Stories are attention-grabbers. They engage your customer’s emotions and motivate them to act.

Here are five reasons why stories have become an essential business tool:

• You get your customer’s attention: “Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story,” asserts Jonathan Gottschall. “No matter how hard we concentrate, no matter how deep we dig in our heels, we just can’t resist the gravity of alternate worlds…If the storyteller is skilled, he simply invades us and takes over.”
• You light up his imagination: A story conveys a sweeping visual of the facts rather than just a list of information. Stories spur your audience to create images and fill in details that relate the story to their own situations.
• Stories teach and prepare us: Stories represent situations we might face one day, and present solutions we might use. Thus, a story can tell how a product or idea will work, how it will deliver a benefit, and what experience it will provide.
• Stories create a lasting bond: Sharing stories creates common experiences and unite people around ideas and offerings.
• Motivate action: People are more likely to act in response to an emotional message conveyed through a story than when just presented with facts.