Storytelling for Money | A Vacation Example

Just got back from 10 days in beautiful British Columbia, visiting family in Vancouver and then soaking up the sun in the Okanagan Valley, quickly becoming known as ‘Canada’s Napa Valley.’

As often happens, I ran across an interesting business case to share. This is a really lovely example of storytelling in a business context. You may have noticed, we like to tell a story once in a while here at the Money and Meaning blog. =)

So what does storytelling have to do with your business?

Stories are one of the primary ways human beings make meaning, or sense, out of the world. The better your story is, the more viscerally and true-ly your customers will connect with you, and in connecting with you, enjoy your products and services.

So here’s an excerpt from the first page of the Wine List at Old Vines Patio Restaurant, which is run by the Stewart Family of Quails’ Gate Estate Winery. That’s a photo taken from the table we occupied at right, before the food arrived. Yes, it really is a slice of heaven.

As you read the excerpt, remember that at this point as a diner in the restaurant, you have not yet looked at the wine list, caught any glimpse of prices or difficult-to-pronounce names in foreign languages.

Begin excerpt:

The ‘superb handcrafted wines’ you are about to discover on this list are grown on the vines that you see laid out in front of you, hand crafted here in our winery, and finally aged in our tank and barrel cellars behind these walls.

Over the years at Quails’ Gate we have put aside a small amount of wine that we now uniquely offer from the Old Vines Restaurant Cellar. This selection of our own library wines and wines from other wineries throughout the Valley reflect the bounty this supernatural wine growing region has to offer.

As I shared this excerpt in one of today’s complimetary Money and Meaning telecalls, I asked the business owners present to share what they felt was happening through this use of story. Here are some of the responses:

(1) They are outright asking you to try the wine and enjoy the wine.
(2) They are tooting they’re own horn.
(3) They’re creating an event, or setting a stage for something important, something is happening and you want to be a part of that.
(4) I want to go there or grab a glass of wine right now.
(5) There is a sincere spirit of generosity that I feel from the story.
(6) I can visualize the love for wine they have in this business.

What else do you observe?

As simple as this example is, there’s actually lots to glean from it. For one, it’s pretty evident that without this first page in the menu, the diner’s experience would be altogether different, yes?

Do you think you would respond more positively, wine drinker or no, to a plain menu with just prices and names OR a menu with this story prefacing it?

Stories like this – when genuine and true, that is – are a very real way to increase the meaning your business has for your customers. Not to mention, by cultivating in you the ability to be transparent as a business owner, you foster your own personal growth. But I digress.

How can you be more clearly, evocatively and effectively telling the story of your business? Don’t make it about you, mind you…note how Quails’ Gate nicely turns the focus on the person who will enjoy the wine…even as they tell their story. (Money and Meaning book readers refer to Chapter 20: Where Are You Coming From? or Lessons from a Golf Course for more on this.)

What is your story? If you’re already sort-of telling it, how can you enrichen it? Tell it in a better ‘spot’ in the customer experience? Link it more directly to the buying opportunity you offer?

Compare this now briefly to another tourist attraction I won’t name, also in the Okanagan Valley. My husband Mike and I also enjoyed this place, but not as much. To our surprise, after leaving we learned this farm had recently burned down in a fire only to be rebuilt, and the owners had surmounted many things to bring their family and business to Canada. It was in fact, a powerful story, but alas, nowhere to be found on the premises.

Do you fall into the same category as this latter business? Why might you be hiding your story under a bushel?

—-

I’m not actually a big wine drinker. I worked too long in Japan, I think, and once in a while enjoy a Rye and Ginger as a result.

But I will tell you this (some-would-say) jaded-old marketer ordered an additional glass of wine because I so enjoyed the idea of a glass being poured for me from a hand-picked library behind where I sat, and I delightedly chose to become a bigger part of the Quails’ Gate story.

How many more glasses or bottles or wine do you think they sell because of this story?

How much more business could you do if you paid attention to how you’re telling yours?

What is your story?

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