Five Essential Tips for Business Storytelling

Danielle asked me to review a short video she created for prospective coaching clients. It was like a three-minute commercial, meant to help people get a sense of who she was and how she coached.

It began in her office as she told a story about creating her coaching practice after feeling stuck in her career for years. While she talked, video clips played of her cycling, cooking, and laughing with her family. 

She described wanting to help others who also felt stuck in their career and life. As she outlined her coaching approach, video clips showed her working with clients one-on-one and in group workshops. I tapped my toes to the driving music and thought, "This is a solid video. We know who she is and what she does. It's easy to picture the experience of working with her.”

Then Danielle made the mistake that would lose her audience. As the video concluded, she switched back to her personal story. Video clips played of her walking outside and playing with her cat while the voice-over talked about her story. The narrative centered on her and not her audience. It pulled the audience out of visualizing working with her and the momentum was lost.

Storytelling is a dynamic way to connect with employees and customers. But the way you tell one impacts your ability to build ideas, persuade, or even make a sale. Try these five tips when telling stories for business: 

1.    End on your audience.

Telling a story is a great way to get your audience to visualize their own experience. You want them to stay in that mindset. Switching back to yourself pulls them out of that. The way your audience feels at the end of the interaction will influence their action. Don’t interrupt that free mental commercial playing in their head by shifting the focus to yourself. As you wind down, center on them and what you want them to take away.  

2.    Start with your audience.

To end on your audience, you need a good idea of who they are before you start telling a story. Each delivery should be told to that audience. Make them feel as though you are talking directly to them and not sharing a generalized message.

You would tell a story in a business meeting differently than the way you'd tell it to a seven-year-old. The plot points may be the same. But the examples and descriptions you’d use would differ. In the business meeting, you may tell the story from a different perspective or play with the order. It’s the same story, but the experience is tailored to each audience. Get clear with your audience each time you are communicating or telling a story. Think about the outcome and mindset you want for each audience.

3.    Don’t make up stories.

“My stories are boring – I need to make up some.” I hear this complaint frequently and this is the fast track to losing your audience. They won’t trust you if they feel you are making up stories. Unless you are telling a story for a potential future in a visioning or strategy session, you shouldn’t make them up. People want to connect to what is real.

If you feel your stories are boring, dig further into the details. I heard someone tell a fascinating story about asphalt. She described the people who were working on new technology for asphalt. She didn’t let the topic define how interesting it was. She dug into the people behind the advances and uncovered a fascinating story. If you feel your topic or stories are boring, keep digging.

4.    Your story isn’t like hospital rounds

Patients are presented when physicians are making hospital rounds. It’s usually something like “Patient is a 35-year-old woman, suffering from ruptured appendicitis and peritonitis.” Then comes a listing of labs and care provided. Everything is shared in a way that it’s forgotten the moment the team walks out of the room.

If you tell a story that is just a listing of facts and events, your audience won’t remember it when it is over. To make your stories memorable, engage the senses. What specific details can you include? What are the impacts of the story events? How do people feel about them?

People often say they struggle to incorporate emotions or colors into stories at work. We aren’t robots that check all our senses and emotions at the door. Say the words “performance management,” and many people groan and roll their eyes. They describe frustration with the process and how depleted it makes them feel. Our senses and emotions are quite vivid at work. Lean into these details in your story.

5.    Drop the lingo

Business settings have their version of hospital rounds communications when we speak in acronyms or overused terms. You know and dread these phrases like, “at the end of the day, boil the ocean, unprecedented, and to be honest …” They dare the brain to stop paying attention. We use them because they don’t require thinking…often resulting in not being heard by your audience. If you want to be memorable in your communication, replace these terms. Each time you are tempted to use them in your stories, challenge yourself to swap them for an alternative.

Even with the best of intentions, your story may unintentionally pull the audience out of it. Next time you can tell a story, create a draft. Then consider which of these tweaks you can make to help reach your desired outcome for your audience.

Grab the free “Lead with Story” Guide

Great leaders are often great storytellers. They know how to captivate, inform, inspire, and, when called for, entertain their audience. The problem? So often, 6 storytelling mistakes sabotage our ability to tell powerful stories. Learn how to spot and correct these 6 mistakes here.

Click here to learn more about my book, The Perfect Story: How to Tell Stories that Inform, Influence, and Inspire, publishing with HarperCollins in October 2023.