Ok, here is a practical hint, that I as a Trainer and Coach have to incorporate myself and for you it might make the difference between a sale or not. Consider this: when you make a sales presentation, it’s not about keeping your listener’s attention. For they will lose it – it’s about regaining it once you’ve lost them.
Your average listener’s attention span is now so short that they’ll naturally start to drift, and if they’re not right there with you when you make your point, you’re just wasting your time. However, there is a way to capture and keep people’s attention:
Tell stories.
From my experience, I know that the most salespeople have an variety of carefully prepared stories - designed for different buying scenarios - that tell the customer why they should buy from them.
These stories don’t have to be brilliant, you don’t have to be brilliant, but by weaving a short anecdote or two into your presentation, you’re deepening the relationship between you, your product or service, and your customer.
Why use stories?
Stories tap into your listener’s emotions, and as we all know, emotions sell (you can read more on this in the value based selling section): we buy through emotion, and rationalize it afterwards.
By appealing to emotions, you’re using the shortest path to the brain. Here is the secret; when you tell a story, your listener is right there with you, filtering it through their own personal experience.
We impart information, but we share a story.
Your customers and prospects are dealing with a rapid and unpredictable business climate; in an era where we’re all overwhelmed with the volume of information we receive, stories cut through the noise, and have a life of their own. Leadership consultant John Burdett makes a great point when he says that “story collapses the traditional boundary between sender and receiver”.
They also provide a comfortable momentary landing-place during a hectic daily schedule. Remember that we were brought up on stories, they’re a natural way for us to take in information, and we feel at home when we listen.
Research
Psychologists have termed stories “psychologically privileged”, meaning that our minds treat them differently to other types of material. We’re always seeking causal connections – the thread between pieces of information – and stories provide us with that. The best ones tell a simple truth, something we can take hold of and remember easily, and provide context and meaning.
Neil Ramiller, writing in the Journal of Information Systems Education, Jul 2003 says:
“Stories and storytelling… are central in our efforts to make sense of the events taking place around us and of our own actions in relation to those events (Weick 1995: 61). Finally, stories… are a collective means to better understand new or challenging aspects of the world.”
Especially if you’re selling a service or a product that is for the prospect at that moment intangible (like outsourcing), it can be at this stage of the sales process emotionally challenging for your prospect to understand the benefits and values to them. While they understand it on a rational basis, it doesn’t touch them on a emotional basis………..and let’s face it, if you want to make the sale you need them to have “an appealing reason to act” and that will be very hard without an emotional component.
This is how you should do it as well as some of the benefits for you as a salesperson
1. You’re creating a natural ‘call to action’ through appealing to your prospect’s emotions also called the appealing reason to act. There’s nothing like hearing about how someone else bombed out as a result of not using your product/service, or received all kinds of different benefits and values because they did, to motivate us. We’re naturally captivated – no extra effort required on your part (N.B. no extra effort during the presentation; if you’re going to do this successfully, you’ll certainly need that crucial preparation time crafting the stories in the first place!)
2. When you’re telling a story, you’re usually more present in the moment than during other times in your presentation, because stories just flow once you know them; they have an ‘alive’ quality, and this translates to you being more alive too. Have a look next time you’re listening to someone tell a story, whether it’s a friend down the pub or a presenter whom you respect. Aren’t they more animated, with more of a sparkle in their eye, when they’re relating what happened, perhaps even adding a bit of dialogue?
And when you’re present, you’re alert and flexible, more able to focus on your client’s needs and wants (please see in the forums value based selling as well as in sales psychology about needs, wants and values).
3. When you use a story referring to someone else’s experience, it adds credibility and clout to your presentation. Your listener will be more easily convinced, because you’ve created an external relevance for them. It also takes the focus away from you.
It’s important of course to balance your presentations, and the amount that you use stories depends on whether your listener is a relationships-focused, big picture type, or more analytical and left brained, wanting data and lots of it (a brief story is still highly relevant to the numbers-focused, just keep it snappy!)
If you’re using Powerpoint, it’s even more important to connect emotionally with your customers; find a place in your presentation where you can hit the B key to blank the screen, turn to your clients and tell them a story about your product or service. Watch the reaction, and see how your connection increases.
Action Steps
To design a good story, a few key elements must be in place. Take 10 – 15 minutes to have a go at these questions.
Firstly, can you come up with a good, relevant story? Try these ideas:
1. Look back to past sales: what obstacles did you face in closing the prospect? What objections did they raise, and what did you say to win them over? You need to think clearly and strategically here. If you’re struggling, try going back through your client files to see if that jogs your memory, or ask your sales manager.
2. Start now: if you can’t find any material, try this idea: the next prospect that you’re dealing with, assume that you’re going to close the sale and try “stapling” yourself to the situation. From beginning to end of the interaction, focus on what’s happening, what the client says, what objections they raise etc. If you do close the sale and when you’re back in the car, jot down some brief notes about the meeting – just key words if you’re short of time. Then later on, pull out your notes and see if you can come up with a narrative around it all. What did you say to overcome the obstacles to the sale? How did you win them over?
By the way, just by doing this, your awareness about your client interactions will skyrocket, and if you persevere (trust me, this won’t come naturally at first!) over time you’ll come up with some real gems that you can use to make more money. But if you want to get really good, take it a step further - ask yourself the questions below to get into the details of your story:
1. What’s the point? What will be gained by telling this story? Create a one sentence benefit for the client
2. Decide on how to describe your character and add a bit of detail, something to add richness to the scene
3. Set the scene – background, where, why?
4. What did they say?
5. The (positive) outcome
Add some descriptive phrases – remember that from a psychological aspect that the brain thinks in pictures, and painting some word pictures increases buy-in from your listener – and you’ve got your story. Over time, you can refine it, and build yourself a library to cover you in every possible eventuality.
You may be thinking that this takes time and focus, and it does; winging your stories will work some of the time, but you’ll also bomb out (that is what I call it, when I really go wrong with a story - haha); there’s just no getting around it. Take the time, refine as you go, and you’re on track for success. Good Luck on building on your existing stories ; - )
I look forward to read some comments or new aspect or ideas to this discussion!
Regards – Mark von Rosing
