AchIEvING UlTImATE SUccESS IN PERSUASION: STORYSEllING IS BElIEvINGis put on death row, we will feel more inclined to protect the rights of the
accused. The story leads us to those ways of thinking not through direct
persuasion, but by dramatic license.
We will only change or modify those beliefs so easily, however, if we
don’t know an argument is being made. To us, it’s just a story; it’s not
supposed to mean anything beyond the beginning, middle and end of a
tale. And that’s how a story’s so-called “moral” can sneak up on us and
have an impact.
We use stories to process reality. Think about how powerful a statement
that is. Think about how, whatever situation we find ourselves in, we
must immediately concoct some kind of story to explain it, even though,
ultimately, the story may be false. We still need to have something to
hang onto until the “real story” is finally revealed.
StorySelling becomes invaluable when you want other people to pro-
cess your reality in a memorable, effective way – the way you want
them to see you.
Think about a trial lawyer doing his closing argument. How does he
persuade the jury? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he’ll frame what
he wants the jury to believe in the form of a story – retelling the events
crucial to the case in the way he wants them to be perceived.
In a sense, that’s exactly what you do for yourself with StorySelling.
You’re telling a story about you and/or your business in the way you
want them to perceive you. And because it’s not seen as straight sales
pitch, your audience’s guard is significantly lowered and they’re more
willing to accept what you have to say.
the vAlUe oF AUthentICItYWe feel the need to end this chapter with a word about the truth.
This chapter may read as if stories are a license to lie – but there is great
peril in that approach. Obviously, the Paul-Is-Dead conspiracy was pret-
ty much dead and buried itself when Paul came out of hiding and began
to give interviews. Whoever William Campbell might have been, he
couldn’t have been good enough to look exactly like Paul and sound ex-
actly like Paul, unless someone was doing Mission: Impossible for real.