Since the first caveman figured out how to tie a sharp rock to the end of a sturdy stick with a piece of vine, and hack off slabs of mastodon meat with it for fire roasting, storytelling has been the way knowledge has been passed from one person to another.

Around the campfire blaze, the tribal members would gather, the little children gazing cautiously out from behind their parents, their eyes shining wide like silver dollars, listening... The grizzled old witch Doctor"can you hear his crackling voice, as he spins a yarn of bygone days?

There is learning in the story"how to surround and kill a wholly mammoth, the cunning exploits of the ancient clansman, how the old man survived a vicious storm. There are stories of love and war, of the discovery of magical potions and incantations, of the wicked cannibals to the east.

Since the dawn of time, stories have been the conduit of learning... the sacred baton, passed from one generation to the next... without which, human development would stand still.

We are creatures of story...

Just the other day I was reviewing a lead generation campaign a client sent me for critique. He had also sent me some of his competitors marketing materials, and I looked at them too.

My young marketing friend had taken the same lifeless approach as his opponents. He had begun as most corporate advertisers do, with a lifeless litany of meaningless platitudes. It was about as interesting as warmed over oatmeal gone cold.

"Suppose you were the customer, " I said to my friend. "Be him for a minute. Realize that he faces stacks of these things, they're piling up to the ceiling in his office, these dry institutional marketing pieces he must read on his employer's time. No wonder he hates sales people and marketers. He is drowning in their paper excrement. Can you see him? He wants to burn the piles up.

Suddenly something snaps...

He goes mad. He grabs the brochure on the top of the pile, rips off the top sheet, lights a match to it and now, laughing, slobbering all over himself, he feeds the little fire, a page at a time.

He drops the burning marketing package to the floor, and adds others to it until he has a large fire roaring in the center of his office. You can see him madly feeding the flames with sales letter after sales letter until he comes to yours. He picks it up. It's the last one left. By this time the drapes have caught fire and the place is turning into an inferno. He stops for a moment to read the last sales copy he will ever see. And what does he read?

XYZ Company is a leading communication solutions provider with a world-class portfolio of Connectivity, Infrastructure Management and IT Services. Because your thoughts, ideas and business requirements are entirely unique, XYZ Company believes our role is to equip your business with leading-edge communication solutions specific to your goals. XYZ Company collaborates with you to better understand your business, its challenges and how it operates. Not until then do we determine what you need - and what you don't. Our three main areas of business are:

"Can't you see that poor sod?", I said. "With your sales letter in his hands he lets out one last horrible scream, throws your stuff into the fire, and is about to jump in after it when, just in time, he is rescued by a big burly fireman who smashes down the door to his office and rushes in... Why not save the poor man's life in the first place by beginning your sales letter with a benefit riddled story?"

I could have said to my client, "Your copy is too formal and traditional and somewhat lacking in originality." He would likely have forgotten all about it the next time he sat down to write. But he will never forget the story of the mad purchasing agent burning his office down.

Telling stories and listening to stories are the behaviors that most distinguish us as a species. We discriminate as adults, in many ways, based on our primary experiences"the stories of our childhood. They are forever implanted, in both our conscious and unconscious. The drama of movies, TV, and the theater are storytelling. Jokes are short stories. The parables of the Bible are stories.

Storytelling is in our blood. So is listening to stories and relating to them. Ergo, story is the most powerful structure you can possibly use to build any sales argument.

When you open your copy with a story, you disarm your prospect's natural aversion to being sold, and engage them in a way "ad speak" never can. This in turn dramatically increases the odds of having them actively consider the reasons why they should want your product, and moves you dramatically closer to making the sale.