What makes a sales or marketing story interesting and motivates a prospective client to pay attention? How do we develop and communicate a message so that gets attention? The most effective sales stories are the ones that enable the listener or reader to picture a desired outcome. In other words, you need to paint a picture with your words.
Far too often sales stories are little more than a restating of the obvious. While this may be the safe path to travel, it’s not a particularly interesting one, which is why it is so important to have an opinion about your particular area of expertise.
Although that sounds perfectly fine in theory, what exactly does developing a different opinion mean? How do we do that? One of the easiest methods is to develop a system or process for implementing your particular type of solution. Thus, the opinion becomes that your process is what works. When people mess up the implementation phase, it’s usually because they fail to follow the process, or do things out of order.
Another alternative is to develop a contrarian point of view. What is the prevailing belief among people in your field? Why might that opinion be incorrect? It’s true that people are attracted to those who have a strong opinion and will tend to give them a greater look. It’s the people who get stuck in the middle of the bell-shaped curve who are ignored..
Unfortunately far too many fledgling storytellers think that they can just get away with making it up as they go along. After all, we’ve told stories to each other since we were children. Are we not taking something that is pretty simple and trying to make it complicated?
The reality is that there is a huge difference between communicating a story to your friends and telling a sales story that is designed to get you more referrals, differentiate you from the competition or help you close more sales.
To develop that type of sales story you need to start at the end. First you must determine what the point is that you want to make? What do you want your listener or reader to do once they have heard the story? That is the only way that you’ll construct a story that truly advances the sales process.
The true purpose of a great sales story is not to just entertain. It’s to accelerate the selling cycle or create an initial level of curiosity about who you are and what you do. While simply speaking off the cuff may work in social situations, a more calculated approach is what is needed in the highly competitive sales arena.
Tags: sales prospecting, sales rep training, sales training, selling services, training in sales
