I come from a protracted line of storytellers. Rising up, household gatherings have been at all times filled with a colourful solid of characters competing for consideration. As a baby, I listened intently and soaked up the teachings discovered over a lifetime from the experiences of my elders.

Tales have at all times performed an integral function in human historical past. Tales possess the ability to affect, to create change in addition to to show and assist others perceive complicated ideas.

Not too long ago, researchers on the London Faculty of Enterprise discovered that individuals solely retain 5 % to 10 % of the knowledge when introduced in a statistical method. Nevertheless, when introduced in story kind, people remembered 65 % to 70 % of what was communicated. As a result of tales assist to create an emotional connection, they play a robust function in influencing the outcomes of our human interactions.

What’s knowledge storytelling?

Knowledge storytelling is the method of making a story from complicated datasets to speak a selected message extra successfully. Slightly than specializing in numbers and statistics, knowledge storytelling permits the communicator to translate these numbers into insights which can be extra simply understood and may then be built-in into higher decision-making.

Miro Kazakoff, an MIT Sloan lecturer who teaches communications and knowledge storytelling as a part of MIT’s Grasp of Enterprise Analytics curriculum, says, “If you’d like individuals to make the suitable selections with knowledge, it’s a must to get of their head in a manner they perceive. All through human historical past, the way in which to try this has been with tales.”

Telling good tales

As with all good tales, growing the plot or setting the stage is a major important ingredient. Start by growing a principle or posing a query. This sometimes begins with fundamental knowledge evaluation to determine an space the place additional investigation could be useful. Getting access to up-to-date and correct knowledge is useful in posing the very best questions, thereby leading to essentially the most correct conclusions.

Knowledge visualizations assist to deliver context to the numbers. By working with numerous sorts of visualizations, comparable to charts, maps and tables, customers can extra successfully discover the info, monitor adjustments and produce useful explanations to traits or adjustments over time.

For example this, simply envision your self working with a number of spreadsheets and making an attempt to extract which means or perception from the 1000’s of numbers contained inside these spreadsheets. It’s not very straightforward for many of us to kind by. Now, think about that very same knowledge displayed in colourful, organized visualizations. Patterns, traits, and correlations start to organically emerge. That’s the ability of information visualization.

How can storytelling enhance agent recruitment?

Whereas there isn’t any doubt that actual property is a individuals enterprise, rising applied sciences are being adopted at a fast tempo. Historically, corporations might depend on mushy abilities comparable to empathy, problem-solving and good communication as a manner of constructing and nurturing long-lasting relationships. Whereas these abilities are nonetheless related, the panorama is evolving, and brokers are on the lookout for extra from their brokerages.

In an effort to remain aggressive, many corporations have began providing extra aggressive fee splits, entry to the most recent tech options in addition to numerous different incentives. Whereas appreciated, brokers are additionally anticipating leaders to know their enterprise wants and to supply an surroundings the place they are often coached and supported to the following stage of their careers.

Approaching agent recruiting conferences geared up with manufacturing knowledge is an effective preliminary begin. Nevertheless, going past historically utilized metrics comparable to annual manufacturing and year-over-year adjustments helps to make interactions extra significant and related. Think about the affect in your interplay with an agent when approaching them with a deep understanding of their struggles, challenges and areas of alternative.

Anthony Lamacchia, broker-owner of Lamacchia Firms, Inc., mentioned, “Creating knowledge factors and monitoring key efficiency indicators is one thing now we have been doing in our enterprise for a number of years. We’re nice at doing that on an organization stage, however we just lately started to do it even higher on an agent-to-agent foundation.” Letting brokers know that you simply’ve executed your homework and that you simply perceive their wants helps them really feel assured when contemplating a brokerage change.

Whereas one doesn’t have to earn a level in knowledge analytics to have interaction in productive data-based conversations, having a working information of the varied knowledge visualization strategies accessible in addition to a fundamental understanding of information interpretation, will go a good distance in constructing confidence and nurturing relationships for a very long time to come back.