Storytelling is powerful. In fact, it’s so powerful that if you think of the most memorable television adverts that you’ve ever seen, the chances are that they used storytelling as a technique to draw you in and to make you feel something. Superbowl ads and Christmas ads in particular are notable for using storytelling techniques, even if it’s just Volkswagen’s “The Force” advertisement which famously told the story of a little kid dressed up as Darth Vader who thought he’d used the force to unlock his parents’ car.
Now, you might be wondering how this relates back to your sales team. The truth is that if you want to close a sale in today’s fast-paced world, you need to tell a story. We’re not saying that you need to be Dickens or Chaucer, but it’s certainly true that storytelling skills help. That’s because it’s your job as a salesperson to show a potential customer how your product or service fits into their narrative.
This begins with listening, although there’s a chance that you’ve already nailed this step if you’re using data capture forms on your website to get to know potential customers before you reach out to them. You need to listen to your leads to understand where they’re at with their business – or in other words, what’s happening in their brand’s story.
Product placement
B2B sales is a little bit like product placement in a movie because it’s all about taking your product or service and inserting it into a prospect’s story. In other words, your salespeople need to understand how your leads see themselves and to understand what their wants and needs are. Then they need to educate that prospect on how your offering can cater to those wants and needs and fit right into their story.
This is easier said than done, but storytelling skills can help and it’s not a bad idea to run internal workshops to train your sales team to think like a storyteller and to apply those skills to their sales calls. Salespeople get a bad rep when it comes to creativity, and they often get overlooked in favour of marketing teams. The truth is that salespeople can be just as creative as marketers, if not more so. The best people do it automatically, but it can also be trained and developed.
Of course, this can take a little getting used to and it requires a change on your part when it comes to the way that you approach sales calls. There’s nothing wrong with having a script, for example, because it can help to structure calls and to remind employees to mention important information. At the same time, though, you’ll also want to empower employees to go off script and to rely on their own creativity when it’s appropriate. The best approach is almost always a hybrid.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the ability to tell stories to sell products is a rare skill, and not everybody has it. And while we’re not saying you should totally revolutionise your approach to sales, it is a good idea to spend a little more time thinking about storytelling and how your sales team can turn it to their advantage. After all, your marketing team is already doing it. Why not reap the rewards of storytelling with your sales team, too?
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.