by Robert Cook

Everyone appreciates a good story. Great stories get retold again and again. Wouldn’t it be great if your marketing message could be so engaging, that it could be repeated by word of mouth? That can happen by using storytelling techniques in your campaign. 

Storytelling is our earliest form of human communication. Fairy tales, fables, and life’s lessons are valued narratives that can secure a higher level of retention, especially when the context of the story includes the listener. A well-told story invites the listener and allows his acceptance of an alternate reality in the form of fiction that easily parallels his experiences or dreams.

Modern advertising is full of storytelling of all kinds. Some are outrageous, sarcastic, sweet and, when well done, memorable. Think of the insurance commercials on television that have created characters from talking lizards to “Mayhem” jumping up and down on a tree limb until it breaks through the roof. Or financial institutions with rampaging barbarians and cell phones with video game story lines. With so many reality-based programs on television today, some of the best storytelling takes place during the commercial breaks.

Every business has a story to tell. Even though some stories are scripted, they can resonate with a truth often made clearer through fiction. Here are a few tips to consider in telling your story.

• Be real. Be true to the message. It’s okay to embellish, but truth is the better path, even through fiction.  

• Be relevant. Know your listener and make the story as inclusive as possible. Let him see himself in the story.

• Be sincere. Encourage empathy, involve humor and steer a positive course.

• Be efficient. Make the story short and unimposing to maintain interest

• Be visual. Engaging imagery adds substance to the story.

In addition to these simple suggestions, take notice of how other businesses tell their stories. The variety of techniques is endless. But there should be something in your unique story that sheds a light on the creative path your expression should go with. It can be a little scary to put your business “up front” with such a performance, but those that do find the courage have a greater opportunity for successfully connecting with a greater number of customers.

Social media offers many platforms beyond the traditional channels of marketing. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and You Tube are free. Google and American Express are having a contest called “My Business Story”

Small businesses are encouraged to enter a video to tell their big story. The deadline is coming up soon, November 15, so you can enter or just see and hear the stories of others. At least look for some inspiration on how to express your unique business story.

Narrative is a great tool to share your message. An emotional connection is made easier with a story than a bulleted list of facts. Benefits are understood in the context of a story. Whether you choose a low-budget, do-it-yourself approach, or you decide to seek professional partners to plan a campaign, your story belongs to you and your listeners. With today’s competition and economic volatility, a unique value proposition presented with the power of narrative can reach further into the mind of a customer.

And the exceptional stories have the power to engage the customer’s heart. That is where loyalty resides.   

The other day at a networking lunch I sat next to a very interesting man who is developing a fascinating idea into a business. I love business ideas and soon after his “elevator pitch” of an introduction, I began to pepper him with questions. Having worked on hundreds of business plans over the years and having listened to many hundreds more entrepreneurs pitch their businesses, I have become a bit jaundiced to the claims of great riches to be made with the needed investment capital. On top of that, I have helped write several successful business plans that raised the money they intended and were the genesis of successful businesses, only to have things not turn out as rosy as we envisioned. So when I hear what sounds like a great business model I want the details —because, after all, that is where the devil is.

Early on in my conversation with Willy Verbrugghe, I was nodding my head and saying “yeah, sure” to myself as he described his venture. But the more he went on and the more he answered my questions, the more intrigued I became. So intrigued, I scheduled a follow up visit to see his lab and hear more about his project. Early alchemists worked mightily to find the chemical formula for turning lead into gold. While Willy may be on a modern day version of that quest, he just may have found a way to turn something nearly worthless into something very valuable.

While Willy is a native of Belgium and still has a bit of an accent to prove it, he became a US citizen a number of years ago. Educated with several Masters Degrees, he has a successful track record as an executive running both public and private companies and producing returns for his investors along the way. He has been married for 35 years and spends part of his busy schedule spoiling his grandchildren. So Willy comes to this enterprise as a seasoned, experienced executive and when he tells a story that at first sounds too good to be true, you can’t help but listen very closely.

The Idea

Willy and his team of scientists have developed a process for converting rice hulls into silicon. Rice husks turn out to be plentiful and cheap, while silicon in its pure form, is expensive and highly desirable. Nature, in her quest to protect the lowly rice grain, wrapped it in a very hard little shell. To make the shell hard and light she used an abundance of silica from the soil and her process made it very pure. While mankind has been struggling to get rid of rice husks for centuries, Willy and his team discovered a rather simple and inexpensive way to get to the silica and turn it into silicon.

It turns out that rice husks burn much like wood and can be a great source of steam and electricity. The ash that results is about 95% silica and 5% carbon. Willy and his team separate the silica from the carbon with a relatively low temperature process, recycle the carbon as filtration medium, and are left with very pure silica in a liquid suspension. With some additional refining, they get the silica to precipitate out into a fine power. Depending on the application, it is further refined to improve purity, with the most pure form being used in the microchip manufacturing industry.

Currently, microchip manufacturers get their silica by mining it and then using a very high temperature and expensive process to refine it. Willy’s process can produce material of higher purity for a fraction of the cost of the conventional approach. On top of all of that, Willy’s process captures all of the carbon and recycles it with none going into the atmosphere. Didn’t I say it sounded too good to be true?

The Value Proposition

What this means is that he has a process that creates its own energy from an abundant raw material of little value, is environmentally friendly, and produces a high value end product. In fact, the economics are so good that it makes sense to grow rice for the husk and give away the grain. While no one is suggesting that, it means that husk processing plants can be located near rice producing areas that will dispose of the husks, generate energy for the plant and the surrounding area, and provide food at reasonable prices.

Currently, Willy’s company has a sizable 18,000-ton plant in operation in Arkansas (the nation’s leading producer of rice*) and has proven out his process and gotten his patents approved. He is now looking for investors to expand his operation around the world.

I for one am waiting eagerly to see how his company develops and how his “alchemy” pays off for him and the planet.

The current political climate and economic uncertainty has everyone’s nerves absolutely raw. Stories that might otherwise drift quickly into the background have recently risen “above the fold”, and for good reason. The events and how they were consequently handled and communicated to an impatient public speak directly to leadership ability, or lack thereof. We face many challenges as a nation, and as business owners. Wading through big problems and coming out the other side stronger requires good leadership. A key skill of leadership is communication. Here are two poorly handled examples – one Republican, one Democrat – that prove this point. We deserve better from our leaders, both as citizens and as employees.

Herman the Harasser

The news is now reporting something different every day about sexual harassment charges from Herman Cain’s past. Luckily for him, it has distracted the press from further scrutiny of his knowledge regarding foreign policy and Chinese nuclear capability. Unluckily for him and his campaign, however it has alerted current and potential supporters to his lack of ability to deal with the constant pressure and scrutiny of a national Presidential campaign. Now a 4th woman is going on record and accusing Cain of harassment while he was leading the NRA (restaurants, not rifles) in the 1990s. While most can agree that innocence until proven guilty is a staple of our legal system and that there is no place for sexual harassment in the workplace, we should all agree that Cain’s handling of this story has been a disaster. He says he forgets (or is completely unaware of) the incidents during a press conference, and then holds an interview hours later where he describes what he said that caused the accusation. Some of his staunchest supporters may rally to his side and say that he is the victim of a liberal media, but this looks like a classic cover-up. One political reporter said this of politicians’ tactics: “If the truth is worse than what is being reported, they are slow in remembering the facts. When the truth is better than what is being reported, they come clean immediately.” I think that rings true in most political scandals of recent memory (think Anthony Weiner). We deserve better.

Obama vs. Osama

I recently read an account of the late night May 2011 raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound that resulted in the death of one of the most sinister terrorists of our time. That bin Laden received appropriate justice for his actions is not in dispute. How it happened, however, is very much in dispute. If former Navy SEAL Commander Chuck Pfarrer is telling the truth in his new book, which provides a detailed account of the events that took place that fateful evening in May, it speaks volumes about how the White House has blundered what should have been nothing but good news for a tired and weary nation. President Obama went on national television that evening to announce bin Laden’s death and take credit for the raid’s success. By announcing the death of Al Qaeda’s mastermind that evening, however, he gave our very own intelligence and military community no time to act upon the incredibly valuable information they gathered during the raid (i.e. computer hard drives, thumb drives, etc.). In a rush for short-term gain, he may have lost long-term strategic advantage. He also squandered more trust among an already impatient public by communicating a story riddled with discrepancies. By not analyzing multiple accounts and doing a better to discern the truth about the details concerning the raid, it disrespected everyone associated with it and distracted everyone from the underlying accomplishment that it represents. We deserve better.

Three Communication Lessons from Political Blunders

So what can we learn from these two communication blunders?

1. Speak the truth. William Blake said “When I tell any truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.” Any leader should know that eventually the truth will present itself, usually after all other avenues have been exhausted. Communicate bad news or controversial news quickly, tersely, and comprehensively. People will respect, and in most cases, reward you for it.
2. Think long-term. When news or events occur that directly affect the perception your stakeholders have of you or the organization you represent, it is all too easy to react immediately. Acting reactively, however, as opposed to proactively rarely leads to desired results. Take time to consult with those you trust about the best time and method to communicate, and which will have the greatest long-term benefit for all the stakeholders involved. That leads us to the third lesson…
3. Surround yourself with the right people. Access to wise counsel is absolutely critical for any leader. So surrounding yourself with “yes men” or people without expertise, qualifications, or the ability to challenge your thinking is a losing proposition. They may disagree with you, but make sure they have the best interests of your organization at heart.

I hope our political and corporate leaders heed this advice. We’ve seen the alternative and we all deserve better.