NLP storytelling can be a remarkably effective tool when used correctly. Mastery of persuasion requires the understanding and application of specialized techniques that many esteemed figures ranging from businessmen to world leaders have put to use. You may have used NLP techniques before in advertising, but they have the most potential when they are interwoven into natural dialog. Association with the audience is essential because people are much more receptive to someone they can relate to. You must learn to show, not tell.
Stories can serve as vessels for your message, sort of like a Trojan horse. Your audience receives your information in the form of a relatable anecdote that’s easier to digest and understand than blatant marketing, and eventually this story will manifest itself in the recipients mind as a belief or call to action. Believe it or not, a fantastic example of NLP in storytelling is children’s television shows and cartoons. The actual story arc and plot of the episodes keeps them interested and engaged, and as the show finishes there is almost always a lesson to take away from the episode. Kids aren’t watching these shows because they want a lesson in ethics and morality, they want to be entertained. However, the writers of these shows use that craving for entertainment to inject positive messages that can subconsciously persuade children to make better choices. The same concept can be utilized for marketing, people don’t want to be persuaded to give up their hard-earned cash, they crave genuine communication and that’s exactly what you should give them, albeit with motives of your own.
Creating an effective NLP story is not difficult when you approach it in an organized fashion. First, you need to determine what it is you want the audience to do or not do. That’s what it comes down to, action or inaction. Most often it will be to buy a product, other times to donate to a charity. Maybe you want your audience to stay away from a competitor’s products. Once you have a clear and simple goal, the next step is to determine the elements of your story and the anchors that you want to attach to them.
The elements of your story are the center of your motives. If you’re selling your product and dissuading people from buying a competitor’s product, the elements of the story are the two different products. Keep in mind that the elements are not the stars of the story, the characters or events of the story are in the spotlight. Now it’s time to come up with some positive and negative anchors to attach to these elements. Anchors are separate entities that carry some sort of strong emotion either positive or negative. When we attach these anchors to our elements, they evoke strong responses from the audience. Good health, entertainment, and convenience are positive anchors. Bad appearance, poor quality, and dishonesty are negative anchors. You need to decide on some of these anchors for each entity involved based on your motives, and think of a way to weave these ideas into a cohesive narrative, perhaps in the form of a testimonial or personal anecdote.
Let’s take a look at an example. We are selling an acne treatment called Acne Stomper, and we are in direct competition with the makers of Acne Assassin. These are the two different elements of the story. After taking a look at the elements and doing a bit of brainstorming, we come up with some good ideas for anchors that can work together in a testimonial. We want to make the claim that our acne product improves appearance by moisturizing as it eliminates acne. At the same time, we want to claim that the competitor’s product can prolong embarrassment and overall is not as effective as our product. In order to put this in a testimonial, we can have a relatable teenager tell a story about how they had acne all through high school and no acne treatment product worked for them. They can even connect with the audience on a more detailed level by telling a horror story about having acne during prom because of the ineffectiveness of their acne treatment.
We can then work our positive anchors into the story by showing the same teenager with a clear complexion and talking about how much better it is to have soothing moisturized skin. They can talk about how their social life improved after using our product. Maybe they got themselves a nice date too.
NLP storytelling is simple when you break the process down enough to think the way a consumer thinks. Simply persuade them using a realistic and possible scenario that your desired call to action will genuinely benefit them, and you will have used their own motives and desires to achieve your own.
