Story Selling Tips from Jeff Bezos

How To Use Story Details To Draw Your Audience In

This story about Jeff Bezos building door desks for Amazon’s first employees was told to me years ago by Tim Shisler. I never forgot it. Nor did Amazon’s early investors.

Details like a door desk is what draw your audience in and make your story memorable. 

When it comes to writing details think quality over quantity. Two or three striking details is all you really need to make your story stick instead of falling flat.

For example, if you’re describing an island paradise, you might paint a picture that the temperature was a perfect 72 degrees, you could feel the soft white sand between your toes and the sun was glistening off the choppy water — and then let your audience paint the rest of the beach scene for themselves. 

Did it work just now? Which beach did you go to in your mind?

Or if you’re playing peak basketball while dosed with NyQuil (🤣 an epic story born in our SambaSafety storytelling workshop), what was the color of the medicine you drank? Did you use the measuring cup or drink it right from the bottle? 

I’m a sucker for a good origin story. Slack, Spanx, and Fluid Truck’s founder stories all stuck with me after the first time I heard them because each had a sticky detail I just couldn’t shake.

Does your sales team have their story details dialed to differentiate from the competition and build a memorable pitch? If not, check out our storytelling workshops here and then let’s chat.