49. Storytelling in your sales emails

The first thing I wanna talk to you about today is sales psychology.

I'm gonna run through these three terms, and then we're gonna see how they play out in an example that I give later on.

So the first term is narrative transportation.

This has been around for probably 25, 30 years it's been named, but it's when someone gets so absorbed in a story that they stop evaluating and counter-arguing when they're hearing it.

Recently I read the book Yesteryear, and without giving any spoilers away, I was talking to a friend about it afterwards and I was like, "It's crazy because the main character is so hateable, yet we're kind of rooting for her because we're so used to rooting for the main character in stories that we hear." So this narrative transportation is like the story was so good that we stopped kind of hating this person for who she was.

Again, no spoilers.

So ultimately, this narrative transportation means that there is...

When we make a claim, when we say, "I'm the bestest out there," that it is natural for people to feel scrutiny and to want to counter-argue that.

And so a story helps to bypass that scrutiny.

Second thing is the self-referencing effect.

This is when a reader pictures themselves inside someone else's story.

Also a really good use case for empathy.

So it feels like a mental rehearsal that takes people out of their objection and into their potential.

Again, you hear me talk a lot about problem versus potential.

That's what the self-referencing effect is.

It helps people go from, "I don't think I can do this alone," to, "I think I can do this with your help." And obviously with your help means that they're putting themselves on the other side of the paywall.

And then social proof.

Talk about social proof a lot.

A lot of times it is synonymous, synonymized with testimonials, but also storytelling helps us get social proof.

Basically saying that a real person, just like the reader, somebody who has the same objections and pain points and fears, gets permission to see themselves on the other side of their problem.