Building a Financial Story involves gathering data from disparate sources. You must be thorough in your analysis and avoid omitting important details or pushing unsubstantiated conclusions. A story needs to be engaging and informative for your audience. Luckily, there are a number of tools you can use to make your financial storytelling a success.
Financial storytelling can help you to connect with your audience emotionally. Financial stories can be an effective way to help your prospects overcome their fears about investing. They can help you explain risk tolerance, risk perception, recency bias, and the market’s long-term success despite turmoil and natural disasters. A good Financial Story can empower consumers to take action, which makes it a valuable tool.
The first step in creating a Financial Story is understanding how financial statements are structured. You should include relevant metrics, not too many numbers and too much wording. Many Financial Story writers use only the General Ledger for their statements, but some include data from other Sub-Ledgers. It’s important to keep in mind that a Financial Story is just a snapshot of the company’s overall performance.
Using data visualizations and illustrative charts can help add credibility to your presentation. However, these tools should not be used as a means of showing off your technical knowledge. The goal is to make sure that your audience understands your message and can take action. In the first two minutes, you should summarize the audience’s current situation, the challenges it faces, and the consequences of not taking action.
