It was the year “The Computer” was named Man of the Year by Time Magazine, and the year Michael Jackson swept the nation with his latest hit. 1982 was a thrilling year with many notable events, but the most important one, for us, was turning on our printers for the first time.

I just hooked you in, didn’t I? Storytelling is so ingrained into our DNA that we’ve been telling stories since the dawn of our species. And it’s with stories that we help share experiences, remember the past, and connect with each other.

But there’s one place stories are often left behind — selling your products and services. All too often businesses make their product the hero of the story. However, your product is just a supporting character, it’s your customers that are the real heroes.

Every time you talk about your product, you’re telling a story. And it’s because we’re so invested in how great our product is we rush into what makes our product that way before we ever say anything about the problem it solves for our customers. This is a common problem, we’ve even done it here at Third Angle. Here’s an example from our website maintenance services.

Websites need constant maintenance updates, back ups, and security checks. When you enroll into a Third Angle website maintenance plan, our team becomes your team, and as your team, we let you keep focused on what matters most while we take care of your website.

It’s okay, but it starts off with what’s included and why it’s great. Then it only hints at the problem it’s meant to solve. By doing some rearranging and tweaking we changed the entire feel of this one paragraph. Check this out.

You didn’t start your business to be tied up in your office trying to finish the arm-long list of website updates. You’d have the intern do it, but then you’d have to train them. And you’re already short on time. This is where the expert maintenance team at Third Angle can help. Our website maintenance plans, help you get out of that office and do what you ‘actually’ started your business to do.

By starting off with a common predicament experienced by the audience we quickly establish trust because we understand their problem. We also added a solution they’ve probably thought of to further that trust. It’s at that point the solution is introduced.

You’ll also notice there was no explanation of what the service features. It’s because people don’t care at this point. They just want to know you understand the problem
they need solving.

Telling stories isn’t hard. What’s hard is changing your mindset from treating sales information as ….well informational to actually being inspirational. Why storytelling works is because it invokes an emotional response. The intro to this video probably made you feel nostalgic.

Long story short, stories sell. Try rewriting one of your product or service descriptions then drop it in the comments, I’d love to read them.

To learn more about how stories sell check out the link in the description. I’ve also included links to the Third Angle Blog and YouTube Channel so you can discover even more useful information.

Thanks for watching, I’m Sarah from Third Angle.