The Sale is in the Tale: Tale of Two Salespeople
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Remember: The sales is in the tale!
Bill believes that people buy logically when they have enough information.
This causes Bill to constantly push out data and numbers to potential buyers. He thinks there is some magic tipping point, and with just one more fact, he will suddenly make people see the light and buy.
John believes that people buy emotionally and then back it up with logic. John knows that the best way to tug at people’s heartstrings so they open their purse strings is through storytelling.
Time and again, John has seen that when he converts his elevator pitch to an elevator story, people are intrigued and want to know more.
John has seen that when he turns a boring case study into a compelling case story, he wins the sale.
Case Study (Bill) vs. Case Story (John)
Bill decided to push out facts to doctors to get them to buy his medical tech product.
“Other clients of ours have seen that our equipment makes the surgery go 30% faster. Do you want one, Doc?”
He was frustrated with many doctors who said, “Let me think about it.”
What is there to think about?, he wondered.
On the other hand, John decided to tell a case story that sounds like this:
“Imagine how happy Dr. Higgins was at Long Beach Memorial 6 months ago using our equipment when he was able to go out to the patient’s family in the waiting room an hour earlier than expected.
If you have ever waited for someone you love to come out of surgery, you know every minute feels like an hour. Dr. Higgins put that family out of their waiting misery and said: ‘Good news! The scope shows they don’t have cancer. They will fine!’”
The doctor turned to John and said, “You know, the reason I became a doctor is for moments like this.“
John tells this case story to another doctor at another hospital who says, “That’s why I became a doctor, too! I want your equipment.”
Bill pushes out information.
John pulls people in with a story.
Which type of salesperson do you want to be?
Pushy or Magnetic?
Forgettable or Memorable?
Struggling or Soaring?
The person who tells the best story wins the sale every time. If you want to learn how to become a black belt in storytelling, then your next best step might just be investing in “The Sale is in the Tale.”
Just as Disneyland has signs that say you have to be “this tall” to ride the ride, we want to make sure you’re the right fit for this program. Click here to see if you qualify
Breaking Through Your Terror Barrier
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Is it public speaking? Is it failing in front of your friends? Is it calling or reaching out to someone you don’t know?
When we get rejected, we start to reject ourselves and what we are selling. What if we reframe that to “I never reject myself or doubt my abilities. no matter what the outcome.”
No matter what terrifies you, here are the three solutions to any fear:
1. You control your thoughts. You are the thinker thinking the thoughts. When you feel fear in your body, ask yourself, “What if I am just excited, versus scared?” They feel very similar; we can rename it.
2. Tell yourself you are enough and what you have to offer is valuable. Instead of being intimidated to reach out to someone new, tell yourself you are doing them a favor. This is their lucky day to be hearing from me.”
3. What other people think about you is none of your business! Let go of having to be a perfectionist at anything. Instead, think of yourself as a progressionist that celebrates your progress.
When your identity is so strong that results don’t make you go up and down the self-esteem roller coaster, you are free to overcome any fear that has been holding you back. The next time you feel any form of fear, just tell yourself “I’m safe and fearless.”
Soft Skills Make You Stronger
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“Soft skills,” which include empathy, listening, and storytelling, are known to not be as important as hard skills. If you’re an architect, your hard skills are what you learned in school—i.e., how to design a building. If you’re a lawyer, your hard skills are what you learned in law school and passing the bar. If you’re a keynote speaker, your hard skills are knowing how to put together a talk that has a beginning, middle, and end—i.e. the craft of speaking.
No matter what your profession, mastering the soft skills is what makes you stronger than your competition. Recently, a top architecture firm had me speak to their team about how to build better client relationships. Their old way of winning new business was to show their design and hope that would be enough to get a new client. When a client told them they were going to hire the firm they liked the best, because the project would last 5 years, they panicked. “How do we become more likable?” they asked me.
Enter: soft skills! I told them that one of the best ways to increase your likeability is to show empathy. The more people think you understand the stress they are under and how you can help them, the more they like and want to work with you. Telling stories is a great way to build rapport, especially when you tell a story of origin around what inspired you to do what you do. People love working with people who are passionate because they usually means the process will be fun. When I showed them how to turn their case study into a case STORY, about when they helped a client meet a deadline, the prospect new client knew they have found the right firm for them.
The best storyteller wins!
Lawyers have “contests,” where they have to pitch against other firms to get hired. If everyone just talks about where they went to law school and the stats about how many cases they won, there is no emotional connection. Instead, when a law firm shows how they connect to a jury using the soft skills of storytelling and really listening to a witness, they win more cases and new clients.
When an event planner is interviewing a speaker and all the speaker talks about is how great they are and not how they are going to customize their talk to meet the event planner’s goals, the speaker doesn’t stand out from other speakers. The speaker who tells a story about how they love to have dinner the night before their keynote and meet and talk with as many people as possible to really have an in-depth feeling of what their challenges are is the one who gets booked and gets the highest ratings.
When you create content that shows you have empathy, people get to trust, like and know you. Putting myself in an event planners shoe’s, I created a blog for them on 4 questions to ask speakers to help them make a decision. What kind of content can you create to show your soft skills of empathy and storytelling?
Three Tips
Here are three things you can do to make your soft skills even stronger:
1) Make soft skills just as important as hard skills in your culture. When you invest in training that helps your team practice listening and empathy, it will become stronger—just like your physical workouts.
2) Practice telling your case stories and stories of origin with your co-workers. That way, when you have a request to pitch for new business, you are ready to go!
3) When you don’t win a new client, sit with your team and ask for the real reason they went with another person. Rarely is price the reason people don’t buy from you. If you dig deep, you may discover ways to show more empathy and understanding of the problem for the next pitch. When you do all these things, your soft skills will be stronger and stand out against competitors.