How to Use Stories to Sell
Anything and Everything
By Lisa Ferrari
THEY SAY A picture is worth a thousand words, but in sales sometimes a few well-chosen words can punch up your point with more power than any four-color brochure. But which words? That's the key.
A story that relates to the prospect's situation can make a powerful statement with little selling on your part. Here's an example:
Kelly Robin, a sales representative for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, recalls a personal story about how the reliability of the company's pagers helped her.
Robin had been working for months on an account with a local construction company. Her decision maker was five months pregnant. So Robin told a story about being pregnant with her first child.
While working for a pager company, she thought it was a great idea to give her husband a pager so they could be in constant contact. Robin says when her water broke she immediately tried to call her husband from her cell phone but kept getting that annoying message, "The cellular customer you have reached has traveled beyond the service area. Please try your call again later."
In desperation she paged her husband and had the pager company type in this message, "Baby's coming, on my way to Vassar Hospital. Meet me there." She arrived at the hospital and found her husband waiting at the emergency entrance. Robin says she concluded her story by asking, "I'm sure most of your employees will never be in my shoes, but if they are faced with an emergency situation, don't you want them to have the most reliable way of communicating with you?"
Her customer, Julie Donovan of Donovan Construction, said, "Being pregnant myself, I related to her story, and it really showed me how important it is to have a reliable alternate way of communicating aside from a cell phone. So I bought one for each of our 37 employees."
"I knew our product was a great fit for the company, "says Robin. "I just needed some way for my client to believe that, too."
Powerful Tales
Telling the right story in the right way can be a powerful sales tool to demonstrate to a potential client that you are sincere, says Frank Carillo, president of the Executive Communications Group, a New Jersey-based company that offers consulting and seminars on effective communication.
Carillo explains that using stories to sell is a form of persuasion. Relating a compelling anecdote illustrates the point you wish to make more powerfully than simply stating the point. This method appeals to your customers'emotions and can give you a decisive edge in closing a deal.
While stories may be great closing tools, they also can be useful at other stages of the sales process. However, Carillo believes that using stories works best as an icebreaker or rapport builder in the initial stages of contact.
For example, an advertising account executive used a story to win his client's cooperation before landing a big account. He told about wanting a tree house more than anything else for his 10th birthday. His father was less than convinced that a tree house was a good idea. Consequently, he asked his son a half-dozen times if he was sure he wanted a tree house. Each time the boy would more confidently reply, "I'm sure." Then on his birthday he asked, "Daddy, where's my tree house?" His father took him into the back yard where the boy expected to see a gigantic tree house. But all he saw was a pile of wood, some nails and a hammer. His father then pointed to all those things and said, "Son, if you really want a tree house then let's build one together."
The prospect got the point immediately. To create a successful campaign, both companies had to work side by side. Sale closed. Cooperation assured.
"With so many similar products and services on the market today, the only way to stand out from the competition is through superior salespeople and customer service," says Carillo. Using stories in selling represents one way for salespeople to differentiate their company, their selling style and their products.
According to psychologist Dr. Donald Moine, president of the Association for Human Achievement, in Redondo Beach, CA, the easiest way to get people to accept a new idea is to link it to an idea or concept they already know and understand.
A salesperson selling a service contract might tell a story about getting a car fixed:"Imagine for a moment that last weekend you took your car to get new tires and while you were there your mechanic noticed your muffler was coming loose. You asked if he would tie it up for you, but instead he sent you down the street to Midas Muffler. Then while your muffler was being repaired the technician noticed a crack in your windshield. Once again you asked if he would fix the problem, but he said no, they didn't provide that service. So you got in the car once again and drove to the body shop, and before you turned around your whole day was shot because you didn't have someone who would take the entire responsibility for your car."
Stories create a mental vision in your customer's mind. They can be a simple one-or two-line analogy. A speaker helps the audience see a million dollars by saying, "Imagine a stack of one dollar bills 1,000,000 bills high. You would have a stack of bills as high as the Chrysler building in New York."
Or a story can be just long enough to convey your idea. Carillo says the best stories are to the point and audience-specific.
A cellular phone salesperson could use a story about how buying a phone for a child creates a feeling of security and safety. A salesperson selling swimming pools could tell a story about family fun and bonding. No matter what the situation, a story can help clinch the deal.
Heart Throbs
These are just a few examples of stories that have proven successful for other salespeople, but the best stories come from your heart.
Carillo teaches his clients to search their memory banks for personal stories with a lesson that their prospects can relate to. First, think of a topic and write down all the stories you can remember related to that topic. Second, think of a theme -generosity, gratification, responsibility or trust -and come up with a story that relates to that theme. For instance, if you want to show your clients how responsible your company is, you might tell them a story about your first paper route or baby-sitting for your little brother.
Carillo likes to tell a story from his own childhood. The experience taught him a life lesson he never forgot.
One day his grandfather asked him to grab a handful of nuts from a bowl in the kitchen. When he returned, his grandfather counted the nuts, "One, two, three, four," and asked if he could get more than four nuts into his little fist. "How many?" asked little Frank. His grandfather suggested, "How about eight?" Frank went back to the bowl, dug in his fist, but as hard as he tried, he could never get more than four nuts. He got so frustrated he was tempted to throw the nuts across the room. But as he reached in one last time, he realized that he was shoveling out more than eight nuts. He was excited and ran over to grandpa who had been watching him the whole time. His grandpa said, "Let that be a lesson to you. You get a whole lot more out of life with an open hand than you do with a closed fist."
A story is like a crystal — transparent and multifaceted. It focuses reality in a fascinating way that mesmerizes the eye, stirs the emotions and moves the mind. Stories can make your sales more memorable and more fun, and they can help advance prospects toward the sale.
Return to Library Contents.
|
