Storytelling is how you get people to take a leap of faith to do something new. Itâs what all our big choices ultimately come down toâbelieving a story we tell ourselves or that someone else tells us. Creating a believable narrative that everyone can latch on to is critical to moving forward and making hard choices. Itâs all that marketing comes down to. Itâs the heart of sales.
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If you know where a story is going, donât hoard it. Make the story go there, now. But then what? What will you do next? Youâve surrendered your big reveal. Exactly. Often, in our doubt that we have a real story to tell, we hold something back, fearing that we donât have anything else. And this can be a form of trickery. Surrendering that thing is a leap of faith that forces the story to attention, saying to it, in effect, âYou have to do better than that, and now that Iâve denied you your trick, your first-order solution, I know that you will.
3.2. Why Storytelling
âEvery product should have a story, a narrative that explains why it needs to exist and how it will solve your customerâs problems. A good product story has three elements:
» It appeals to peopleâs rational and emotional sides.
» It takes complicated concepts and makes them simple.
» It reminds people of the problem thatâs being solvedâit focuses on the âwhy.
Your productâs story is its design, its features, images and videos, quotes from customers, tips from reviewers, conversations with support agents. Itâs the sum of what people see and feel about this thing that youâve created.
And the story doesnât just exist to sell your product. Itâs there to help you define it, understand it, and understand your customers. Itâs what you say to investors to convince them to give you money, and to new employees to convince them to join your team, and to partners to convince them to work with you, and to the press to convince them to care. And then, eventually, itâs what you tell customers to convince them to want what youâre selling.
And it all starts with âwhy.â
Why does this thing need to exist? Why does it matter? Why will people need it? Why will they love it?
You can earn their trust by showing that you really know your stuff or understand their needs. Or offer them something useful; connect with them in a new way so they feel assured that theyâre making the right choice with your company. You tell them a story they can connect with.
A good story is an act of empathy. It recognizes the needs of its audience. And it blends facts and feelings so the customer gets enough of both. First you need enough insights and concrete information that your argument doesnât feel too floaty and insubstantial. It doesnât have to be definitive data, but there has to be enough to feel meaty, to convince people that youâre anchored in real facts. But you can overdo itâif your story is only informational, then
itâs entirely possible that people will agree with you but decide itâs not compelling enough to act on just yet. Maybe next month. Maybe next year.
So you have to appeal to their emotionsâconnect with something they care about. Their worries, their fears. Or show them a compelling vision of the future: give a human example. Walk through how a real person will experience this productâtheir day, their family, their work, the change theyâll experience. Just donât lean so far into the emotional connection that
what youâre arguing for feels novel, but not necessary.
The storyâs power, then, is twofold: It provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act). Note that both benefits, simulation and inspiration, are geared to generating action. In the last few chapters, weâve seen that a credible idea makes people believe. An emotional idea makes people care. And in this chapter weâll see that the right stories make people act.