How story telling can propel you and your business

Do you want to have more customers, opt-ins on your website and clicks on your “Buy Now” button? Do what Hollywood does and use stories to sell your products and services.

Presentations using story telling

At some point, you've probably gone to a meeting featuring a PowerPoint presentation with charts and graphs . . . and wanted to poke your eyes out with a pencil. The reason: Stories, not data, are what inspire people. Stories, not bullet points, create customer loyalty, build social media platforms and increase sales. Stories create an emotional bond between your business and your customers.

Today's technology helps us tell those stories in the many different ways it's given us to offer our message to millions of potential customers -- instantly.

Yet, many businesses are losing customers because their methods of reaching them are outdated. Want to get people to buy your product? Then get them to listen. Here are three essential stories you need on your website to do just that:

Your customer’s story

Your credibility story goes this way ..... X came to you with a huge mess (describe it).

• Customer X took advantage of your products or services.

• Now, Customer X's life is so much better! He or she can now walk, breathe, save money, and perform like a superstar!

Business is personal. It's about stories. It's about authentic stories. So, go out there and tell yours.

Better yet: Record your customers telling this story.

Your business story

Every business also has a "mess-to-success" story. Take Microsoft, for example: “We started with our office in a garage, and now we sell ‘office.’” Isn’t there someone else who started in a garage? Oh yeah, Apple.

Airbnb, meanwhile never tires of telling its story of how its founders went from sleeping on air mattresses at friends' apartments to creating a billion-dollar business providing sleeping accommodations for travellers worldwide.

Your business didn’t launch and become an immediate success, right? While you may not have started in a garage, you still have a story. Why, the history of how your business achieved its goals is the greatest story ever told . . . or something close to that. So, identify your business' story, add it to your bio (your “About Us” page) and share it with your customers.

Your personal 'heart' story

Being a business owner isn’t what identifies you as a big deal. What will is your personal mess-to-success story. If you examine your history, you will probably find that the reason you created your business is because you were in some kind of mess. But then you turned that into a MESS-age. Its a positive story that will bring you credibility and earn you a loyal following.

So do what Hollywood does -- use stories to sell your products and services. The Business Minder is a business consultant and management service operating in SE Asia with clients in Bali Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.