Rumour has it I’ve been storytelling since biblical times (remember those parables Jesus told in the Bible, The Good Samaritan and The Tax Collector?)… Well, it’s true that I love a good story!
And it seems storytelling has had a rebirth according to self-help guru Tony Robbins; there’s strategy in telling your story. Social media and bloggers are in on the content marketing bandwagon too (check out my articles on LinkedIn here and on our Slade Report blog here), but seriously, storytelling been around forever.
Whether you’re job interviewing, selling something, making a business case or trying to get a deal over the line, here’s my 5 tips for using storytelling as part of your pitch:
- Facts, figures and statistics – use numbers to back your case up
- Examples and case studies – paint the ‘picture’ that you’ve done this before, and you know your stuff
- Demonstrations – sometimes people to need to ‘see’ it in action
- Less is more – you’ve got their attention, but don’t go on talking forever
- Structure it like a STAR – What was the Situation, Task or Action and Result achieved?
Storytelling is a great business skill. In a consulting environment it helps me to be more persuasive to clients and candidates, to empathise with my customers’ problems and find great solutions.
We’ll still be meeting on Zoom or Teams for some time, but as we start to get on top of Covid in Australia, I can’t wait to see people face-to-face and return to doing business in person again.
So next time you need to be really persuasive, definitely don’t talk too much, but rather tell your great story using any five of our friends above.
If you’ve got a good story to tell, we’d love to hear it. Let me know about it by posting a comment below.
