Self-Presentation: How Should You Tell Listeners About Yourself?
communication
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One day, a team that processes artificial stone and creates various products from it came to us with a request for preparation for speeches. The employees often spoke at various conferences for architects, designers and builders about their company. The main purpose of these speeches was to find new customers, at least an opportunity to be remembered in the hangout.
Their story went something like this:
“We have a small team of three people. We are very goal-oriented and customer-oriented, we can increase production for your specific object, we have partners who can help us make extra volumes, we are very flexible” and so on.
All of this was true! But potential clients did not show the necessary activity, did not come to get acquainted and did not want to give their money to the guys after the presentation.
— Why does this happen? How do we get our listeners interested? How can we show them that we are better than our competitors at handling any request? — That was the request the guys came to us with.
— Tell them a story, we replied.
— But we already tell stories about how flexible and customer-oriented we are.
— A story doesn't just unload a set of events, characteristics, and facts. It intrigues the audience, works with attention, so it engages, holds them to the end and is memorable.
We tell stories to friends because it's the most natural structure for sharing experiences. Marketers build communications around heroes and legends you want to follow. But in business communication, at professional conferences and meetups, storytelling is still not often used.
This is understandable: we want to appear professional, we want to be serious, we want to show that we are responsible for our work. And it seems that telling a story will not affect the image of a professional in the eyes of the audience, and a solid “client-oriented” attitude will add weight to us.
In fact, stories can also be told in business communication, they can be used as an illustration, a confirmation of your thesis. Stories unfold in the imagination of the audience, so they work better than words that have nothing concrete behind them.
The core of a story is the emotional arc, the difference between the point at which a challenge, a challenge, a task, a drama appears - and the point of resolution. Sometimes things start out well, and then we get the challenge. In other cases, the hero has a miserable existence, but a daring challenge opens up new horizons for him.
Often in business presentations, the drama zone is reduced, the contrast between the most positive point of the story and the most negative one is smoothed out. It's unclear how to maintain the drama, capture attention and show the adversity that the hero bravely fights against when we just want to talk about the regular tasks of the team. Because of this, stories become a collection of facts. There are no elements in which we experience the story along with the hero in our imagination.
For example, a story about a company with rocks would look like almost a straight line.
Stories that will really engage listeners and keep their attention should look like this:
Stories should have drama, turning points in which the listener empathizes with the character, feels empathy.
Every project the company executes is a story. A story about real practice, in which the team faces different challenges and makes decisions based on its values. It is only necessary to set the accents, remember the dramatic moments and tell it!
One day, the team decided to participate in a solid tender. Their rival was a company that was several times larger, had been on the market for 5 years longer and had already managed to earn an excellent reputation. (highlighting the conflict)
Before the announcement of the tender, the team stayed up all night and to the customer's amazement presented the finished project layout in the morning. At that time, the competitors had just started their working day. (showing determination through a story)
A few days later, it turned out that the terms of the tender had changed — the customer needed twice as many products. Here, the power and scale of the competitor could play a critical role — our team did not have the resources to quickly double the production volume. (first dramatic arc)
The team then thought about what resources could compensate for the lack of production power. The small business maintained close horizontal ties with other local companies; this resource — more of a social resource — seemed naïve to compare to an additional shop floor. But employees still told the story of their attempts to win the bid to partners in chat rooms; they passed it on, until a small production facility in a neighboring town found the challenge enticing. So the team expanded production at the partner's expense and handled the order on time. (showing flexibility, the ability to handle any volume)
But the night before the product show, the irreparable happened: one of the products was damaged by the cleaning specialists. An awkward mop knocked off a corner of the stone reception desk, and the smooth line was interrupted by a terrible chip. (second dramatic arc)
Then the guys did a quick roll call, assembled an emergency team, and drove to the customer's office. Overnight, they were able to fix everything, polish, refine and return the product to its original appearance. The unexpected happens — it adds challenges, but it doesn't stop a professional team from dealing with them. (customer focus and professionalism)
Important: the longer the story, the more dramatic arcs are needed. Each successive arc should be deeper than the previous one — this will keep the audience's attention.
A few months later, we went back to the guys and asked if the story had worked. They were surprised: the conversion from presentations to productive meetings had increased several times. People were coming up to them more often after the presentations, asking for contacts, asking questions.
A clear and interesting story creates an emotional connection between a person and a brand. The listener can endow the brand with human traits. For example, after hearing a story about the company's employees, how they coped with the crisis together, supported a colleague in a difficult situation or solved an innovative problem, the listener sees with his own eyes the values of this team, and not just read out abstract concepts like “supportive team” or “customer focus”. This influences the desire to come to the team, to become part of its history.
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