When most people think of storytelling, they think of children listening to fairy tales before bedtime, or of teenagers swapping scary stories around a campfire. There isn't anything about storytelling that relates to business ... or is there?

Think about great storytellers you've encountered in the past. They engaged the audience with compelling and persuasive narration. They held your attention, enabled you to suspend your disbelief, and made you to immerse yourself in the tales they spun.

Now, think about those talents applied to business: salespeople making pitches, writers drafting ad copy, graphic artists designing storyboards, keynote speakers delivering speeches, CEOs influencing decisions. These are just a few examples of positions that call for the ability to motivate people to take a particular action. Suddenly, it all makes sense why storytelling is a valuable tool, making it a vital skill companies look for in employees.

Storytelling in business

In today's digital age, content has become readily accessible in different media across multiple platforms, giving people many options on what they want to consume. As a result, they can afford to be discerning. They don't want to be just advertised at; what they want is meaningful content. It's for this reason why storytelling is more important than ever. The competition for attention is tough, so companies need to not only attract attention, but to sustain it.

Let's say your company creates enterprise software solutions, one of which is an app that facilitates remote meetings. During a presentation, you can introduce the app and talk about what it can do. However, chances are high that your audience will lose interest halfway through Apps are a dime a dozen, and yours is no different.

To stand out among the competition, you need to tell a story. You can start with an anecdote, perhaps about a single father who missed an important meeting because he had to take care of his child at home when the baby sitter cancelled at the last minute. But thanks to your app, he'll never have to choose between his career and his child, and yes, he can have it all.

Why is Storytelling so Compelling?

This approach works because it presents an experience your target audience shares, and it also evokes an emotional response which tends to leave a bigger impact. The point of storytelling is not just to inform, but to move people.

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help companies achieve so much, provided it is wielded right. It turns casually interested people into full-blown leads. It can turn the mundane into motivating.

Storytelling as a skill

Though being a great storyteller is part talent, it's also part skill, which means it's something your employees can learn from formal training then develop through regular practice. The training can give them a good head start, especially if you enroll them in of Infotec's many courses, Storytelling in Business: How to Motivate, Inform, and Inspire.

We'll teach your employees how to capture their audience's attention with storytelling, make their next presentations memorable with anecdotes, and use stories to motivate and inspire their audience to action. Part of the course is practical application, so they'll have opportunities to demonstrate their newfound skills throughout its duration.

For more information about Infotec or any of our programs click here: http://www.infotectraining.com/ or https://ops.infotecpro.com/course_schedule/course_schedule.cfm.