every story is a values story on some level. Values stories - through fables, symbolism and metaphors, or real life situations - can be one of the most powerful tools for building high performance teams and cultures. Below are two examples how.
* "Values in Action" Stories
If you dig deep into your business' history, you can find many examples of values in action stories. These are real life situations in which you did the right thing in tough circumstances. They are stories demonstrating the core principles for which your business stands.
A great example of "values in action" story is Southwest Airlines' legacy story that not only put them on the map, but has also made them one of the largest, most profitable airlines in America. Every employee for the past 34 years knows that story -- the 4 years of courtroom battles that the airlines overcame to even win the right to fly from the very start. That experience set the stage for a unique, mission-driven culture and their Warrior Spirit that keeps them flying high to this day.
Where in the history of your business did you follow your principles of integrity or fight for a cause, even if it meant sacrifice or saying no to personal gain? If excellence, loyalty and generosity are your core business values, what real life stories speak of those values? How can you communicate those stories to your customers and employees on a regular basis?
* Metaphorical Stories
Metaphors - usually visual in nature - are like mental equations, substituting one thing for another. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech "I Have a Dream," equated the Declarations of Independence to a promissory note as an example of a metaphor.
Sources for metaphorical stories are endless such as, movies, songs, science, nature, art, even fairy tales. A great example of a metaphorical story for team building purposes is Flight Formation of Geese (http://fairy-tales-fables-business.blogspot.com/).
While it is beyond the scope of this article to go into depth, here's a simple way to get started. If your business were an animal, a movie, a color or a planet, what would you pick in each category to best represent your company? Why? How does that metaphor mirror your current or desired values?
The greatest challenge today for any business is to cut through the information clutter that knocks them off course from their vision, distracts their focus and prevents their message from being heard by the marketplace.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for meeting this challenge and provides the missing link in most failed business communications. As Steve Denning, author, The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative, says so eloquently "Stories fill our lives in the way that water fills the lives of fish."
What's your story? How can you use this powerful tool in your business to rise above the noise, gain trust, inspire action and communicate your authentic message? As Annette Simmons reminds us in her book, "Whoever Tells the Best Story, Wins."
Power of Stories How Great Companies Win Customers Ignite Performance In Less Than 5 Minutes - To learn more about this author, visit Denise Corcoran's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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