Stories make the world go around. 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 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 likeable – 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?

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

We’ll discuss telling anecdotes in more detail next month, but in the meantime, you may want to look at these 5 Simple Stories for Financial Professionals – and give some thought to how they could be adapted to a South African context.

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.

FinCommunications’ team of left-brained finance folks and right-brained creatives would love to help you tell your financial story.