How do I learn the art of story telling?

Let’s get technical first about “what is a story” before we speak about business storytelling.

A story is a sequence of related events, which has a time and a place. Which then has a complication, a surprise element if you will, and then the turning point or motivation which finally leads to a natural resolution, which is your business point.

Captain Hook: First Contact Stories

The first story is the personal story you tell in a face to face meeting, to give your future customer an idea of who you are, why you do what you do, that you can be trusted and that you know what you are talking about. The reason we tell our own story is to ask a really important question, which is, “well, enough about me, what do you do?” “what drives you?” “why did you get into your role?” This leads us to an exchange of stories that forms a connection. This helps sales people speak more naturally and say the right things in their business conversations. 

The best teachers vouch for this method as the most impactful way of making things memorable. They say that their students may not remember the key words or technical terms behind something, but they will always remember the theory if you tell it like a story. They will recall the motivators, the process and its natural conclusion if it resonates. Which goes to say, the best way to be the most memorable and engaging is to be authentic and real, where you are coming from and what you are about.

If I had to tell my personal story to a first contact, I will start with who I am and where I grew up. I will then go on to say how my career unfolded to take me to the position I am at and probably mention in an anecdotal way, the key event that has made me realize what my goal is and what makes me stay motivated in the goal. This may sound very long winded and would make you think, whether you are giving away too much personal information upfront. However, you need to get a paper and pen and write down a sentence each for every life changing events relating to your job along with a driving force that makes you unique to your role; so you have a good idea of what you will be saying to the customer which doesn’t end up sounding like a monologue.

We are wired to pay attention to stories that are unpredictable, that have surprises in them. In this era of smartphones, no one pays much attention to anything, that is why storytelling has become much more important now than previously as it requires people to focus 100% on the unique story, which is your own. 

Personal stories resonate best when they are not a bragging story and have a vulnerability to them, along with an acknowledgement of good/bad fortune. Heroic stories are not very relatable stories. You are using your stories as a prompter for the other person to come forth and share theirs. You cannot put yourself on a pedestal and expect a good story back.

The second story you can tell is a Key Staff story. 

It is a story about some other person, your future client needs to trust in the sales process. It may be the immediate supervisor or the Business Unit Head. This story is told to build up or tell a glowing report to establish the other person’s trustworthiness before the client even meets them. This can also enable the sales person to break away from their client as well. It readies the organization for take over and makes for an easier transition. This may be one of the more difficult of stories to tell, as you have to balance enhancing the good qualities of this leader, while not going overboard. This story needs to have good anecdotes along with related facts about this person’s history with the company, as well as successes they have had, managing similar projects previously. This will inspire confidence in them, and make them look competent. This story will be unique to that particular individual and will be more difficult to say naturally as compared to a personal story. However, once it is set, it will be used for a long time.

The third story you can tell is the Company creation story.

The founders or CEOs of the companies have lots of stories to tell because they have lived through the conception, establishment and growth of the company. They are excellent story tellers, as the words flow effortlessly from their stream of consciousness. It is their personal story, so they are able to keep it energetic and full of life as they are recounting their first hand experiences. The difficulty arises when the sales people have to translate this enthusiasm and life into their own storytelling when speaking to a prospect along with similar persuasiveness and impact.

If you work for a big start up company, which has become a huge corporation now, you can always tell the story of your division or branch and how it came about. A target version of the company story will be more compelling as the prospect will probably already know the original start up story, but will most probably be unaware of events that inspired your regional branch or department. These three are connection stories that will get you started on the right foot in early engagement.

Success Stories: be the guide, not the hero

In the subsequent meeting with prospects, sales people need to engage them with a couple of success stories that they have had. These may be Insight stories about people who have had success using the company sales process or guidance or must have achieved a Eureka moment with the valuable input of the sales person. These stories must portray their previous clients as the main character who is the hero of the story, who faced a problem, so they consulted with a guide, which is the salesperson, who gave them an action plan and helped them overcome failure.

It is imperative that each story is crunched down to two or three minutes. Keeping things succinct and fast paced shows focus, rather than rambling on about heroic feats. The stories need to portray the enormity of the task, which is solved by solutions given by the salesperson’s company. The sales person in the story is never the central figure, but always a guiding light. A Gandalf to a Frodo. A Yoda to a Luke. By telling stories of similar projects that show your sales process, you are firmly setting up your consultant position. These are fighting the good fight stories.

The Sales Manager story: Land stories

Here you need to tell stories with values. Values of service, honesty and ethical behavior of the organization. Stories about how the company behaves when things go wrong or when faced with a crisis. The sales people are responsible for teaching the customers how to buy. Specifically, how to buy the products or services offered by the sales person. In my previous blog, I wrote about how you need to teach how to sell to your prospect so they can go back to their organization and continue to convince others involved in the decision making process, how your company is the right choice. Once the connection is made and trust is gained, the salesperson’s job is to tell prospects stories about how to get past the technical processes. How your group has rallied in the past in difficult situations and has come through for the client. Discussing typical roadblocks, cost of delays, resource conflicts and other such discussions give confidence to the potential clients in your abilities. These stories are the most sophisticated and targeted and are mostly how the deals get done. They create authority and build upon that liking and trust.

So, do you have your story ready?