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ART OF SALES 2, 4.03 (V) The Power of Story

4.03 (V) The Power of Story

One of the most powerful skills and disciplines in sales and in life, is the ability to tell the right story, at the right time, for the right reasons. I think this topic is so important. I wrote a book about it. In my book, I explore the problem that stories solve. One of the most common problems we all face is that we are overwhelmed by information. Think for a second about the many, many ways that information comes at you. We're constantly surrounded by a never ending stream of information. I think of this as a rushing river. We're standing in the middle of it, and it just keeps getting wider and deeper. When we are selling, we must realize that everyone we are selling to has the exact same problem. They are standing in their own river, and they're trying not to drown in information. An author I really admire named Annette Simmons, has a great quote that illustrates this. She says, "Facts are neutral until human beings add their own meaning to those facts. The meaning they add to facts depends on their current story. People stick with their story even when presented with facts that don't fit. They simply interpret or discount the facts to fit their story. This is why facts are not terribly useful in influencing others." That's a pretty provocative quote. It suggests that facts are not nearly as powerful as stories. But if that's true, why do we default to bringing more and more facts to our interactions with prospects. It's been said that human beings are meaning making machines. And the question I would like you to think about here is this, when you go to a meeting, what are you offering? Are you offering more information, more data, and dumping that on top of the pile that your prospect already has, or are you making meaning for your prospect? Are you helping to make sense of all that information? In order to be magnetic in our selling efforts, you need to offer meaning. Stories make meaning by doing two things that other forms of information do not do. They create context and they connect to emotion. Let me demonstrate this with a story. In 1997, three researchers were looking at how young people use technology. They went to a university and they asked the students to take a short survey on technology. They said to the students it will only take six or eight minutes of your time, and for your trouble when you finish, we'll give you $5. So, hundreds of students took the survey and got their $5 in an envelope. What half of them discovered in their envelopes was a donation form from Save the Children. The forms were asking for a donation. They told a story of a nine-year-old girl named Rokia, who is dying of a waterborne illness. The story they told said that it was entirely treatable, so, please donate some money. But the other half of the students got envelopes that had a different donation form. These forms said that in Malawi, Africa on an annual basis there are nine million cases of waterborne illness and 11 million cases of malaria. They are all entirely treatable, so, please donate some money. So, this was not an experiment about technology at all. It was a clever experiment about the impact of fact versus story on people's decision making. And it turns out that the fact-based donation form received an average of $1 and 14 cents, amongst all of those students. But the story-based donation form, received an average of $2 and 38 cents, more than double the fact-based form. Why does that happen? It happens every time because the story of Rokia adds context and emotion, and rises above the level of just emotionless facts. So, notice the two ways the story makes meaning. The context is the nine-year-old girl named Rokia. When you say nine-year-old girl, to any person on planet earth, everyone can picture her, everyone. This creates context for your story. You can see a girl and you know that she's in danger. And then there's the emotion. The emotion that story is triggering is empathy and fear. You empathize with Rokia, and thus, you want to help her. Here's another example. Several years ago, a journalist got very interested in why stories are so powerful. So, he wanted to test this. He went to buy some used items from various people. He bought 300 used items like a toy, an old cigarette lighter, and a small jar of salad dressing, believe it or not. He then listed the facts of each item. It's a three-ounce jar. It's unopened. Here is the expiration date. And he put each item on eBay and sold them. But here's where he gets clever. He took the same 300 items and wrote a very short story about each item. Then, he put those exact same items on eBay and sold them. You already know what happened. But I bet the result will still surprise you. The items that had a story sold for 27 times more than the exact same fact-based items, 27 times. So, the moral to these stories is that you are much more powerful and influential when you tell a story. As salespeople, we need to have our stories at the ready. Think about this as having a quiver of arrows on your back at all times. The arrows represent the stories you will tell, that will make you more powerful. And I'm going to help you build that quiver.


4.03 (V) The Power of Story

One of the most powerful skills and disciplines in sales and in life, is the ability to tell the right story, at the right time, for the right reasons. I think this topic is so important. I wrote a book about it. In my book, I explore the problem that stories solve. One of the most common problems we all face is that we are overwhelmed by information. Think for a second about the many, many ways that information comes at you. We're constantly surrounded by a never ending stream of information. I think of this as a rushing river. We're standing in the middle of it, and it just keeps getting wider and deeper. When we are selling, we must realize that everyone we are selling to has the exact same problem. They are standing in their own river, and they're trying not to drown in information. An author I really admire named Annette Simmons, has a great quote that illustrates this. She says, "Facts are neutral until human beings add their own meaning to those facts. The meaning they add to facts depends on their current story. People stick with their story even when presented with facts that don't fit. They simply interpret or discount the facts to fit their story. This is why facts are not terribly useful in influencing others." That's a pretty provocative quote. It suggests that facts are not nearly as powerful as stories. But if that's true, why do we default to bringing more and more facts to our interactions with prospects. It's been said that human beings are meaning making machines. And the question I would like you to think about here is this, when you go to a meeting, what are you offering? Are you offering more information, more data, and dumping that on top of the pile that your prospect already has, or are you making meaning for your prospect? Are you helping to make sense of all that information? In order to be magnetic in our selling efforts, you need to offer meaning. Stories make meaning by doing two things that other forms of information do not do. They create context and they connect to emotion. Let me demonstrate this with a story. In 1997, three researchers were looking at how young people use technology. They went to a university and they asked the students to take a short survey on technology. They said to the students it will only take six or eight minutes of your time, and for your trouble when you finish, we'll give you $5. So, hundreds of students took the survey and got their $5 in an envelope. What half of them discovered in their envelopes was a donation form from Save the Children. The forms were asking for a donation. They told a story of a nine-year-old girl named Rokia, who is dying of a waterborne illness. The story they told said that it was entirely treatable, so, please donate some money. But the other half of the students got envelopes that had a different donation form. These forms said that in Malawi, Africa on an annual basis there are nine million cases of waterborne illness and 11 million cases of malaria. They are all entirely treatable, so, please donate some money. So, this was not an experiment about technology at all. It was a clever experiment about the impact of fact versus story on people's decision making. And it turns out that the fact-based donation form received an average of $1 and 14 cents, amongst all of those students. But the story-based donation form, received an average of $2 and 38 cents, more than double the fact-based form. Why does that happen? It happens every time because the story of Rokia adds context and emotion, and rises above the level of just emotionless facts. So, notice the two ways the story makes meaning. The context is the nine-year-old girl named Rokia. When you say nine-year-old girl, to any person on planet earth, everyone can picture her, everyone. This creates context for your story. You can see a girl and you know that she's in danger. And then there's the emotion. The emotion that story is triggering is empathy and fear. You empathize with Rokia, and thus, you want to help her. Here's another example. Several years ago, a journalist got very interested in why stories are so powerful. So, he wanted to test this. He went to buy some used items from various people. He bought 300 used items like a toy, an old cigarette lighter, and a small jar of salad dressing, believe it or not. He then listed the facts of each item. It's a three-ounce jar. It's unopened. Here is the expiration date. And he put each item on eBay and sold them. But here's where he gets clever. He took the same 300 items and wrote a very short story about each item. Then, he put those exact same items on eBay and sold them. You already know what happened. But I bet the result will still surprise you. The items that had a story sold for 27 times more than the exact same fact-based items, 27 times. So, the moral to these stories is that you are much more powerful and influential when you tell a story. As salespeople, we need to have our stories at the ready. Think about this as having a quiver of arrows on your back at all times. The arrows represent the stories you will tell, that will make you more powerful. And I'm going to help you build that quiver.