Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

Working for clients always bring with itself a plethora of challenges and learnings. While we work  proactively to create opportunities from within the air, it becomes absolute necessity to weave the  right story together, so that the client can not only understand your viewpoint but also get aligned  with the same. We spend a lot of time on creating Innovation opportunities for our clients, we try to  create the opportunities which are not even asked by the client at the first place. So, when we  present them some novel idea on how to redefine or reinvent the solutions to their unsaid problem  statements, we need come up with the right storytelling, as to let them know why, how and what  part of it. If storytelling becomes weak, you lose the battle on the first day itself. With the help of  rightly articulated stories, you can overcome the challenge of attracting and convincing your clients.  Just imagine a poor storyteller presenting his case, despite the case being strong, the weakness of  storytelling can defeat the entire purpose. Selecting right set of words, tying all the bit and pieces  together, putting them at the right place, keeping your story short, crisp and concise, can help do  wonders for your case presentation.

Application

I have been using right storytelling with all the right ingredients and has seen these doing wonders  for my clients. I have used storytelling wisely to put all my research, thought process, proposal at the  right place, explaining client about what they will lose if they don’t adopt to the proposal, because  the proposal is backed by a lot of market research, technology trends, competitor analysis. When  client saw at all these important parameters, he started thinking over our proposal. With all the right  ingredients and their placement was able to strike the right chord with the client. Because the story  when put together with all relevant details and logical flow, will certainly help envisage the problem  or proposal to the client.  The right storytelling tool was able to penetrate deeper into the minds of  the client and they realised what they were lacking.

Insight

With the help of storytelling, which convinced the client, helped not only win accolades but also was  able to change perception of the customer. Insights that we were able to get were many, including  few like, no matter how difficult it looks in the beginning of any proposal submission, but with the  right storytelling there always are chances to strike right. The client may be a hard nut to crack, but if  your storytelling is backed with the market data, and research with all loose ends tied together  properly you always have chance to make inroads. If the storytelling is not proper, which may  happen in most of the cases, you may not only lose the ground but also the trust. Insightful sessions  before and after a proposal submission is always desirable and can help put forward rightly the  thought process. Storytelling is an art and not everyone has an expertise to do that, so it’s advisable  to use the most sought resources.

Approach

With the same tool, I might use it differently for various reasons and in various ways. Needless to  say, storytelling is a client subjective thing. If the client is not responding in one way, we may have to  resort to a different way, may be with the same information, but used differently and placed at  different places. I will possibly change the way the data is organized and oriented, so that the view  on the same information changes and it can give a fresh view on the same information.  Alternatively, I may also want to change the entire information. For ex, if earlier I was using the  speed of the train as one of the parameter, this time, I may want to change the parameter itself to  the fuel efficiency and safety of the train. This will all depend upon the priorities of the client, and  accordingly I may devise my next course of action. At place I would want to change the information  is sourced from different places, which eventually gets tied up in the story. This will help me look at  the new information with entirely new piece of information source. There can be several other ways  to alter my approach on this, which will largely depend upon the kind of the requirement I have.

