Storytelling has been around as long as humans have.
Even before language was created, human beings have been telling stories. Ancient caves and tombs are full of engraved cave drawings, hieroglyphics, and symbols that communicate stories and tales from the past.
Human beings are fundamentally social creatures. We love to be around other people, and we love to communicate and share ideas. Long before radio, television, the internet, or even the printing press was invented, stories were the way in which we shared ideas, passed on valuable lessons, and entertained each other.
Stories are not just found within the pages of a book, they are literally everywhere. Our favourite TV shows, films, and plays are all stories communicated via different mediums. Adverts and commercials tell the stories of brands and products. Even our news channels are dedicated to storytelling and broadcasting non-fiction stories of daily events happening around the globe.
Storytelling is a fundamental part of human society and the way we communicate, and this is what makes story-based selling so effective.
What is story-based selling?
Story-based selling is where you use stories to promote a product or service. There are various ways in which you can do this, but they all involve telling a story or narrative that includes your product or service as the hero or the catalyst for change.
Selling is a psychological process at heart. It involves influencing people and gaining their trust. People buy from people they like and trust, and they like and trust people they can connect with.
Storytelling is one of the best ways to build a connection with people and trigger their emotions.
Most people put up a mental defense barrier whenever they feel they are being sold to. There are many reasons for this including experiences of buyer’s remorse and other deep-rooted negative ideas and beliefs we have about salespeople.
Think about the last time someone stopped you on the street to canvass you for something. Normally when this happens, we are immediately aware that this individual is trying to get us to buy something or sell us something we don’t need or want. We hate these “confrontations” and try to get away from the salesperson as quickly as possible, often feeling a sense of relief when we escape their clutches.
Over time we have developed an almost automatic response whenever we feel someone is giving us a sale pitch or attempting to pitch something to us. This is where story-based selling proves to be effective. By dressing up your sales pitch within a story you are often able to bypass the defensive barrier of your audience.
A story makes people more receptive to listening and allows you to communicate your message in a non-threatening way.
Stories enable us to tap into the power of emotions. We know that people buy on emotion and justify with logic. Tapping the emotional buttons of your prospect is the key to selling to them, and nothing elicits emotion better than a well-crafted story.
Stories are the best way to captivate, engage, persuade, and motivate leads, prospects, and customers into taking action on your offers. If you can tell the right story to the right people at the right time, and tie in the right offer, you will make more sales more frequently.
More and more brands now use the power of storytelling to position and market their products more effectively. Storytelling is also a chief component of the popular Hook, Story, Offer framework used in marketing.
Story selling templates you can use
Here is a list of some of the main story templates you can use when marketing and selling your product.
The “Origin” Story
This is the story of your beginnings – of how you came to be the person you are today, or how you started your business, lost weight, etc. You start by talking about the hardships, challenges, failures, and setbacks you experienced at the start of your journey.
You detail how the product helped you to get back on track and finally make that breakthrough to give you the desired results you so eagerly wanted, and allowed you to become the person you are today, living the life you are currently enjoying.
Origin stories can be used on “about pages”, whenever you give talks or presentations as an authority in your field, or as part of your early email autoresponder sequence. They enable your customers to resonate with you, your starting point, and the end goal (which they also desire for themselves). They want the result you achieved, and having learned about your humble beginnings and the challenges you faced before finally getting the breakthrough, establish a deep connection with your target audience as they are also on the same journey and want to hear from someone who has successfully made it the destination they too want to reach.
Example:
Perhaps you are a business consultant that helps people start their own home-based online business. You can tell your story about how miserable you were in your corporate career, and how working a 9-5 job prevented you from spending time with your family and doing the things you truly love.
You can then describe how you decided to start a business to change your situation, and you detail all the shortcomings, failures, and setbacks you experienced in your quest to become an entrepreneur. You then describe the “aha moment” where you discovered the key to success or the missing part of the jigsaw, and how implementing that changed everything and led you on the path of success and gave you the lifestyle which you are now enjoying.
Your customers will be able to relate to your story and when they hear it they will mentally be going on your journey with you, re-living all the highs and lows until the happy ending where success is achieved.
Some people try to leave out all the negative and sad parts of their stories, but these are the moments and parts of life that your customer will connect with on an emotional level. Don’t try to make your story all happy and perfect because that’s just not how reality is, and your customers know this.
If you have experienced the pains of life whilst in the pursuit of your dreams (which we all do) then talk about those moments. Share the lessons you learned from them and how they made you better and stronger and more motivated to reach your goal.
If you do so your story will be emotional, motivational and will endear you to more customers.
The “Amazing Transformation” Story
These stories help to sell products based on the amazing results they give and the ways in which they can transform your life for the better. These transformation stories make customers feel that they too can get the same incredible results and transform their lives in the same way.
When you detail your starting point (where/how you were before using the product) and the incredible transformation you achieved (as a result of using the product), you inspire hope and confidence among your customers.
They may also consider their current position to be useless and may not be able to see a solution to their problems. Hearing your story of transformation gives them hope that they too can achieve the same transformations and positive results in their lives, even though they too may be starting from a position of hopelessness as you did.
These stories dramatise the benefit of your offer whilst demonstrating the validity of your product’s claims and big promise.
These stories normally follow the following formats:
- I was……….. , now I’m …………….
- I tried everything on the market, but nothing worked
- That’s when I discovered the amazing secret/product/solution
Example:
- I was severely overweight and out of shape, now I’m a size 9 and in the best physical shape of my life.
- I tried every diet and exercise routine you can think of, but nothing worked.
- That’s when I discovered the product – “Dr. Diet’s Ultimate Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great”.
These incredible transformation stories are effective at turning cold leads and traffic into customers and work well in problem-solution advertising. This story shows that you understand the frustrations many of your potential customers may be feeling from not having found a solution to their problem yet.
They will be able to relate to the experience of having tried multiple solutions that have all ended in failure. The story then leads them to joy and hope when you demonstrate that your product or service is the solution that they have been looking for and will give them the results or outcome they want.
The Case Study Story
These stories detail the experiences of one of your clients and the success they have achieved as a result of using your product.
Case study stories utilise the principle of Social proof, which is a powerful principle of influence and persuasion.
You can read more about it in our article on the principles of persuasion, and also by reading Robert Cialdini’s excellent book: “Influence! The Psychology of Persuasion.”
In your case study story, you want to introduce your prospects to your client and demonstrate that they are just like him/her. They have to relate to the hero of the story and their predicament. You then detail how your client’s life and situation were before they started using your product, which should mirror how your prospects are feeling and living right now.
Then you take them through your client’s discovery of your product and how they started to use it. You then describe the immediate impact the product had on them and their problem and the results they were able to achieve. You then detail the long-term impact and positive benefits using the product has had on their lives since.
Subway used the case study story to perfection when they told the story of Jared, the guy who lost a ton of weight and improved his lifestyle as a result of eating a diet consisting only of Subway sandwiches.
Case study stories are great because they provide real-life examples of clients who have used your product to get the results they desired. There is nothing more powerful than Social Proof to persuade and convince prospects about the validity of your product claims. Case study stories can be long or short. Having client testimonials on your website is a great way to use them. The more testimonials you can collect, the more stories you can share.
Summary
Stories are a powerfully effective way to share your message, attract more customers and ultimately make more sales. With the right story, you can inspire people, educate them, and touch them emotionally, all whilst planting the seed of your product or offer as a viable solution to their problem.
If you have an interesting story then it is your responsibility to share it with your target audience. If you have a client that has experienced tremendous success with your product or service then make sure you tell their story and shout it from the rooftops! People don’t usually remember drab sales pitches, but they do remember a good story.
Story-based marketing and selling are here to stay, and the way in which we can tell these stories and engage with our customers is constantly evolving, with new social media apps and platforms making the process easier and more accessible for everyone.
Your customers will like and trust you more if you inspire them with a story first before gently and naturally leading them to a sale or offer. Tell the story of your product or brand using of one the templates above and you’ll start to attract more customers and make more sales.
