The Importance of Storytelling in Meetings

Research shows that most people make a first impression within 7 seconds.

During my time in sales and partnerships, one key area of focus was how introduced myself and set-up meetings.

Here are my top 3 tips I learned and embedded in my teams:

1. Meeting Prep - the importance of P,B,C

2. Tailor your introduction to your audience- people not facts sell ideas

3. “I know what you’re thinking” stories

1. Meeting Prep (know your PBCs!)

Have you ever been part of a meeting that started with a deck before a discussion? I used to see this all the time and it drove me crazy!

There are two main actions I take before any important meeting. They don't take a lot of time but they generate better results and create more connection and collaboration with clients and teams.

• (1) Do a check in with your meeting audience. This was mostly done by email ahead of the meeting and again right before you start speaking. Things can change -and you don’t want to be missing context. I do this simply with:

Purpose: The purpose of this meeting is _______.

Benefit: The benefit to you is _____ (especially important if it's a client or a senior leader) Check: How does that sound? (yup, that simple)

• (2) Kick off all meetings with a story outline and whiteboard session. No matter if you are part of a collaborative group or the leader, it helps to bring the full crew together ahead of time to align on outcomes before anyone starts to build slides. If you have a very involved senior leader- this is doubly important. I always make sure we’re all agreed on what success looks like before we start the narrative building. Typically, humans can only remember 3-7 things at one time so lists of three heavy data points are my maximum. Finally, if you can start your meeting with a personal story, metaphor or image to activate your listeners- bonus points!

My typical whiteboard:

2. Tailor your introduction to your audience- faith and facts sell ideas

“Hi, I’m Sara - nice to meet you.” Today’s agenda is..

or....

​“Hi, I’m Sara. I’ve spent the last 20 years developing programs and teams in retail. I like to think of myself as a matchmaker. Sometimes digital can be complex but my strength is listening and understanding business needs and pairing them with my knowledge of our best solutions. The goal here is to make this process educational and interesting for you and to ultimately make us all successful.”

You have one chance to make a first impression and putting an extra few minutes into your introduction can have a meaningful impact on the final output for everyone.

I’ve learned that a person selling an idea wastes time extolling benefits if he or she has not first established a strong connection.

This introduction should vary based on your audience but always:

• Build credibility

• Relate back to your audience needs

• Set the tone

Often meetings will have people go around the table and say their name and role. Even if you throw in one extra line about what the purpose of your role could be for this audience- it helps set a better foundation for the discussion.

3. “I know what you’re thinking” stories

When you tell a story that makes people wonder if you are reading their minds, they love it!It isn’t hard to do if you do your audience homework and identify their potential objections upfront. If this doesn’t come easy to you, I recommend adding it to your whiteboard session with your wider team to help predict objections.

Objection handling is a key component to any meeting but if you tackle your anticipated objections upfront and with some levity and imagination, it can really win over an audience.

I can remember one time I was pitching a big holiday campaign for my team. I had received word earlier that week that our group head was fixated on cutting all campaigns in North America. Instead of arguing or giving them an update on our (North American) holiday campaign, I addressed his objection upfront and switched all locations to a new European vision. Rather than falling under the knife, we ended up with more potential budget and scope in Europe. They looked good and we still got to move forward.

I really believe we can get a lot more out of our meetings if we focus on the audience, the output and try a few more of these prep points upfront. Please try them out and let me know what you think!