April 2005 Newsletter

BALANCING ON THE WIRE: STORYWEAVING CONNECTS YOU WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

Three Rules of Effective Communication

1. Be Kind.

2. Be Honest.

3. Have Constructive Intent.

John R. Fishbein, Ph.D. 2000

RULE FOUR: TELL A GOOD STORY!

When consultants ask, "Who are your ideal clients?"   it's not always easy to answer. We all have an idea in our minds, based on our current customers and the imagined communities we want to reach. Identifying the characteristics of this list can be a useful exercise. But what do we do next? Find a way to tell the good story that attracts your ideal customers.

Here's a simple exercise that will help you reach that ideal client, now that you have an idea about the person you're talking to when you're selling your product or service.   It's time to explore the story you're telling as a business. When I use the word "story," I want to make you think about the persuasive part of your vision. The story you tell through your marketing, your branding and your organizational culture is the bridge between your visionary business idea and your clients. If it's a good story, it will create the relationships that bring in money and build loyalty at the same time. If it's a good story, it will match the three points of contact you need to touch for an effective connection:   your vision , the reality of your process, and consumer needs.

What story are you telling in your branding? Who is the hero of your marketing? What stories do your staff and colleagues, your customers, tell about your product or service? Does your marketing hook keep clients on the line? Are you only telling one version of your story, and limiting your opportunities? Use this exercise to expand and clarify the story you need to tell to get the best results. By the end of the exercise, you'll have:

-a clear vision statement

-a hook to get people interested

-six approaches to selling your vision

-a bridge between your idea and your client's needs

-at least one good story to jumpstart communication

STORYWEAVING SETS YOU UP FOR SUCCESS

START BY SETTING YOUR PURPOSE: Briefly summarize your vision.

If you're launching a new product and/or trying to reach a new audience, then you've identified both the product and your audience. Make your vision and goals specific and interesting - not just for you, but for anyone who might get your one-minute summary. You believe in your product or service. Otherwise you wouldn't have spend so much time, money and energy developing it. What will it give your ideal client, in short and longterm benefits? An interesting vision statement starts with clarity. So for the first part of this exercise, aim for simplicity. In one sentence, you need to nail down your vision for the gift you're offering. For example: "My new cell phone design will simplify phone use without removing any of the features consumers most want."

NOW FIND THE HOOK, the theme that connects your purpose/vision with your customer. This step is all about taking the statement you developed in the first step and translating it so that it's more than clear - it generates interest without sounding like hype. (Remember if it's going to be effective in the long term, it should reflect an appealing truth about your product.) So, to extend our example: "This cell phone makes it easier to connect, because the design is more efficient and user-friendly."

FINALLY, USE THE FLEXIBILITY OF STORYWEAVING TO MAKE THIS VISION REAL: Choose six angles to tell the story. Create a prism that uses the whole spectrum of information you want to share, imagining a different audience with each story so that your ideal client becomes part of the picture in real ways.

With each version, you'll expand your potential audience, and have a larger toolkit to build connections. In fact, good storytelling is the only way we can reach people - if we just hit the buzzwords in a glitzy package, then what's the point? It's the story that helps people see the possibilities.

In the cell phone example, here are a few scenarios that demonstrate the different angles we might take on the story.

-For older people who didn't grow up with tiny phones: they're often uncomfortable, have trouble hearing and sometimes shout into cell phones. This is the story of how you've designed a phone to make them more comfortable - it's easier to find the volume control, the design helps focus the sound of the voice...

-For enthusiastic users, or people who use the phone when they're multitasking: it's easy to get disconnected by pushing the wrong button or pressing your face too closely to the phone. Your design takes human error into account, so that buttons only get pressed when you want to press them....

When you know your service or produce inside out, six angles are easy to find, and the story you weave flows naturally. Just remember to keep your ideal customer in mind.

Once you have your six stories, they can be used to design new marketing, to develop workshops or focus groups, to connect better with people when you talk about the work, even to help you ask better questions and listen more effectively to your current customers. Now your vision is clear, practical and communicable. You can spend more energy connecting, and less energy struggling to articulate your vision. You've built a narrative bridge between vision and customer.

AN IMPORTANT TIP... Know your stories so you can communicate them naturally and casually. Use an image or a brief catchphrase to help you remember the story without difficulty, so you can easily and gracefully improvise when you have a chance to share it with your marketing team, designers, consultants, staff and potential customers. Then, when you speak, people will be more interested. Your stories will fit the situation and the people you're speaking to, rather than sounding like slogans or boring, memorized marketing pitch. Remember, the key is to connect.

Learn more about bringing storyweaving workshops to your company...

C. Burbank, c. 2005