Rhetoric & Storytelling

If you are an expert, business owner, consultant or sales professional no doubt you want to more regularly and smoothly attract and sign up your ideal clients.?

How do you do that??

Well I would argue through better storytelling?

However, many experts HATE the methods of modern marketing which entail bragging online, showing copious selfies in luxurious locations or otherwise endlessly talking about themselves.?

You might feel, If this is telling your story, then:

NO THANK YOU!!?

What is important to notice is the difference between rhetoric and storytelling and when and where to use both.?

Rhetoric is an ancient art form - the art of persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and structures such as the rule of thirds or the use of hyperbole or rhetorical questions.

It’s an ancient artform in which language is designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect and is used often by leaders, public speakers, politicians, and school debate classes.?

When marketers speak to their audience, they often mistake? talking about their product, or talking about themselves or their results as “telling their story,” however more often than not,? they are simply applying the techniques of persuasive speech.?

Brand storytelling on the other hand applies the use of narrative to move your ideal client towards a sale.?

The classic example is Apple’s catchphrase:

1000 songs in your pocket

Suddenly we have a vision and a feeling attached to the scenario; a desire achieved and a lived outcome.?

Narrative engages the logic AND emotion parts of our brain, it stimulates the imagination and memory, and releases the chemicals required for trust, empathy and belief.?

Even the most seasoned investor or senior CSuite executive will decide based on a gut feeling. [Yes one tested by rigorous fact checking and analysis, but one of trust and belief nonetheless.]?

Narrative and storytelling are an essential part of the sales process because by telling a story, you are involving your audience IN the sales process.?

It’s them feeling the feelings and experiencing the outcomes.??

So back to our question - how does an expert tell powerful stories and not fall into the traps of modern brag marketing??

We have established that speaking persuasively about a product, a service or results is NOT storytelling

HOWEVER, we do use rhetorical means as a character in the story.?

Just like Julius Caesar used rhetorical expressions:

Friends, Romans, Countrymen,

...he also played a role in the story.?

Not only was he a character in Shakespeare’s play, he was also a character in the story of Rome.?

The Caesars were deified as gods and worshiped as such.

Every time they spoke, they played a role in a narrative carefully crafted to maintain their status and influence over the people of Rome.?

While no one suggests that as CEO or expert you should establish your divine status to further persuade your ideal client to trust you,?

However, in your brand storytelling you are creating a character.?

You are creating a world within which your story works.?

They are creating a shared language, a shared enemy, a shared journey and a shared outcome.?

As an expert you are styling yourself as something of a sage king [or Queen], a mentor or guide yes,?

You should be the embodiment of the ethical ideals of your world.?

If you don’t like modern bragging marketing then probably you don’t belong in their brand story or their world.?

Your job is to create a world and story and a character that is representative of your ideal client and who you are in relationship to them.?

Ultimately, effective brand storytelling invites the target audience INTO a story to see, feel and experience something.?

Our story becomes about them, their feelings, their experiences, their memories and their motivations, our role in the story is one of mentor and guide or sage King or Queen.?

While rhetoric is not in itself storytelling, as long as we ARE inviting our ideal client into a story, our use of rhetoric only moves the story forward.?

So instead of ragging on the marketers who are using persuasive tactics and spruiking their results - look carefully at what story they are telling, what world they are building, how they are deifying themselves to attract a certain audience.?

Then create your own world, make it authentically about your ideal client, their journey, their ethics and instill your own self as a mentor-guide that is authentically you.?

And ultimately attract more of your ideal clients and close more deals.?