4 Stories About Your Business You Must Share

by Shawn Karol Sandy, on Aug 10, 2014 7:23:24 AM

When was the last time you heard a great story? Did you throw your head back and laugh? Wipe a little tear from your eye? Remember when you had that similar experience?

Stories are the heart of how we communicate. Movies, TV shows, books, songs—we love to relate to each other through shared experiences.

Even in business, you need to share your stories to relate and compel people to work with you, work for you, buy from you, promote you and refer you.

Here are 4 Stories You Need to Nail Down for Your Business

Next week, we’ll share how to build your stories. These can be shared stories told through different voices or shared values related by personal experiences. Build your stories so your employees and customers can champion your business values with their own voices.

1. The story of your company

The short version and the more elaborate version, this relates what problems you solve, the results you deliver and for whom you do this and lastly—how you do it differently. We call it your your selling messages, the foundation for every selling and promotional effort you put out.

2. A personal story

People want to hear what fuel ignited your fire to start/buy/grow/change your business.

This story is about connecting your audience to the revelation or the “A HA!” moment that brought you to this day.

I had that “A-HA!” moment while listening to a client describe where they were struggling. They danced around every thing but selling as their problem. “I haven’t figured out the right marketing formula, where to advertise, or what’s going to get people’s attention to find our business.” It became clear to me that my target audience was 2^nd stage businesses that had a selling problem. They needed a growth agency to build their revenue engines that drive business.

3. The hero story

When you relate the story of your company, people understand what you do but up to a point. When you wrap context around it, your audience can then put themselves in those shoes and really connect to how you can drive results for them. For your business,

Collect several hero stories, focusing on different problems and how you uniquely solved them.

4. The vision

Often one that businesses never share with their customers or audience is their vision. Your company is here but where are you going? How are you growing? Who are you going to help? Employ? What communities are you thinking of expanding in to?

Sharing in the future—being transparent with your audience—engages them in your journey and can be a very compelling moment to win new stakeholders for your business.