If you want to sell, you have to learn the art of storytelling.
You probably know the phrase, “Facts tell, stories sell”.
And let me tell you that it is 100% true!
Recently I have been participating in the One Funnel Away Challenge by Clickfunnels…
A big part of what they taught in the challenge was how to write great stories, which inspired me to write this post!
The Power of Stories
You may have observed that I have a couple of automated webinars going on right now…
I edited one of them to include a powerful story without changing anything else and almost instantly I saw the conversion rates go up.
The product doesn’t sell the product, the story does.
The story you tell becomes the sales message.
The story amplifies the value your product brings.
The product doesn’t sell the product, the story you tell does. Click To TweetWhat Can You Use Stories For?
Stories can be used at every single important place in your blog and business.
In your about page, to get people to buy into your brand or philosophy…
In your sales pages, to get people to buy your products & services…
In your webinars, to incite trust and increase the value of your products…
In your blog posts / FB lives / podcast episodes, to engage your audience and get them to see the importance of the lesson you’re driving through.
Don’t Just Give Helpful Tips, Tell Stories.
I used to try to give a ton of tips… you know, “get right to the meat.”
Give them the solid tips!!!!
Give them the tech training!!!
Over time, I realized that if you really want to help others, you can’t just do it by giving tips.
You have to tell stories.
Why? Before they listen to you for any extended period of time, they need to BUY IN to your idea.
Not just that, they need to BUY IN to the fact that you are the person that can help them.
I know. It sounds insane.
After writing so many blog posts, the ones with the highest engagement rates are always the ones with stories and personal thoughts in them…
Not the blog posts with hardcore, straight out cold facts.
People may SAY that they just want the tips, but what they are really saying is, “Don’t bore me with your stories. Just give me the tips!”
If you tell a GOOD story, things shift massively.
Tell them exciting stories that convince them that the dry facts coming up are things that will change their life.
This is why 2 people can give the same information, but you only listen to 1 of them and actually implement what they say.
You have bought into their ideology and advice.
Create Beliefs by Telling Stories
Cash is the byproduct of marketing, not products, and marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent of making a purchase.
Often when we have products and services, you need people to change their beliefs.
Take my signature list building course, List Building Incubator, there are many beliefs that need to change before the purchase happen:
- People have to believe that building an email list is important.
- People have to believe that they only need a small list to start making money.
- People have to believe that email marketing is not dead.
- And so on…
But here’s the kicker, you can’t just TELL them the new belief you want them to have. It won’t be digested.
You have to go back to where they are now, tell them a story of how you had the same epiphany, and let them experience the epiphany themselves.
Example of a story: My first course launch
I often tell this story of my first course launch to get people to start believing that an email list is the key to their online success:
When I launched my first course, I just wanted to make ONE sale. I wanted to prove to myself that I was on the right track and didn’t just waste months of my life on this “online business thing”.
I posted it everywhere – on my Facebook page, Facebook group, Twitter, Pinterest, wrote a new post… You name it, I did it.
I was very upset, I had spent quite a long time getting this course together. Maybe I missed the mark. Maybe it was the wrong product idea. I was about to go back to the drawing board again…
…When I remembered that I had an email list, and sent a quick email out. Sales started coming in after that, and I was so relieved that my idea worked!
On that fateful day, I realized for myself that everyone was right! Knowing that an email list was important was no longer just head knowledge. Not only did I have a growing bank account because of my email list, but I am also filled with renewed confidence that this online thing was going to work out after all!
The 7 Steps Behind The Art Of Storytelling
All good stories follow a similar structure: A protagonist sets out on a journey with a goal, meets some conflicts along the way, and overcomes the conflicts to reach a transformation.
Full credits to Clickfunnels and Russell Brunson’s Expert Secrets book!
1. External Goals
All stories start with someone who had a desire for something.
These are the goals that are apparent and obvious.
For instance, “I wanted to lose 20 pounds because I was severely overweight. I had to buy 2 airplane seats because I was too fat to fit into 1! It was a horrible feeling. I never went out because of how hideous I felt.”
2. Internal Goals
Aside from sharing your external goals, there are certain internal desires that you have as well – things that are too private for most people to share.
But you’re going to share it.
When you share your deepest desires, it instantly bonds people to you. Your audience likely has the same desires, but don’t want to talk about it because of how insanely personal it is to them.
If you are willing to be vulnerable and share your internal desires, it makes you stand out from the crowd of gurus.
Take your external desires, and then keep asking, “Why do I want this?” until you get really deep and reach your internal goals.
For instance, “But really, I just wanted to be loved by my family. Because I was so overweight, my own parents were embarrassed of me and how I looked.”
3. You Reach a Wall
Whatever the old opportunity was, you hit a wall.
This is the old thing that you were trying – describe how you got stuck with the “old way”.
For instance, “I was going on diet after diet but still couldn’t lose weight. I even exercised 3 times a week but any weight I lost quickly came back whenever I stopped! It was such hard work.”
4. That Was When You Discovered a New Opportunity!
Suddenly, you had an epiphany! Maybe you attended a seminar. Maybe you stumbled upon it. Maybe someone told you about it.
Take people on a journey with you on how you discovered this new opportunity of yours… so that they can have the same epiphany themselves.
If you’re selling something, this “new opportunity” will be what your course is about.
Weight loss example
For instance, “My sister told me about eating a lemon a day, which caused her to lose 10 pounds in just a couple of days. I was utterly shocked! How could this be?”
List Building Incubator example
For instance, my signature List Building Incubator course is about getting your first 1,000 true fan subscribers, and I talk about a time when I discovered that building a huge email list didn’t matter as much as getting your first 1,000 quality subscribers.
5. You Crafted a Plan
You crafted a new plan to use this new opportunity to reach your goals.
For instance, “I decided that I would eat a lemon after breakfast every day.”
6. Achievement
All stories have a resolution. Did you reach your external goal?
This could be losing weight, making money, or whatever external goal you had initially.
“I managed to lose 20 pounds! It was insane. I had to throw away all those over-sized jeans.”
7. Transformation
The external achievement wasn’t the only thing that changed after your new opportunity. There was an internal transformation as well, the achievement of your inner goal that you initially had.
“I feel so confident every day and no longer have to hide in my room to avoid social interactions. My parents are no longer worried about me.”
Summary
The 7 Steps Behind The Art Of Storytelling: How to Write Stories That Sell!Click To TweetAnd that’s how you tell a good story, folks!
- External Goal
- Internal Desire
- Wall
- New Opportunity
- The Plan
- External Achievement
- Internal Transformation
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful!
Writing stories is key to selling stuff and running an online business.
Unlock this art of storytelling and start telling engaging stories to transform your business!
xx Raelyn
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