If you’ve answered “Yes’ to these questions, here’s another: What’s the role of storytelling in business?

Paul J. Zak, an expert on the neuroscience of human connection and professor at Claremont Graduate University, suggested that strong character-driven stories increase oxytocin production and leads to a higher willingness to act or participate in something new. In other words, we have an affinity to stories because once we have heard them, they become our stories.

This begs the thought: What role does a story play in helping consumers decide to participate? How can stories help in closing deals? Why do the stories even matter?

Let’s explore the role of storytelling in closing deals.

What’s in a story?

The difference between a badly told story and a well-told, compelling story can be the deciding factor in how attentively your audience is listening and what they end up feeling. Until you are able to draw on such raw emotions that create a call to arms within your audience, a story is just a collection of facts. A story needs to be more than just facts: it needs to be theatre. As Glengarry Glen Ross author, David Mamet, puts it,

“The audience requires not information, but drama.”

When you’re telling a story, your audience wants to see themselves in it. What role do they play in this narrative? The key is to not only to speak to emotions that result in a singular decision, but perpetually make them loyal advocates of your brand.

So what in a story makes it compelling? Let’s take a look.

Elements in a compelling story

The Set Up

Introduction to the brand. Establishes a main conflict audiences must overcome. There must be something at stake for the buyer – a reason why they deal with a challenge.

The Build Up

What a brand can do to resolve the conflict for the audience. The build-up points toward the how customers can overcome the challenge they are facing.

The Pay Off

This is the story’s climax, in which the challenge is solved for the buyer and the resolution ends on a positive note.

Customer Stories

Telling your customers’ success stories is one of the most time-proven methods to establish trust quickly. Today any ride-sharing customer will report at least one conversation with their Uber or Lyft driver about “What it’s like to work with them.” In a market where peer-to-peer marketplaces are growing with companies like AirBnb and the handcrafted goods eCommerce site, Etsy, new customers love to hear what other customers are saying about these platforms.

How your customers feel about you is a huge indicator of how well your product or service actually works. Telling that story with their words can help you build the trust needed to bridge the gap between a lead and a sale.

How to bring stories into the sales process?

Gather the stories.

Include everyone that can contribute to the story-pool. Not just marketers, but salespeople, developers, managers, customers, and even IT can bring stories that can add to your brand.

Decide how to tell your stories.

Deciding the platform on which to tell your stories is important. You need to cater your stories to resonate best with the audience of that platform. Be it web, mobile or person-to-person, your story needs to motivate your users to get more curious and eventually make their decision.

Test your stories.

Knowing which stories are successful and which ones aren’t progressing potential users through the sales funnel is a key metric for you to evaluate. This way you can re-write stories to be their most effective. Routinely testing your stories can mean the difference in reducing wasted time and efforts, and reaching your audience effectively.

Maintain your stories.

Once you identify stories that don’t work, try to discover the underlying reasons why they don’t resonate. Updating these parts of the story can help you pivot your selling strategy whenever needed.

The Takeaway

It is vital to realize that your story is not just a series of events. Ever heard the crickets after a badly told story? Dull and uninspiring stories have no place in your lives and definitely not in your sales process. If you aren’t inspired when you hear your own stories, your users and customers won’t be either. Does your story have a strong protagonist? Is the problem big enough to demand a solution? Is your journey narrating a fantastic transformation that your customers will experience with your product or service? Engage your customers in the history of your being, and tell them exactly what your product means to you. Tell your story well, and watch your audience tell it better.