Using storytelling to win business awards

Remember when you were a kid and stories would transport you to another world. Just think about reading a story to a three-year old. As you put on your best big bad wolf voice and growl, “I’ll huff, and I’ll puff and I’ll BLOW your house down!”, their eyes grow like saucers and they lean in closer, desperate to find out what happens next. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your business award entries similarly wrapped the judges up in your business story? When writing business award entries, entrants tend to focus on their key sales messages: we are the biggest; we are the smartest; we are the best value. We forget that humans love stories and are most engaged when reading something that takes us on an emotional journey.

How do you engage the judges assessing your business award entry?

Engaging the judges in your business award entries for award success means writing an interesting, compelling story about your business successes and your challenges, too. But how do you engage the judges reading your business award entry? With a narrative arc. A story that has a narrative arc is, put simply, one with a clear beginning, middle and end. That’s something we’re all familiar with. TV shows, movies and books all follow narrative arcs. Importantly, though, something actually has to happen. As readers, we want action, adventure and excitement. And we want the story to end in a different place to where it began.

What should your story include?

To tell your story in your business award entry, your narrative arc should generally include:

• A hook (see the big bad wolf up there?): something that grabs the reader’s attention. This can be an anecdote, a statistic, an observation, something topical, or even something funny.
• A problem (readers find business writing boring): what was the issue or challenge that you experienced? What was the impact for you or your business? Think about ways to phrase this that will create emotional resonance.
• A solution (a narrative arc): what was your solution to the problem? This is where you can include your sales messages, but think about how you can weave them in to your story in a way that creates action, excitement and emotion. Usually, showing is more effective than telling. So instead of saying “We worked on 500 projects across Australia”, let those people become part of your story. You could quote them, survey them, include pictures of them, use them in a case study. Let their qualifications and experience shine through in what they say – it will be much more convincing.
• A resolution (emotionally connected readers). What happened afterwards? What was the result? Did everyone live happily ever after? Ideally, you want to leave the judges feeling positive about you or your company and its achievements and how you overcame business challenges or other adversity to rise up.

Introducing a narrative arc helps you to find the emotion in the story. And that will help you connect with the judges assessing your business award entries. Your story will resonate and the judges will start to respond to your award entry in a more emotional way: “Yes! That was a big problem but they handled it really well”; “Wow, this business is really going places”; “This person deserves to win this award”; “This company seems great, I’d be able to work with them.” Case studies are great examples of narrative arcs in business. Award Writers’ expert award writers can help to tell your story in a compelling way, leaving the judges in no doubt as to why you deserve to win. Winning business awards is good for business. So make the most of your opportunity to win with storytelling tricks. The great news is that with the Award Writers team at Proof Communications writing your award entries, you’ll almost guaranteed to become a finalist. More than 90% of the business award entries we write for clients become finalists. And of these, more than 65% win their business awards. We’ve written hundreds of successful award submissions for clients from engineering, healthcare, law, construction, media and marketing, real estate, IT and professional services – almost every industry you can think of. Some are SMEs; others are national and global companies. But all have an inspiring story to share. Isn’t it time you shared your story as well? Contact us today to discuss your award entry with our professional writing team.