The 4 Ingredients to Gaining Buy-In through Stories
Last week I sat in an audience judging seven new business pitches from local entrepreneurs. With some combination of anxiety and excitement, each entrepreneur made their case in less than five minutes, hoping to get the audience to understand and buy in to a concept they’ve spent substantial time developing.
Which entrepreneur got the most votes from the audience? I’m convinced it was the only one who opened the pitch with a story and made the entire presentation follow a narrative arc.
According to research, when you communicate through stories, your audience’s retention increases from around 5-10% to 65-70%.
Having coached countless leaders on their presentation skills and storytelling ability, I’ve found that these four ingredients seem to be most important for gaining buy-in and understanding:
- Start with action. Some form of an incident activates the brain’s hippocampus, which causes the listener to remember, feel and even experience the story. It’s what happens when you’re lost in a great book or movie. The quicker you can get the audience to this place, the faster you’ll have engagement.
- Create a tension-resolution. You further activate the brain by introducing tension, which the brain will want to resolve. You can create tension through a cautionary tale, a problem statement or evidence illustrating the need for change. Then you can resolve that tension through a success story, a solution/remedy statement or evidence illustrating the efficacy of change.
- Clarify the takeaway. Storytelling expert Nancy Duarte calls it a Call to Action and New Bliss. Tell your listeners what you want them to do or change…and then tell them what benefit there is to doing it. Make it quick, like: “Eat your vegetables so that you become healthy and strong.” (Sorry, I’m still parenting a picky eater).
- Be brief. Snapchat and other communication tools continue to compress communication and attention down to short bursts. If you can tell your story or make your presentation in less time, do it. Whatever length you think is acceptable, shorten it further. Don’t risk losing people.
When the worldwide CEO of Dale Carnegie Training first addressed the company’s top leaders, he opened with a story. It was the moment his wife learned that he had been offered the CEO role, which would require their family to relocate from Michigan to New York. With tear-filled eyes and a shaking voice, he explained that his wife didn’t hesitate in responding. She enthusiastically affirmed the importance and honor of the role and ended by declaring, “I’m all in.”
Joe Hart continued in that presentation to describe some of the tensions and opportunities in the Dale Carnegie business. He ended with the benefits and a request for action:
“So I ask, who here is all in?!”
The group erupted into a standing ovation.
Where are you trying to gain understanding and buy-in this week? Could you consider being an even better storyteller?
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