Damned Lies and Statistics’ is a phrase popularised by, and sometimes erroneously attributed to, Mark Twain.
It speaks to the malleability of ‘Facts and Figures’ when seeking to convey a point of view and grant it some degree of authority — because of course, if you provide independent evidence that seemingly supports your argument, then it should be that much more persuasive!
Right? Wrong; Facts and Figures alone are not persuasive. They are cold, dull, and decidedly unengaging. It is the story that is woven around them that becomes persuasive; the story that engages our emotions, challenges us to think, and drives us to react.
Successful Sales and Marketing professionals know this, either by instinct or training.
Early on in my career I attended a Sales Training course and got into a lengthy discourse with the instructor about the importance of clear facts and figures as part of the sales process. I was adamant that if we produced clear evidence that a particular product performed better, was better value and had a track record of satisfied customers; then the ‘selling’ was all but done; it would be a clear and logical decision. Why would anyone not choose the ‘obviously’ better product? [I did say this was EARLY in my career :)]
In contrast, the course instructor was equally adamant that “facts were not persuasive” — he was not arguing that they didn’t have a role to play, but that the selling process had very little to do with the facts of the matter.
Much later in my career, I attended a different sales course that taught the Solution Selling™ methodology — on the first day, the buying process was summarised in a very clear and succinct manner:
We buy emotionally for logical reasons!
In recent times, we have faced torrents of ‘Fake News’. These stories are designed to engage and challenge our emotion-based decisions. We’ve typically ‘decided upon’ these views after having read a clear and authoritative ‘narrative’ about this issue or that or we’ve already been beguiled by a well-crafted story.
Afterwards, mere facts and figures would not be effective in persuading us to change or at least question our comfortable, justified position. In most cases, if we are sent a fact-based challenge to the original ‘narrative’, we probably will not invest the time to even consider this opposing perspective. We are already emotionally invested in our Point of View.
This is the problem with ‘Narratives’ versus ‘Stories’…
Isn’t this just semantics? Aren’t Narratives and Stories just different words for the same thing?
Well actually no, they are not the same thing, but both do have their place in a communications and influence campaign.
At the 2018 NATO Strategic Communications conference in Riga, Alex Aitken, Executive Director, [UK] Government Communications stated during the panel Q&A (1h40m mark)
“A story is different to a narrative. A story has character, plot, setting, conflict, and resolution, whereas a narrative is an explanation of things.”
Alex Aitken, (UK GCS)
The power of Story is built into our core psyche.
We need to remember, a story does not mean a work of fiction. The oral tradition helped bring about the growth of civilisation and the advancement of humankind ever since.
Stories inspire! Stories scare us and keep us safe! Stories make us feel part of a community, and different stories can bring us into multiple communities.
