The Secret Weapon That Will Make You and Your Business Stand Out in the War of Ideas

Image credit: David Ryder | REUTERS

Carmine Gallo

Contributor

Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, Communication Coach

A Silicon Valley venture capital investor turned to me during a recent lunch and said, “I’ve seen more than 2,000 pitches, and I can only remember about 10 of them.”

“What made the 10 stand out?” I asked.

“They all told a personal story.”

Professional investors agree: ideas that catch on are wrapped in story. “Show me an MBA and your sales numbers, that’s fine. But tell me a great story about how you got started and your vision, and we’ll talk.” says Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran.

Related: How Storytelling Helps Business Connect With Customers and Drive Growth

Although stories inform, illuminate and inspire, very few entrepreneurs and business professionals are aware of the power of story to persuade. But it gives those who do master the art of storytelling a significant competitive advantage. In today’s increasingly automated world where robots are replacing humans in nearly every task, storytelling is the one skill that will keep you relevant and successful through your career.

“Storytelling is the most underrated skill,” says Ben Horowitz, general partner with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. “The company story is the company strategy. If don't have a clearly articulated story, you don't have a clear and well thought-out strategy. The story must explain at a fundamental level why you exist.”

While conducting the research for my new book, The Storyteller’s Secret, I discovered that many of the world’s most successful business leaders are master storytellers: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Sara Blakely and others. While their stories are very different, they share three common communication habits. 

1. Make stories at least 65 percent of your presentation.
Human rights attorney Bryan Stevenson received TED’s longest standing ovation. In his now famous TED talk, Stevenson told three personal stories to reinforce the theme of injustice in the prison system. Stevenson spoke about his grandmother, meeting Rosa Parks and an event that happened in a courtroom when he was particularly drained -- an incident that gave him the courage to go on.

“Narrative is hugely important in effective communication,” Stevenson told me. He should know. Stevenson argues and wins cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Stevenson believes story is the secret to winning hearts and minds.

Related: The 5 Elements of Storytelling Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know 

2. Introduce heroes and villains.
Tesla CEO and space visionary Elon Musk relies on the components of story to pitch products, notably heroes and villains. When Musk introduced the Tesla Powerwall, a home battery to generate energy from sunlight, he launched the presentation in the form of a problem (villain) and solution (hero).

“This is how it is today,” Musk began as he showed a photo of a power plant spewing pollution into the air. “It’s pretty bad. It sucks. This is real. This is actually how most power is generated, with fossil fuels.”

Musk continued: “The solution is in two parts. Part one, the sun. We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun. You don’t have to do anything. It just works. It shows up every day and produces ridiculous amounts of power.”

A technology blogger covering the event wrote, “Dude’s selling a battery and still manages to be inspiring.” Musk is inspiring because he understands the language that’s hardwired in our DNA: story. 

3. If you’ve faced hardship, share it.
Once you’ve introduced a villain, the hero of your story must wage battle against the adversary. People don’t want to hear about your solution or your success until they know you understand their failures and struggles. Great storytellers are relatable because they share their tales of struggles, failures and hardships.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz often tells the story of growing up in a Brooklyn housing project and watching as his family struggled after his father was injured on the job. They had no health insurance and found it difficult to make ends meet. The story underpins Schultz’s initiatives such as offering health insurance for all employees, including part-time workers.

Don’t pretend you’ve never had to struggle. Embrace your past and the experiences that define you.

There’s a war going on -- a war of ideas. Selling products, building companies and grabbing attention are increasingly difficult in this hyper-competitive global economy. Your story might very well be the secret weapon that you need to stand out.

CEOs share unexpected insights regarding "Ways to connect with customers"

Robert Reiss,

As corporations seek new ways to connect with customers, I set out to uncover insights from some of the top CEOs. Interestingly what emerged are some unexpected answers, like the value of simplicity and the power of the handwritten letter – both of which have elevated in importance in a complex fast-moving digital world.

Specifically, on June 7, 2012 I held a discussion with three CEOs who are leaders in connecting with customers: Bob Evans, CEO, Churchill Downs which hosts the seminal customer event with over 165,000 people — The Kentucky Derby; Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint Nextel who The American Customer Satisfaction cited as the #1 most improved service company in America over the past 4 years in their evaluation of 47 industries; Tom Fricke, CEO, HMSHost, a 115 year old brand with 34,000 employees who serve over 1 million customers a day through the ownership and operation of most major retail and food & beverage at roadsides and in airports. My co-moderator was Ron Frank, who heads up internal strategy at IBM.

How have you changed your business around customers?
Bob Evans, Churchill Downs: “Five years ago or so our business was 100% horse racing from six thoroughbred racetracks, and we had little information about our customers because it was mostly cash-based, live wagering. Now we’ve diversified. We’ve built a regional casino, bricks-and-mortar gaming business and we’ve built an online gaming business. Because of our online growth now virtually every click provides information and we know a lot more about our customers than we ever did. This has helped us do more things directly with our customers and has helped drive our financial success.”

Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel: “In the past four years, we’ve intentionally eliminated 85% of our rate plan combinations or choices. Customers like simplicity and they’ll pay a premium for simplicity. Steve Jobs focused on taking features out of devices and products. We’ve found that strategy works.” 

Tom Fricke, HMSHost: “Virtually everybody in America has gone through an airport and has been a customer of ours even though they may not realize it. We have learned that many people like being at their gate in advance.  So we’ve just created a new app which we’re testing at a few airports called, ‘B4 You Board’, which allows people to pre-order food from restaurants in that particular terminal and have the meal delivered to them at their gate or schedule to pick it up. Our mobile app is just one example of HMSHost’s, and our parent company, Autogrill Group’s, innovative approach to enhancing the travel experience for people on the move.”.”

What’s on your customer dashboard?
Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel: “I have three: churn, meaning customers who leave, the number of calls to customer care, and customer satisfaction surveys.”

Tom Fricke, HMSHost: “I have two: Our monthly mystery shop scores, and capture rate which for us is measuring the percentage of the people walking through a terminal who are actually stopping and engaging with us.

Bob Evans, Churchill Downs:  “Just one: market share. It’s the relevant market for each one of the businesses, so for our casino in Greenville, Mississippi, I care about how we’re doing in that market.”

Anything special you do to connect with customers?
Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel: “Handwritten letters. I know it’s kind of old fashioned, but I think in today’s digital world customers notice and appreciate that we take time to write letters to them. One employee and his team started a letter-writing campaign, thanking customers based upon their longevity. They would do it every Thursday, and it’s now mushroomed, and it’s become “thank you Thursdays” company-wide. Our employees sit down with a list of customers, which includes something about the customers, like how long they have been with Sprint, and they handwrite letters thanking the customers for doing business with Sprint.”

Tom Fricke, HMSHost: “We have a secret shopper program where  we will visit every unit in every airport at least once a month with a secret shopper and we get feedback on such simple things as the person behind the counter looks me in the eye, smiled and said good morning or good afternoon.  All of our efforts are focused on making the traveler’s day better, a goal to which all HMSHost associates aspire with every customer interaction.  Our Five Star Customer Service standard reinforces and measures this commitment to making the traveler’s day better.  We set a target score for the year to track our performance and progress.  As CEO, I review all comment cards, positive or not, and recognize associates whose exceptional performance merits special distinction.  Beyond just the scores, Five Star is designed to focus our associates on friendliness with the guest.”

Bob Evans, Churchill Downs: “What’s important is the broader concept of everyone going above and beyond for our customers. So personally, I try to find seemingly trivial things to do for customers because if the organization sees me doing that, there’s nothing too small for them not to worry about as well. Here’s one example that comes up all the time at Churchill Downs. People don’t know how to get from where they are to where they want to go at our huge property. It’s very large and confusing so I can tell them, or I can take them and I look for opportunities to take them because that reverberates through the whole organization. If I’m willing to take them for the next 15 minutes from here to there, then anybody can do that.”

What characteristics lead to exceptional customer service?

Bob Evans, Churchill Downs: “I love people who are just unwilling to stop until it’s right, whatever that is, they don’t stop until it’s right.”What are some additional insights about service? 

 
Tom Fricke, HMSHost: “A traveler’s most important impression or experience often comes from customer service—that personal contact with our sales and wait personnel.  We strive to make our guests feel not just important but genuinely welcome. With all the move toward and the discussion around social media and the ability for customers to comment immediately on Twitter and Facebook and all the other elements, the most impactful thing that I do is go visit our operations to personally engage with associates, and the second most impactful thing are handwritten notes to highlight and praise excellent customer service in action.”

Bob Evans, Churchill Downs: “I think increasingly products and services are being customized to what the customer wants. Simpler is better than complex but in the end the customer wants what they want. At the Kentucky Derby this year as example, we had 165,000 people over 147 acres. We have a very diversified crowd from the private jets and limos in designer clothes to half dressed in the infield swilling beer and sliding in mudslides. So we design customer experience by location and what specific customers are looking for.”
Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel:“Three thoughts. First, Great customer service actually costs less because you can save expenses if you don’t have to fix problems or correct wrongs. 

Second, the key to great service is employees. We’re focused on empowering all employees to serve customers. I give out a quarterly award we call the “elevator speech” award, which is for non-front line employees, because there’s a 20% chance that anyone our employees meet is a Sprint customer. Third, compensation.  Every person, from me to someone in the mailroom, has their compensation linked to customer satisfaction and simplifying the customer experience.”

So, as I consider the comments from three CEOs who are leaders in the customer experience, it becomes clear that the more complex our world gets, the more value there is in authentic, clear, customer connections. Ron Frank of IBM summarizes, “As organizations become more intelligent, top CEOs are focused on drawing deep insights from customer data making it possible to understand customers and engage with them as individuals.  In parallel, some have leveraged more traditional ways to connect with their customers and the teams that serve them.”