Why Does a Business Need Story Time?

Two very different conversations about the same thing struck me today.

The first was Seth Godin’s post about the rational marketer (and the irrational customer).

He said “The most common frustration I see, and I see it daily, comes from marketers who can’t figure out why more people won’t buy their product…Let’s say, for example, that you have a service that can deliver leads for five percent of what it costs to get them via a trade show. Why would any rational business, particularly one that says it wants qualified leads, spend that money on trade shows and not on you?…The problem is that your prospect doesn’t care about any of those things. He cares about his boss or the story you’re telling or the risk or the hassle of making a change.”

The second was from a New York Times article about vitamins. It quoted a scientist who couldn’t understand why people buy vitamins (when study after study shows no positive effect from taking them).

“’I’m puzzled why the public in general ignores the results of well-done trials,’” said Dr. Eric Klein, national study coordinator for the prostate cancer trial and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. “’The public’s belief in the benefits of vitamins and nutrients is not supported by the available scientific data.’” (NY Times 2/17/09)

Vitamin-takers (and prospects) don’t care what the studies say or the statistics you can show. What they do care about it is how they feel about it. They “feel better” taking the vitamins. It doesn’t matter what the science says; the emotional payout is higher from taking the pills; plus it’s easier than changing your diet.

Many years ago, I joined The Economist and convinced the Managing Director to buy new computers. The system they had was the one everyone else bought. One of my colleagues had tried to get him to buy the new system before, without any luck. She told him she liked that brand better.

The system The Economist had at the time (big Linotype machines that output type in long strips) required complicated coding in order to input anything. It took hours and mistakes were easy (and frequent). The new system would eliminate a lot of the errors because it was drag and drop and WYSIWIG (yes, it was a long time ago).

I told him a story about my previous job. I described how we used the same system to impress several big clients. I told him how amazed they were when they saw what we had done, and how quickly we’d done it. I said we got the work out faster (even without formal training) and were able to save money because we could do more in-house (instead of sending it out).

It cost more upfront, but we’d save a lot of time (and money) long-term.

He bought it!

Don’t give statistics, write a story. A story about how your solution cuts their stress, or lets them go home earlier, or may get them a raise.

Photo: yogi

Related posts:

1. Nine Barriers That Stop You From Getting More Business Online
2. Change Your Story and Eat Cake
3. Being Remarkable Gets You More Business
4. Poisoning the Well, Muddying the Waters
5. Six Ways to Build Your Business’s Fan Club