Sell The Story, Not The Product

As an entrepreneur, I have been trying to learn everything I can about sales and how to sell products and services. I find it to be fascinating.

Did you know that advertisements are designed to program you? I don’t mean sell you – I mean program you – like a computer!

It may be a sleek sports car – or perhaps dozens of bikini-clad ladies running on a beach. Advertisers try to get your attention. And they do it in a way that creates emotion in you – and then repeat the message they want you to receive.

The key point here, though, is that they create feelings – that is how they do it.

This is because people don’t remember words – but they do remember feelings.

So companies, in their advertisements, do things to trigger feelings in our bodies – emotional states. They make us feel however they want to make us feel.

Once they get us to that place, they associate their brand. And they’ll do it over and over again, whenever they can.

Politics aside, Seth Godin discusses the 2004 election and says Kerry only lost because he couldn’t sell himself to the American people:

John Kerry lost to an unpopular incumbent seeking reelection for just one reason: he insisted on focusing on facts, on issues, on position papers and on nuance. He acted like an intellectual bully, refusing to worry about the story he told. George W. Bush, on the other hand, was absolutely masterful in the way he told a story that a portion of the electorate wanted to hear.
-from All (successful) politicians are liars, Seth Godin (Liar’s Blog)

Selling a product, therefore, is not as much about what you are selling. Rather, it is more how you try to sell it.

Have you ever heard the expression that you don’t sell the steak – you sell the sizzle? That’s the key: tell your story.

Don’t just appeal to reason – create a feeling.