Enduring professional stories are the stories clients and colleagues remember, long after you leave the room. First, your message sticks in their brains: motivating their actions beyond today. Then, that message catalyzes their professional behavior and mindset tomorrow and in the future. Why? Because your stories stick.
Do you tell enduring professional stories or temporary ones?
Consider that temporary stories change, rather than stick around for long. As a result, a story’s stickiness depends on quarterly marketing and sales objectives. Or, an organization’s key performance indicators for employees. So, each story you tell today has an expiration date. At best, that expiration date is 12 months. However, and more realistically, the story you tell today expires in the next 90 days.
Typically, these stories are the buying and selling stories all of us are used to hearing personally, and perhaps even delivering professionally.
Consequently, temporary stories are tied to our own professional longevity. And, as a result, we are more focused on influencing, persuading and convincing decision makers to do business with us: today. Rather than focusing on retaining these clients in our sincere co-investment in the longevity and sustainability of their businesses.
As a result, temporary stories are composed far differently than enduring professional stories.
- First, the format and content of temporary stories fall short of compelling and engaging decision makers in a shared vision.
- Next, temporary stories lack a robust backbone allowing clients to grow, expand and sustain their organizations.
- Then, temporary stories are our own product-, service- and program-focused, rather than delving into key issues impacting our clients’ businesses viability.
On the other hand, enduring professional stories do not sound like the buying and selling stories in our startup, entrepreneurial and sales pitches.
Improving our storytelling is not a matter of tossing in a handful of keywords known to evoke empathy and emotional connection. Rather, enduring stories are rooted in our own visceral experiences serving our clients, partners and stakeholders. Even when things do not go linearly. Or, when our collective experiences result in a less-than fairy-tale ending.
Consider that these are the enduring professional stories that clients, partners, stakeholders and colleagues really need to hear. In order to make a decision not only to initially do business with us. But also to co-invest in the value that we bring to their tables time after time. Because of our invitation to them to create their own enduring professional stories. Together.
How can I serve your company to create and tell the stories that your stakeholders and customers really need to hear? Take your next steps by contacting me right here.
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset® Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers speaking programs leverage purpose-driven value differentiation through storytelling, to create and retain successful employees and clients. Find out more about Babette’s professional story here. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Her playbook of communication tools and methods, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform. Contact Babette here.
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