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You are here: Home / Professional Development / Telling Stories Clients Need to Hear instead of Want to Hear.

Telling Stories Clients Need to Hear instead of Want to Hear.

June 2, 2020 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

stories clients needThe stories clients need to hear are about the stuff they need to know. So we get to where we need to go. Together. One millimeter at a time.

Are you playing it safe, altering your business and use cases, and your HR and design team stories? So you dance around topics which should be emphasized? Soft-selling project attributes which, if otherwise ignored, might come back to haunt stakeholders?

As a result, you continue to underwhelm clients, rather than differentiate yourself, your products, your services, and your relevance. Because your stories, use and business cases continue to sound like everyone else’s safe stories. Comfortable stories, rather than provocative ones.

Your choice. Tell the stories clients need to hear, even if they do not, initially, want to hear these stories. Stories catalyzing clients to think about the same things, only differently. Stories which subtly re-arrange the storage areas in their brains, so they recombine perspectives and mindset. Contact me here to discover and discuss how I can best serve you with my keynotes, breakout sessions and workshops. I tell the stories clients really need to hear. So we get to where we need to go. Together. One millimeter at a time.

When you tell stories clients need to hear, your stories – and you – become memorable.

Alternatively, do you tell all-inclusive stories featuring every – and any – conceivable detail, concept, feature, attribute, idea? So you cannot be accused of missing something that someone, somewhere might possibly want to buy. Consequently, the stories you tell are so jam-packed with unrelated details that clients are overwhelmed by all the noise.  So, they tune-out and turn-off and dismiss your relevance and value.

Telling one-size-fits-all stories sends clients a completely different message than the one you intended. The underlying story you clearly convey is that you are not courageous enough to tell the stories they really need to hear. About the stuff they need to know. Your continuing to play it safe often has unintended consequences. Because clients do not trust the stories you tell. 
When you choose to tell stories clients need to hear, about the stuff they need to know, your story very clearly is about them. Not you.

The stories you tell, including renovating Yesterday’s use- and business-cases for Today and Tomorrow, transform into into real-life stories. Instead of Yesterday’s pretty stories where everything is perfect. Rather, the stories you tell are honest stories about how you and they wrestle with uncomfortable decisions leading to risky yet innovative results. Sometimes, it is the smallest changes we make together that have the greatest impact on getting us to where we need to go. One millimeter at a time, together.

Guess which stories I choose to tell my clients and the audiences I speak with? Stories about making the hard call to listen first and foremost to the voices across the organization, across people and professional disciplines. To get to where we need to go, together. There is a powerful story or two behind why I created my keynote titled: Build Trust. Tell the Stories Employees and Clients really need to Hear.

I’d love to bring that timely and relevant keynote, breakout session, workshop to your next team, organization, or conference table. Presented virtually as well as in-person. Contact me here to discover and discuss how I can best serve you.

Great things do not happen in comfort zones. Let’s get to where we need to go, together. One millimeter at a time. Today, tomorrow, and future-forward.

Contact me here to discover and discuss how I can best serve you. My One Millimeter Mindset™  virtual and in-person keynotes, workshops, coaching and mastermind programs translate across strategic communication and collaboration disconnects between people and professional disciplines. Build trust. Retain employees and clients. Optimize strategic business and human capital value in your organizations. Get everyone to where they need to go. Together. One millimeter at a time.  My playbook of communication tools and methods, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.

Image source: iStock / Getty image.

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Filed Under: Collaboration And Convergence, Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention, Human Capital & Industrial IoT Workforce, Professional Development Tagged With: business analytics, business cases, business growth, business storytelling, cross-functional team leadership, customer experience, employee experience, engineering professionals, HR storytelling, human capital, human resources, One Millimeter Mindset™ programs, practice management, professional development, professional diversity and inclusion, project management, Quality Professionals, use cases, virtual keynote speaker, virtual storyteller

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