Crafting Stories that Sell with Paul Smith, Ep #298
Storytelling helps people make decisions. How? Cognitive science helps us understand that as humans, we don\u2019t make decisions the way that we like to think we do. We aren\u2019t always rational logical creatures who assess the data and come to the most logical conclusions. Most of the time, our subconscious emotional brain makes a decision. A few nanoseconds later, our logical brain justifies and rationalizes that decision. If you want to influence people\u2019s decisions, you need to speak to both parts of the brain. Storytelling is a spectacular way to do this. Paul Smith shares the key ingredients necessary to craft stories that sell in this episode of Sales Reinvented.
Outline of This Episode- [0:49] Why is storytelling an important skill to possess in sales?
- [2:18] Is storytelling something that can be learned?
- [3:27] The 3 key ingredients of great storytelling
- [5:18] A great storyteller needs stories to tell
- [6:40] Improve your storytelling abilities with these resources
- [7:47] Top storytelling dos and don\u2019ts
- [10:16] A tale of swimming pigs
Most great storytellers\u2014movie directors, screenwriters, novelists\u2014will typically tell you that you need three key elements to build a great story:
- A hero people care about
- A villain they\u2019re afraid of
- An epic battle between the two
The hero people care about is a relatable main character that the buyer can relate to. Tell a story about another client who faced the same challenge they are. The villain is a relevant challenge that your audience is likely to run into themselves. The \u201cepic battle\u201d is a worthy lesson learned through struggle. If you translate those into a sales story it becomes a relatable character facing a relevant challenge who learns a worthy lesson. Simple, yet compelling.
A great storyteller needs stories to tellIt\u2019s helpful for a salesperson to have an outgoing personality and the ability to talk to strangers. But most importantly, Paul emphasizes that you need stories to tell. Paul believes having stories to tell is more important than being a great storyteller. Why? Most salespeople aren\u2019t professional performance artists, actors, public speakers, etc. No one expects you to be. But no one wants their time wasted with a boring or irrelevant story. So you must be intentional about cultivating stories. The story is more important than the delivery.
Top storytelling dos and don\u2019tsNever apologize or ask permission to tell a sales story. If you\u2019re in a sales meeting with a potential client, don\u2019t say, \u201cSorry to interrupt\u2014can I tell a quick story? I promise it'll only take a minute!\u201d That communicates that what you have to say isn\u2019t important. If you don\u2019t think it\u2019s important, don\u2019t tell it.\xa0
Secondly, don\u2019t announce that you\u2019re telling a story. Doing so is neither exciting nor captivating. It turns most people off. They\u2019ll automatically think that it\u2019ll be boring and irrelevant. If you tell a great story, they\u2019ll be fascinated and learn from it.
Lastly, Paul recommends that you keep your stories to two minutes or less\u2014they shouldn\u2019t be long epics. Leadership stories can be 3\u20135 minutes long because they can command an audience. You don\u2019t have that luxury in sales.\xa0
Need help with crafting compelling stories? Get Paul\u2019s \u201c25 Stories Salespeople Need\u201d in the resources below.\xa0
A tale of swimming pigsPaul was at an art fair in Cincinnati with his wife, who was looking for some art to hang in their kids\u2019 bathroom. They walked up to a booth selling mesmerizing underwater photography. One of the photos struck Paul\u2014it was a photo of a pig\xa0swimming\xa0in the ocean. So he asked the photographer about it. That\u2019s when the magic started.\xa0
He said, \u201cThat picture was taken off the coast of an island in the Bahamas called \u201cBig Major Cay.\u201d A local entrepreneur decided to raise a pig farm on an uninhabited island. But there was no vegetation growing on the beach other than cacti. The pigs had nothing to eat. So a local restaurant owner on a neighboring island boated his kitchen refuse and dumped it just offshore.\xa0
While pigs don\u2019t normally swim, slowly but surely they all learned to swim so they could get to the good. Three generations later, all of the pigs on the island can swim. When the photographer got to the island to photograph the pigs, he didn\u2019t even have to get out of the boat. The pigs swam to him immediately. Paul paid cash for the photo immediately\u2014he HAD to have it.\xa0
Two minutes earlier, that was just a stupid photo. After hearing the photographer\u2019s story, he had to have it. The story is what made the art interesting. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s hanging in Paul\u2019s bathroom.\xa0
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