Why Every Business Transaction is a Story
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What does the world of storytelling have to do with business transactions? On the surface it would seem very little, for one is focused largely on the imagination, while the other is focused on the practical. Yet the truth is that the two are inextricably linked.
I’ve written before how I believe that phrases such as Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) are misnomers, for when it comes down to it every business transaction we have is between people. All business is driven by people, and every transaction is person-to-person (P2P) at some level.
We, by nature, communicate via stories. We remember stories more than dry facts, we have an inbuilt interest in other people and how, and why they do things. And understanding how and why our customers do things is an essential part of any business transaction. All business communication, be it in sales, marketing, technical publications, white papers, reports, even simple emails, is simply different forms of telling stories.
It turns out that the relationship between a business transaction and the structure of storytelling can be directly mapped from one to the other.
I recently came across a piece by Marvel Comics senior editor, Tom Brevoort in which he laid out his Four-Cs of storytelling:
“A Character has a Conflict, makes a Choice and deals with the Consequences.”
Which got me thinking how would that framework apply to a typical business transaction? And the answer was that it was a direct match.
The Four Cs of storytelling apply to a business transaction too:
A Character - Our customer.
has a Conflict - They have a problem to solve
makes a Choice - they decide to purchase our products (or not)
and deals with the Consequences - we either solve their problem, or they look for alternatives.
By thinking of our transactions from a storytelling perspective we gain a greater understanding of our customers and their needs, and as a result can deliver a more engaging and successful experience.
Alan
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Weekly Thought
Planning for the future is not about chasing the current hot gadget or technology; the future is about recognizing change. Look outside your industry and your area of expertise to see what is happening elsewhere, and learn from it.
Content Discovery Workshops - Now taking bookings for Q3/24
THE CONTENT POOL is offering a special discount on our two-day Content Discovery Workshops for newsletter subscribers and readers.
We are now taking bookings for Q3/24, and we wanted to make sure that as a newsletter reader you got an early opportunity to lock-in a date.
As a reminder during these on-site in-person workshops workshop we will:
Develop your content vision
Identify opportunities to leverage your content in new ways
Map out the path to transform your enterprise content.
It will be followed by two deliverables:
Key observations document
High-level content transformation plan
A quick overview of the standard workshop format can be found at https://the-content-pool.com/workshops/
If you would like more details, or you like to discuss reserving a date for yourself and your team to benefit from a Content Discovery workshop, just email us at info@4jsgroup.com
In The Bookstore
If you enjoy the contents of this newsletter and would like more, we have three books always available from XML Press.
You can also check out The Content Pool website or follow us on FaceBook or on Twitter/X at @TheContentPool
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Till next time - have fun paddling in The Content Pool.
Alan J. Porter
The Content Pool™ is a division of the 4Js Group LLC