Blog

Scarlett Letter #96: Stories sell. Stories teach.

Next month, I’ll be presenting at KA Connect here in Chicago. My topic: Storytelling—The key to Marketing Knowledge. Stories sell (and teach!) because they are emotional. Emotions sell (and teach!) because they stick in the minds and hearts of others.

From a teaching perspective,there’s actually a book called Teaching with Emotion: A Postmodern Enactment, which among other things, investigates how even the driest or most difficult of subjects can be taught well if delivered with emotion. So if you can’t tell a good story that ultimately hooks unto the emotions of others, then you’re missing out on a fantastic tool for both selling and teaching.

Specifically within the design and construction industry, stories serve as an effective conduit to transfer your marketing/business development wisdom (aka ‘teach’) to your trusted internal colleagues. Chicago-based StudioGC (formerly GCN Architects) has a fantastic technique for sharing their marketing stories. Three times per year, they hold an all-office meeting called TART (Tri-Annual Roundtable). During the marketing segment of this meeting, the firm leaders diagram the story of ‘How we won this client’ on a whiteboard. {Notice I say client, rather than project. Their intention is to win long-term clients, not just one-off projects.}

A+B+C=win. Occasionally firms execute a direct step-by-step process that converts a prospect into a client. (A+P)-G*4x/(NR+WE). But more often than not, the formula varies by client. It might look more complex; intricate. In other words, the steps to win a client are most often non-linear, and involve intensive networking and trust-building that will stand the test of time over the years. So, as you can imagine, it’s a lot of fun for a staff member to finally learn how a particular client was brought into an office—the history; the nuances; and evolution.

Sharing stories in a diagrammatic format is highly appealing to people in the AEC industry. We’re visual, all of us. Even more important, though, is that StudioGC’s methodology for teaching through storytelling has a positive, lasting impact on both the ’students’ (aka staff) and the ‘teachers’ (aka leadership/marketing).

For the ‘student’:
>Intrigues and motivates
>Earns respect—for the leaders and for the clients
>Engages all levels

For the ‘teacher’:
>Gains opportunity to praise and give credit to others.
>Improves presentation skills
>Leads by example

How does your firm transfer marketing and business development knowledge through story-telling? Feel free to share within a post or direct message.

NOTE: Previous Scarlett Letter posts #43-45 speak to additional storytelling techniques, with an emphasis on connecting (and selling!) to clients and prospects:

• Scarlett Letter #43: Behavioral interviewing technique—great application for sales/marketing, Part I
• Scarlett Letter #44: Behavioral interviewing technique—great application for sales/marketing, Part II
• Scarlett Letter #45: Support your claims with memorable stories.

           

Tags: AEC knowledge transfer, Anne Scarlett A/E Marketing, design and construction knowledge transfer, linkedin, Networking, professional services marketing, professional services sales, Scarlett Consulting AEC business development, teaching business development, teaching marketing, teaching sales, team building

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website