Do you want your clients to remember your name and your brand for years? Do you want your message to be the only thing in your prospect’s head when you go in for the close? Yes, you do. To do that, you need to tell the right stories.
Why?
Because people are hardwired to remember stories better than anything else.
I’ll give you an example: let’s say some random guy stumbles across one of my blogs or videos. This guy’s a gym rat, but he doesn’t have any serious ambitions of starting his own fitness business…not yet. Still, he sticks around to read/watch my stuff. A few months later, when he’s completely forgotten my advice (should’ve taken notes, kid) he hears my name in conversation. What does he say then?
“Bedros Keuilian…he’s that guy with the crab story, right?”
THEN, if he ever does decide to get off his butt and become a real fitness professional, my name shoots to the front of his mind.
People remember stories. Use them to close clients and make your brand unforgettable.
Story #1 – The Origin Story
How did you first get into fitness, anyway?
“Oh come on, Bedros, my story’s not that interesting. Nobody wants to hear it.”
What, were you a fat kid who one day decided to turn things around? Discovered your lifelong passion while getting in shape for prom? I hear some version of that story every day, and you know what? I never get tired of hearing it. Why? Because that story is inspiring and relatable.
It also happens to be my story.
And it’s exactly the kind of story that will make your clients love you.
A lot of people out there have developed this weird idea that being in shape is only for a certain “type” of person…and they’re not that type. This can be part of the resistance that comes up when you try to sell them on fitness program.
So, if your fitness journey began in an unlikely place (especially if you used to be “too busy” or “too poor”) your own origin story can be a great way to conquer your prospect’s resistance. You can be their living proof that someone like them can get fit.
AND they’ll remember that bit of info when it’s time to close because people remember stories.
Story #2 – The Scary Story
You do need to be careful with this story because you don’t want your prospect associating you with feelings of fear.
What you DO want is for your prospect to be afraid of all the alternative outcomes that come from not signing up with you.
For example, they should be terrified of gym memberships. You and I already know why: for most people, they just don’t work. But how do you get your prospect to remember that?
Let’s start with the facts. One year after signing up, only 11% of gym members are still using the gym, and only 3% are getting results. Those 3% are mostly fitness professionals, athletes, models, and actors – people whose livelihoods depend on staying in shape. What they have, and what 97% don’t have, is a system of accountability and the advice of fitness experts.
Now you could just go ahead and blurt out all these facts to your prospect. For a tiny fraction of people, that will work. But if you really want the message to stick, you need to spin it into a story.
For example:
“I want you to picture 100 people who are all out of shape. These people all sign up for a gym membership on the same day. Fast forward one year. What do these people look like now? I’ll tell you: 3 of those people are in awesome shape, they look so good you could put ‘em on TV. The next 8 people are in sort of okay shape, but they hardly look any different from before. The other 89 people? Those people are in even worse shape than when they started.”
“How could this happen? Well, it starts with all 100 people wandering into the gym without any guidance. They just hop on the machines, start picking stuff up, and figure it out as they go. Maybe they actually do their research and establish an exercise routine. They lose 5-6 pounds over the course of a few months and think ‘Great! I’m making progress!’”
“Give them another month. Now their bodies have plateaued and they aren’t losing weight. They haven’t changed or optimized their routine at all because nobody told them how. One by one, those 89 people quit and go back to living their old, unhealthy lifestyles. Those other 8, out of OCD or maybe sheer stubbornness, stick to their boring routine that they know isn’t getting results. Fast forward to the one-year mark, and there you have it: 97 people who have wasted a ton of time and money with 0 results.”
“Huh? Those other 3? You mean the actor, the athlete, and the model? I wasn’t kidding when I said they were good for TV. They came in with a small army of personal trainers. And they have a live-in chef. And their livelihood depends on them staying fit as possible. Basically, their gym membership is not what got them in shape.”
Feel free to tweak that story to fit your situation: copywriting, sitting down with a prospect, etc. If you really want to spice it up, try putting in names of people you know and spin it into a personal story.
Story #3 – The Testimonial
You already know that testimonials are a must-have for your marketing strategy, but do you know why?
“Yeah, so I can show off my results.”
Wrong.
If you just wanted to show off results you could get that done with statistics or with before and after photos (as you should).
But the real reason why you need testimonials is because they are the most relatable stories in your arsenal.
When your prospect reads a really good testimonial from one of your clients, they think “Hey, that person sounds like me! I could get results like that too! I need to sign up for the same program they used.”
See how your prospect inserted themselves into the story of your testimonial? See how your program suddenly became the most important program in the world? That’s part of what makes stories so powerful: they make the facts personal.
Remember: a testimonial rarely brings any new info to the table. In my example, your prospect probably already knew about your program and your results. But the story took that same info and made it personal, which means you got to close the sale.
So get out there, tell the right stories, and make your brand unstoppable.
Committed to your success,
Bedros