Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact by Annette Simmons

Author:Annette Simmons
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9780814449141
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2015-05-19T14:00:00+00:00

Framing

When setting up an I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking story, remember that it is much easier to exert influence if you can control the sequence of information that best supports your point of view. For instance, the “after” pictures that advertise a diet wouldn’t sell many diet plans without the “before” pictures. I highly recommend Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini.6 One of my favorite examples from his book cites a letter from a college freshman to her parents. In the beginning of her letter, she tells her parents that her skull fracture is healing, the fire wasn’t so bad after the janitor offered to let her stay with him, and oh, by the way, they are expecting a baby together. Her last paragraph reveals that there was no skull fracture, no fire, no janitor, and no pregnancy, but she did get a “D” in chemistry and just wanted to put the bad grade into the proper perspective.

Perspective can make a $100 donation seem huge (feed a family for a year) and tiny (one month of mocha lattes) in the same letter. Fundraisers improve perceptions of target donation amounts by listing that amount as a second option dwarfed by a huge amount in the first option. Saying “no” to a first request leaves a donor with a lingering sense of obligation that increases the likelihood of a “yes” to the second request. Children learn this trick early. The question “Mommy, can Billy and I ride our bikes to the gun show?” gets a quick “no” that makes the next question, “Then can Billy come over to play?” seem like a bargain.

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