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Storytelling Persuasion

'Facts and figures are forgotten. Stories are retold.' -Jeffrey Gitomer

If you're mathematically oriented then MAYBE you'll remember the charts and graphs someone shows you in a presentation. And sometimes charts and graphs are really necessary to get to the specifics, but the real power of persuasion in presentation is the story.

A few years ago I came to a realization. Up until that point, I didn't think I was a very good storyteller. It wasn't a shyness on my part, but a belief that my stories weren't actual stories. But my realization was: my stories are the real deal, the lifeblood of persuasion.

All of us have stories. Maybe it's not obvious, maybe it hasn't presented itself to you yet. It's possible your story is tangential, maybe your parent's or grandparent's story of struggle and accomplishment which triggered you to become what you are.

The first object in storytelling is to get your listener to agree with you. When that happens, persuasion inevitably follows.

Having a point is the most important aspect of your story. A long, meandering, pointless tale is not going to persuade.

Our stories have to have a similarity to the situation to which we're presenting, as well as the important aspects of 'The Hero's Journey'. (If you're not familiar with 'The Hero's Journey' by Joseph Campbell, become familiar with it. It is the single most important work on archetypes and stories starting pulling from sources back to the dawn of time, and has had profound impact on my teachings and learnings, as well as the teachings and learnings of millions of others.)

Stories don't have to start at the beginning. There's usually a lot of fluff, wasted words, at the beginning. A writing teacher I knew had a general rule that the first paragraph or two of a story was entirely dispensable. By starting in the middle or mid-sentence even, the audience is compelled to listen. They want to know what they missed.

You can also start out with 'the point' of the story and work backwards. The point is what you want to teach, so it's important to make it completely clear.

A member of my coaching club actually 'reverse engineers' his stories so that the very first thing he works out is the outcome. From there he works back through the journey that got him to the goal.

When writing your story, keep in mind that you must start by starting. And once you're done writing, read it out loud. As you read it, you'll see where it needs to be edited just from where you stumble.

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Don't reprint the same version as everyone else. Get your own unique content persuasion article here.

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