How the hell do I storytell? Our best tips for telling your business story

Storytelling in a sales pitch

What do we usually do in sales pitches? We talk about our company, products and services in the most beautiful possible way to make us look awesome. Does this make us memorable? Probably not, since everyone else is doing the same about their business.

The most important thing in a sales pitch is to show to the prospective client what value they will gain if they invest in your product. Note that I wrote show and not "talk about your value". Demonstrate it with a client success story. If you have a good product, you must have a client story that you can share. Tell them about a client from the same industry as your prospect, the situation they were in before they met you and how they are doing today. How did your offer add value to their business?

You can talk how much you want about your benefits and "better than competitor" points, but tell them a real case story if you really want to get the prospects attention.

Storytelling in an investor pitch

This one should be pretty straightforward. You stand in front of a group of investors to pitch your new idea that solves an existing problem. The best way to get their attention? Tell them how you came up with the idea.

Most startups come up with their ideas from real life situations when they were actually facing a problem or challenge. For example, the idea for Uber came up on a snowy Paris evening in 2008 when (the founders) Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp had trouble hailing a cab. So they came up with a simple idea - tap a button, get a ride (source: uber.com).

If you have a good idea people will relate to the moment you came up with it, which makes it a great story.

Storytelling in internal communications

How many of new employees have been to business meetings where a senior manager is telling their personal story about being 20+ years in the company in an awkward way to motivate you? This is probably not the best way to motivate your employees since today's young generation tend to change jobs four times before the age of 32.

So, how can you motivate your new employees with a story? Tell them a story that gives their work purpose, so they feel that they are doing something valuable. Make them feel important. Or tell them a story that shows development, that if they put in the work they can actually get somewhere. Bring in the senior manager that was in their shoes recently and let him tell his development story.

Example of this: A previous employer of mine was very honest and transparent about their history. During one of the first meetings they told us employees about the fact that they almost went bankrupt two years before I joined the company. They were ten employees in the office struggling to keep the business rolling. Now that situation was turned around and we were 100+ people in the same office and the economy was flourishing. This honest story made the company human, and it made me feel inspired to join the company and be part of the team that managed to accomplish this.

There you have it! A couple of examples to get you started on finding your business story. Keep it real, stay true to your mission and start storytelling!

Final advice? Use visuals to tell your stories. This definitely gets the brain running.