How do you tell a story?

Today, I attended a sales conference conducted by my current company, and the guest speaker was the Chairman of the consulting firm I had worked with for 3 years at the beginning of my career.  I was thrilled to meet him today and hear him speak, More thrilled than I used to be hearing him while I was still a part of the consulting firm. The audience was engaged, and the talk was applauded!

What makes consultants succeed in what they do? Is it their skill? Is it their knowledge? Is it their experience? The very simple answer is a straight NO! Well yes, consultants are the subject matter experts, consultants are skilled, consultants have experience – but an average young consultant just doesn’t match an experienced industry professional. So  what sets consultants apart, is their excellent ability to communicate, to tell stories, to pull the audience together, and to explain things in the most understandable manner. I learnt this at my first job with the consulting firm I am talking about – the consultant who succeeds isn’t the person who is the most capable or most skilled or most knowledgeable, but the person who communicates the best!

If you are a seller, you need to convince your potential buyer in order to sell your product. This applies to almost anything in life. Many years ago, just after the IIT entrance result had come out, I had asked my dad to buy me a digital portable music player (that it broke in less than a month is a different story). I had to explain my demand, not just with justifiable reasons, but also by giving examples of people I knew who already had such a device. It got tough for me to convince him, but I got it nonetheless as a gift for cracking the exam ;). Nowadays, I apply the same tactics back. Dad asked me to buy a house as an investment, and I was hellbent on making sure that he justifies the demand. The economist-banker’s sense prevailed, and today, 33% of my monthly salary flows out to the loan account the day it arrives in my salary account!

Ability to convince comes with the ability to communicate the right thing, in the simplest of terms, with the most relevant correlations, and a juicy story to weave it all together. Not everyone can convince, else there would have been no bad sales guys, and hence no good sales guys. Leave alone convincing, not everyone can communicate! Of course, had everyone been a great communicator, we wouldn’t have found our not-so beloved Members of Parliament, or our very-much beloved Bollywood movie stars often misquoted in the media.

So long story short, I’ve realised that they way forward for me, is to be more convincing in my discussions. Especially when I am recommending something to someone, or selling my idea! For that, I need to be able to weave a story, I need to be a good story teller!

Have you noted that I haven’t yet made a resolution for 2013? Well, guys, this is it! By the end of this year, I hope to be a better storyteller, a better seller of my ideas, and overall, a better communicator! Oh, and after reading this post, next time we talk, please :( do not argue with me just for the heck of it, even if you believe you can play a part in helping me achieve my resolution! :P

#278 Answer to Question #29 and a few more things…

No, it is not 42.

2009 seemed like a long year… like it would never end. That is also another reason why I did the 30 Qs thingy even before the year ended. It is just not ending!

So it was yet another year filled with travel, however lesser destinations, and even lesser new places. Like 2008, once again I travelled to Chicago USA, and then also managed to squeeze a trip to San Francisco over one of the weekends. The stopover this time was at London, and British Airways was a comfortable flying option to Air India.

Like last year, most of November was spent in sadness, sadness with hope but of an eventual loss. Frankly speaking, I do not even want to go back to the beginning of the year and recapitulate the days. Overall, I did not find any great reason of extreme happiness in 2009. What I have realised is that there are a few things that can keep me happy in any gloomy moment, and those are good food, my motoscooter, and my D-SLR camera.

So a few things happened this year that have and may in the future change the way I perceive the world around me. Many lessons learnt. And this time around, I have resolutions for the coming year, generally I don’t – at least I don’t remember having any for the past 5 years. So where do I begin? As one of the teachers who taught me used to say – “Let us begin to begin with the beginning…”

Rule #1: There is no court of justice to make you feel better
If you think someone has ill-treated you, told you a lie or simply hurt you, stay calm and forget the person. If the person is very close to your heart, ignore such a behaviour from that person, bury the facts deep in the ground or throw in the dustbin. Start fresh.

Rule #2: Do not let people tell a lie to you
Injustice comes packed with everything else that you get in life. People tell lie for various reasons, but mostly it is to save their own skin. What I would do better from now on is stay away from such people! I was very hurt recently when someone told me point blank that I had told a lie, when the fact was the other way round.

Rule #3: Life has to move on
With life, comes death. Some go early, some late. My family has taught me that life must move on no matter what. What matters is how you move ahead, than how you look back and wonder what happened!

Rule #4: Never reach on time
Till date I have been in some of the most embarrassing situations for myself, for reaching places anywhere from 15 minutes to 120 minutes in advance. Add to that the delay at the event or the arrival of the person I am waiting for, and those are the most boring times ever. So, if I go on a date, I would reach 15 minutes late, and if for a meeting (outside work) would reach 5-10 minutes late.

Plan #1: Be disciplined
Most important discipline for me would be eating habits. A strict diet with healthier options is my first resolution for the coming year. Discipline in other habits would also be regulated.

Plan #2: Be gentlemanly
I do not want to give another chance to the few people who pointed fingers at me. In other words, do not try to mix relationships with people. In an organization, all are your colleagues. Outside, everyone is a friend. People including me, often make the mistake of communicating informally in formal settings, or formally in informal settings. The internet has tried its best to bridge the gaps between formal and informal communication, but that itself is one of the biggest problem maker.

Plan #3: Be quiet
If I do not like something, I am not going to express my dislike.

Plan #4: Travel and Blog
I plan to travel to more new places and blog more often in 2010 than I did in 2009. I do not like to say that ‘I did not get time to blog’, because I know, it is not true.

So those are a few boring rules followed by a few boring plans… Next December I want to see those ticked off. Can you help me with those? Well no! They are for me, and I shall accomplish them.

Budday less than a week away, reminds me I am growing old. Hair are grey or gone! It would be number 25. Lets see! Ciao in 2010.