What story are you telling your members?

Stories are all the rage in business now…and there’s a reason why.

People don’t buy from organizations they buy from people, and those purchases are driven from relationships.  In the credit union world, you’re selling your brand, your services, and your commitment to help your members be in a better financial position.

But are you selling it with the right stories?  Are you sharing the stories internally so that others hear the stories? Are you asking front line employees for their stories of members and their successes?

If you want to achieve consistent inbound referrals, from a real word of mouth marketing strategy, then you need to identify, craft, and communicate the stories that matter in your organization. 

I’m far from a story expert, but I am a referral expert and I can tell you that for every person that chooses to NOT do business with an organization, they have a story. It’s usually a bad one.  However for every bad or negative story, there is a good one. The problem is, as leaders in organizations, we aren’t sourcing these stories enough, we aren’t crafting the story to make it clear, succinct, and focused, and we aren’t sharing them nearly enough.  We need to be sharing these stories everyday and every hour. These stories should be your go to stories around why people do business with you, why your organization exists, why you are focused on certain markets, and why you excel at certain things.  

If you aren’t sure what the stories are that you need to be sharing, then simply ask your front line employees what conversations they have had with members in the past week.  These answers will lead you down the right path! At the end of that path is your pot of gold full of great stories that you can begin crafting and sharing.

Don’t wait to share the stories until they are crafted well, instead start telling them. They will become more crafted as you share them.  They will find their way to “ease of sharing” which in turn means you will be sharing them much more and so will everyone in your organization!

It’s time to start sharing your story!