One of the most effective tools in your business arsenal should be your business story – the why behind what you do. Like the old saying goes, “Facts tell, stories sell.” Even God used many stories in the Bible to get His point across. When you tell your business story it creates a connection with the listener. Once that happens, the know, like and trust factor comes, making it easier to develop a robust business relationship that is beneficial to both parties.
Your story needs to concise and in several different lengths – 2-3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes and 10 minutes. You would use each one for different situations. It is the same story, but the shorter the time you have, the more precise you need to be in the telling. You should always be prepared to tell your story. It should be well practiced and memorized.
An essential element of your story is that it needs to be relatable to your target market. When they hear it, their reaction should be, “They understand me and my problems.” It should also repel those who you don’t want as a client.
The 5 Stages Of Your Business Story
1. Pick A Story From Your Life
The goal of your business story is not to tell everything that has happened in your life. Pick one story (it can span several years) that you feel your target market will relate to. It needs to be a story with ups and downs and has a good ending. Do not tell a story that you are in the middle of, or you find emotionally hard to tell.
2. Strong Starting Place
The worst mistake I see is giving a lot of preamble before getting into the story. Pick a starting point that is strong and self-explanatory. For me my story starts out, “When I was 4 years old my Mom died of cancer.” You can start in a good or bad place in your life, but it has to be at a point where things will get worse which leads to…
3. You Hit Your Low Point
Talk about what happened to bring you to that lowest point. The more dramatic you can make it the better. Describe how you felt and how it has affected your life.
4. You Learn Something That Changes Your Life
Something happens to you that allows your life to move in an upward trajectory. It could be a lesson that changed your mindset, or someone shared what made the difference in their live. It has to be something tangible that the listener can use to change their life.
5. Now You Help Others
Because of what you have learned your life is completely changed and now you help others who are in a similar situation to overcome their problems and to elevate their life to a new level.
Once you have the first draft of your story written it is time to practice it. As you share it with others and get feedback you will see what areas need to be refined and which ones resonate. If you would like to see me tell my story called The Power of Words go to www.RTIPublishingHouse.com and scan down the home page you will see it there.
P.S. Having a solid business story is one of the steps towards writing your Signature book to use as a marketing tool to build your business.