Uses of stories as selling tools

I learned the use of teaching stories when getting my doctorate in clinical hypnotherapy. However, as I learned about such uses I discovered that all good persuaders use teaching stories to convince and effect their audience on many different levels.
A master in the use of teaching stories was Jesus. He used parables to get into the deep unconscious of his audience and attracted thousands who came from afar to listen to him.

A modern master in the use of metaphors (another name for such teaching stories with hypnotherapy) was Milton H. Erickson who was the best hypnotherapist ever. Erickson did more to bring hypnotherapy into modern medicine and psychiatry than anyone else. Thanks to his work, in 1958, AMA (American Medical Association) accepted hypnosis as a complimentary filed as part of modern medicine.

A good teaching story works on multiple levels and affects both your conscious and your unconscious. Often these stories are funny and paradoxical and always easy to remember and they effect us deep down within (the unconscious).

According to Dr. Rosen one of Erickson’s pupils: Erickson stood on the line between healer and poet, scientist and bard.  By use of these teaching tales Erickson communicated on many levels to different parts of the psyche.    He would include humor (like the Zen and Sufi tales), puns and other word games and would include interesting facts (from medicine, psychology, anthropology).  The stories were real stories (I.E. have beginning, middle, and end   plot and structure), and. would often build to a climax with a surprise ending which gave a feeling of relief or success.

Basically telling any story is a much better technique than giving facts. Make your stories real (both in term if having a beginning, middle, end and being real stories on how your product helped someone in similar situation). If sell in person (as opposed to online) have stories ready for all potential objections to your product and use the stories as needed..

When selling online, note that testimonials are basically stories. If they can have aspects of teaching stories so much better.

I use funny teaching stories in all my seminars. These break the ice, produce rapport with the audience, and off course all the stories are put in the seminars for a reason and that is to teach a point about the seminar. I do not believe just putting in jokes in talks and seminars for the sake of making people laugh but the audience may laugh while learning.

Many of my teaching stories come from Sufi and Zen sources and use the wise fool Mullah Nasrudin.