Did you hear the one about the salesperson who told good short and relevant stories to her customers and completely out sold the rest of the department? Ah, I tell you she is a real champ. You see, she recognized the human brain processes in an analog mode, not the digital format used by smart phones, laptops and tablets. We humans like to connect new information to correlations from previous experiences, and telling a customer a short story of how a previous customer used our products or services to solve a business issue gives the customer’s mind an analogy. A way to connect.
Oh, let me see, where was I? Oh yes, our salesperson who tells a great story.
You ask how she does this? Okay, first she describes the customer in the story’s business. Second, she refers to the business issue the customer solved using our product or service, and then third, what created the business issue. Fourth, she describes why the business issue happened, and fifth, what the product or service provided. Finally, she finishes by describing the result.
An example? Sure, I have one for you.
I have a salesperson in my department who was struggling to generate excitement with his customers. He wasn’t giving his customers a way to connect their business issues to the solutions we offered. As I listened to him, I felt it was because he wasn’t using enough reference stories. He wanted to improve, so I taught him how to construct these stories, and his sales have been soaring ever since.
Hits too close to home?
Okay, let me give you another example. I have customer who is the landscape business. He was upset because his insurance costs were rising much faster than the price he could get for his work. He thought his insurance carrier was taking him for granted, and not really looking at how he controlled risk and exposure to potential losses. He wanted an insurance agent who got to know him, his business, and his loss prevention strategies, and gave him credit for the work he did. I showed him that our agency takes the time to profile each client completely, and sells the carriers on each client individually. He saved bundles using our services, and he’s one of my best long-term clients.
And that’s the rest of the story.