Stories are extremely powerful. If you want to move somebody, tell them a
story. Facts tell stories sell. You're listening to the Audible Ready Podcast,
the show that helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature sales
leaders sharing their best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you
fuel repeatable revenue growth. Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader
in B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome
to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel clad Miller, and today we
are going to talk about storytelling. I'm joined by Rob Stenberg, who is
one of our Force Management facilitators. But in addition to that, Rob has
quite a lengthy background in helping salespeople execute with their customers, specifically around this
idea of storytelling. He teaches storytelling as an influenced strategy. So that's what
we're going to talk today. Rob. Welcome, Thank you very much.
Rachel, it's great to be here. I love talking about storytelling, especially
when it comes to salespeople and how they can use storytelling to increase the results.
You know, it is a topic that we touch on a lot in
content. I mean I write a lot of content based on sales, and
we talk about importance as stories, but sometimes we fall short in giving people
those tactical tips of how to really do it well. So let's dive into
that today. I know we'll cover a lot of topics. I'd like to
start with first talking about the when When do you use stories in your sales
process? When should you look to add them as a rep? You talk
about stories helping reps in discovery. Maybe we start there. Yeah, I
think you can use story throughout your sales process. No matter what your sales
process is. For example, you can start out in the beginning to if
you're trying to fill your sales funnel, if you're an SDR you're making outbound
calls, I would suggest that you start out your phone call with a prospective
client by saying, Hey, we've worked with another vice president of sales in
your market vertical. Can I tell you that story very quickly in sixty seconds.
Yes, you tell a great sixty second story about how you worked with
another vice president. And I think it's important to be a peer story that
if you're talking to a vice president of sales, tell a story about another
vice president of sales. If you're talking about a director of manufacturing. Talk
to somebody about a director of manufacturing. So you have to have those peer
stories, and you tell that story in sixty seconds and then just what I
call passed the torch to them by saying, that's enough about him or heard,
tell me what you've got going on at your company. And it's a
great way to tell another person at that beginning of a sales cycle, to
start the sales cycle. Hey, this person or this company might know a
little bit about a problem that I'm having right now, So you can use
it to fill your sales funnel. You can use it in discovery, like
you mentioned, when you get into discovery and you start to get what I
call discovery resistance. And we all know when you're in sales you've experienced discovery
resistance. Right that wall that people put up. They don't want to tell
you everything. They think you're going to try to influence them and sell them
something they don't need. That's a great time, I think to come up
with a story about maybe where I didn't do such a great job of discovery
with a past client, and because of that, I wasn't able to save
the money I wasn't They didn't get the results they were looking for. What
have you. I was doing a workshop in San Diego one time an insurance
agent was in the workshop and he talked about how he was going to use
this type of a story in discovery because a number of years prior was working
with a business owner who he was trying to get him to purchase not only
life insurance, but all long term disability. And a year he got him
to bud the life insurance, not the long term disability. And a year
later he got in a serious car accident. He was paralyzed from the shoulders
down, he lost his company, he lost a lot of things, and
if he would have had that long term disability, he would have been much
better off. And so the insurance agent said, if I was a better
salesperson, I would have gotten him to go ahead and purchase the long term
disability as well. So he would use that story to help people bring down
their discovery resistance and say, hey, I'm just trying to help you with
your insurance needs in that particular case, so you can use it to break
down that discovery resistance that we get from clients. And then at the end
of the sale. When risk goes up. We all know that as somebody
is trying to are looking at a purchase, their risk in the beginning is
pretty low. They're just looking for a solution. Then they get to their
end of their bicycle and their risk goes up. They start thinking about all
the money they're going to be putting on the line here and they're signing their
name on the bottom line. That's a great time to come in with a
story about how somebody else was in their same position. You're asking them to
make the same decision, and here they made that same decision six months ago.
Here's the results they've gotten. And I just thought you should know that
I've asked other people to make the same decision that I'm asking you to make,
and here's how they've benefited. This is how their lives have improved.
So you can hear a story throughout the entire sales or I called by process.
You dropped some great gems there, Rob. I think one of the
things you said is pure stories. So people want to see themselves in your
stories, right, That's why you are telling them. You want them to
see themselves in that particular situation. So that's a really good thing to keep
in mind too as a rep when you're coming up with those stories, to
think about how you can match role industry challenge to the person that you're speaking
to, because it will improve how it resonates with them. I call it
persuasion. Persuasion, that's a good one. Persuasion, right, People are
interested in what their peers are doing. They don't want to be left behind.
They want to know are they doing something that I shouldn't be doing,
Are they doing something that I should be doing. They want to know what
their peers are doing, and if their peers are benefiting by working with you.
They want to know how. They want to know the results they're getting
because they want to know if they can get the same results. I did
a video with Antonella, who's on our team as well, and when we
were talking about when customers push for a demo too early, and you talked
about that too, talking about, hey, if we do this too early,
we're going to waste people's time to talk about the bad things that can
happen from previous experiences that you have had in that situation. Absolutely, and
I don't want to go in and do it demo too early because I'm going
to waste your time, and I'm going to waste my time, and I'm
going to waste the time of the people on my tea. I would lean
in and say, you know what, I don't know about you, But
the members on my team really get a little upset with me and a little
perturbed with me if I waste their time. If I bring a sales engineer
in to do a demo for you right now, we're gonna have to demo
everything because I don't know. I haven't done enough discovery, I don't know
what you need. So we're gonna do everything and see what sticks on the
wall. And my sales engineer after that is going to say, what the
heck is this? I want to know what I'm demoing before I walk into
the room. And I also think, I don't want to waste your time.
You know there are three or four really important things to you. I
want to demo those three or four really important thing. I don't want to
demo something to you that doesn't matter to you. You don't want me to
do that either. I don't want to waste your time. I don't want
to waste mine. So let's make sure we go through this process to make
sure that we really key on what's important to you and your team to get
you the results you're looking for. That's great. So I think you gave
some great tips of thinking about when do use stories and then also stuff the
traits of your story. So, but let's dive into that a little bit.
How should I think of the stories that I want to tell? I
mean, obviously, every time I get one of the customer, I don't
want to be like, hey, let me tell you a story, right,
because that's gonna sound kitchy, it's gonna sound like an act. Which
are the good ones to share? Talk about length? How do I think
about crafting those stories so I have some I can pull from given the moment.
I love going back to clients that I've worked with in the past and
interview them for my stories that I want. Especially, I think this is
great for brand new sales reps to do once they learn story what I teaches
and I have these cards in front of me all the time. I teach
a very specific story structure. Right, there's the setting of a story,
and it's a green card. And you'll notice I have colors on these cards,
and the colors are very important. So the setting of the story,
what is the start, Where does the story start? Then the white card
is the complication, what's the challenges, what are the hurdles that people are
trying to get over it? And then what's the churning point? What happened
that aha moment that they realize, say, something new can be something can
be done in a new way, and it's going to benefit me. And
then it's the resolution, the red card. The resolution is how things turned
out. And this is right out of Hollywood, the best storytellers in the
world. So if you think of any movie you've gone to play, you've
been, the book, you've read, anything, it all starts out with
the setting. Then there's all kinds of complication. Then there's that oh,
that that new moment, Ah, something new can be done, and then
the resolution to that story. And if you think about it especially, I
always use romcoms as a perfect example. Right, they tell you the characters
of the story, and then there's all kinds of complications for these two people
to get together, and then there's something that happens here they meet at the
top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day, and then the next scene
is on the bottom of the screen. It says one year later and they're
walking down the street with a baby carriage in front of them, right,
So that's it's a story arc as well, is an emotional arc to that
story. So to find out what your clients have done in their story is
go back to past clients, especially again for new salespeople, have them go
back to a client. And of course these are got to be good clients
and people you've got relationships with. So you can say, hey, I'd
like to send a new salesperson in there to just at get your story from
you. But if they go in and they get the story, so why
did you decide to work with this company? What made you? That's the
actual the blue card. So you actually start out with the blue card.
What has been the result of you working with our company? Well, we've
had this result, and well then what really prompted you? What were the
challenges you were having? And so you go back to the white card and
you get all the complication and then the setting comes out pretty pretty easy.
Is this is what time it was, who was involved in the decision making
process? And so now they've got the entire story. So they can pick
those stories and say, geez, this was a vice president of sales,
this one was a manufacturing situation, this one was an IT situation, this
one was financial service at situation. So you can get those stories in different
market verticals by title, just by simply going to your existing client base and
saying, hey, we just love to talk to you for half an hour
and get your story as to how you've benefited by working with us. So
those are great ways to get those stories. Now, he talked about something.
You also asked length if I heard you correctly, and length is extremely
important. The stories have got to be short, sixty seconds. And I've
had hundreds, if not thousands, of salespeople tell me I can't tell a
story in sixty seconds. My response to that is Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address was
two minutes and two seconds, and if he can get that much important information
in two minutes and two seconds, we can get a story in sixty seconds.
That's right. Most televisionmercials are thirty seconds, sometimes fifteen, So think
of yourself as having double the time to land the plane, so to speak.
Some great tips in there on how to think about your stories, how
to craft them good if you've been at a company for a while, but
if you're a new rep, I would think also you can talk to other
reps. What are some great stories to share about how you've solved problems?
And you shouldn't be afraid to ask your manager or like the top reps in
the company for the stories that they use. I'm sure they're more than willing
to share. Absolutely. And those season reps, those veterans, those reps
with experience, most of them are natural storytellers. They don't know why they
told, they don't know why they're successful. I mean, they're what I
call unconsciously competent. I was unconsciously competent until I found the book What Great
Sales People Do by Mike Bosworth, And that's the sales or the storytelling training
in Command Center is based on Mike's book. And that's who I've worked with
a lot on storytelling and work with to this day on storytelling is Mike Bodsworth.
And there again, what do we call unconsciously competent? When before I
read the book, the friend of mine who gave me that book, when
I got back together with him after I had read it, he said,
what did you think of the book, and I said it was great.
I do eighty eighty five percent of what's in this book. I already do
this. He said, yeah, but did you know that you what you
did? And he said nope. He said could you use it on demand?
Could you scale it? Could you teach it? Knows the answer to
all three of those questions. Once you take top sales reps, I'll almost
guarantee you top sales reps they just don't know why they're successful. That top
thirteen percent, the old adage of the eighty twenty rule has changed. It's
the top thirteen percent of your sales reps now generating eighty seven percent of your
revenue in large sales organizations. Those are the numbers. If you take a
look at those top thirteen percent, I'll guarantee you almost every single one of
them is a great, already teller. They just have never decoded why they
are successful. And that's why it's hard to take a new sales rep and
say, hey, go follow this successful sales rep around, and the successful
sales rep will just tell that trainee, well, just do what I do.
They can't. It's not intuitive to them. It's intuitive to that top
sales rep. They just don't know it, and so they're unconsciously competent.
Now we know, with all the brain science that's behind storytelling and why storytelling
is so effective, we've been able to break that down and you can actually
teach people how to connect quicker and gain trust much much faster. As with
anything that we talk about on this podcast or in any of our force management
trainings are on a cender. It's about putting a rhythm behind what you do
well. It's being consistent, it's putting into regular practice. You mentioned science.
I know science plays into storytelling. We talked about the win you should
do it, but there's a why, and there's a lot of doesn't matter
what culture you're in. It doesn't matter if you're in the UK, if
you're in Asia Pacific, if you're in North America. It doesn't matter.
The human brain has story hardwired into it and studies have been done that show
this. It doesn't matter your culture. Stories work in all cultures. And
here's what happens in the human brain. And again we know this through brain
imaging and MRIs. And if I say to you, Rachel, can I
tell you a quick story. Here's what happens in your brain. You say
to yourself, I'm safe. I can relax, enjoy what's being said.
I don't have to do anything. However, I better pay attention because something
important might be said that I need to remember later. Now. I like
to repeat that to people because I want to put them in a frame of
mind of putting myself in your shoes. You're sitting in front of a person,
a potential client, that you're trying to influence, and just by simply
saying, can I tell you quick sixty second story, you know what happens
in their brain is okay. They're gonna say yes. Nobody ever says no
to a story. They're gonna say yes, and their brain says to them,
you can sit back, relax, enjoy what's being said, but you
better pay attention because something important might be said that you need to remember later.
I can't think of a better frame of mind to put somebody in when
I'm trying to influence them. Their ears have opened up, and it's again,
it's like saying to a five year old. If you've got a five
year old child or a grandchild, it's like saying to them, do you
want me to read you a book once upon a time. That child is
there, they're in your lap, they're attentive, they can't wait. Well,
asking an adult can I tell you a quick sixty second story is like
saying once upon a time to a five year old. Same thing. So
we talked about getting a rhythm around your stories and maybe being a little bit
disciplined in practicing them or prepping them. So let's talk about how do I
prep and practice? Am I just standing there talking to the mirror? Do
I time myself? How do I get better at executing them? Both of
those things that you mentioned, right, So timing them absolutely in front of
a mirror. Absolutely, have a smile on your face. Get appropriate.
You don't want to be telling you if you're telling a sad story, you
don't want to be talking about like this, right, So it has to
be appropriate. Record yourself telling your story. You can obviously take your smartphone
and record your story and listen for crutch words and listen for enunciation, listen
for tone, listen to those things that send messages that you may not want
to send. There are times where you're sending a message word that's not the
message you're trying to send, right, I mean, we've all had those
situations where somebody says, boy, you know, in that meeting earlier today,
you really blew this person out of the water and you made them look
bad, and you're like, that wasn't my intention, that I didn't mean
to do that. Well, it was the twenty or voice when you made
this statement. So recording them, practicing them, getting them down to one
minute. Using this card system where you have us when we teach these and
workshops, we have people put talking points on the front of these cards for
the setting, two or three talking points, not full sentences, bullet points,
talking points. Same thing for the complication, same thing for the turning
points, same thing for the resolution. If you take that structure and you
just give two or three talking points for each and then you can fill in
the information around them, so it's not scripted, it doesn't sound scripted.
That's one way to definitely make sure that your stories are short is to do
it that way. Him them and practice them, practice, practice, practice
practice. I always ask salespeople, why is it that we think as sales
professionals were the only professionals in the world that don't have to practice. Give
me another profession and that doesn't practice. I don't care if it's acting,
music, theater, what have you. How many professionals that you do you
know that don't practice? None? We have to practice. Amateurs practice until
they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong. Oh
like that, that's a good one. That'll be on the teaser graphic Rob
for the so great breast practices here you shared. I'd like to also talk
about just some red flags or common mistakes. You teach this a lot.
What are the biggest mistakes you see salespeople making with these types of concepts.
Too many salespeople tell a story that either doesn't have a point, or they
try to make a point that doesn't have a story. So, if you're
going to tell a story, it's got to have a point, And if
you're going to make a point, you've got to have a story to back
it up. That's number one. Number two the length of their stories.
They get too long. We know that one of the biggest complaints about salespeople.
They talk too much. We've got to cut these stories down, make
them as short as possible. You'd be amazed at how powerful a story can
be when it is very short. The shortest story I've ever heard is six
words baby's shoes for sale, never used. That tells a story, and
you can determine which story it's telling you. But it tells a little bit
of a story, and so we can we need to shorten up the stories,
make them very very short. Let your clients do the talking, especially
in command of the message at the beginning of that sales discussion that you're having
with them. You want them talking much more than you're talking. And a
good short story because again, the way the brain works. When I tell
you a story, and I'll guarantee it's happened to you, Rachel, as
you've been sitting here, you've thought of two or three stories to tell me.
If the situation was different, we were just having a conversation and not
recording a podcast, you'd be saying, oh, it made me think of
this story and that story in this story. That's the way the human brain
works. So the reason you tell a story, it's not so much to
get your information out. It's to get your client, your potential client,
to tell you their story. I love that. I'm sure people listening to
this podcast right now are thinking of their own stories that they use in the
sales process, the ones that they tell repeatedly, and they're probably thinking hopefully
y'all are thinking, hey, how can I make these better more impactful using
to advantage and what challenges am I having throughout my sales process where I'm not
using a story that it might be able to help me. I mentioned customer
pushing for the demo too quick, right, that might be a place you
could pop one in there. But as we wrap up, Rob, this
has been a great conversation, but I'd love for you to kind of summarize
some key takeaways for people listening right now and what are the key things you
want them to walk away with as they hit stop and start their sales calls
this week. Stories are extremely powerful. If you want to move somebody,
tell them a story. If you give facts, tell stories sell. So
if you're just giving facts and figures and speeds and feeds and features and benefits,
it doesn't hit the right part of the brain that drives decision making.
There's got to be emotion in the story, So don't just give facts and
figures and feeds and speeds. It doesn't move people if there's not emotion in
the story. Talking about somebody's frustration and the challenges that they had, and
talk about the emotional side of things. I mean, imagine a movie without
emotion in it. You wouldn't recommend that movie to anybody. So one thing
is to make sure that in those stories that you include emotion in the story
about the frustration or what have you client was going through. And just make
sure that you've got at least one emotion with each of those four cards in
the setting, in the complication, turning point, and resolution, there's got
to be one there. And of course in the resolution you want excitement,
happy the results that they got. But making sure there's emotion in the story
and it's just not all facts and figures. That's one takeaway that I want
to make sure people have. Some of the other ones we've mentioned, keep
them short, keep them sixty seconds, practice them. And that's another great
reason to record them, because you can listen for things within that recording that
you think, you know what, that's not really germane. I can take
that out without losing anything any importance or any impact of the story. Mark
Twain said, if I had more time, I would write less, and
what he meant by that is if he had more time, he would ed
out all the unnecessary words. That's why recording your stories and listening back to
them and then timing them is so important, because then you can say,
well, piece, I can take this out night and cut fifteen seconds out
my story. That's huge. So stories are get too long, and then
practice them, practice them, practice them. Awesome. Well, thank you
so much for this discussion, Rob, It's been a lot of fun.
Yes, and thank you to all of you for listening to the Audible Already
Sales podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes. I'll put some
more resources on telling stories. We have a storytelling course on a sunder that
pro planned subscribers have access to. Be sure to check that out link in
the show notes, and thank you all for listening to the Audible Already Sales
Podcast. At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into elite teams.
Are proven methodologies, deliver programs that build company alignment and fuel repeatable revenue
growth. Give your teams the ability to execute the growth strategy at the point
of sale. Our strength is our experience, the proof is in our results.
Let's get started. Visit us at force management dot com. You've been
listening to the Audible Ready podcast. To not miss an episode, subscribe to
the show in your favorite podcast player. Until next time.