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"No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story" - Daniel Kahneman
Should you tell stories to sell more? Only if you're smart.
Mike S.
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Take a look at the glazed look of this lizard. Bored, listless, brain dead. This is how your customers feel when they see a typical sales presentation.
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"You are Better, Faster & Cheaper? How Fascinating..."
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No Point Without a Story
Think back to a speech or sales presentation you saw over 30 days ago, and think back to how many
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All the reasons we're so great
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points you can remember. If you are like most people, you'll remember only one or two.
A good rule of thumb is you can convey one important point every 20 minutes. One hour sales call? Three points. As you try to cram more wonderful facts and benefits about your offer, the customer will overload and end up retaining less and less. Here's a good sequence: B-E-E:
- Big Idea - Your desired takeaway
- Explain - What it is & why it's important
- Example - Illustrate with a story
When you provide one B-E-E every 20 minutes, you are teaching and selling at a pace your customers can understand, absorb, and retain.
No Story Without a Point
We will describe a "Story Arc" and classic ways to construct a story next
 month. Just remember your story needs to relate to your main point, and have a human element that engages your customer. Provide some color, background, and context to make the story interesting.
Why are Most Sales Stories Boring?
Most sales stories are dreadful. No drama, no humor,
 no action, no tension, no compelling reason anyone should care. How many presentations have you endured that spoke ONLY about the company, the product, the salesperson, and how wonderful they all were?
Great stories grab the customer's attention and transport them into the thick of the action. They resonate and connect because they speak to the number one thing they care about most, their own situation and problem.
Bad Problem = Great Story
Nobody cares about your hangnail and how it healed
. They'll be riveted by your experience being bitten by a shark off the coast of Mexico. Look for the biggest problems, the worst nightmares, the worst blunders. Where do you find these? Usually after somebody makes a bad decision!
Bad Guys Make Stories Fun
If you want your customers to "root for the good guys", it pays to create some interesting bad guys. A "bad guy" in a business context might be a government regulation, a budgetary restriction, a bad customer service department, a defective product, or any number of other things.
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How Boring is Batman without the Villains?
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Try telling more stories as part of your selling presentation. Remember the B-E-E formula. One story per major point, and no more than one major takeaway every 20 minutes. Tell a story a customer can relate to, and mix in challenges, problems, and villains! Presto! Memorable story!
Next month, I'll get into different types of selling stories and how to construct them for maximum impact and effectiveness.
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WEBINARS
Webcast
Point-Counterpoint:
"Traditional Sales & Marketing are Dead"
Sales Webcast
"50 Ways to Win New Business"
Sales Webcast
"Seven Game Changing Ideas"
For Winning
New Business
Channel Partners
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Sales Leadership
Peer Group
"Question-Based Selling"
South Beach, Miami
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Here is your chance to see if you are as smart as you think you are.
Think of a difficult or impossible Sales Management problem. Enter it into the question box below.
Mike will provide deep insight into your dilema, based on his 25 years of Sales Management experience. Or not. It depends on how silly the question is. E-Mail Mike at:
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If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If you are just looking for the "unsubscribe" option, it's below.
"Carpe Dinero" = Seize the Money.
Sincerely,
Mike Schmidtmann
(703) 408-9103
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Feel free to SWIPE* any ideas you find useful, and "pay it forward!
*Steal With Integrity, Purpose and Enthusiasm"
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