Mastering the art of financial storytelling

By Lee Rossini and Linda Graham

Stories make the world go around. A personal story is a narrative relating to one’s life or personal experiences that is usually told in the first person and is another form of promoting yourself and your business. Whether you’re marketing a leading financial brand to a national audience or merely trying to persuade a client that they need more offshore exposure, your task will be a whole lot easier if you can master the art of financial storytelling.  Fortunately, it’s not rocket science. Read on for the how ...

Contrary to what you – as a financial services professional – may think, most people are moved by stories, not numbers. An excellent financial story provides context to the facts and figures and allows clients – even financially savvy, high-net worth ones – to connect with a brand, product or strategy on a powerful, emotional level.

Mastering the art of financial storytelling starts with learning how to tell your own story.

• Love your story – You’re not going to win over many clients if you aren’t passionate about your own financial story. Don’t be afraid to embrace the ups and downs – every good story has a few twists.
• Make it personal – Don’t be shy to share your beliefs, your family and even hobbies. All of this will make you more human and likable – and your story more memorable and shareable.
• Keep the end in sight – Every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end.  But you should never lose sight of your own story’s affirming and inspirational conclusion while telling it.
• Put some meat on the bone – Nobody likes a longwinded braggart, but a story needs a bit of context for it to be memorable.  Where does your story take place? What was going on around you? And how did you feel at key moments in your story?

Everyone has a meaningful financial story to tell. However, it does require a bit of work to tell a compelling story that keeps your audience (whether one or more) on the edge of their seat, waiting for more. Here are a few valuable tips to use when crafting your own story: 

• Keep the focus on your audience, why would it be useful to hear your story, in other words, how does your story connect with your client’s story? 
• Stick with a single message rather than trying to include numerous messages. 
• Structure your story by taking your audience on a journey. 
• Focus on the characters and human aspects of your story and stick to the facts. 
• An audience will sniff out a lack of authenticity immediately and this will damage your credibility.

Once you have mastered telling your own story, you can start working on your brand’s story – using the same pointers. And, once you’ve got that waxed, you begin adding anecdotes to your repertoire that prove different investment points.

A winning financial team will always include number-crunching statisticians, but it also needs wordsmiths, linguists and storytellers. A good story can be the difference between success and failure as it enables clients to connect with complicated concepts simply and emotionally. What’s more, a story makes ideas memorable (and shareable) and helps to establish trust.

 

Source:  Linda Graham

Linda heads up the FinCommunications team of left-brained finance folks and right-brained creatives who would love to help you tell your financial story. Go to fincommunications.com for more information.