Your Story Is Amazing, Here's How To Make It Compelling.
Talk about how the sausage tastes before sharing how it’s made.
I love water skiing. It puts the needle in the vein for me.
Despite injuries and the expense, I’ll gnaw on that bone until I can’t. I also consider myself a student of human nature. Deep proficiency in understanding human behavior has taken a while but my quest to be a more effective human and product producer makes me realize that matching needs with solutions is the right path.
It wasn’t always that way. When I had a rep company we concentrated on what made products different. Often that meant the obvious, like constructions, product features, and other tangibles. Deep dives into core fabrications seemed interesting at the time but as I look back nobody really cares about a ski core build.
When the new slalom skis get introduced each Fall, I get one as a good fanatic should. My ski pals, always curious, asked about what changes were made over the previous version. We wax enthusiastically about tweaking edge bevels, revised cores and carbon fiber tolerances, new running surface materials, and other physical aspects ad nauseam. Hours could be invested in exciting conversations about new features and quantifiable performance expectations.
More recently another ski pal called looking for a recommendation on the new ski. The conversation expectation was intended to be technical. But that’s not what immediately leaped off my lips. Without a thought, what rolled out was, “The new ski gets wider quicker.” Meaning that in the slalom course, where performance is measured, the ski’s performance shined. Getting wider quicker takes precedence over any other discussion about constructions and revisions. It’s what every skier in the slalom course craves.
My subconscious mind rearranged all of the technical data, reconstituting it into a short solution statement that’s meaningful to every potential buyer. A split-second response without conscious effort. Hmmm…
In a selling scenario, this ski maker might ponder options while standing at the proverbial fork in the road in marketing this new ski. Fork to the left and divulge all of the time, money, energy, engineering, heartache, and effort that went into development. Convey technical specs about the kind of carbon fiber, the molding details, and the tensile strength of materials. It would be a compelling and expected marketing path. And for many that story must be told.
Or, fork right and simply say, “This ski gets wider quicker.” That resonates positively with 100% of the target market.
If we analyze the human decision-making process, the fork right path is emotional, lighting up our limbic system where decisions get made. The logical, fork left path, controlled by our neocortex confirms the limbic response with details and technical information so the decision feels good.
When it comes to presenting a product for sale, engineering minds might suggest listing the improvements. A strong marketer should say, selling solutions is the answer.
It’s understandably hard to say, this ski gets wider quicker since it appears to disregard all of the back story that makes it so. The reality is that the back story is important but only if you get a chance to tell it. You’ve got to strike deeply into a buyer’s mind with a solution to their problem first. Once you have attention, a buyer will seek to confirm their mental purchase with the details.
Overwhelmingly, marketers get this backward, they sell features first and forget about the benefits. If you can make someone feel good first, the rest is easy. This is why you see luxury products presented as an image with sparse copy. Their primary objective is to elicit a feeling. Words don’t draw out feelings, images do. That’s also why stories matter. People like to conjure up an image, preferably a positive one. Telling your story is crucial.
Do you know how a Tesla works from an engineering viewpoint? Anything about the electric motors, the drive train, paint, interiors, or the construction process? Nobody seems to care. The Tesla website quickly pounces on touchless delivery, safety, acceleration, and other emotional touchpoints.
“It’s electric”, is what Tesla relays and the value is intrinsic. They tell a story of electric car joy. It’s working. While the top 5 automakers all spend well over $3B each to influence buying behavior, Tesla spends $0. Proof that the right story correctly told can have a global impact.
Part of the correctly told story is that Tesla owners are proud to talk about the wonders of their electric cars. Fostering goodwill through storytelling is a cornerstone in Tesla’s marketing DNA.
Wondering how to tell your story? Consider this:
Fast forward to the emotional benefit first. Talk about how the sausage tastes before sharing how it’s made.
Images are more powerful than words. The Mona Lisa needs no words. Be image-rich and choose images wisely.
Be interesting. Arrest attention. Why you do what you do is far more interesting than how you do it.
Like a corkscrew, you can drive your message into clients’ minds by telling the right story. Every walk of life prefers a story over statistics. Think of the favorite stories in your life, do your business messages elicit those same fond feelings?