The Fast Track to Your Customer's Mind: How Storytelling Can Increase Your Company's Value and Get Past the Doorman in Your Customer's Mind.
by Veit Etzold Recommend via WhatsApp(only possible with a smartphone) How is it that people voluntarily stay up until 3 am, even if they have to get up early in the morning, just to read some bestseller and pay money for it, while expensive, high-gloss, five-color annual reports, distributed for free by Corporate Communications to customers or shareholders, usually end up unread in the trash? And why do viewers sit patiently in the cinema for almost three hours watching The Dark Knight or The Lord of the Rings, pay 10 euros in advance, buy the DVD, and politely recommend the movie, while in company presentations almost everyone is checking their emails, scrolling through Facebook, or falling asleep after five minutes? And does it have to be this way, or can it be changed? As a bestselling author of thrillers such as Final Cut, Seelenangst, or Der Totenzeichner, I am in a comfortable situation: People enjoy reading my stories and even pay money for them. Not all companies can claim the same. Most of them even give away their advertising brochures for free, and still, no one reads them. Because the sad fact is: The amount of information is increasing, attention spans are getting shorter, and the next competitor is just a click away. "No species can coexist if it inhabits the same biotope," said Charles Darwin. For you, it would apply: No two companies can survive if they offer exactly the same thing in the same market under the same conditions. The question of whether you are first or biggest, leader or follower, future or history, alive or dead, is not decided by colorful PowerPoint presentations and cryptic mission statements concocted at some company offsite amidst swirling red wine and team-building exercises. How the customer perceives the company in their mind is solely decided by the customer. And you must differentiate yourself from that! And the best way to do that is with a good story. A story that makes you different and better. Because otherwise, it holds true: If you are not different, then be better cheap! "You never get a second chance to change a first impression," is what they say in management and especially in human resources. However, this does not seem to apply to communication. Often, the first sentence of an image brochure or mission statement is so boring, interchangeable, and meaningless that these works can easily be called non-prescription sleeping pills. In contrast, thriller authors who have to make a living from their writing and cannot afford to give everything away for free, must nail the first sentence: "Leonardo Vitra smelled burning flesh." This is the beginning of a world-famous bestseller. And while at this point one might wonder if the aforementioned Signor Vitra might be at a barbecue, the second sentence clarifies everything and makes it more than clear that the reader is in for some tough stuff: "His own." We are immediately hooked! We want to know what happens next, who is doing this to him, and if there is a happy ending! And at the same time, Dan Brown manages to define the genre within two sentences: This is a tough thriller! Not Mickey Mouse with the flu, not Flipper at the dentist, but tough thriller fare! And the sooner you can tell the customer what to expect from you and what - succinctly - your value proposition is, the sooner they know what to expect from you. And hopefully, they also know that they won't get the service or product you offer elsewhere. When Dan O'Bannon tried to sell his script for Alien to various producers with director Ridley Scott, he didn't talk about an "extremely dangerous creature hostile to all life," but simply described the Alien as "The white shark in space." This title inspired me so much that I wrote a non-fiction book about it, which was published in its second edition in March 2016: The White Shark in Space - Storytelling for Managers. So, always ask yourself what you offer: What is your White Shark in Space? How can you explain your service or product briefly and effectively? And tell a story about it? Because the doorman in the brain wants to hear stories. Not see monotonous data deserts. Then storytelling is not just something for interns to deal with, but something that can help your company make real money. Because you have successfully differentiated yourself. Then you can write Story like this: $tory! Because remember: To Tell is to Sell! The Storytelling Checklist: If you, as a leader, have to accompany an integration process, a change management project for reorganization, a new sales initiative, or if you are planning an IPO or company sale, ask yourself the following questions: • Am I unique or at least differentiable in the market with what I do? What is the story of my business that the competition cannot tell in the same way? • How do I start my stories? Can I draw the listener to my side through a strong intro, or do I get tangled up in meaningless generalities before getting to the point? • Is my communication concise enough? Can I summarize my story in one sentence or even in one word? What is my "White Shark in Space"? • Are there heroes in my company, and are there competitors I can turn into villains? What heroic story of my company do I need to tell to inspire employees and customers?
