Storytelling: discover an inspiring tool for business development
Imagine: you communicate with a customer, tell him or her about the partner business opportunities. You present logical reasons concerning the benefits and prospects of cooperation with SOLARGROUP. And you see that the flame of interest in the eyes of the interlocutor does not spark. You feel that something is missing for you to be convincing in the conversation. Sounds familiar?
Modern business has found a solution to this problem. It uses storytelling or sharing stories. Without this method, a successful business today is unthinkable: TV commercials and bloggers in Instagram, corporations and individual entrepreneurs all tell their audiences personal stories.
What is the power of storytelling?
A personal story, told correctly, always appeals to the emotions, not the mind. It makes a vivid impression, sounds convincing and is remembered for a long time. The listener recognizes himself in the hero of the story and becomes emotionally involved. The most important thing is that it creates trust between the storyteller (the businessman) and the one who is listening (the customer). And the customer's trust is the key to closing the deal.
What is needed to attract new investors and partners to the business with the help of storytelling
- Use your true story that inspires. Or the stories of other people who have traveled a certain path in partner business and changed their lives for the better. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant achievement becomes inspiring. For example, your story about you having overcome your fear and attracting an investor to the project for the first time may be decisive for ten newcomers who are postponing their start in partner business.
- Tell the story in details that will indicate the similarity of the hero and your audience. Age, nationality, education, life values: the more similarities there are between them, the stronger the listeners will associate themselves with the hero and the stronger the bond will be.
- Color the story with emotions. This should not be a dry summary of events. Show the path of the hero, the changes that have happened to him, as an inspiring example. Tell the audience what lesson this story teaches. Without moralizing and direct sales — they will prevent you from building trust between you and the audience.
Storytelling should be used in personal communication with customers, in partner program presentations, in videos and posts.
Learn to tell stories, practice them in business. This is a very simple and at the same time powerful tool that will help you establish trusting relationships with the target audience, attract new investors and partners to your structure and galvanize the existing team.