Storytelling: Creating an Emotional Connection

In my last blog I wrote about how brilliant customer service can make you stand out from the clamouring crowd.

This week I'm turning my attention once again to Storytelling as another incredibly powerful way to distinguish your company so you can rise above the noise to be seen and heard.

Since stories are hard-wired into our psyches, using stories to create an emotional connection, will immediately resonate with your customers and your own people as well. Sometimes it's easy to get so caught up in what you're selling that you can forget why you're doing what you do in the first place.

What makes the biggest impact of these two statements?

1. Impact Factory has a diverse workforce.
2. What connects Uganda, Spain, the Czech Republic, America and even the UK? Our brilliant Home Team has a variety of 'accents' all working to make Impact Factory outstanding.

Both are accurate statements; the second one uses basic story elements to grab your attention and stick in your memory.

Stories can by-pass logic by connecting with our feelings and they can also make the logical stuff more accessible.

What we've noticed is that people who come on our courses often think that they have to have some kind of special skills or unique writing talents in order to use Storytelling to enhance their message.

Not true! We work with people's innate storytelling abilities and give them specific tools that will bring their corporate messages to life. These might include:

• The best use of analogies
• Simple ways to create a unique written 'voice'
• A variety of story structures that best suit the message
• How to use connective phrases
• How to build anticipation

And that's just the tip of the metaphorical storytelling iceberg.

So why not have a go at developing your natural expression to soar above the competition.

Check out Impact Factory's Storytelling for Business and Presentation courses.

By Jo Ellen Grzyb, Director, Impact Factory