Lesson 4

Storytelling skills
Lesson 4. Storytelling skills
In the previous lesson, we learnt what’s important
to remember when creating texts for business, and
what tricks can be used for high-quality storytelling.
We talked about using the principle of the series in sto-
rytelling thus building an email sales funnel. We also
got acquainted with the rules of digital storytelling.
Today, we’ll move on to the topic of developing the nec-
essary skills to create good stories, and discover sto-
rytelling as a method of engaging employees.
STORYTELLING SKILLS:
A MUST-HAVE FOR A GOOD STORYTELLER
Any good leader should be able to speak convinc-
ingly, and any creator of a product must be able to talk
about it effusively. Nevertheless, how do you do it well?
Additionally, how do you encourage a person to take
a targeted action after reading your text or watching
a video on YouTube, buy a product, register for your
event, or call you? Let’s find out what it takes to become
a master in business storytelling.
1 Articulate the mission of the product. Any
physical product or service is a solution
to a customer’s pain, focus your story on that.
Visualise and then talk about who you expect
your customers to be and give concrete and
specific examples using:
▶▶ the corporate values that
​​ you will have to create
▶▶ the ability to see the explicit and hidden needs
of the client
▶▶ the ability to analyse and sell evaluation
▶▶ have empathy
▶▶ the ability to formulate the mission of the com-
pany and the mission of the product
2 A value proposition is appropriate when you’ve
explained what the product is for and who
needs it. Now you should talk about the value
of the product, but bearing in mind that when
we mean ‘value,’ we aren’t just talking about
money, but also the emotional value, as well
as the value it has in regards to it’s functionality
and problem solving for the customer. For this,
the following are required:
▶▶ knowledge of the relevant statistics in your area
▶▶ actual results of using your product based
on analysis and statistics
▶▶ critical thinking
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▶▶ detailed segmentation of the competitive niche
to describe the unique properties of the product
▶▶ knowledge of your target audience or a portrait
of your customer accurate to your interests and
a rough list of favourite books
▶▶ the ability to make a pitch and to close the sale
3 Motivation, or the ability to induce a targeted
action, such as buying your product. At this
stage, you’ll need the following skills:
▶▶ skills in presenting the product and yourself
as a speaker
▶▶ the ability to collaborate and work as part
of an effective team — for example, with your
partners and employees
▶▶ being a flexible and optimistic person, despite
the obstacles that arise, as well as the ability
to transfer this dynamism to others
4 Branding your product consists of many aspects,
and important for you are:
▶▶ understand marketing and advertising
▶▶ possessing the skills for working with graphic edi-
tors and layout
▶▶ be able to work with various social networks,
as well as internal advertising offices
▶▶ be charismatic and possess the ability to commu-
nicate with a variety of people
This is just a small list of the most important qualities
for a successful creator of quality business storytelling.
You can further add to this list by — for example, add-
ing copywriting skills, erudition, etc.
STORYTELLING TO FORM AN HR BRAND
Why is storytelling usually targeted only to custom-
ers? After all, our current employees and candidates
for various positions are the same people! Stories that
are told internally, in a work chat, or in a general office
mailing list are a great way to unite a team and increase
the level of employee loyalty and involvement.
This figure is shocking, but, according to statistics,
on average only 15% of employees are interested in the
life of a company! However, you can change that just
by starting to tell stories that emotionally resonate.
Emotions bring people together much better than
teambuilding and corporate events.
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Lesson 4. Storytelling skills
Invite colleagues to share childhood memories, for
example, by sharing family stories and telling them
about, say, grandparents. By humanising yourself, your
employees will stop seeing with sterile eyes as just
as their boss, but as a warm, feeling, caring person
who’s just like them, and shares the same trails, trib-
ulations, and triumphs in life, just like them.
You’re building empathy
and your employees
And by doing this they’ll see you in a fresh, warm, new
light. Moreover, during such personal stories, a per-
son cannot hide behind the usual mask their position
in the company, instead they open up, and you can
re-acquainted with your old colleague, only this time
the real person underneath.
Or, imagine that an employee spoke about his failure
in the management of a project — for real, with emo-
tions, not hiding their frustrations and disappoint-
ments. Such a story will help a newcomer, or candi-
date, to believe that real people work in your com-
pany — real people who make mistakes — and here
they are, as a real person — and this is normal. Fur-
thermore, your managers will have the opportunity
to see that this employee isn’t just a cog of the corpo-
rate machine, but a warm living person — and be able
to identify their strengths and weaknesses, gain a bet-
ter understanding of what makes them tick and motives
them and so on...
Turn your colleagues into participants in the story-
telling process, encourage them to share their emo-
tions and experiences, success stories, and failures,
in their messages. Make everyone feel involved and
get involved yourself.
HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR
STORYTELLING SKILLS
If you feel that you aren’t a good storyteller, don’t despair.
Actually, even if we don’t realise it, we all know how to tell
stories — if only because in childhood we listened to fairy
tales and fantasised and played during our childhood
dreams on how this or that story could end. Remember
this point, and now listen to some advice that’ll help you
start talking again and get some good feedback.
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1 Don’t be afraid of being vulnerable. Speak hon-
estly and openly, sharing your experiences and vic-
tories, as well as the emotions that you experience.
Don’t hide or try to distort the truth: it’s always
noticeable to the reader and only repels the lis-
tener. Always be sincere.
2 Learn to repackage the same story in different
formats. Try to rewrite the text over and over again
for the company’s website, for Instagram and Face-
book, as well as for third-party business media.
It might seem easy, but keep in mind that you must
never lose meaning and you must hold the reader’s
attention, reducing the length of the longitudinal
line to 2200 symbols (post in Instagram).
3 Build your personal brand, in other words, show
your own face. People are more willing to listen
to human stories than to the stories of an abstract
company that produces something. Therefore,
don’t be shy about telling your own story in the
company, and share your first experience of inter-
acting with the product — this is valuable for your
audience.
4 Tell the stories your customers want to hear.
Analyse your own company data, refer to third-
party statistics, study national and global brands,
but don’t talk about what is important to you. Your
reader dictates the content.
5 Forget about the ordinary benefits of the
product, be original. Better yet, focus on the true
success stories of your customers who’ve been
helped by the company or your product solution.
This is more difficult than just listing the product
features, but it works.
6 Give readers unique content, for example, share
the inside stories of your company, and open
the veil of secrecy in your financial statements.
Tell them what you’re doing in this quarter or not.
Satisfy the curiosity of the reader.
7 Try to use the same register as your customers,
copy the way that they speak and write. They
must understand what you’re talking about, they
should understand your examples, your language
should not fall on deaf ears. Be attentive and obser-
vant, and make sure that your website is user
friendly and easy to navigate.
8 Find a comfortable storytelling style. Certainly,
don’t adopt a coercive and aggressive style by insert-
ing ‘Buy! Buy! Buy!’ into every paragraph. Never-
theless, don’t be distracted from the main purpose
of your stories — to lead the reader to the implemen-
tation of the target action. Find a happy medium,
and to achieve this don’t be afraid to try different
things and experiment. For example, start by look-
ing for a working structure for your texts and scripts.
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Lesson 4. Storytelling skills
9 Weave current informational events and events
from the lives of celebrities into your stories.
These examples will help you level the playing field
between you as a representative of the brand and
your audience.
10 If you can show without telling, then show it.
Use any format you like for visualisation, so long
as your presentation is clear. So, don’t be afraid
of adding or replacing text with pictures because
this always works.
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A QUICK SUMMARY OF THE LESSON
In this lesson, we learnt what skills a successful sto-
ryteller needs, how to develop them, and why sto-
rytelling is needed to build an HR brand. In the next
lesson, we’ll pay more attention to the main charac-
ter in storytelling. We’ll also discuss who can be your
main character, why you must study the target audi-
ence, and what path your character should take.
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