The Three Circles of Storytelling
A story’s success relies on three perspectives—three lenses through which its component parts must be viewed:
- What to Say: Choose the right words
- How to Say it: What media and skills will you use to deliver your message?
- Why They’ll Buy it: Understand who will want to consume your message and why. “Buying” doesn’t have to refer to a financial transaction. Will they “buy” your ideas? Will they “buy” you as a credible leader?
In the center of the three circles lies transformation—the goal of any story. Smart storytellers begin with a clear idea of How do I want my reader/viewer/audience to think, feel, or act differently after they’ve consumed my message? Without that clarity, books and speakers ramble on about a “topic,” connecting everything to everything else in an endless, expanding spiral. There must be a meaning hidden in here somewhere. If I keep blah-blah-blah-ing, surely we’ll find it. The more engaging the delivery, the harder it is to figure out what that “something” is that’s missing. It almost always turns out to be a clear and relevant transformation.
The Three Circles of Storytelling
Envision three overlapping circles of influence where some attributes are shared by more than one circle. For example, “style” and “humor” are attributes of both What to Say and How to Say it. Stating the “benefits” requires knowing What to Say and it also requires us to understand Why They’ll Buy it.
Moving clockwise around the diagram from the upper left:
What to Say
involves crafting the message. A story depicts an authentic human journey from conflict to transformation. Information without transformation is not storytelling. To achieve transformation, we must establish an authentic conflict to overcome or circumvent. We must write about people. Otherwise our listener won’t find a human experience to identify with. We must write clearly and correctly with proper grammar and syntax (and this also impacts our credibility—Why They’ll Buy it.) We must choose words that connect and avoid words that deflect, words that engage and don’t enrage.
How to Say it
overlaps with What to Say in that we should use YOU-focused language, and rely on our individual style and use appropriate humor.
How to Say it
brings our words into the world. How can we get our message out? Should we publish an article or a blog or a book? Speak on stage? Record a podcast? Post on social media? Create a PowerPoint presentation? And what about performance—whether that means choosing Garamond as our book’s typeface or speaking dynamically on the platform?
How to Say it
overlaps with Why They’ll Buy it with respect to the quality of our work. If our book cover looks amateur, our video looks hacked together, or our spoken performance is less than engaging, the audience won’t “buy” our message—even if we’ve chosen the right words.
Why They’ll Buy it
includes how we’ll market our message. Have we thought about who has the problem our story offers a solution to? Who needs the transformation we deliver? Is our offer relevant to them? Have we thought about how we’ll build trust and rapport with this audience?
Maybe we need to tailor our story to suit a particular type of “buyer?” Everyone needs storytelling, but I market different programs—through different stories—to 1) sales teams, 2) customer service professionals, and 3) speakers because each facilitates a different journey from conflict to transformation for a different group of downstream storytellers: 1) a prospective customer, 2) an existing customer, or 3) an audience in a conference hall. Each group hopes to achieve a different transformation: 1) win the customer’s business, 2) keep the customer’s business, or 3) change the hearts, minds, and fortunes of those in the audience.
Continuing back around the circle, knowing Why They’ll Buy it exerts influence on What to Say. We must know the value proposition—the benefits our story delivers—and who we want to deliver those benefits to if we are to choose our words effectively. Teaching people that every story begins with a conflict is academic. Addressing a sales person’s conflict—their need to establish rapport with a new prospect—is relevant storytelling that requires particular word choices. Those word choices are different from those we’d use to address a speaker’s need to capture an audience’s attention with a punchy opening line.
One more note on Why They’ll Buy it: Because we’re all bombarded with tacky marketing messages, an enlightened approach to sales considers the transaction—the exchange of money or value or time or attention—to be the result of but not part of the sales process. The transaction happens after the sale is successful—after the seller has inspired the consumer to say “I’ll buy it!”
The Three Circles of Storytelling
are imprecise and imperfect. Your own storytelling style may incorporate elements that aren’t included in the infographic above. You might eliminate some elements, place them in different categories, or wonder if “style” or “humor” shouldn’t be shared by all three circles. Nevertheless, when crafting your story, mapping out What to Say, How to Say it, and Why They’ll Buy it before you start brain-dumping will increase your chances of delivering transformation to those you aspire to serve.
Excellent breakdown Dave! Your overriding message is that the story being told has to address the wants and needs of the target audience or it won’t be successful. Too many “storytellers” deliver a message for their reasons rather than what the audience wants to hear.