If you’re in sales, you know that one of your most important ways to build credibility is through success stories.

However, many success stories are more like success reports. They often consist of lifeless facts that every salesperson in the organization is told to present to every prospect. As such, they are usually presented as boiler plates, with bullet-pointed facts that are more relevant to a general audience than any audience in specific.

Here’s a somewhat tired template that you may be familiar with.

•State The Problem

i.e. “Life Charities was having a difficult time generating donations”

•State The Solution

i.e. “We showed them how to increase their donations through our car donation program.”

•Show Measurable Results.

i.e Life Charities increased their donations 3-fold in one year.

Oftentimes, the measurable results part is played up more than any other facet of the success story. This happens despite the fact that success is often achieved through a number of factors outside our control. Most audiences know better than to give you 100% credit for the success you are claiming as your own.

Also keep in mind that whenever you tell a success story, people expect it to have a happy ending. We don’t call them success stories because they give us a chance to wax on about our failures. I bring this up not to diminish the importance of results. In fact, don’t. However, if you’ve ever taped a sporting event or watched a movie where you know how it ends, you know that the real interest in any story comes from events leading up to the results, and not just the results themselves. How you stage those events can say more about you and your company than the actual results you’ve achieved.

A story is something that arouses emotion, while engaging, inspiring and motivating its audience. Using the 3-R’s approach to structuring and telling a success story will help you engage your audience far better than the standard problem, solution, and results triumvirate. Using this approach will turn a lifeless, factual success report into something that will involve your audience by helping them imagine a similar success.

The 3-R’s of a powerful sales success story. The three R’s stand for Relate, Rescue, and Resolve. Here’s how to put the 3R’s to work:

RELATE

Success stories are effective to the extent your audience can relate to them. It is critical that you be able to draw parallels between the problem you are describing and a problem or problems that your prospect is experiencing. Do otherwise and your presentation will be an invitation to mentally check out. It is arguably better to have no success story at all than to have one that has nothing to do with your prospect’s situation.

Don’t leave it up to your prospect to find the relevance between the problem you solved and the problem they want solved. Use words like “just like you,” or “similar to what you’re currently experiencing…” For this reason, the “You” word is one of the most important, if not the most important word in your presentation.

Just make sure you’ve done your homework. You’ll gain points by having equipped yourself with facts about your prospect’s current problem, but you could blow-up your entire presentation with a set of wrong facts or worse yet, faulty assumptions.

However you can, don’t make the company you worked with the centerpiece of your story. People relate to people more than they relate to companies. ABC Lugnuts Inc. may have had a problem, but talk more about Mr. Lugnuts, what he was experiencing and how he felt being faced with his problem. Perhaps he was frustrated with what had been tried in the past? Perhaps he was perplexed, confused, or convinced that there was just no workable solution to his problem. Again, RELATE: Any good story conveys emotions its audience can identify with.

Don’t gloss over the problem you were faced with. One of the big reasons stories are more interesting than reports is that stories are comprised of conflicts that need to be overcome. Do what you can to help your prospect feel the pain that your client or customer was experiencing. Beware however. Don’t go overboard. There’s no need for big drama – in fact, avoid it. Your audience does not have the time nor the patience for a sideshow. A question like “Have you ever experienced a 20% drop in sales over the course of a month,?” can suffice. If your prospect answers yes, they know the pain. If they answer no, help them imagine what that pain feels like.

RESCUE

Don’t think that simplifying your solution is always the best route to take. A statement like “All it took was our product to turn things around,” is an overstatement that will lose your audience entirely. Talk about some of the difficulties you experienced before finding the best solution. This is an opportunity to show your prospect how you work as much as it is a way to show them that you can solve problems. You want your audience to hear angles singing in the background when talk when you describe the rescue. Skip through your success story without talking much about the rescue, and the only thing your audience will hear are thoughts wishing you were done.

Use dialogue. Nothing makes a story more interesting than dialogue. One of the reasons for this is that dialogue allows your audience to experience the situation as opposed to being told about it. “And then he said Jim, that just won’t work,” is much more interesting that telling your audience that at first, your client resisted your solution.

If you can, talk about the specific insight or realization you helped your client come to. Bring your audience to the doorstep of your “aha” moment. Help them see how you got there. However, maintain a sense of humility. It’s better to say something like, “after struggling with this a bit, it suddenly dawned on me,” than “the solution was obvious.” If you can, use “We” instead of “I,” by all means, do so.

If possible, show how you made your client a partner in coming up with the solution. Demonstrate that you are collaborative and work with, not for your clients.

Above all else, show how your solution is similar to a solution that your audience would be interested in. Help your audience see themselves sharing the same insight.

RESOLVE

Again, your audience knows that this story is going to have a happy ending. Otherwise you wouldn’t be talking about it. Measurable results are important. But even more important are the changed feelings that were experienced. Go beyond the numbers to explain the long-term effect your solution had on sentiments that were felt, like new optimism or an improved sense of purpose.

If you’re interested in learning more ways to use storytelling as a sales tool, visit Storytelling For Sales Workshops.

Click here to learn more about how to tell your brand story!

One of the first things we do in our Business Storytelling Workshops is give respondents a mini-quiz to see if they can tell the difference between a story and an assertion. It is rare indeed when anyone gets all or even most of the answers correct. Albeit a common mistake, I’d like to show you why this mistake can have negative consequences for your company and, by extension, its brand.

First, and especially in a business setting, assertions and stories are tools used to make a point. The difference is in how the point gets made. An assertion makes the point through a statement of opinion or belief. A story makes the point through the description of an event that has already happened or will happen sometime in the future.

Consider these two examples:

First the assertion:

“Introducing New Coke was an egregious error in judgement made by negligent management. They should have taken into consideration that emotional bonds people have with brands can be very strong.”

Personally, upon hearing this at a meeting I once attended, I was turned off by the speaker. Based on my studying the New Coke failure, I thought that referring to the failure as “an egregious error in judgment” was an ill-informed oversimplification. Additionally, I didn’t like the insinuation that knowing about the strength of any brand’s emotional attachment should just be thought of as common sense.

You may disagree with the reasons for my strong reaction. That’s not the point. The point is that assertions always present the risk of disagreement. To assume that everyone is going to agree with you can backfire. Especially when the risk of disagreement is high, it is better to rely on a story leading up to your point.

Contrast the above assertion with this story used to make a point:

When Coke saw that New Coke performed better in taste tests than the current Coke, they confidently introduced it with a great deal of fanfare. Yet, Coke drinkers didn’t just reject New Coke. They revolted against it. They told Coke it was destroying something they had grown up with. Can you imagine how baffled Coke must have been when they found this out? Clearly, this points to the strength of the emotional bond that consumers can have with a brand.  It can be so strong that it outweighs rational considerations given to taste or other attributes.

And yes, it took a little longer to get to the point.

However, when the point is made about the emotional power of brands, it gets served up as an assertion that is inescapable.  This is one of the reasons it has been said that stories persuade without getting in their own way.

Learn How Story Branding Can Help Your Marketing Strategy

The challenge and how to meet it:

Again, the challenge is to become aware of whether you are asserting something or telling a story.  Stories come in a number of different forms. But if you were to take any story apart, you would generally find these elements:

Time markings:  Stories imply or directly state that something happened in time. eg. In 2001…,” “Just the other day” “Last Tuesday …” “When we last spoke to the CEO …” The archetypal time marking is, of course, “Once upon a time” but that’s not one you want to use in a business setting.

Place markings:  Just stories imply or state that something happened in time, the same is true for place. eg.“We were outside his office …” “At the basketball tournament…” However, sometimes the place is nondescript. “Our representative met with their President, ” could suggest that a meeting took place at the  President’s office or possibly by telephone.  Either way, the meeting occurred at a place.

Characters: Stories:  Stories feature a “personified it.” eg.  Besides being a person, the “personified it” could be a company, an animal – anything that performs an action. “The brand died an ignominious death.”, “The tree lost its leaves early this Fall.”.

Events:  The biggest signal that a story is being told is when an event is described as in all of the examples above.

Click here to learn all there is to know about telling your brand’s story.

What makes your brand special?

If you answered by talking about your brand’s unique advantages and consumer benefits, you own a house, not a home.

Don’t feel lonely.  There are plenty of companies doing the same thing.  And they all have lessons to share.

Take Xerox for instance. At one time, having a  Xerox machine in the office had become a necessity.  Instead of asking, “Can I get a copy of that?” it was commonplace for people to ask, “Can you make me a Xerox?” Having achieved a great deal of success, the company decided to cultivate other ambitions. For one, Xerox wanted to get into computer technology and data processing. They spent many years and millions of dollars before finally throwing in the towel. Why? Because they couldn’t get buyers to believe that a copy machine company could make a good computer. In effect, Xerox found out that it was a house, not a home.

Chiquita is another example. Chiquita had to admit defeat after trying to convince us that they make a good frozen juice bar.  Country Time Lemonade was forced to stop trying to sell Country Time Apple Cider. Ponds barely got out of the starting gates with Ponds toothpaste before it quit. And Smith and Wesson (yes, the maker of guns) tried to sell a bicycle of all things. Thousands of stories like these exist.

But then many brands tell a different story. Apple has gone from selling computers to phones, to tablets to who knows what’s next. Nike started out selling waffle-soled running shoes but is now the leading brand of athletic equipment, gadgets, and apparel.  Perhaps a more extreme example is Virgin with its long list of unrelated products and services: phones, records, airplanes, casinos, satellites.  In case you’re sick and in jail, Virgin even provides a prison health service.  Add Harley Davidson, Disney, Starbucks, and anything that Oprah labels to the list.  See any similarities?  These are brands that grew by creating homes, not houses.

When we think of these brands, we don’t just think of a single products or service.   We think of the ideas, values and beliefs their names represent. To their buyers, they offer something more important than functional benefits.  They provide a sense of belonging.  In fact, their buyers aren’t really buyers. They are more like members of the same household who share similar beliefs. Virgin could sell mud flaps if it wanted to.  No doubt, they’d become the best selling mud flaps available. ( Hey Branson, you heard it here first!).

How do you build your brand story? Learn here! 

How To Turn Your House Into A Home

If you’re interested in turning your house into a home, here are 5 simple brand storytelling rules to follow:

1. Check out your brand’s foundation.  Does it provide a solid base that will support any additions, or is will it only hold up your house as is?
2. Improve its curb appeal.  When people see it from the outside, will they think ” Looks nice”  or will they think “This could become a good representation of me and what I stand for?”
3. Get rid of the clutter.   Throw out everything that distracts away from the one simple but important truth that your home represents.
4. Hire the right agent.  Anyone can help you find renters or even buyers.   Hire someone who can tell your story in a way that will attract followers.
5. Conduct a permanent Open House.  Stay real, authentic and open to transparency.

Making a distinction between a house and a home has many advantages. Just remember, a house functions as a place to shelter you from the elements, provide you with ample closet space and a place to park your automotive status symbol.  Homes serve a very different purpose.  They provide belonging, and support for values you can identify with.

The extent to which your brand can offer customers a home instead of a house will determine the size of your family.

In the 30’s and 40’s, Frank Capra was one of this country’s most famous screenwriter/directors. In his memoir, The Name Above The Title, he recounts how he saved his award-winning movie, Lost Horizons, from dying a premature death.

“I ran up to the cutting rooms, took those blasted first two reels in my hot little hands, ran to the ever-burning big black incinerator—and threw them into the fire.”

This is how the expression “burn the first reel” originated.  Translated, it means, cut out the fat from the beginning of your story.

“Burn the first reel,” is an important axiom when it comes to business storytelling.

When telling any kind of a story to friends, you will have a lot of freedom to add color through what you might think are interesting details.  But the people sitting around a conference room table are far less accepting and far more impatient than they might be if you were telling the same story over a beer.

Some may disagree, but I believe that that business storytelling is the most challenging form of narrative.  Because in addition addition to requiring good storytelling skils, it requires one to know how to strike the balance between too much and too little exposition.

Here are some suggestions for how to burn the first reel:

One of the biggest mistakes business storytellers make occurs when they open with an origin story or  a story that describes how their business began.  Too often the storyteller will get carried away by going into harrowing detail.  Certainly, most audiences will be interested in learning how a company’s struggles were overcome to achieve success. However, they don’t want to struggle themselves to get there.

One way to avoid doing this is to use the “Now, Then, How” formula:

Instead of providing a long chronology of events that occured over time, the “Now, Then, How” formula can get to the heart of your story very quickly.  Additionally, throughout the telling of this story you will hold your audience’s attention because their curiosity will be piqued.

Here’s an example of how to use it?

Now:   “This is a headline that appeared in Accounting News last week.  (Headline reads:  “Dokes Accounting ranks highest in customer satisfaction”).

Then: “Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Dokes would have had a hardtime imagining this could be possible.  You see, we’ve  hadto learn a great deal through trial and error to get to wherewe are today. ”

How: One of those things we’ve learned is what I’d like to talk to you about today.

In just a few sentences you will have created a curious readiness for your audience to hear how and why Dokes does what it does.

This is not to suggest that adding a few flourishes to an origin story should be avoided at all cost.  But if you’re going to go that route, it’s important that you keep detail down to a minimum.   This is often a judgement call, but when in doubt, cut it out.

If you’re up for it, let me show you via this torturous example of an origin story along with some likely audience reactions.  While reading this, you may think this is donen to exaggerate the point.  But it is very similar in structure to an origin story  I once heard given by a salesperson.

“I’d like to tell you the story about the idea that inspired Joe Kayser, to start the company I work for.

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  A story?  Why doesn’t he just get to the point? ].

Prior to 1989, Mr. Kayser had worked in quality control for a major widget manufacture.  Every day he would stand over an assembly line looking for faulty widgets in order to make certain that anything that was out of spec was sent back to be re-processed.  It was hard work, especially given the fact that so much of what was coming at him was faulty.  He tells us that he often felt like the famous I Love Lucy scene where she’s put in charge of dipping chocolates  – you know, the one where she can’t keep up and ends up eating the chocolates that she can’t dip (he models the scene as he talks about it). Ha Ha.

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  This guy is trying too hard]

It got so bad that 30% of what Mr. Kayser was looking at had to be sent back or completely thrown out.  This obviously cost the company he was working for a great deal of time and money.  It didn’t take him  too long to realize that most of the mistakes would start to occur after lunch and grow in numbers when shifts ended.  So he went to his boss and said, “Bob (that was his boss’s name)

“Why don’t we give line workers 15 minute breaks every hour instead of at the regular two hour interval?”

Of course, Bob had to take Joe’s request up the line to his bosses, bossess, boss AND get it agreed to by the union. Ha Ha.

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  How long is this story going to take?]

But months later, his suggestion was finally implemented. He was very excited to see his idea come to life.  There was only one problem.   His idea only reduced mistakes by a mere 2%. This became quite embarrassing for Joe.  And now, going back to the old system of 15- minute breaks every 2 hours, the company had to keep the new 45 minutes on/15 minutes off procedure.  Not giving up, Joe experimented with a number of alternatives until he came up with a process.  For instance,

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  “For Instance??”  This guy is killing me!]

he tried …….. and FINALLY, he found a process that reduced mistakes down to 3% from 30%.   And today, I’m going to show you how ……

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  Wonder how I can get out of this meeting politely]

Let’s burn the first reel with this alternative to the same opening

In 1989 Joe Kayser made a discovery that became the inspiration behind what our company is today.  As a quality control manager for a larger manufacturer of widgets,  he experimented with a number of ways to reduce assembly line rejections until finally he discovered a way to reduce mistakes from 30% to 3%.

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  That’s impressive. How? ]

The mistake he discovered may surprise you.  It often does because it is so hidden.

[AUDIENCE REACTION: What’s the mistake?]

In addition to discovering this mistake, Mr. Kayser developed a process for correcting the problem.  It’s a process that is now being used by the following companies and with these results

[AUDIENCE REACTION:  I’m all ears]

Certainly an origin story can make for an engaging introduction to your presentation.  However, unless you can use it to quickly get to the point, it could have an opposite effect on your audience.

Keep in mind that THE most important point of any presentation is “what’s in it for them.” There’s nothing wrong, and everything right about using a story to help you set up that point.  But if you make your audience wait too long to get there,  it’s likely that the only point you’ll reach is one with the one with no return.

Learn more about telling your Brand Story here!

I would never even think of telling someone they have an ugly baby. Moreover, I’m not the guy who will admit that you really do look fat in those jeans if asked. However, if you believe that you should cast your customers as the hero of your brand’s story, my conscience obliges me to risk a possible insult. At the very least, I urge you to reconsider.

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe that all customers are important. Customers who aren’t, are like 39th birthdays. They only come around once. However, to regard them as important is one thing. To dress them up in the clothes of a hero is quite another.

Consider first what the word “hero” implies. Heroes are people who solve the big problem or resolve the burdening tension that few others can. They are the dragon slayers, the courageous visionaries, the people who take huge risks to accomplish unimaginable feats. As such, they become objects of admiration and emulation. Okay, you nor I might be able to do what Michael Jordan did on the courts, what Chesley Sullenberger did on the Hudson River or what a first responder does while putting life on the line for victims of some tragedy. However, these and others we designate as heroes become symbols of principles, ideals and causes we revere and choose to support.

So, if you still think your customers are heroes, perhaps you should stop trying to sell them and hire them instead.

Learn The Important Differences Between Storytelling And Storybranding

The countervailing point of view is that brands, not customers, should play the role of hero in the brand story. Taking into consideration the requirements of heroism, this too may be an overreach. However, it is possible for brands to become hero-like. Because like heroes, brands have the potential to symbolize ideals or causes people belong to and support.  People don’t wear Harley Davidson tattoo’s, become walking ads for North Face or decal their car bumpers with the name of a favorite political candidate because they are paid to do so.

 In fact, providing customers with ideals worth rooting for is one of the most important functions a brand can perform. For this reason, and in addition to becoming known for a unique functional benefit, an equal or even greater effort should be put against associating a brand with ideals it stands for.  As a matter of fact, functional benefits are eventually copied or they go the way of the typewriter, the Walkman or Windows v 1.0. However, ideals like perfection, persistence, independence, responsiveness, just to name a few–these do not have expiration dates.

It should also be said that becoming associated with an ideal does not come about through lip service.  It requires an unabiding commitment by management.  This explains how Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Howard Shultz and others turned their brands into best-selling stories. It’s also worth noting that in each of these cases, they committed to something greater than making money.  Certainly their fortunes didn’t come about by ignoring the importance of profitability.  But through ups and downs, their efforts to stand up, stand firm and stand for something meaningful remained steadfast.

Something too should be said about the need for authenticity once a brand sets out to become associated with some ideal. David Ogilvy once admonished, “Your customer is not stupid. She’s your wife.” Today’s consumer (and a certain wife I know) are not easily fooled. Authenticity demands an honest and passionate conviction.  Otherwise,  you’ll be found out.  For this reason, it’s important to let the voice that is saying “THIS is what I believe in” be the voice that leads your quest.  In case you are having difficulty hearing that voice, it could be because it’s being drowned out by the voice of that customer you refer to as “hero.” Asking your customers what you should stand for is like asking your children how to be a good parent.

Learn more about telling your Brand Story here!