Describing business communication as being like a story might seem fanciful. Everyone knows that a book or a film or a TV show has been planned in advance and has a script or story as well as a structure. Can a discussion, a business presentation, or a proposal document be compared to a story?
One thing that is similar is the intended end result. Whether a film, a novel, or a thought-provoking business presentation, they all share the same purpose, which is to engage an audience.
There is no reason why business communication cannot be engaging, interesting, educational, provocative, or even enjoyable in its own way. The question, therefore, is how do businesses engage their audience? How do they enhance their ability to write a thought-provoking or enjoyable presentation or tell a more effective and persuasive business story? More importantly, in terms of the sales process, how does a supplier construct a story that not only engages but also convinces and persuades a customer to buy from them?
Few people, who have worked in business for any length of time, haven’t suffered the experience of sitting through a presentation that didn’t work: One that didn’t communicate anything interesting or one that didn’t add value. This isn’t about superficial likes and dislikes. Something we all share is the ability to recognize when something is done well, and something is done well when it has been thought through and made relevant to the audience that are listening to it or reading it.
To do something well, therefore, requires effort, and the result of putting in effort will be a story that is more engaging, more relevant, more effective, and more persuasive, and one that achieves its business purpose, its Meeting Goal.
There are many different approaches to writing a story. For example, approaches to writing a novel can be classified as parallel (having multiple storylines), linear and chronological, nonlinear and fragmented, and circular. The approaches to writing a speech are often described as categorical, biographical, causal, and comparative.
The question, therefore, is how do people in business take these different approaches on board, and can they be used to enhance a business story, so it is more effective and persuasive, and therefore worth the effort of trying?
Unlike the script, the business story is told, to some extent, on numerous occasions. It is re-enacted as a meeting agenda, a presentation, or a proposal document. Therefore, the story needs to be reshaped or tailored to fit the occasion the supplier will be in front of the customer.
Tailoring the story, however, does not actually make it harder or more complex to write. In fact, the task is made easier and more straightforward because what drives each enaction is the Communication Objective and the Meeting Goal. These set out the key themes that should be referred to, a list of topics to discuss for good reasons, and how they should be positioned at the meeting in respect of the customer.
Therefore, the task of writing a business story is not one of inventing a clever or gripping narrative, but it is about assembling a Story Plan that covers the themes, topics, and specific details that have already been agreed upon. These are the things the supplier needs to talk to the customer about, in a way that will be engaging and logical, that will make sense to the audience, reading or listening to it.
How to Write a Story Plan
To assemble the business story is best described as a sorting process, which requires the supplier to determine the sequence of the topics that will be in the document, agenda, pitch, or presentation they are preparing.
What should determine the Topic Running Order are the priorities from the supplier’s perspective, as to what topics are more important than others and which themes connect the topics together.
For a business story to be effective, the themes that run throughout it must be both joined up and comprehensible. From an audience perspective, this is what makes a business story easier to follow, and if it is not easy to follow, it will neither be engaging nor enjoyable.
Being joined up means there are reasons or a logic for topics to flow in a particular sequence. What informs key reasons is the positioning set out in the Meeting Goal. Remember, positioning means finding a reason to explain the relevance or context of the topic from the customer’s perspective. Therefore, the supplier needs not only to prioritize topics but also to think about the context from the customer’s point of view. What will make most sense to them?
Story Plan Worksheet
The Story Plan Worksheet (Figure 4.1) is a simple layout, in three parts, that helps to structure a business story. The first column contains the Topic Running Order, taken from the Meeting Goal, explained in the previous chapter.
The second column on the right-hand side details the specific content or points that will be covered. The third and final part is Key Messages, where the supplier sets out important messages that they want the customer to hear and to remember.
Figure 4.1 Story plan worksheet template
It is worth remembering when putting together a running order that good stories don’t jump about from topic to topic randomly. In novel writing or script writing terms, this approach is known as a nonlinear or fragmented story, where events or sequences do not happen logically or chronologically. Used to structure a business story, this approach will be extremely confusing to the audience.
Instead, a good business story leads the audience to a new understanding or insight through a series of topics that seem to flow seamlessly from one to the next in a logical way and for understandable reasons.
This does not mean the story cannot have a number of sections, each one covering a different topic. It simply means that the order or sections make sense, and the points that are covered in each section belong together and there is a rationale for the sequence in which they will be covered.
Content List
The Content List should only be completed once the Topic Running Order has been written and agreed. This is a detailed list of points that will be covered under each topic. Point A should be taken from the Topic Running Order, and then the detailed list of points needs to be added underneath.
Just as with the list of topics, the flow of the detailed list of points is just as important. It also needs be logical and flow smoothly. As well as adding the detail, the supplier also needs to start to think about the number of pages or timings (if a presentation) it will take to properly cover each point. Clearly, there will always be constraints, and therefore every Story Plan should be realistic.
Key Messages
Key Messages come from the positioning identified in the Meeting Goal. These messages are the positive and persuasive things the supplier wants the customer to hear and remember (also known as takeaways). The purpose of a key message, from a communication perspective, is to draw attention to and underline positive messages about the supplier, their products, services, and solutions.
The idea that there should be certain qualities the supplier wants the customer to understand about themselves is not a new idea. The problem is that many messages (and qualities) are often stated subliminally. The supplier builds the case for a key message in a document or presentation that in their own mind is clear and obvious. However, it is left to the customer to recognize all the parts and to put them together, to get the message.
One of the golden rules of pitching is to make things as easy as possible for the customer. Therefore, it is impractical and also quite risky to expect a customer to put in a lot of effort to work out what a supplier is trying to communicate. Risky because if hidden subliminally then it is just as likely the customer will come to a completely different conclusion to the one the supplier intended.
It is best practice, therefore, to ensure that key messages are communicated directly to the customer. They can be in the introductory and closing paragraphs of a proposal or the opening and closing statements of a presentation. The important point is to make sure key messages are communicated.
Including key messages in the Story Plan Worksheet serves two purposes. The first is to make sure everyone in the supplier’s pitch team know what they are, and second is to test whether the proposed structure (of topics and content) match the key messages the supplier intended to communicate.
If the structure of the Story Plan does not enable the team to communicate key messages, then either the messages were wrong in the first place, or the Story Plan, as it stands, needs to be adjusted.
Why Using a Previous Presentation Be a Mistake?
There is nothing wrong with reusing content from a previous presentation. However, the structure and content of an old presentation should not be the starting point when creating a new presentation because it is likely to create a lot of extra editing later on.
Previous presentations will have been written and presented to an entirely different customer. They will tell a different story to the one that is needed now for this new potential customer, and the key messages are likely be different too.
Instead, it is much better to work out a Story Plan for each new situation driven by a specific Communication Objective and Meeting Goal, written solely with the new customer in mind. Using previously created content is sensible, but only once the story is clear.
Why a Presentation Structure Should Be Driven by the Story
Structuring a presentation into sections so that it accommodates a list of speakers is also a common mistake, and one that is unlikely to produce the most persuasive presentation. Fundamentally, this approach prioritizes seniority or role over coherence and impact.
Of course, having sections in a story is perfectly fine and there is nothing wrong with having multiple speakers at a presentation either. What is paramount, however, is that the content addresses the issues, gaps, and questions that need to be covered and for the story to flow smoothly from beginning to end, so that it is easy to follow and it asserts the arguments and reasons that are most persuasive.
Starting with a blank sheet of paper can seem daunting. However, it is much better to set out intentions based on detailed thinking than to grab a previous presentation or to structure a presentation based on the speakers who are supposed to be presenting.
Example Story Plan—Changing the Delivery Strategy
This example details the next step in preparing a presentation to a customer that was described in the previous chapter. The supplier has proposed an unworkable solution and now needs to change their entire approach.
The Meeting Goal set out the gaps in the Customer’s Knowledge, the Perceptions to Challenge, the Topics for Discussion (shown in the following section), and the Positioning. The next step in the process is for the supplier to write the Story Plan to deliver the goal they have set themselves.
Topics for Discussion
• Problems with current approach
• The revised project plans
• Benefits of the new plan in terms of risks, resources, and costs
The list of Topics for Discussion sets a clear agenda. Having realized the original approach is flawed, the reasons why it won’t work need to be disclosed. The supplier has come up with an alternative plan which will affect approach, timings, resources, and cost; all of which also need to be discussed in detail.
Reference to the Positioning is also very relevant. The difficulty facing the supplier is that the plan was their suggestion, not the customers. Therefore, this whole situation is an embarrassment to the supplier. However, this new approach is being positioned positively. The new approach offers significant benefits for the customer in almost every respect.
The next step for the supplier’s pitch team is to take the ideas from the Meeting Goal into writing the Story Plan, which sets out their approach in detail.
Topic Running Order
Topic Running Order is the structure of the presentation and the likely titles for each section in the order they will be discussed. The first topic, “What is wrong with the current approach?,” is the starting point of the entire presentation because the supplier has to set the scene for what they are going to go on to explain, that is, the context (Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2 Story plan worksheet: case study 2—implant office support services company
There are a lot of things wrong with the current approach, and these problems will need to be explained. However, the majority of the presentation is much more positive and covers the benefits to the customer if they agree to the new approach now being recommended by the supplier. In fact, bullet points 2 and 3 (“Proposed new approach in detail” and “Key benefits of the new approach”) both allow the supplier to trumpet the positives of their new understanding and how it will benefit the customer.
The last point “Next Steps” has two purposes. The first is exactly as stated, to discuss what happens next. The second purpose is to provide the opportunity for the customer to affirm their support for the new approach, which is crucial to whether the supplier will be allowed to stay in the pitch. If the customer accepts the supplier’s analysis, all well and good. Clearly, if the customer doesn’t, the supplier will likely be thrown out of the pitch altogether.
Summarizing the Story Plan
Writing the Story Plan enables the supplier to test whether it flows logically from start to finish as it moves from topic to topic. It is the logical next step from the Meeting Goal, which means it is easy to see whether the right topics have been covered. It is also possible to verbally explain (to write a narrative similar to what has been written about the previous case study) the thinking and how this Topic Running Order will work. The Story Plan can, therefore, be tested and understood by everyone in the pitch team.
The Meeting Goal and Story Plan are all activities that together create the story that will be articulated through a document, presentation, or pitch, based on the thinking and strategy developed in writing the Communication Objective.
These three steps are the groundwork for mastering the art of persuasion. They are the output of real and deep thinking that is necessary if the content (that will be created or adapted next) is to have the meaning and persuasive qualities the supplier intended.
The next chapter covers six real-world case study examples to show how several organizations have tackled a number of very different but common challenges.
Chapter 6 and the subsequent chapters are all focused on an aspect of delivery: Content, Style and Language, and Delivery itself. These are all focused on how the thinking devised in Steps 1, 2, and 3 are articulated to become dynamic, engaging, and persuasive communication.
Personal Insight
The idea to have a Story Plan that included a detailed content list came about because of the way senior management handled presentations to important customers at the final pitch, or rather mishandled them.
The role of senior management can sometimes be a bit ambiguous at these moments, especially if the pitch team is competent and know exactly what they are doing. The reason the senior management are there at all is because they want to signal how important the customer is. Beyond that they don’t have a role. So, what happened to make it necessary to detail content?
I imagine you might guess. Senior management will kick things off and do a brief introduction. The plan is for them to speak for a few moments before handing over to the rest of the team.
However, that isn’t how it works out. Once they are on their feet in front of the customer, the plan goes out of the window. Emboldened by the moment, and remembering how long they’ve been in the business, they feel now is the time to reminisce, and so the minutes pass.
The idea had been to talk for 25 minutes, or so, to leave time for questions and discussions. By the time senior management have finished nearly 15 minutes have gone, and the brains of the rest of the team are working furiously to think how they are going to handle the rest of the meeting.
This is not that unusual, and is common for management, especially the most senior management, to go off-piste, which is where the content list comes in. By detailing every point that will be covered, it is much easier to brief senior management, to discuss with them what needs to be covered at the meeting, and get their agreement to speak for a short time. Without the detail, it is much harder!
Of course, overrunning isn’t something done only by senior management, so the plan works for everyone.