Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Story Based Selling
Show Notes
Ever wondered why you can remember a story and the point that was made but not a joke and the punchline?
Stories go way back; they are how we have been how we learnt for thousands of years. All the important messages were relayed by stories.
Stories are 22 Times More Memorable Than Just Facts
Stories allow us to create pictures in our brains and then we can remember the main point more easily. We all love a good movie and it’s all about the main characters and their stories.
Remember back at school you learnt through images, stories, and patterns.
Did you learn the colours of the rainbow by ROY G BIV?
Or My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Noodles for planets now that Pluto is no longer a planet.
Rhymes and mnemonics help us create stories to remember.
Are You a Big Rock Person?
A professor stood up before his class with a large empty pasta jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full. His students all agreed the jar was full.
He then added small pebbles to the jar and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?” The students agreed that the jar was still full.
The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up all the remaining empty space. The students then agreed again that the jar was completely full. Then he poured water in to remove all the remaining air.
Our marketing is made up of 3 things – the big, important things that mean the most, smaller things that still matter, and then the rest that shouldn’t be done or delegated.
If you pour too much sand into your jar, you will never have space for your rocks.
To add the water first mean you miss too much of the important stuff.
Is social media your water?
Are you spending too much time thinking, researching, playing and not implementing your marketing?
Do you know what the rocks in your business are?
Emotions Sells
Selling Isn’t About Buying, it’s About Feeling – Jeff Bloomfield said in his book StoryBased Selling.
So why are we always so focused on trying to sell the features and benefits of our products.
We know emotions sell but feelings are so much hard to describe and tap into.
Or are they?
Making Things Memorable by Linking Them to Stories
All we have to do is tell stories. But not any old story, stories that have meaning and are relatable to your audience.
- How can you make that work for you?
- What problem does the customer have?
- What problem does your solution solve?
Instead of listing out all your features and benefits think about what the customer will actually get.
An IT person might say – our product includes anti-virus software
– boring
What they could say is – our product protects your computer and gives you peace of mind that you are safe from malicious attacks
– better
What about – last week we installed our new “safe and secure product” into Tom’s local lawn mowing shop. Tom has been in business many years and was worried about his computer being hacked and his customers data being compromised. Now Tom knows that he is protected and even has a reliable backup to reinstate his data if something goes wrong.
By telling you about “Tom” you are starting to picture a story, you might even be able to see yourself as Tom and in a similar situation.
Emotions Buy
Stories take us out of the logical brain to where we analyse everything to the point of paralyses into our emotional brain where the decision to buy just “feels” right.
The emotional brain has no capacity for language – Simon Sinek told us. That is why we often buy on “gut feeling” and then try to rationalise it later that can turn into buyer remorse, (that’s another story).
Emotions sell and allow us to buy because they evolve a feeling in us.
- Coffee at an open home
- FOMO – fear of missing out
- Envy – if I don’t they will / they already are
- Pleasure – I will look so good in that
- Pride – How good will this be
And many more.
This is why we buy into business’s “Why” it is their story, and we want to know more.
Simon uses lots of stories in his book – Why, so that we will remember the main points of why Apple is the leader in their space and how they were able to come so much more than just a computer company when so many of their competitors are still only “computer companies”.
Stories and emotions are why many people watch so much Reality TV and why some people are obsessed with selfies. Real always sells better because we want a little window into their story.
Story in Your Marketing?
How can you bring in more stories into your marketing?
Think about your business story and what elements you can use. How and why you started and what your customers will get when buying your product and no I don’t mean just the features.
I am the granddaughter of an artist; design has been my whole life.
At the beginning of my business, I relayed heavily on word-of-mouth referrals to bring in new customers. As I wanted to expand, I did what most small business owners do, Hit & Miss Marketing.
I chased shiny objects and spent thousands of dollars on training and the latest “new” thing that worked for a while. I was tired and struggled to get ahead.
Sounds familiar? You probably have done this too?
Then I got my first employee and it all had to change.
Story Based Selling
Want to know more, read on . . .
Hope you have enjoyed my story.
Want help? DM me and let’s have a chat.
Listen to Episode 141 of Small Business Talk for the full details.
