Storytelling, what is the Return of Investment?

Last week I was in a meeting with a client and we were discussing the content for a keynote that I am delivering for their sales conference in April.

We also spoke about a workshop for their Sales Team, and the same question came up again. Storytelling, what is the Return of Investment?

I personally don't believe it's the right question to ask but not having an impactful answer has bothered me for quiet a while now. So, for all you people who ask what is the Storytelling ROI, and for those who don't ask but wonder, here is the answer that I learnt from Leader's Guide to Storytelling

We all agree that storytelling makes leaders and manager good at what they do. So, what exactly do leaders and managers do? Believe it or not, in the knowledge economy that we live in, talk is work. Henry Mints Berg's Nature of Managerial Work, showed that talking comprises 78% of what managers actually do with their time. So, if you can learn to talk more effectively, you become more productive at work. Simple right?

As Stephen Denning puts it: Its incremental cost is Zero, or close to Zero, and its ROI is massive.

So, if Storytelling is about communicating more effectively, then think about the 78% of the time we are talking ineffectively.