Is selling telling or is it asking questions? Actually, it is both. The point though is to know what stories to tell, when to tell them and how to tell them. We uncover the opportunity through asking the buyer questions about what they need. Once we know what they need, we mentally scan our solution data base to find a match. This is when the stories become important, as we explain why our solution will work for them. What we don’t want is having to scrabble together stories on the spot and then make a dog’s breakfast of relating the details.
These stories have one purpose and that is to give credibility to our solution. The content should have elements of the context of the solution and evidence of where this has worked for others. Buyers may not be familiar with your company in detail, so the background of the company told in two to three minutes is a micro story we need ready to go. Longevity or fresh innovation are the two spectrums. Either we have stood the test of time and you can trust us or we have come up with something new, that will be a game changer and you need it.
Often though salespeople don’t know the detail of the company or even if they do, they have never spent any time weaving this into a brief narrative for the buyer. This requires practice to ensure the micro story is kept tight and packed with credibility. We cannot go on and on about our own company or the buyer will switch off with disinterest. They are only going to listen if the background of the company has some strong relevancy for them. This is why we have to craft that story specifically for them, before we talk to them
Our systems, products or services all need explanation about how they will help the buyer. Just leafing through the five kilo, tome like product catalogue is not enough. Pitch salespeople will do this. They will go through the catalogue hoping to snag some buyer interest by using this shotgun pitch approach. When I had my first sales job selling Encyclopedia Britannica door to door, that is what were taught to do. We all learned a canned twenty minute walk through the pages of the book, introducing all the cool features. Not recommended!
If we have asked the right questions, we know exactly which few pages in the catalogue to show or which sections of the flyers we need to introduce. This is where we want our micro story about how this solution was created, including legendary moments of daring do by the R&D team or genius manufacturing breakthroughs or whatever that sounds amazing and clearly differentiates us from the competitor rabble.
These have to be short, sharp and terrific. That means delivery practice. They have to be customized and then memorized for the best content and cadence for that particular buyer. There are often too many products in a catalogue though, so being able to remember all of them may be unrealistic. Over time however, there will be a smaller group most important to most buyers and so we can work on remembering the stories associated with these products or services.
We definitely need to include client stories there as well. Telling the buyer what the widget will do is not enough. What are the benefits the widget will bring to their business. How have other buyers applied the benefits of the widget and what were the results. Often salespeople never get beyond the widget features and yet we all know we don’t buy the features, we buy the benefits, but that doesn’t stop a lot of salespeople dwelling on the wrong thing.
The story needs to have included the location, season, characters involved, some drama around an issue the buyer needed to fix and the triumphant outcome resulting from our solution. We need the context placed in the perspective of the prospective buyer. What is the conversation going on in the mind of the buyer and how can we meet them there through our narration of our brief story.
Sales raconteurs were part of the furniture in the pre and postwar periods, prior to the modern switch to consultative selling. We have moved on from just telling amusing stories and jokes to entertain the buyer. We have also gone beyond pitching products. Contemporary selling skills means asking clients excellent questions. This is now a high tech, time poor world and the buyers are busy, busy people. Our stories are important because they grab the attention of those with short attention spans, by adding some colour to the solution explanation. Relevant, well delivered stories help us to deepen our engagement with the buyer. Today we all need to master the art of micro storytelling. Does your sales team have their micro stories ready to go?
