StoriesStick
Humans – that includes your clients – live in stories every day and dream in stories all night. We are all storytellers and story listeners. Storytelling allows us to understand and connect with the world around us and helps us feel like we are a part of something. Stories are memorable, make sales conversations sticky, and they move your client to action. Think about a meeting you recently attended. Try as hard as you can to remember all the details from start to finish. What were the meetingâs key takeaways?
Now think about a book you read or TV show you watched in the last few days. Compared with the meeting, which one is easier to recall? If your answer was the latter, youâre not alone. According to a study from Stanford University, stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts and figures alone.
In the Stanford study, Chip Heath asked 150 students to stand up and deliver a 1 minute presentation or a basic pitch on what they learned about crime patterns in the US. They then voted on the presentation they thought best in each group.
Chip then showed a short video to distract the students, and asked them to write down everything they could remember about the speeches.
âThe students were flabbergasted at how little they remembered. Keep in mind that only ten minutes had elapsed since the speeches were given. Nor was there a huge amount of information to begin with â at most they heard eight one-minute speeches. And yet the students were lucky to recall one or two ideas from each speakerâs presentation. Many drew a complete blank on some speeches â unable to remember a single concept.â
He found that in the average one-minute speech, the typical student used 2.5 statistics, and only 1 in 10 told a story. When students were asked to recall the speeches, 63% remember the stories. Only 5% remember any individual statistic. Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts and figures alone. Now, think about a normal conversation or presentation with a lot of facts – if the client only walks away with 5%, thatâs not memorable. What if they walk away with 63% of what you said? Huge gain in the buying process. If you wrap stories around facts they will stick.
A well told story stirs the imagination and, when done well, leaves an lasting mark on your client. In fact, studies show that we are wired to remember stories much more than data, facts, and figures.
- Stories super charge the brain and even change how we act in life.
- Storytelling improves memory, motivation, and accuracy.
- 92% of customers would prefer messages to sound like a story.
- Emotional stories trigger the release of Neurotransmitters, including the âfeel-goodâ neurotransmitter âdopamine and âbondingâ neurotransmitter Oxytocin, which flood and engage many areas of the brain, much more than is seen with factual speech.
- The magic happens when stories are re-told: the same emotional response is seen in both the teller and the listenerâs brains. This whole brain engagement makes stories stick and the emotion is shared as itâs passed along.
- Stories are stickier because of the release of neurotransmitters.
To add to that, when you hear facts and data, only two parts of your brain are engaged. But a story activates seven different areas of your brain. That means your brain is really charged up when you listen to a good story!
When you listen to a good story, your senses take over and you imagine what itâs like to be there in the moment. You feel and interpret whatâs happening through your own lens. You imagine what itâs like to be the characters.
Since itâs easy to get lost in the narrative, you feel like youâre not working as hard to process the information. But in reality, your brain is hard at work. Rather than trying to make sense of the facts, youâre experiencing those facts. And that experience is vivid and memorable.
ethos3.com
Stories bring us to the core of the experience. There are several brainy reasons why stories are so powerful.
- Stories are about collaboration and connection. They engage us through emotions, and they connect us to others. Through stories we share passions, sadness, challenges and joys. Think about customers going from Pain to Gain and Sad to Happy!
- Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others.
- Stories provide order. People seek certainty and narrative structure is familiar, predictable, and comforting. Within the context of the story arc we can withstand intense emotions because we know that resolution follows the conflict.
- Stories are how we are wired. Stores take place in the imagination. To the human brain, imagined experiences are processed the same as real experiences. Stories create genuine emotions and behavioral responses.
- Stories engage the right brain and trigger your clients imagination. By engaging imagination, your clients become participants in the narrative, tapping into creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self-discovery and change.
With all of that brain action created by stories, itâs no wonder that a good story stirs up a lot of feeling. The most compelling reason to use stories in business is to create empathy, draw upon shared experiences, and move someone to action.
A Story of Diapers and Google.
In Jim Stengelâs book, Grow. He talks about diapers and how Pampers used its company story to sell more of them. For a little backdrop: Diaper companies normally compete on performance such as absorbency and comfort, but that doesnât tell too much of a story.
In 2013, Procter & Gambleâs campaign around Pampers did something different: It told a story about babies peacefully sleeping at night. So the story around Pampers was around giving your baby a happy, healthy nightâs sleep. It was much more powerful and touching than the previous messaging, based on performance. It helped parents connect emotionally, and it made them choose Pampers (and the story of a peaceful nightâs sleep) over the competition.
Choosing one companyâs products and services over another often means youâve connected with its brand and wanted to be part of it.
Hereâs another example of how Google went from product feature discussions to building mean through emotion. Take 2 minutes to experience this story, in the form of a Google commercial, called Dear Sophie.Â
What did you like about this story? Who was it about? Did Google talk about all of their product features and functions? What message were they trying to convey? Did your eyes swell up at the end like mine?
Studies show that clients, potential new clients, and others act from the heart more than they act from the brain. By choosing the right stories to share, you can influence their decisions and actions through the power of emotions.
SUMMARY
In this lesson, we dived headfirst into the captivating world of storytelling and its immense value in business. It’s not just for fairytales and novels; it’s a secret weapon for sales conversations and making your ideas stick. Think about it â when was the last time you left a meeting and could vividly remember all the nitty-gritty details? Probably not often, right? Well, stories have a way of sticking with us like glue, up to 22 times better than plain old facts and figures.
Stories are emotional powerhouses. They activate neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, eliciting emotions and connecting with us on a profound level that data alone can’t achieve. When you immerse yourselve in a well-crafted story, you experience it as if it’s real, sparking your creativity and imagination. Research backs this up â stories can influence choices and actions by tapping into the power of emotions.
So, when you’re trying to get your message across, remember that stories are your secret weapon. They not only engage your clients’ brains but also stir emotions, making them more likely to take action. As you continue your business journey, don’t underestimate the value of storytelling in creating connections, sparking emotions, and influencing decisions.