The best sales people I know do not talk much about their products’ features and benefits.  Instead they simply tell stories about how their products have helped solve problems.  The rep who can recount SPECIFIC stories about a real life situation wins.   More about how to tell stories at work, later.

HR managers are mostly fact based.  Maybe it is because there are so many policies, rules, plans, etc. to communicate.  If you are in HR, next time you are presenting, look out and see if there are more glazed eyes than you would like to admit.  If there are, chances are you need to figure out how to tell a story to illustrate your messages.

“We can’t do that,” you say.  “We have to be fact based.”

You can tell fact based stories.  Here are some simple first steps:

1.  What is the real life impact of your new policy?  Can you relate a real world story?

2.  Start it off simply…”if you are wondering how this new directive impacts you, let me tell you about someone who had those same thoughts and ….”

3.  Remember that specifity is important in story telling.  The best story teller of our time, Garrison Keillor, does not tell stories about a random lake up north who had characters in the town.  It became Lake Wobegon….we all know this is a fictional lake….but, somehow, it makes it all seem more plausible.  It also makes it easier to listen to. 

 So—when you say something like “this directive will help the company because it will lower our premiums”…instead, say…something like, “if we all work on this together, then Joe, my fictional company employee in the warehouse, will save over $50 per month.  For him and his family, that means one more movie a month with popcorn too.”

Learn how to tell stories at work.  HR managers especially.Â