by Michelle Mazur, Ph.D.
Storytelling is all the rage and for good reason.
Stories are persuasive.
If you have ever lost 2-hours because you sat down for “just a minute” to watch a movie or stayed up until the wee hours of the night because you couldn’t put down a book, you’ve experienced first-hand the power of a good story.
Human beings are hardwired for stories. Research in neuroscience reveals that a story with a great hook make us want to know what happens next. When you hear a story, your brain immediately starts relating the story to your experience.
Story invades our brain like an alien creature my 7th grade boyfriend would have known about.
Your business could tell many stories, but there is one story that your business needs in its back pocket at all times. One story that you can use in sales conversations, on sales pages, during networking events, or at speaking engagements.
This story proves why people should do business with you, and the best part is you don’t even have to talk about yourself.
There is one story that your business needs to be telling and retelling.
The Stunning Results Story
The stunning results story focuses on the results that your clients get by working with you. The key is to focus on the struggle before they started working with you, and the transformation that occurred because of working with you.
Let’s find your business’s stunning results story.
Step 1: Think of your favorite clients
I know you shouldn’t have favorite clients, but let’s face it: everyone does. These are the clients who you work your very best with. When the phone ring, and it’s them on the other end, your face lights up.
Those are the clients you should focus your stunning results story around not just because they get the biggest transformation, but because they also bring out your best.
Step 2: What was their struggle? (Get to the emotion)
When your favorite client came to you, what were they struggling with? What was their biggest challenge?
Don’t just tell their struggle – make people feel their struggle.
- Was money so tight that they hadn’t slept more than 8 hours in the past week?
- Did they go the doctor and were told “if you don’t change, you could die?”
- Were they frustrated and spinning their wheels because despite all of their marketing they weren’t getting sales?
The struggle highlights the problem, but the emotion is what people relate too.
Step 3: Paint the after picture with the emotional turnaround
After your awesome client finished working with you, what did their life look like?
Did they….
- Got the best night of sleep ever because their mind wasn’t racing.
- Be in the best shape of their life
- Have so many clients that they had to start a waiting list
More importantly, how did that result make them feel? Relief, secure, happy, healthy, free, confident or any other emotion that your client can dream up.
If you need help crafting your Stunning Results Stories, go back to the source. Talk to your favorite clients about working with you. The results they share just might surprise you.
Then take these stories and start telling them in your business today. Stories are a powerful way to get your ideal customers to engage in your business.
Michelle Mazur, Ph.D. is the CEO of Communication RebelTM, a boutique communication consultancy specializing in the content development of presentations. To steal a lyric from a terrible Bryan Adams song, she firmly believes “Everything you do. You do it for the audience.” Armed with a Ph.D. in Communication, she has helped hundreds of business leaders and entrepreneurs design and deliver presentations from the audience’s point of view. Her speakers have spoken in front of world leaders, First Ladies, and have raised three times the amount of money than expected for charities.
She believes every presentation should leave a lasting impression and the last words of your presentation are the most important real estate in your speech.
She is also author of the Amazon best-selling book, Speak Up for Your Business: Presentation Secrets for Entrepreneurs Ready to Tell, Sell, and Compel and 3 Word Rebellion.
Michelle lives in Seattle with her adoring husband, 2 obsessive felines, and huge collection of Duran Duran memorabilia. You don’t have to fly to Seattle to hang out with Michelle. Come visit her on the blog for all things public speaking, hit her up twitter @drmichellemazur.
