A New Perspective About Facts Telling And Stories Selling

Have you heard the saying “Facts tell but stories sell”? If so, I want to give you another perspective about it so you can use stories in your business more effectively (and often).

I was working with an amazing entrepreneur yesterday helping him craft a video message to get more partners to work with. He has incredible facts, statistics and research but something was missing. After going through the entire presentation it was time to make some adjustments.

I told him that as an insider (someone in the business), those facts matter to him but to the outsider (his prospects), there’s no emotional connection or even frame of reference to make those facts meaningful.

We began to adjust the powerpoint to be of incredible value and offer insights to outsiders looking in so they truly “get it”.

And then I made a silly comment with a lot of meaning. I said:

Imagine Jesus going to hurting people saying “Last month, we had an increase of repentance of 37% compared to this time last year. We also saw a 13% drop in adultery in Galilee.”

While those may have been the facts, that would most likely not cause people to repent and stop sinning. Instead, He told stories, parables, that people can understand and put themselves in so they can make a life altering decision towards God.

Stories do sell. They don’t just sell products and services, but concepts and ideas about how to make dramatic shifts and improvements in life and business that facts simply can’t do on their own.

So here’s a question for you.

How are you using stories, not just facts and statistics, to influence your leads and prospects into action?