The Persuasive Power of Stories

When I was a kid, like most (if not all) kids, I had to take history classes. They bored me to tears. In fact, they bored everyone. At that time, none of us understood the benefit. Who cared who did what, where, and when? It just didn't seem relevant in any way.

Then, one day, I saw the movie Shindler's List. This was probably the first historical movie I'd ever seen. It was gripping. It was horrifying. It was beautiful. It was everything my school history books were not. Suddenly, I cared.

I went back to school, passionate about at least one event in history. However, when I opened my text books to learn more, I saw nothing but dates, figures, and very simplistic summaries.

The problem with history class wasn't that history wasn't important or that we, as children, don't care. The problem is that history classes are almost entirely deprived of stories. We had the naked truth, but nothing we could care about.

Stories matter

The biggest lesson I learned from that history class was that stories matter. We tend to think of stories as trivial; suitable for small children or for entertainment.

In truth, stories are so much more.

Stories help us relate. They give facts the structure they need to be digestible. To make sense of life, we tell ourselves stories all of the time.

Identity

I'm actually telling myself a few stories right now. I'm listening to Weezer, because I'm a geek. I'm wearing black because it's slimming and looks good. I don't buy new things until I absolutely have to because I'm frugal. I'm using a Mac because it's simple and gets out of my way. I'm using an open-source text editor to write this because it gives me control over my software.

Are any of these things that I'm telling myself true? Does it matter? What matters is that I believe them. My world is made up of the stories that I tell myself.

Collectively, these stories form the inner narrative that is my life. Believe it or not, you do exactly the same thing. Your stories are, hopefully, entirely different from mine, but they're there. They motivate every action you take.

This inner narrative is what we call our identity.

We are the stories we tell ourselves. These stories, these works of fiction inspired by reality, define us as people.

Still think stories are trivial?

Telling stories that sell

There are a lot of ways to sell something. Some companies choose to call you during dinner time. Others choose to plaster every available surface within sight with advertisements. The latest trend is to try and engage people online through social media (such as this blog). Whatever method you choose, you will live and die on the quality of the story you tell.

Money will leave your prospect's pocket to enjoy life in yours if and only if your story is one they'd like to tell to themselves about themselves. Apple, Nike, and Obama are all ridiculously cool brands. People who see themselves as cool buy into cool brands like these. Despite the old saying, like attracts like.

When selling, the question you and I need to ask ourselves is simple: What story can we tell that our prospective clientele would like to tell themselves about themselves?