{"id":11843,"date":"2014-11-12T10:49:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T15:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/business-leaders-storytellers\/"},"modified":"2024-07-15T10:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T14:13:44","slug":"business-leaders-storytellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/blog\/business-leaders-storytellers\/","title":{"rendered":"How Business Leaders Can Become Storytellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their “God made a farmer\u201d Super Bowl ad, Dodge told viewers a story about their brand values: hard work, dedication, reliability. They used words and images that composed a story <\/a>about the all-American farmer paragon to show us what they and their products stood for. This appeals to consumers\u2019 emotions, not logic.<\/p>\n

In fact, few successful Super Bowl spots simply discuss product benefits. Instead, they tell you a story that supports a brand\u2019s values, vision and mission. One of mankind\u2019s oldest habits has become a choice tool of business leaders. Skilled storytelling has always been a way to convey important messages, but only more recently has it been recognized as a critical strategic business tool.<\/p>\n

Storytelling applies to more than marketing and advertising. Leaders can use storytelling within organizations in much the same way Dodge did. A good story can help employees relate to the company\u2019s mission, vision or values and inspire them to support these abstract yet definitive characteristics.<\/p>\n

Storytelling also humanizes brands. From the Aflac duck<\/a> and his many adventures to PEMCO\u2019s gently self-deprecating Northwest Profiles<\/a>, storytelling allows customers to see their insurers as human, relatable and entertaining. People want to do business with people (or water fowl) to which they can relate.<\/p>\n

Writer and producer Golan Ramras spoke on storytelling at the recent ReSource Pro Innovation Advisory Council<\/a> gathering in Berkeley. He emphasized that stories are powerful, build people\u2019s desires and inspire them to act, and he shared crucial dos and don\u2019ts of storytelling in business:<\/p>\n

–    Do make sure the story you tell is positive and has a hero.<\/p>\n

–    Don\u2019t be afraid of metaphors, anecdotes and current events.<\/p>\n

–    Do make challenges and obstacles personal.<\/p>\n

–    Don\u2019t oversell or include too many details about your company.<\/p>\n

–    Do tell a story about results and about your customers.<\/p>\n

–    Don\u2019t lean on cliches and corporate-speak.<\/p>\n

Remember that storytelling is an art\u2014once you have learned the basic rules, feel free to throw them out judiciously.<\/p>\n

Using storytelling as a business tool has become easier, thanks to the ready availability of a variety of media. Leaders can choose exactly the right way to get their messages across: written narratives, video, animation, comics, photo essays, etc. Relating a simple anecdote about a successful sales tactic can be incredibly effective.<\/p>\n

Write the best story to communicate mission, vision and values. Give customers someone to relate to. Use the right medium. Tell more stories about your business. It\u2019s a consummately human way to communicate with customers, clients, employees and partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skilled storytelling has always been a way to convey important messages, but recently its been recognized as a critical strategic business tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"news-category":[],"insurance-segment":[],"services":[],"type-of-content":[38],"resource-type":[],"class_list":["post-11843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","type-of-content-blogs"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 17:50:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13545,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11843\/revisions\/13545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"insurance-segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insurance-segment?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-content?post=11843"},{"taxonomy":"resource-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resourcepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-type?post=11843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}