I was always writing books and stories and absolutely adored it. I never knew it was a selling technique too!
Stories are great to pepper your sales meeting with for three reasons.
The first and foremost reason is that they build third-party credibility for your presentation to bring in an outsider’s experience to your meeting. When you tell a story, you’re sharing an experience that someone else lived and either learned from or profited from and giving your client the opportunity to either experience as well, or avoid. While your prospect knows that you’re hand-picking the stories you tell, it doesn’t usually damage the credibility of the story itself. This is the number one reason that stories are great for handling objections.
Second, people remember stories. Well-crafted and well-told stories often create an emotional connection with your prospect. As Maya Angelou once said, people will forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Lastly, good storytelling it suspends time. When you’re telling a story, your prospect gets caught up in the story, figuring out what happens, following the intro, the hook and the twist. Often times, when you’re telling stories, you’ll get additional time with your prospect that you hadn’t expected which allows continued trust to grow and allows you more time to share your perspective with your prospect.
The only caveat I’ll add to this newsletter is that whatever stories you decide to tell MUST BE TRUE. They don’t have to be YOUR stories, but they must be true. Trust me, prospects can tell when it doesn’t have a grain of truth and you’ll instantly lose any credibility you might have gained through your storytelling.
- Pinpoint the stories you usually tell to overcome objections – can you strengthen them to create more of an emotional draw?
- What objections do you usually encounter that you don’t have stories for? Can you find them with others in your industry? Remember, the story doesn’t have to be YOURS, just has to be true!
- Write out your stories. Tweak and strengthen constantly!
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