Inspired to buy with stories that sell: Through the power of story, your salespeople will not only bypass the wall that protects customers from change, but also inspire them to buy.
The sales challenge: You may be surprised to hear that your biggest competitor isn’t another company, it’s the customer deciding to do nothing. Customers will not act, as long as the status quo is supported by:
- A language problem: Most salespeople are not able to relate how their product can be used to solve the customer’s problems. Without a reason to care, the salesperson’s presentation will bounce off of a wall of indifference, and quickly be forgotten.
- A hearing problem: Even if the salesperson could speak the customer’s language, the customer doesn’t want to hear it. Customers don’t want to invest time they don’t have, into a problem they don’t fully appreciate, so that they can take on an implementation risk that may end up getting them fired.
- An ego problem: For a customer to overcome the risk of change, a salesperson must help the customer to recognize that the status quo is no longer safe. Unfortunately, helping the customer to recognize that what they are doing today is no longer working can offend the customer, and result in an argument that the salesperson will never win.
Solution: Instead of a direct approach, we suggest that you put the reasons to buy your product inside a series of mini customer stories, like a Trojan horse, so that your sales message gets past the defensive wall and is more likely to be heard.
These stories sell for three reasons: 1) they make the abstract concrete by showing how real people solved real problems; 2) they are about someone else, so they are non-confrontational, and; 3) they present a scenario that allows the customer to draw their own conclusions. Without feeling pressured, the customer can now relax and listen to your message, and possibly tell themselves a new story, where new choices make more sense.
As a result, customers will gain the insight needed to discover the value of your offering on their terms- from the inside out.
It’s as if your customers were able to step inside a buying simulator, and take your offering out for a virtual test drive.
Case studies don’t sell: Case studies are different from stories that sell for two reasons: 1) case studies are conversation-killing monologues that flood the customer with too much information and; 2) they focus too much on product proof and not enough on selling the problem before the solution.
Discover, capture and share your success: We guarantee that the quality of the stories told by your top performers will not only double, but that we will also help put them into a consistent format so the rest of your team has the magic to inspire customers to buy.
Unlike other sales training programs that become shelf-ware, you can use the stories that you created in the training the next day with customers.
Memorable: As your customer walks out the door, 90% of your sales presentation is forgotten. A fact, however, is 20-times more likely to be remembered if it is part of a story.
-Michael
Resources:
How to Create Stories that Sell Guide (click here)