Most writers learn early on that if they can’t get through to their audience quickly, and in a compelling manner, it’s unlikely that they’ll  hold their attention. The same holds true for businesses, according to Carmine Gallo, author of The Storyteller’s Secret. “Some of the best brands–those that enhance the customer relationship and experience—are those that are immersed in storytelling,” Gallo says. Yet, while “storytelling in business is very powerful, very few people are doing it well.”

Fortunately, Gallo says, leaders—including notables such as Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures–are realizing that simply having the facts on their side is not enough, and that they must master the art of storytelling.

For instance, SAP’s CEO Bill McDermott has been adamant about simplifying complexity. His challenge has been to turn a 65,000 person sales force into storytellers. “That’s why he hired [Julie Roehm] to be a chief storytelling officer,” heading their marketing department, Gallo says. “What Roehm has done is create apps—tools that their salespeople can download to iPads and literally record customer stories.” The marketing department then edits those stories to video, which the rest of the team can access, Gallo explains.

Gallo recalls that at a recent marketing convention, Steve Wynn, founder of Wynn Resorts,  told the audience that “‘storytelling changed my business and my life’.” That Wynn only discovered the power of storytelling about five years ago “is pretty extraordinary—because here’s a guy you would think would know everything there is to know about human behavior and customer relationships,” Gallo says. One thing Wynn realized is that “self-esteem is the most powerful force in the universe,” and “if you can make people feel more powerful about themselves, they’ll be loyal to [your] brand,” Gallo says.

So Wynn started running departmental meetings differently.  The first thing he did was start by asking employees whether they have a customer story they’d like to share. “That one question elicits stories from the particular departments, and people get praised, rewarded, [and ] these stories get featured on the company intranet,” Gallo says. “They get special bonuses, [and] get recognized at their national annual sales meetings. what happens is these stories begin to compound and everybody wants a chance to be a customer service hero.”

Gallo outlined a number of other companies who have made storytelling a bedrock of their culture, including the Ritz Carlton, Southwest Airlines, and Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. “It’s only through stories that people remember vivid specifics and examples,” Gallo emphasizes. “Stories are one of the most memorable ways to transmit information.”

Gallo adds that what great minds share a talent in rendering sophisticated concepts accessible the masses. For instance, what influential tech leaders like Elon Mosk, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs have in common was their ability to simplify complex information for wide groups.

When Musk gives public presentations, Gallo says, he reduces his language to grade-school level, and often uses pictures to illustrate his points. “Here’s a guy who reads Soviet era rocket manuals for fun, and yet when he communicates something to a consumer audience that doesn’t understand the nuances, he reduces the language to a very simple level,” Gallo says. “When you have complex information that you have to distribute to a large group of people, it helps to reduce the language complexity, which means reduce the jargon, keep sentence structure simple, [and] use shorter, simpler words.”

And when business-facing sales reps are pitching their products, it may behoove them to follow a three-act structure, similar to the one employed in Hollywood movies, which includes a beginning, middle, and end. For instance, they can start out by providing  the back story, and describing the world as it is (“Here’s how you’re doing business today,” Gallo says). In act two, reps can explain the conflict on the horizon (Gallo calls this “ a dark force around the corner, one that you may not even be aware of,”).  And when the prospect begins nodding in agreement, a rep can introduce the resolution (”Your product is going to make the world a better place, and everybody lives happily ever after,” Gallo says.)