As a wise mentor of mine once said, “People don’t remember facts. They remember stories.” If you want more referrals for your business the key is to be top of mind when people have a need or learn about opportunities that make sense for you. As I learned from hard fought experience, simply educating people about what I did, simply wasn’t enough. In order to be remembered, I needed to make my services come alive through the use of unique sales stories.
Now, I will admit that this is hardly new news. Sales professionals have known for years that using metaphors, case studies and stories is a time honored method for standing out amid the competition. Which then raises the question, “Why are some people so good at this while others so painfully bad?”
It’s a bit like cooking. Most of us know the basics. So why are so few of us accomplished chefs? I think that great chefs are a lot like great storytellers. The key is that they understand how the ingredients fit together. They know when to add a “touch of this” or a dash of “that”. It’s part science but it’s also part art. I’m not sure that the art part can be taught, but the science of it certainly can. What that means is that while you may never publish the proverbial great American novel you can learn how to tell a story that gets your point across in a way that is both educational and memorable.
What great chefs and storytellers also share is a process that is more similar than dissimilar. By that I mean that they both begin with the end in mind. The great chef visualizes the outcome. The succulent crispy duck or the moist three layer chocolate and strawberry cake. They don’t simply start dumping ingredients into a bowel and hope that something delicious will emerge. They begin at the end which is the same thing that the gifted storyteller does as well.
However, unlike the chef, far too many fledgling storytellers think that they can just get away with “winging it”. After all we’ve told stories to each other for how many years? I mean, can it really be all that difficult?
Truth be told, there is a huge difference between telling a story to your friends and communicating a unique sales story to a prospect that will keep you in the front of their mind when they hear about opportunities that would be perfect for you.
Thus the first question you want to answer is what is the point that you want to make? This is a bit like working the puzzle maze backwards, or beginning with the end in mind.
For example, suppose I wanted to make the point that starting an entrepreneurial venture or small business is a path best traveled by those with a burning desire for independence? Now there’s nothing particularly earth shattering about that statement. It seems like common sense and the moment someone told you it, you’d probably forget all about it.
But suppose I really wanted to make that point? Perhaps I’m doing some career coaching and I’m concerned that the people I’m speaking with may be following the self-employment path for reasons that don’t make sense for them. If I really want to get the point across, what I want to do is tell a story. Like this:
My career has really had two distinct parts to it; corporate and self-employment. I had the great fortune to work for one of the great companies in the United States, Kraft Foods. It was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot and I had the opportunity to interact with a group of outstanding individuals.
One of them was my boss, Bob Morrison who at the time was the CEO of Kraft. Probably more than any other individual he had the greatest impact on the direction the second half of my career took.
I can still remember my final performance review (although I didn’t realize that it was my last one at the time) which took place on the 6th floor of Kraft’s headquarters. The 6th floor was far different than the rabbit warrens the rest of us worked in. This was the “executive floor”. The carpet was plusher. Each office was protected by a not one, but two executives assistants. And the offices themselves, a Hollywood set designer couldn’t do a better job. On the floor where I had come from, all my years of hard work had managed to secure for me a small office, with a plant and two guest chairs. Supposedly, if I continued to work hard and succeed some day I might get a couch. Now I realize that this all sounds somewhat silly as I type this but for anyone who has toiled in a world headquarters of Fortune 50 corporation, knows, this is the stuff we aspire to.
Thus, emerging on the hallowed lands of the 6th floor (with its own security guy no less) was to travel to the highest peaks of aspiration. Anyway, I digress.
As I entered Bob Morrison’s office for my performance review I noticed that Bob was dressed as he always was with the blue button down collar shirt, red tie and sleeves rolled up over the forearms. A look that said “senior executive who gets a lot of stuff done”. He was gazing in a slightly befuddled way at a sheaf of papers which I presumed were the HR forms that accompanied (or as some said, sucked the life out of) the performance review process.
With a sigh Bob tossed the papers onto the desk in front of him and motioned for me to take a seat.
“We’ll fill out these forms later”, Bob began. “Basically Mark, I can summarize your performance in just a couple of sentences, so here goes. Mark, if you’re interested in the topic there’s no one better than you. But Mark, if you’re not interested in the topic, everyone’s better than you.”
Not surprisingly that message stung a bit. (OK, it actually stung a lot.) But I didn’t dismiss it. After I cooled down I understood the point that Bob was making. In order to have a successful corporate career one needs to have a level of flexibility. One needs to approach assignments in which they have only a modest interest with the same enthusiasm that they do for those projects which match up well with their passion. Entrepreneurs by contrast have an overwhelming desire to focus just on their passion. It’s that single-minded devotion that causes the most successful entrepreneurs to overcome all the obstacles they face. Without that passion, the chances of success are slim.
That was what Bob was telling me. He knew I had passion around certain areas. However what he observed was that when the assignment called for me to focus on other areas, I wasn’t able to let go. The passion kept calling me back. That’s the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur but the Achilles heel for a corporate executive.
So let me take a break from this story. Suffice it to say that this conversation was the catalyst for my leaving the safety and security of a corporate career to embark on something far more in sync with my personal goals.
But the real point that I am making here is that what I just communicated would most likely be remembered and thought about if I was speaking to someone who was considering a career change. Simply stating a fact such as “entrepreneurs need to have a passion” would be dismissed as simply a blinding grasp of the obvious.
Thus, when you create your own unique sales stories, think about what the point is that you want to make. You’ll find that if you do, your story will not only resonate with your listener or reader, but it will also increase that they’ll remember you for a long time to come.
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Tags: business development, business sales training, lead generation, marketing services, marketing strategies, new clients, sales prospecting
