Melissa was running through her upcoming slide presentation with me. She loaded up her PowerPoint deck with all the facts and figures she could find that would make her pitch irresistible. There was an almost endless march of slides with numbers, features and benefits.
I had to stop her and ask, “Why not tell your listeners a story? Or use a testimonial or a case-study?”
“Think of a success story that involves you and a client. Maybe you can get a quote from them or, better yet, a quote and a picture for your slide deck,” I said.
Stories of real people connect with real people. They can touch us all with common experiences. Unfortunately, “story” is often seen as a touchy-feely word that turns off many old-school business folks. Simple solution: call them testimonials, examples or case-studies.
Whatever words you use, stories are the ultimate, universal, deep-rooted, people-to-people connector. As listeners, we readily believe in the story and the story-teller. We overlay our experiences on what we are hearing and it becomes a shared occurrence. Get over the fear of being too soft and tell stories about your product or service, even about your challenges and how you overcame them. Your clients will open their checkbook in response.
