If our storytelling allows us to build trust, build credibility, build a bond, and increase sales, then we’re telling the right stories. If it’s just designed to be manipulative, then save your breath.
David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the power of storytelling in sales. Jay, tell me a story.
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Jay: Listen, I am a storyteller. I love to tell stories and I like to build when I tell stories, right? And so this is something that I use on a regular basis when I’m talking to people and it’s not just telling a story.
I think it’s putting people in a story and what character are they in that story? And I think most people want to be the hero in their own story, right?
David: They do. which gets to the whole idea of the hero’s journey and all that kind of stuff for anybody who follows that sort of storyline or that
Jay: mm-hmm.
David: type of story arc, The Hero’s Journey by Campbell, I can’t think of his first name. But it’s a book and it describes essentially the plot of most of the most popular movies of all time.
Jay: Yeah,
David: Right. Star Wars, Rocky, anything where you’ve got this person who is initially kind of beaten down and not winning, and then they come in contact with a mentor and then they learn new things and they have a confrontation and it might not go well, and then they learn some more things and then eventually they come out triumphant.
There’s a whole arc. And you’re right, a lot of people want to be the hero, and the challenge as a salesperson is, in our storytelling, we can’t be the hero.
Mm. Right.
We need to make sure that the person we’re talking to is the hero and that we are the mentor or guide. We’re not Luke Skywalker. We have to be Yoda. We have to be the one who’s helping Luke to destroy the Death Star.
Jay: Yeah. This is a really hard thing, I think for a lot of people. Because we want to go in and think we’re the hero, right? I’m coming into your business. I’m going to provide something that is going to save the day, and then I’m going to walk away and you’re going to praise me and you’re going to pay me.
But that’s not what really is supposed to be happening, right? It’s that I have the tools and the resources that you need to be the hero.
David: Yes, and it’s easy to forget that, particularly when we’re trying to read ourselves in as the hero to each story. But one of the things that I’ve noticed in sales is that many, if not most of the very best salespeople are also the best storytellers.
You can say. “Hi, do you know what time it is?” And instead of getting the time, you will get a fantastic story that might weave the time into it.
Jay: Mm.
David: But you’re going off in all kinds of directions, and when they do it right, it’s captivating enough that you sit there and pay attention.
Jay: Yeah. But you pointed out “when you do it right.”
David: Yes.
Jay: Right. so let’s talk about that a little bit. Let’s talk about your feedback on doing it right.
David: Well, number one, as we already touched on, it can’t just be all about you. You can’t make the story about yourself. You need to make it about them, and a lot of that upfront comes from finding out about them, which means you’re asking more questions, then you’re answering, hopefully in the early stages.
Jay: Yes
David: Because customers always just want to know what it’s going to cost upfront, and you don’t generally want to lead off with that. So a lot of our storytelling will actually have to come from the conversations that ensue after we’ve gathered enough information.
Jay: Yeah.
David: To know what those stories need to be about. If we just go in and we meet somebody for the first time and we start telling them stories, that’s probably not ideal. We need to still initially do some sort of diagnostic upfront to find out what their interests are.
Now, of course, a lot of salespeople, they do the whole thing about walking into the office, looking around, oh, I see a big buck hanging up there on the,
Jay: mm-hmm.
David: On the wall. The person’s a hunter. You start talking to them about hunting, that type of thing. And, it’s very obvious. It works in some situations to break the ice, so you can ask the person. Because the other thing about storytelling is it doesn’t just have to be you telling stories. If you can get the prospect to be telling stories to you, then they’ll be more likely to engage in a longer conversation because most people are more interested in hearing what they have to say versus what somebody else has to say.
Jay: Yeah.
David: So sometimes you can just let somebody talk for a long time and they feel like they had the best conversation, even though the salesman didn’t say anything at all.
Jay: Yeah, I’ve had people like look at the pictures on the wall and stuff, and that can come off as so plastic and so fake.
But I do think the most important thing is to get them talking. And the more talking they do and the less talking you do, the better off those things are. If you can get them to be the storyteller and then you can help them improve that story or tell them how that story’s going to get better, that’s the zone where you want to be.
David: Yeah, exactly. And I think that a good sales process does that, in the sense that when you’re leading off with intelligent, probing questions that don’t come across as intrusive -it can’t be like you’re giving them the third degree. You got a light shining in their face.
Jay: Yeah.
David: And you’re trying to get information out of them. It can’t be anything like that. But if you’re asking intelligent, probing questions and you’re finding out about them, they’re going to open up more. And the more they talk, the better it is for you. Another thing that a lot of salespeople do is they mistakenly ask yes or no questions. They ask binary questions instead of open-ended questions.
If you ask an open-ended question, they’re likely to talk more, which is going to allow the conversation to flow a lot more organically. They can tell stories. You can then potentially tell some sort of story about something that relates to something they said.
Again, keeping it focused on them and what they need and what they’re looking to do. For salespeople, case studies, testimonials, things like that can be good stories as long as they’re not just being forced down people’s throats.
If somebody’s talking about a promotion that they did or something that they did in the past that worked well, then you can acknowledge that. “Wow, that’s great. That sounds like that was really amazing. We had a similar situation with a client where this happened or that happened,” and then you can relate with that story.
But that also brings up another thing. If somebody tells a story, then you don’t want to try to tell a story that’s designed to sound better than theirs.
Mm-hmm.
Right? So you don’t want to change gears. But if you can establish some sort of comradery among them by indicating that you’ve had similar experiences, then your stories will go a lot farther.
Jay: Yeah. And I think a couple things from my own experience: don’t interrupt. Don’t cut them off. Right? Let them talk. But I think where people really miss out and you know that I interview people for part of my living, right?
David: Mm-hmm.
Jay: And I’ve been a professional interviewer for 20 years, and I find that the key is not the initial question. Yes, ask open-ended question. That’s very, very important. But the key is always the follow-up question, and that’s where people fall down.
They ask the question, they got the person talking, and then they dive into their product spiel, right? If you ask a follow-up question, it shows that you’re listening. It shows that you’re interested. And it will take you places that you never ever thought you could go.
Like I have interview s where people send a list of questions and I’m like, just so you know going to ask you follow up questions and we’ll bounce around, and those kind of things.
And by the time they’re done, they’re energized and they just feel so appreciated. and it’s because of active listening and good follow up questions.
David: Yes. And that is so completely critical in sales.
Jay: Yeah.
David: People who don’t get that are at a tremendous disadvantage. You know, one of the big advantages of storytelling is that it allows you to potentially infuse emotion into an emotionless conversation.
Jay: Mm-hmm.
David: A lot of sales conversations are very sort of clinical and product oriented and detail oriented and price oriented, and it’s hard to get somebody into the zone. It’s hard to get them emotionally positive about the idea of buying something without being able to trigger something inside.
Otherwise, it’s just a list of details and facts and specifications where if we can get them engaged with how they feel about what the product or service is going to do for them, the end result that they’re getting. What’s the thing that they want to have happen as a result of engaging in this promotion or doing whatever it is that they’re going to do?
If they can tell you that and get themselves into a state of enthusiasm over your product, they’re going to be a hundred times more likely to buy it.
Jay: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think that the natural fallback for salespeople is to focus on specifications. You know, I’ve been there on the car lot and the guy wants to show me all the specifics and horsepower and all those things.
And then I’ve had people talk about, what are my goals and focusing more on my life than on this particular one item. It really shows, you know, more caring and that they’re more interested in me.
David: It does, and you also have to be aware of the person you’re talking to. Because sometimes people will hear something like that and they’re like, I don’t want to get into that.
Jay: Yeah.
David: Just tell me how much it costs, or whatever.
Jay: Yeah.
David: And for some, that might be a disqualifier, right?
Jay: Mm-hmm.
David: And for others you say, okay, well I’ll provide the information. I’ll see if this goes anywhere. But a lot of times when people are unwilling to communicate at a deeper level, to me it indicates they’re not a good quality prospect to be interacting with.
I was talking with someone earlier today. I had a situation where they booked a strategy session call with us and like had absolutely no idea why they were calling and
Jay: mm,
David: And so there was a video that they went to, to watch. He hadn’t watched the video and he is, he didn’t know why he was calling. And I said, well, listen, out of respect for your time, why don’t we do this? Take a look at the video, see if it makes sense for us to have a conversation. If it does, we can go back here and regroup. And he said, okay, fine. Right. So the call was over in three or four minutes.
Jay: Yeah.
David: But it was respectful for both of us. It was respectful of his time. It’s respectful of mine, and I think that all sales conversations need to do that. They need to be respectful of both the prospect and the salesperson. And too often, as salespeople, we feel so sort of humbled or so disadvantaged or whatever it is. we always put the needs of the prospect first.
You’ve heard the customer’s always, right.
Jay: Yeah.
David: Which is not always true.
Jay: Agreed.
David: But you want to treat them as if it is. Particularly in the early stages, until you find out that it’s not the truth. But in those situations, if you recognize that your time is just as valuable as theirs, we all have a certain number of ticks on the clock.
We don’t know what that number is. We want to make sure that we’re spending our time as well as possible, as productively as possible, with the people who are on the same wavelength and who are ready to interact with us.
Jay: Yeah. And that goes back to the podcast we did recently about pre-qualifying people and really finding out ahead of time if they really, you know, fit within your business model and those kind of things.
But, you know, a lot of times you’re not going to know unless you just start talking to somebody and you start asking them questions and I think if you’re doing this right, it’s not going to feel plastic, it’s not going to feel fake. I have a genuine desire to learn about people and to find out about them.
David: Yeah.
Jay: And you know, if that’s what you’re doing, they’re going to sense that. If you’re just doing it to, okay, now let’s cut to the chase and let’s get to the details and hopefully I can sell you. They’ll sense that too,
David: Right. Yeah. I think that if our storytelling allows us to build trust, Build credibility, build a bond, then we’re telling the right stories.
If it’s just designed to distract and be a shiny object to try to get them to tell something. If it’s designed to be manipulative, then save your breath.
Jay: Yeah, absolutely. How do people find out more, David?
David: You can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with myself or my team. There’s actually a video right on that page. What I would encourage you to do, it says at the top right there, before you schedule a call, watch this video.
So take a look at that, get an idea of how we’re helping other people, what it does for other people. If it makes sense for you, then you can just scroll down and you can schedule a call and we can work with you essentially to find out where you are now in your business versus where you want to be.
We can look at your visibility in the marketplace. How are you doing in terms of visibility, in terms of sales, in terms of profit? And just walk you through a couple of things will allow you to maybe think more clearly in terms of how you can get from where you are now to where you want to be.
So it’s TopSecrets.com/call. Love to have a conversation with you.
Jay: And I’m sure you’ll tell ’em a great story.
David: I just might!
Jay: David. It’s always a pleasure.
David: Thanks Jay.
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2 replies to "The Power of Storytelling to Increase Sales"
Thank you!! Love this! How would I ask good follow up questions when at a network meeting. Usually we get one minute, or less, to share what we do. Any tips on the “elevator” 60 sec talk to share? I want to focus on them and there is such a variety of companies that attend. I want a great story! 🙂
Linda,
It sounds like you’re really asking about three different topics, so let’s hit them one at a time:
1. How would I ask good follow up questions when at a network meeting? The primary purpose of attending a networking meeting is to leave with contact information from qualified prospects. That means you’re asking questions about them befire ever sharing information about you. So good questions are qualifying questions, designed to determine if they need what you have to offer. For example, if you’re talking to a small business owner, you might ask what kind of customers they’re trying to attract, and how they get the attention of the people they’re trying to meet. Most will be happy to talk about themselves. If you determine that the person has no need, desire or interest, then you can quickly wrap up the conversation. But if they seem like a good prospect, you can ask for their business card or contact information so you can continue the conversation after the networking event. But definitely start by making it all about them and only share details about yourself if you determine they have a need.
2. 60 second elevator pitch. I think this is a bit of an outdated approach, since few people will sit or stand still for someone talking about themselves for 60 seconds. Instead, I suggest a single sentence, that is intersting enough to get them to ask you about what you said. For example, if someone asks what you do, and you say, “I sell promotional products,” it’s potentially a dead-end because they may then think, “uh oh, this person is going to try to sell me something. I better get out of this conversation.” But if you respond with an “I help” statement that is about them, then they’ll be more inclined to listen and ask for more information. So, for example, if you say, “I help [people like them] get [a result they might want], they’ll be more likely to engage. For example, if you’re talking to a business owner who asks what you do, you could say, “I help business owners get more of the customers they need to help them grow.” If you were talking to a human resources director you might say, “I help human resource directors to attract and retain more of their ideal employees.” Once again, the goal is to pique their curiosity and get them to say, “how do you do that?” As soon as they ask that question, they’ve given you (limited) permission to sell. So you could respond with something like, “I create low cost customer acquisition promotions” or “I create affordable employee retention promotions.” When you make it about them, they’ll engage longer.
3. Great stories. In sales, case studies (particularly success stories) can be extremely compelling, especially if they’re about people just like them. So if you’re talking to a doctor, it’s about how you helped other doctors. If you can’t match professions, then it should be about how you got someone else a result the same person might also want.
This is a really big topic related to Targeting, Messaging and Sequencing Your Communication, which are all things we work on with our Total Market Domination clients.