Once Upon A Time...
Brilliant Blog Boasts Business Bedtime Stories
I've long been a fan of using parables to help probable purchasers identify their needs with those of the people in my story.
 
Lessons and advice presented as stories are more easily understood.  There's no finger-pointing or dire warnings that a prospect need to follow your advice or their business is doomed -- you simply tell them a story about someone who was in a similar situation, and here is how they solved their problem.  It's one of the reasons books like Selling the Wheel, Who Moved My Cheese?, and Zapp! continue to sell well and remain popular long after their publication.
 
A great new site called StoryBlog is bringing the best of short business stories to the web -- perfect for a formal presentation, closing a sale, or a quick idea pitch. 
 
I asked StoryBlog creator, Jon Stande, how came up with the idea for the his new site:

To be honest, it was a water idea -- I came up with it while I was in the shower! I had recent presentation that didn't go so well and I'd been playing it back in my head over and over.
 
One thing that would have improved it would have been some anecdote or story to give some theme to it, so I started to create a word doc with stories one morning before work, got in the shower.... and... it hit me. Ah, I could create this online in the form of a blog! Other people could use it and contribute... how cool.

Cool indeed.  Links to StoryBlog have quickly spread to all the best sites, like [non]billable hour (where I originally learned of it) and InnovationTools. (who beat me to the punch in posting about it.)

I'm looking forward to reading more great stories, like the one recently posted about Complexity vs. Simplicity.  I also hope Jon adds the story that appeared in Good Morning Thinkers earlier this month -- it's one of my favorites on the theme of creative thinking.

The StoryBlog is a great idea, Jon!  I'm sure it will bring many a happy-ending to my future presentations.