Before television there was radio. Before radio there were books. And before books there were storytellers. No matter what the medium–stone tablets, movies, grocery store tabloids, the internet–the story is central.
A good story stays with people and compels them to share it with others. It’s as true today as it was 2000 years ago–and it’s especially true of success stories. Everyone likes to hear them; everyone likes to have one. Do you see how this aligns perfectly with word-of-mouth marketing, where referrals are based on thousands of individual success stories? You see, every time one networker passes a referral to another, she is telling a story about a need fulfilled successfully or a problem solved effectively.
You can empower your network by writing down success stories about your business so that they won’t be forgotten and they can be told to other people. You also want to encourage your networking partners to swap stories with you so you can each keep the stories on file and use them to help find and refer great business opportunities to each other. 
The key is to capture a truly compelling story–one that practically begs to be shared, one that the people in your network would actually have trouble keeping to themselves. The anatomy of a successful word-of-mouth story about your business is quite simple. It has a captivating beginning, an action-packed middle and a happy ending (and, conveniently, it will in most cases naturally outline for your referral partners what your perfect customer looks like). If you’re expecting other people to act on your story and share it, it must be a compelling story–and must have a positive outcome.
Chances are you have several great success stories about your business but, if not several, I’m sure you have at least one. So to start with, I’d like to challenge you to write down your business’s most compelling success story, ask at least one person on your word-of-mouth marketing team to do the same, and then share your stories with each other.
The more stories you share with other people, the more high-quality referrals you’ll get and the more success stories you’ll generate as you continue to network your business.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Author, Book, Business, Connections, Emotional Intelligence, Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.3 Responses to “Have a Good Story… Share It!”
Leave a Reply
October 5th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Ivan,
As always, you gave wise advice, delivered kindly. Will retweet this as it’s so beneficial.
Your pal,
Susan
October 5th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I couldn’t resist telling you a story about a story. As a loss and grief counselor one of my “success stories” was having a woman write a story about her father who had recently died. Writing his story helped her rewrite her story of grief. And that’s my story!
October 6th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Dear Dr. Misner,
Great concept. A client asked me if I knew a good contact for her to use to remodel her bathroom. Rather than telling her all the wonderful and positive attributes about this guy and his company; I told her a success story about a project the two of us worked on and how happy the homeowner was with the results. At the end she asked me if I would have him call her. Of course, I said yes. I’ll bet he gets the bathroom job, too!
Don’t you think people remember stories better than a bunch of facts, details, and numbers?
Thanks for the great insight, Dr. Misner.
Wishing you Plenty To Live,
Tom Doiron
Atlanta