Learn how to use digital storytelling to pitch better, sell faster and win more business.

"Every great leader is a great story teller," says Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner.

Storytelling relates to every industry and business today. All successful stories have five basic components: the PASSION with which the story is told, a HERO who leads us through the story and allows us to see it through his or her eyes, an ANTAGONIST or obstacle that the hero must overcome, a moment of AWARENESS that allows the hero to prevail, and the TRANSFORMATION in the hero and in the world that naturally results.

The importance and relevance of storytelling in the twenty-first century is demonstrated by the research of individuals such as Donald Norman, Mark Turner and Daniel Pink. Memory is preserved and the dissemination of information enriched through the application. Research, including high-tech real time brain scans, is now showing that emotions, triggered in the limbic area of the brain - also known as the mammalian brain - lock a story in memory.

This is particularly important in a sales story. I will go so far as to say the days of static brochures are dead. Customers want t engage with your business, to hear the stories of your business.

Take for example how your company started? A story usually most employees know and one that is often told and retold to others. Imagine if you could harness those great stories within your business to gain customers, build rapport and turn them into evangelists for your stories too! The viral nature of a story is a compelling argument to learn how to do it.

I've helped businesses tell stories for over 25 years, be that a unique USP, a story of how a certain company offers a product that enhances a customer experience, health promotion even the importance of going green indoors to clean air and aide workplace productivity.

People often confuse story telling with the elevator pitch. A good corporate story is just that, a story that follows the formula of PASSION, HERO, ANTAGONIST, AWARENESS and ultimately TRANSFORMATION. It compels the listener to embed the story to memory.

Photo courtesy of langwitches.org - Silvia Tolisano

Storytelling is undergoing a renaissance globally as thought leaders and corporate entities realise that communication and creativity both in education and the workplace relies on more than just the transmission of information. Storytelling lends itself to teaching languages, social sciences and the arts. Yet, in fields such as business, marketing, engineering and science the art of storytelling can be utilised to inspire, promote an idea and emphasise the human element of a subject. It allows the organisation to collaborate, communicate and connect with the audience in an engaging manner and builds rapport.

Storytelling can give life to a presentation and a lecture. Forget boring powerpoints! Storytelling can be utilised to add the human element to a dataset and a report.

Storytelling can gain the attention of the audience and inspire others to share their stories.

Social Media allows the extension of the corporate story to be told through a range of digital media that can be employed to inspire the individual and enrich the imagination and so set the stage for the telling and re-telling of stories via a digital medium. There are a variety of online tools and desktop applications including Posterous, Comic Life, Picasa, Audacity and VoiceThread that can be used to tell the corporate story in innovative and creative ways.