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What is your business story?

Canada-based marketing strategist and conversion copywriter Nkiru Asika asks, “What separates you from the pack? Your story – the who (your personality and brand or your target audience), the why (your mission and motivation) and the how (your method, process, business model or service niche).”

It’s important to know your story as well as you know your customers, because, as she points out, very few businesses are truly special. And your job—especially if you sell intangibles—is to do everything you can to differentiate yourself from the pack. Because if you don’t, potential clients will likely choose another provider based on price.

In fact, potential clients generally assume you have the skills required to do the job they want to hire you to do. Your skills are table stakes, which means that your website should tell your unique business story rather than simply acting as a venue for presenting your credentials.

Here are Ms. Asika’s suggestions for telling a better business story.

Listen

Hit the social media and online chat rooms. Read email. Connect with your audience the good, old-fashioned way—in person. Then reflect back to them what you hear, both in your stories and your services.

Be selective

Ms. Asika suggests that you consider the audiences you engage with and tailor your message to suit how they consume content and where they hang out. A “one-size-fits-all approach” is likely to be “one size fits none.”

Create the right story

Make sure your business story (or stories) are strategy-based. She says, “What is the driving force behind the stories you want to tell? What is the intended takeaway for the audience.” Focus on offering a new perspective, teaching a new concept, or solving a problem.

Engage their emotions

Articles have been written about how even businesses in some of the driest sectors on the planet have grabbed attention with well-written stories and well-produced videos. It’s important to remember that businesses sell to human beings, and human beings have emotions, so it makes sense to develop stories that appeal to their concerns and soothe their fears. Ms. Asika references Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University, his research on oxytocin, and its role in storytelling.

The whole idea of emotional engagement resonates with me. And using it to speak to audiences about seemingly unromantic topics is amazingly effective marketing. Just check out the video GE posted on YouTube, and you’ll see.

 

Storytelling is a big deal in business these days. But suppose you don’t consider yourself a natural storyteller. Let’s say you get tongue-tied behind the podium or feel that you are less than impressive when you attempt to present an idea during an important meeting. Do you just give up and shut up, letting others do the talking or, worse, getting the credit for an idea you came up with?

Harrison Monarth, executive coach and leadership consultant, knows what to do. His recent article, “Four Storytelling Techniques to Convey Complex Ideas Simply and Persuasively” lists four ways to make sure that you tell the right story the right way. This is a great article, and I recommend you read it if only for Mr. Monarth’s retelling of a jury trial summation by the legendary trial lawyer Moe Levine.

But first, the three principles of storytelling

Not surprisingly, you must engage people’s emotions when you tell a story. Your story must be “easy to follow and stripped of unnecessary detail.” You also need to get to the point quickly. As Mr. Monarth notes, “ … focus is a scarce resource in the brain and attention spans are dwindling … “

Now, the techniques

1. Make it personal. Talk about the things that people know but no one has thought about or (in my opinion) wants to acknowledge. “ … let the audience’s imagination deliver the biggest punch.”
2. Keep it short. Take a lesson from TED Talks. Why are they so popular? Probably because they present interesting ideas but don’t go on and on. Mr. Monarth recommends writing versions of different lengths. See how long the longest one takes and then begin removing detail. Of course, you’ll want to do this with an audience of friends or peers, because they can tell you if your story still makes sense and has impact. Keep refining and cutting. “You’ll be surprised how often even very short versions still accomplish the job.”
3. Pick a theme. “A clever theme frames a story in just the way you want it perceived.” Mr. Monarth cites “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” as the perfect example. I myself like “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.” A great theme crystallizes the point you want your audience to take away.
4. Use drama to make it stick. Here, Mr. Monarth talks about the value of focusing on mistakes and bad decisions as a way to make a story more effective. In his example, he mentions firefighters who learned more and developed better judgment from “mistake-ridden training scenarios” than those who received conventional “how-to” training.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I initially thought of storytelling as yet another business fad. But when I thought about it, I realized that there is nothing really new under the sun and that storytelling has been around a long time, helping capture an audience’s attention and influencing its behavior.

Artur Szczybylo — 123rf.com

 

 

I just finished reading a great article by Jeff Rosenblum, “Why Brand Stories Succeed or Fail.” In it, he reviews recent neuroscience around why people gravitate toward stories rather than bulleted data points.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, he says, is a perfect example of communication failure. NASA had time to address the problem that caused the explosion but presented its information in 28 bullet-pointed slides that were dense and hard to follow, even for experts. A recommendation  emerging from the investigation of this disaster was that NASA should never again depend on PowerPoint alone to convey such important information.

Unfortunately, says Mr. Rosenblum, in business, “… we do nothing all day but present gobs of data with PowerPoint.” And we seem “addicted to overwhelming graphs and tables and somnolent presentations.” The solution, he says, is stories, which humans are hardwired to process. “Research demonstrates that stories affect us at a deep neurological level. Using fMRI technology, we’ve learned that when people tell a good story, the teller and the listener synchronize so that key areas of their brains are activated at the same time.” In fact, an engaged listener’s brain may “sometimes fire before the same region in the storyteller’s. This happens because the listener is anticipating what will happen in the story.

Wow. That’s engagement.

Where does threat enter the picture?

According to Mr. Rosenblum, storytelling is all about managing threat. With worldwide digital communications capable of spreading ideas fast, we see that “bad ideas are a threat to our careers.” A threat that the brain must assess. Unfortunately, many people presenting their ideas try rational appeals, which typically do not work.

Why rational appeals don’t work and stories do

Routing an appeal to our rational, prefrontal cortex is not straightforward. We humans make thousands of decisions a day. Our brains consume an astonishing 20% of our energy and need help to lighten the load. That’s the role of the limbic system, which includes the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the thalamus. Working together, they filter info and help our brains prioritize it.

When you get new information, your limbic system quickly determines whether or not it’s a threat. If the information is nonthreatening, the limbic system passes it on, but only if it’s emotionally engaging.

So what do we need to do?

Ditch the massive slide decks. They’re not emotionally engaging, and they force the brain to use its energy in inefficiently processing information.

Consider this scenario: You’re giving a presentation full of unassailable logic and tons of bullet points. Your audience, heads down, has begun checking its phones. They’re bored, but they’re also feeling threatened—subconsciously—by this new information. “They don’t want to spend their rapidly waning levels of glucose in their brain listening to you; they look for more important threats in their mobile device.” They’ve disengaged, and your chance of re-engaging them is slim. Ouch.

Yes, says Mr. Rosenblum, research and data are important to developing new ideas, but they are not enough. Cloak them in stories that make an emotional connection, and you’ve got a better chance of creating a compelling brand.

Micha Klootwijk — 123rf.com

 

(This post is recycled from November 2011. The topic and approach are still relevant, I think.)

In conversations with friends and colleagues over the years, I’ve learned that people who don’t get too flustered about producing a resume seem to freeze up when asked to write a bio.

Why that is, no one seems to know, but it may have to do with a bio’s relatively short length and the general perception that it needs to contain “a whole lot” of info. In fact, someone once said, “How the heck do I fit everything in, and how do I know what to put in?”

Lisa Cherney (@LisaCherney) has the answer, and it’s based on asking several simple questions. Before you do, though, you want to repeat the mantra “eliminate the fluff” several times. As Ms. Cherney puts it, probably no one wants to know the name of your cat—my cat’s name is Mimi, and she’s my precious angel, thank you—and they want to get a pretty clear picture of what you do.

Now, Lisa’s questions:

1. Who is my ideal client?
2. How long should my bio page be?
3. Should my bio include a tag line?
4. Should my bio include personal information?

Lisa works with small business owners, but she has also served the biggies, too, so her questions and answers are grounded in business reality. Her article­— “Bio Basics – How Much is Too Much?”—alas no longer available at Biznik—is a fast read and worth spending five minutes on.

I, myself, like a simple three-paragraph approach. Your first paragraph is a couple of sentences about what you do now, including the name of your business. Your second paragraph mentions a few things you’ve done in the past and particular areas of expertise, such as your ability to get your clients high search engine rankings or to help them boost their sales 25% in six months. Finally, you end with the obligatory stuff about your education, any books or articles you’ve written, and professional organizations you belong to.

This is not romantic stuff. If you write it well, though, it won’t be dull. And when people finish reading it, they will know what you do and why they may want to talk to you.

tashatuvango — 123rf.com

 

 

Have you ever thought about how often the word “lucky” enters our daily vocabularies? As in, “Hey, he caught a lucky break,” or “Gosh, that poor woman is so unlucky.” Many of us think about luck a lot and wonder what we can do to change ours, to make it deliver more reliably, to boost our luck outcomes.

Just recently, I stumbled across a great Harvard Business Review article by Morten Hansen, “You Can Manage Luck. Here’s How.” Mr. Hansen was focusing his remarks on companies and executives in those companies, but his observations apply whether you work in the mail room or the corner office or don’t work for a company at all.

Essentially, you do yourself the most good by viewing life as “a flow of luck events,” preparing yourself to encounter the bad and learning to recognize the good, which may not be obvious at first sight. Mr. Hansen talks about the “zoom out, then zoom in” technique, where you focus on your objective, and act accordingly, rather than getting lost out in the weeds.

I’d like to add something here. You make your luck by getting out and getting exposure. Many years ago, I came across this revolutionary concept in a snippet-size posting in one of those women’s magazines you can still find in the check-out line at the grocery store. People who are perceived to be “lucky” are so because they’re out and about. They’re not huddled at home waiting for the phone to ring. What a concept.

Kerdkanno — 123rf.com

The expressions we use add a touch of sparkle to everyday existence. I use them liberally and recommend you do as well. There’s nothing quite like a slightly eccentric turn of phrase to make a girl (or guy) seem funnier, smarter, and more approachable.

Even if you haven’t seen the legendary video, hearing someone say “Confound it, this entire project has been like herding cats” calls up a delicious image of cats running everywhere—hissing, spitting, scratching, and refusing to be corralled. Applied to the work world, the expression suggests rampant disorganization, poor communication, egos unchained, and milestones blasted to smithereens.

When you think about it, expressions create neat little videos all ready to run whenever you close your eyes and say the words. Picture, for example, “as independent as a hog on ice.” According to Evan Morris, The Word Detective, this lovely phrase expresses the hog’s predicament perfectly. “While he’s technically free, his trotters can get no traction on the ice…and he’s more than likely to end up splayed helplessly on his belly, easily recaptured and returned to his pen.” What a picture.

One last example before I let you go: “Couldn’t find their butt with two hands and a flashlight.” Now, I’m aware there’s a cruder version out there, but this one suffices. I don’t know about you, but I see a confederacy of bumblers, who don’t necessarily realize that they’re clueless.

So, expressions are wonderful because they add some fun to language, and they’re marvels of efficiency. The words serve the visuals, and the visuals return the favor.

Susan Richey-Schmitz — 123rf.com

 

Thanks to Shareef Mahdavi of SM2 Strategic, I’ve just learned about Pecha Kucha (pronounced “pe-chach-ka”), a wonderful new presentation technique born in Japan.

Derived from the Japanese phrase for “chit chat,” Pecha Kucha limits a presentation to 20 slides x 20 seconds of talk per slide. That’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds maximum, folks. And by the way, the slides advance automatically, leaving the verbose scrambling to keep up.

Limiting the amount of time presenters can ramble on forces them to focus on the essentials of their message. Parenthetically, how many copywriters out there have created or edited those 50-slide monsters that are guaranteed soporifics? (“It needs to be that long so we can really tell our story.” Yeah, right.) Technology companies in my part of the world seem sadly enamored of them.

Shareef, by the way, walks the talk. You may not be particularly interested in hearing about cataract surgery and laser, but he demonstrates the power of Pecha Kucha by actually making the topic compelling for lay people. If I were a cataract surgeon, I’d be signing up for a laser unit right now.

Take a little creativity break and learn more about Pecha Kucha.  I can promise you’ll be glad you did.

Bad news. I’m betting you’ve had to deliver it or receive it, either on the job or in your personal life. Perhaps you’ve taken some time to reflect on its nature and how delivery might have been handled better.

Management guru Patty Azzarello, in a blog post “How NOT to market bad news” believes that companies really mess up when they pretend that bad news is actually good. She mentions going to Starbucks two days after her birthday and expecting her free birthday coffee treat to be honored. When that’s not the case, she turns to Twitter and receives a cheery, but non-satisfying response about how birthday rewards expire the day after her birthday so “we that we can truly celebrate with you on your big day.” That, she notes, “is a great example of a marketing person trying to turn bad news for the customer into happy sounding news instead of serving the customer.”

Now, when I read this, I sort of shrugged my shoulders. Really, what’s the tragedy about one coffee less in life? But her next example made me sit up and take notice. Suppose I had persuaded my boss to buy an expensive product that was unexpectedly discontinued after my company had geared up to use it and devoted support resources to it. That’s a heck of a lot less trivial. And this is where the seller needs to do two things. First, tell the truth and then help the customer.

Tell the truth

Lay it on the line. Tell your customer—and it may help to view her as your best friend during this interchange—that your company has made the decision to discontinue the product, that you know it leaves her and her employer in a difficult position, that you wanted to tell her personally, and that you want to help.

Help the customer

How? In this instance, you visit the customer’s site and help her deliver the news to colleagues. You demonstrate that they’ll be better off with the new product and that you and your company will help them through the transition. Doing this helps your customer maintain her credibility, and, equally important—at least to me—helps your company maintain its honor.

It requires marketing skill to disguise bad news as good news. Whether something is as trivial as seeing a  pound bag of coffee become 13 oz. over the years (with no reduction in price) or as important as losing a critical product or service without a transition plan, bad news is bad news. Be clear about it. Don’t sugar coat, and don’t expect that an effort to do so will not damage a customer relationship. Put your energy into making things as right as you can, not on polishing your prose.

svershinsky — 123rf.com

 

Like last week’s post, this is about sales skills, though you can also think of them as life skills. There are seven of them, according to Dan Ross, a former Salesforce VP. He refers to them as the sales skills that can’t be taught.

Mr. Ross starts by saying that some of the best closers he ever hired more than compensated for their lack of sales experience with “core qualities.”

Curiosity

Products and markets, says Mr. Ross, change so fast that it’s impossible to keep sales training current. So it’s up to a sales rep to figure out a customer’s problem and present a solution that works. Being curious is really the only way to do this.

Integrity

Mr. Ross wants salespeople who get the job done but also do right by the customer. I’ll never forget the time I hedged on a product’s capabilities to make a sale. The customer’s anger and my sense of sleaze have stayed with me forever and informed my business dealings going forward.

Drive

Referring to Salesforce, Mr. Ross says, “Salespeople who demonstrate the drive to challenge themselves to do more and help us improve faster will be the ones who will get … opportunities.”

Problem-Solving

Like curiosity, problem-solving is indispensable in sales. Rather than feeling frustrated when they encounter a problem for which there is no mapped-out solution, salespeople with a predisposition to solve problems will find or create an answer. The key is to see energy, not frustration, in a problem.

Resilience

Rejection—especially if you were positive the customer was ready to sign on the dotted line—is part of sales (and life). The most successful, creative people are those who pick themselves up, learn from the situation, and go on.

Self-Awareness

That’s genuine awareness, not self-absorption. Self-awareness allows salespeople to figure out where they need to improve and get help, rather than abandoning “their best habits the first time they have a bad month or quarter and not realize what they actually should be working on.”

Emotional Awareness

This quality refers to being able to read people when you’re on the phone and can’t see facial expression or body language. I think tone of voice, volume, cadence, and other aspects of verbal expression are incredibly revealing, particularly when you sense dissonance (or consonance) between language and tone.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, these are more than sales skills. They are life skills, but I’m not so sure they can’t be taught (though I can understand that the effort probably takes too much time in a fast-moving sales organization). Don’t we all remember a mentor—whether a good friend, grandmother, business colleague, or even our boss—who penetrated the fog surrounding us and got us on track?

Antonio Gravante — 123rf.com

 

Yes, there are sales skills you can learn. (Just as there are sales skills that can’t be taught—but that’s the topic of another post.)

Today’s post focuses on what you can do to make your sales efforts more effective, with a tip of the hat to Dan Ross, former SVP at Salesforce, for his article “The 7 Sales Skills that CAN Be Taught.”

Those of us who have never sold before may consider the sales process mysterious and ultimately  unknowable, practiced by those who know tricks of persuasion the rest of us don’t. Selling, though, is not really esoteric, but like so many things in life, success requires self-discipline and the ability to apply what we’re taught.

Mr. Ross breaks down the teachable sales skills into seven elements, summarized heres:

Filling the pipeline

Here, you evaluate an existing pipeline for cross-sell and upsell opportunities. If your mom ever bought Avon or Mary Kay, I’ll bet the sales person was a master of both. I mean, how can you buy moisturizer when you also really, really need cleanser and toner? You can also go back to what Mr. Ross refers to as “dead opportunities,” because there’s a good chance they can be resuscitated.

Managing your time

Calendar time to get organized. At Salesforce, reps are trained to spend 15 minutes at the end of the day planning what they will do tomorrow. If you’re a mother, I bet you’ve got this one down. Reps also learn to schedule time to work current accounts. After all, repeat sales aren’t guaranteed, and the competition is probably calling on your accounts too. And, then there’s self-development. If you don’t calendar it, it may not happen.

Developing business acumen

As Mr. Ross says, “I love when sales professionals have the business acumen needed to understand all lines of business within their customer’s organization, understand the biggest challenges and priorities, and speak executive language.” (I believe storytelling builds business acumen.)

Developing sales acumen

Sales is a multistep process, and you must master each part. The scenario of the cub salesperson stepping into a big account and selling a big deal in minutes is Hollywood. I add that I dreamed of that as a  young, dumb sales rep, because—despite teaching us that sales is a process—the higher-ups were always pressing for fast results.

Winning big deals

Mr. Ross reminds us that “Larger, more complex sales cycles require additional sales skills that go beyond general sales acumen.” Amen to that. Probably explains why organizations have pre-sales people, sales engineers, etc. With more people involved it the process, it’s likely that you won’t overlook important influencers, relationships, or organizational politics that can trip you up.

Knowing your product

When I worked at Dictaphone, product knowledge reigned supreme. Why? Our products were relatively small and lightweight, “relative” being the operative term here. We were expected to check a machine out of inventory and demonstrate it to the customer. We learned a specific protocol, but it was critical to be prepared for any questions the prospect threw at us. Mr. Ross says, “If you do not understand the value of each of your products, it is very difficult to sell the value of the product and you will definitely miss out on opportunities within your territory.”

Forecasting  intelligently

This is all about looking at your pipeline and determining if you’re on track to make quota. Mr. Ross uses the expression “goals,” but I think “quota” is the better term. Quota is an inexorable force there’s no escaping. He believes, and I agree, that forecasting helps you prioritize, know when to ask for help, and when to walk away from a deal.

This article, which will take you five minutes or less to read, is all about sales. But because I believe we’re all selling in one way or another, I think it applies to real life. And on that note, I leave you with his real-life focused quote: “The best sales professionals know when to walk away from a deal.” Substitute relationship, potential high-ticket purchase, and you’ll know what I mean.

Antonio Guillem — 123rf.com