Stories can help you sell your idea more effectively because they engage your listener’s emotions and activate the sensory centers of the brain.
Why are stories a great way to sell products, services or even ideas? Well partially it’s because of storytelling’s impact on the brain.
Storytelling is extremely old. In fact it even predates language itself. Yes, before we could even speak – we were telling stories.
We actually understand and remember stories much better than any other form of communication. That’s why we need to use stories if we want to influence others.
Stories are better than PowerPoint
Powerpoint won’t actually kill your audience, but relying on it too much can kill your chances. To keep people’s attention you need to engage more parts of their brain.
Let’s imagine you’re doing a sales presentation and you’re using facts and graphs and charts. You’ve engaged the logic centers of their brain, and while it’s good you’re engaging something, it’s often not enough to get their attention.
How to gain real attention during your presentation
Now instead, let’s imagine you’re telling them a story. A story about a real live human being with thoughts, and dreams, and emotions.
Maybe during the course of the story you talk about how things looked, or sounded, or even smelled! Well now you’ve hit the jackpot. The entire brain is lit up. Why? Because when we hear a great story, our brains experience it as if it were real life. It’s really a virtual reality – meaning all those brain centers for sight, sound, touch and smell suddenly get activated.
The more parts of the brain you activate, the more people will pay attention – and the more chance YOU have to make your sale.
But there’s one more thing you need to know. Remember I talked about human beings and emotions being important to your story? They are. People relate to the struggles of others, and buying ANYTHING, even if it’s an idea, is very much an emotional decision. That’s why stories should act as the emotional component of your sales presentation.
So to sum up, by using stories to activate people’s senses, you get their attention. Then, you stimulate their emotions, as well as their logical minds, so that they will take action.
There’s no better way to learn than stories. Why not book Jason to engage your audience with stories that are entertaining, powerful and insightful learning tools? Check out Jason’s programs to find out how your audience can become better at influence, sales, leadership or general communication.
