Storytelling: Becoming Human
A short series on attention grabbers.
Although this topic was covered briefly in an earlier post, I will attempt to write a little more detail on how to use storytelling as an attention grabber to captivate your audience (investors, potential clients or users) when it comes to a pitch. Everyone loves a humble beginning, the story of Ken Miles in Ford vs Ferrari (sorry for this reference my dear readers, I am a movie lover) comes to mind here. Except, your audience, especially investors, do not have two hours to appreciate and enjoy your presentation. Having said that, it is possible to succinctly story tell and trigger the right emotions to captivate them in your pitch despite the time limit.
Storytelling As A Start
Starting with a story makes you human, it (momentarily) breaks away from the formal setting with the presentation slides on screen, the formal handshakes, and exchanges of business cards. In my opinion, it makes you relatable. While you are supposed to stand out from your competition, you must also let your audience know that you are on their side from their point of view. This does not mean saying “I am on your side!” or the more commonly used “I know how it is like!” during your pitch. I have tried several ways of starting my pitches, and having been cut off multiple times it got me to try storytelling. When I shared how I come to the solution in investment advisory that was inspired by my grandmother’s situation, my clients listened intently. My grandmother’s retirement plan, reflects how they are planning for theirs. What’s worse is that it didn’t work and she needed some financial assistance. It became a conversation between my clients and myself, achieving the purpose of an attention grabber especially for an introduction. Of course, I don’t expect you to use your grandmother (or mine) for a beginning.
What’s Your Objective?
Beyond attention grabbing, a story in a pitch can affect emotions and when I put more focused on different parts of the story, it triggered different emotions. When I put focus on my grandmother’s house that required more money for maintenance and repairs, my clients’ concerns zoomed in on their home’s condition especially after the loan is paid up. (which is 15~30 years down the road). When I put emphasis on income vs output, clients’ asked about my grandmother’s expenses and how it would reflect on their own plans. After telling the story over and over, I subconsciously started telling the story in a way that was in line with what my clients’ needed. Then, I actively looked into the story and crafted it to be part of my storytelling with the objective of creating empathy towards the situation she was in.
The Lesson
After prepping your objective, start writing down your story in the tone you want it to be. It can be empathy, it can be sad, it can be sad then ends on a happier note. Then comes with the “lesson”. The lesson here is more like a key takeaway rather than a “lesson” per se. The key takeaway I always highlighted at the end of my story is the assumption that what was saved up does not need additional growth no longer works in today’s needs and requirement. Your story can be based on the key takeaways if you are ever stuck with how to tell your story. Key takeaways can always transition into your following points rather than that’s the end of my story and moving on with your presentation.
How Long Should It Be?
I always kept it between 1min45seconds to 2mins30seconds because I don’t want it to cloud the entire presentation. It is a risk of getting carried away with the story because you get invested, audience get roped in and asked questions about the story. So what I would highlight is to be wary of this and keep yourself from getting carried away or else you would have wasted half the time talking about the story and left with quarter of the time for your solution and another quarter for Q&A.
If you are ever starting with a story, have a key takeaway and base the story around that, know what objectives you want to achieve (trigger emotions, connecting with the audience) and keep it short and clear without too much deviation. If you would like to know more subscribe as I share more on my take of what a pitch could be.