When we tell stories, these can be reiterations of our past experience or our imagination. Business managers must understand that in business these are not just ordinary stories one must tell but rather, compelling stories one must sell. The idea is from one of the greatest story seller of all time, Steve Jobs.
Story selling is arguably the most powerful tool. Creating a story behind a product or service increases its value by incorporating meaning and differentiation from other market offerings because otherwise, it is just a product or service or a brand. One must always start with a great phrase or statement to capture the attention of our audience as to why they should listen. Something like, "I'll start with a story" because story selling is to personally relate to your audience and to build relationships and memories between the two parties.
The way Steve told his story back in the Stanford Commencement was not a hard sell, he used his own experiences and narrated his own vulnerability and hardships to show us all that we can relate to him as we also encounter problems at different points in life. He had an outline in his commencement speech when he said he had 3 points. He demonstrated enthusiasm in delivering his story. He wowed the audience by narrating how we continuously strived for more after each downfall and advises us that as long as we stick to our passion, what you like doing and things will come your way. He used our weak point, our anxiety on the world that lies ahead, as his selling point and to keep us hooked to his story to find out how to combat battles, yet he never gave us an ending. The ending was for us to discover it on our own. His commencement speech gave us a show. A simple speech with a very compelling story. He was able to sell himself and his equity to the audience. It was straight to the point and well-rehearsed. This is what we should practice when we story sell our brand to others, tell a short story that captures their attention but without an ending and in turn will create a deeper impact and move on our target market into action.
A personal example is how our business is into retail. We offer and distribute a wide variety of lifestyle products and apparel. One of the popular brands we currently carry is Hydroflask.
Hydroflask 40oz widemouth with Straw
When we first introduced this back in early 2017, our competitor, Klean Kanteen already had a foothold in the PH market. Yet, with the power of story selling we were able to overtake them and become number one. Now everyone has at least one. How did we do this?
The power of story selling!
We gave out free products to a number of consumers from different walks of life, including influencers to try out the product for 2 weeks, after which, we asked them for their feedback by posting them through their own social media accounts and through word of mouth. The stories of how everyday ordinary people loved the product's design and quality made most of them dependent on its durability and function. We also used these testimonies as our marketing advantage, getting genuine feedback from customers themselves and using in our social media accounts. This in turn, made more consumers want to purchase their own bottle and the rest was history. Presently, more and more designs and sizes are introduced to entice more customers to grab their own insulated bottle.
That's all for now.
For other references on how to present like Steve Jobs, a step-by-step guideline, check out my other post: https://foodlockerph.wixsite.com/foodlockerph/post/how-to-be-an-extraordinary-presentor
Stay Tuned & Stay Hungry!
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