Corporation: Does Storytelling Method Really Help In Business?

Let us begin with your story then. If I ask you to remember and share something about your life that matters to you the most - what will that be?

And if I ask you why do you still remember that so distinctly, can you respond to that? 

Let us try and understand how most of us tend to remember things.

School/ Education:

Which period was more fun and more productive – the theory part, taking notes, listening to lectures or practical assignments?

Corporate/ Job

Which part stayed in your mind longer - The 8 hour Class room based training on different subjects or experiential learning from your team lead?

Social media

What are you glued to most – lengthy blogs, podcasts or videos?

Your own work

Remember the power point presentation you did a few years back – You do not quite remember the slides exactly however you do remember what you wanted to say to your audience because you had to brain storm the story board first.

An old book

An old movie

A childhood memory

An incident from the past

A friendly chat

Everything - simple and complex subject - that stays in your mind has a specific sequence and specific structure

What content does to us through different medium is stir our minds by talking about history, an experience, something creative or soft selling an idea

There are four layers of communication:

Connect: Your first connect with your audience – through any medium / any channel?

Relate: Does your subject have any relevance to your target audience and their interest?

Build Trust: Did you take enough efforts to build trust?

Influence: If the first three is not done appropriately, there is no way you can influence one’s learning, decisions, business or sales.

The art of storytelling had good measure of all the above and therefore more effective. It helps retention in one’s memory easily.

The blog title was a question and I could have just answered it here. What I opted to do instead is rope you in and deep dive individual parts of your life – Your school, college, job, social life - so that you know how stories can affect you, impact you, change you  and motivate you.

Now imagine this:

If I wrote this blog with the following headings:

What is Story telling?

The Art of Storytelling

Advantages of Storytelling

Key components of Storytelling

Will you be  awake by the end of it?

A meaningful story stays in one's mind. And that is all that matters.

Storytelling in business:

You establish the agenda

You define the pain point

You offer the solution

You give your audience a reason to do business with you because you are telling them their story and your solution is that “happily ever after” for them. 

Regardless of label - an entry level resource to CXO - the story should address their mental caliber to trigger thinking about what you want them to think - You, your company and your solution.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you are struggling with a story board for a pitch deck, investor deck, corporate overview or any content for that "happily ever after" quotient with your client - We will be glad to assist with an outline.

How To Fix Rates As A Freelancer?

This is another frequent ask from the beginners.

I find many struggling with pricing model/ commercial piece of their proposal to bid for assignments. This is an issue with both the kinds -

(A) People who have extensive experience 

(B) Fresh graduates and work at home moms 

The point I will drive today is this, you should be able to do the following appropriately and effectively, regardless of what you charge your buyers

1. Alignment of skills and experience to your quote

2. Set your rate based on what value you bring to the table.

Here is an example for better understanding

Think about a job in a local health spa

After 35 years of corporate experience and career gap of two years if you are hired to provide spa treatment after in house training, will your remuneration be based on your corporate experience/ last drawn salary or based on your limited expertise in spa?

Now think about a project in an online portal that you want to bid for

You have 20 years of sales experience however you have never done a power point presentation from scratch - How fair is it to charge a buyer for a sales pitch deck, based on your sales experience alone? 

Are you not supposed to consider your expertise in content and power point as well while quoting your fee?

You have to acknowledge basic reality first.

1. Are you  still learning the tricks of the trade?

2. Is your experience relevant to the skill you are offering?

It is just a roundabout way of telling the beginners, it does not matter what experience you have, what skills you offer as services or what rates you want to set, you should 

(A) Be good in what you do

(B) Be able to articulate in your proposal what and how your offer is beneficial to your buyer and justify that rate.

In Buyer's Shoes.

Imagine a prospective buyer’s dilemma when he receives multiple quotes for the exact same job/ project/ assignment (say, creating a power point) and the quote ranges from $40 to $450.

Quote 1	Quote 2	Quote 3
$40 Content will be created after thorough research	$190 Content with research included.	$390 $80 Content Writing in story board format (Customized for target audience) – 8 Slides $20 Format and animation $90 Research (Feasibility, Industry and Competition analysis $10 Logo upload /Color schemes $20 Smart Art (Visual Theme) $20 Tagline in Title Slide $80 Talking points for each slide $70 Rationale Document or tips to prepare the presenter for dry run/ go live. Timelines: 7 Days $60 Express Delivery 4 Days
Vague	Buyer has no idea how many slides he will get  What sort of research will be done.	Here a buyer can assess if the rates for each piece of work quoted is exorbitant or reasonable. Here are a few possibilities: The buyer can increase his budget to accommodate your quote and award you the order because he knows he is getting a deck ready for real time presentation the minute he receives it.  The buyer may have limited budget and ask you, if you can drop it to $200 – You sure can as long as he is providing the researched inputs (That is what will take most of your time)  He will ask for samples because he cannot afford you and yet wants to see how your mind works.

Know your worth and when you quote, consider the following:

(A) Is your skill niche or easily available in the market?

(B) The time required to execute an assignment

(C) Inputs / research materials/ support that you need from buyer - the less your dependence on buyer, the more you can charge

(D) The depth of research you need to do

(E) The proportion between doing and thinking - The more thinking required, the higher the quote.

One last tip on justifying the quote -

Never sell the solution (your services) through a price. 

Aim to sell the price through your solution. 

Your solution - the detail inputs you provide in the proposal should be so good that the price will seem reasonable and affordable

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to evaluate your proposal and share neutral perspectives. Know more here