Mastering Sales with the Power of Storytelling | Ep 28

0:00 Welcome to the Impact Sales Podcast. I'm your host Joe Beck, founder of The Sales Activist, and today we're going to talk all about the power of storytelling in sales. That's right, We're going to talk about the power of leveraging stories in the sales process and how important and impactful it is to your success. A lot of people don't realize this, but stories can do a lot of the selling for you when handled the right way. So you definitely don't want to miss today's episode. Take a break, sit down, listen to this content. I promise you this is going to change your personal selling story in a big way.

0:43 Stay tuned, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the Impact Sales Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Beck, founder of The Sales Activist. In today's episode, we're going to dive into the power of storytelling in sales. Now. I love this particular topic. People ask me all the time, you know, what would be one of the things that I could really work on to get better in sales. And there's a long list of things that you could answer to that question. But the one thing that I really think helps people the most get very comfortable with sales is understanding and mastering the art of storytelling. Now, storytelling can be defined a lot of different ways. In a sales environment, it's utilizing stories to help further obviously your sales efforts, the process, the way you're positioning your product, your service, or you're offering. But storytelling does a lot lot more than just that. You know, when you tell a well constructed story related to sales, many times you don't even realize some of the things that you're doing. You are

2:13 building a bond with your prospect or your client. You are establishing yourself as a subject matter expert. You are in many cases building that trusted advisor status that's so important to you as a sales professional, and the story itself says a lot about you as an individual. Now, today we're going to talk about storytelling and we're going to break it down in what I like to call the order of power with stories. There's actually an order of power to storytelling. And here's what I mean. Certain stories resonate much more deeply and more closer to your prospect or your client depending upon the type of story that it is. And you know, we're going to dig into this order of power. What stories are the most powerful, all the way down to the ones that perhaps are the least powerful. There's value in all of them. But we're going to today talk about understanding and mastering that order of power, because the better you are at doing this, the easier sales become. And I know that's a great oversimplification, but I will tell you I've had the great fortune of meeting, working with, and being associated with some amazing sales professionals, people that have done just remarkable things in sales.

3:46 And one of the unique similarities that they all have a common denominator of success for all of them is they are all very adept storytellers. They're all great storytellers. Now, everybody has a style, everybody has an approach, everybody has their own voice and tone in the way that they do things. But storytelling is one of those things that can be customized and tailored to the individual's personality and approach. It doesn't have to be done in only one way or only another way. You can craft it in a way that aligns very nicely with your own particular style and approach. So in that regard, storytelling is a very powerful tool for anybody to master. It puts them in a position that they are able to truly do things really as a multiple factor of what they're trying to accomplish.

4:52 You get to accomplish multiple things at one time. When you tell a good story, when you tell it the and most importantly, when that story is relevant to your situation. And I want to take a moment and just talk about the importance of relevance. You know, being a great storyteller is not simply enough. It's also understanding and having the discernment to know when certain stories make the most sense, when certain stories are the most impactful under the circumstances, when they are the most relevant. So let's start with relevance first. You need to make sure that whatever stories you are sharing during your sales interactions that they are relevant to the situation at hand or relevant to your particular audience. I have seen people, and I've been involved in meetings, sometimes very uncomfortable meetings, where somebody might share a story that it's a great story, but it's not relevant to the conversation, or it's not relevant to that prospect, situation or their business or whatever it is that they're talking about. It's great to hear the story, but if it's not relevant, it's like a just a massive swing and a miss. So let's start with relevance first. Your stories need to be relevant to the situation at hand, to your prospect, to their business, to their need, to the goal, to what they're trying to accomplish, whatever it is, there needs to be some degree of relevance attached to

6:23 the story. A great story, a powerful story, and impactful story is one that is relevant to the situation. Now. I've seen people share amazing stories with prospects and they just weren't relevant under that current set of circumstances. It doesn't mean that it wasn't an important story, and it certainly doesn't mean that the prospect didn't appreciate it, But if it's not relevant to where they were at that moment, it's kind of falling short. Sometimes those stories could be shared later on, they could be shared as a supporting piece to what you're working on. But when you're going to get into telling an impactful story, it needs to be relevant to your prospects and ideally relevant to what's most important to them right now, to the reasons that you're talking or to the reasons that they are listening to you. Your story needs to be aligned with that type of relevance. It can't be just something that they might be interested in that doesn't kind of tick the box for where you are right now in the interaction.

7:30 But let's say your story is relevant. Let's break down during this episode, let's break down the true power of stories and the order of that power. Okay, so we're making the assumption that your story is relevant and there's a direct connection to your prospect or your client that is hearing it. So the order of power in storytelling looks something like this. Most impactful stories, the ones that really hit home, that really generate the best response, are made up of two specific things that people need to understand.

8:16 The first is, your most powerful story will always be one that you have personally experienced. And the reason why that is important is because that personal experience resonates with your prospect. There is a personal connection. If you've experienced what they're going through and you've overcome it, there is a connection that is made by that. There's a connection. It needs to be personal. It also needs to be to get the highest degree of impact. To be the most powerful type of story that it could be, it needs to be identical to their particular set of circumstances.

8:58 If you over come some massive challenge, and that might be great if you overcome that challenge, but that challenge is different than what the challenge is that your prospect is dealing with. Well, that's not going to be as impactful. So at the top of the order of power when it comes to storytelling is your stories need to be personal and identical. I have experienced this myself. It's exactly what you've been through. I know how to get you through it. I have the answers because I've experienced it for myself. It's one of the most powerful stories that you can tell. Now, notice we're not getting into the details of the story because the details are different and they are irrelevant based upon a lot of things. It could be anything, right, it could be anything related to the story. As long as it's personal and identical, that will always be at the top of the order of power. Now, a lot of people are masters at this particular skill set because they are able to tap into a vast degree of experience. Maybe they've been in the business for a very long time, They've seen it all, done it all, been through it all. It's very easy sometimes for people to tap into a great story when they have that type of experience. I know for myself. You know, over thirty five years in sales, I could tell you every possible sales story that you can imagine, and many times specific to individual situations, and you know, it makes it

10:31 extremely powerful. Not everybody is in that situation. Also, not everybody has experienced the same things that their prospects have. So let's take one step off the top spot of the order of power and let's go to the second most powerful type of story that you could share. And that story is one that is personal, one that you've personally been through, and it's similar to what your prospect is going through or dealing with, or is challenged by. It's not identical, but it's similar. You've been through something similar, something that is relatable to them. Now that fall second in the order of power for obvious reasons. It's still personal, you've been through it. You're still their person because you've been through it, but it's not exactly what they've been through, not exactly. Something about your situation was different than their situation.

11:31 It's still an extremely powerful type of story to share. It just isn't going to resonate as deeply as the first. Now I want to make sure that I share this next piece. It doesn't necessarily matter or require you to have a story that's at the top of the order of power for you to be successful. It just means that how you tell the story, how you emphasize the story, how it is portrayed by you and received by your prospect is a bit different when it's at a different level.

12:12 When you're at that top most powerful type of story that you're sharing, that personal and identical story, boy, it is easy to see the connection because they can see things almost through your eyes. They can imagine what it would be like being on the other side of that challenge, that need, that desire, that outcome that they're looking for. Because you've been there, you are their guide to get them there. It was real for you, and they believe in you much more easily and deeply when they know you've been through it. Those personal and yet just similar experiences still give you a tremendous amount of experience because they still feel on a personal level that you've been through some of the wars like they have. Some of the battle scars are there. They look different, They may look entirely different. But that's okay, because you've been through it, you kind of know what it's like. And I've seen masterful salespeople sell in both of those categories. You know, obviously the top one as well as the second one. Now, the third most powerful type of story that you can share is one that is impersonal yet identical, meaning it wasn't you that experienced it. Somebody else experienced it, So I know what you're going through because I saw it as I worked with somebody else. This is a very

13:45 powerful type of story because this is where you get to be able to leverage people that you may have helped. I didn't go through this personally, but one of my clients has been through this. I helped them through it. Or I didn't deal with this particular challenge, but my partner did, and my partner is an expert at working through these things. Whatever the challenge is, it's identical. The person that experienced it, though, is not you. Now, this is a unique category in the order of power because this is one that enables you and empowers you to draw in third party perspective, third party support, third party edification, and testimony to what you are saying. Maybe it's a client, maybe it's a partner, maybe it's somebody else that knows exactly what your client is going through, your prospect is going through, because they've been through it. Because they've been through it, it's still extremely identical to what they went through.

14:54 It's just not your story. Now, I often say, when it comes to storytelling, if you don't have enough of your own stories to tell, become very very good at asking questions of others and learn and get the permission to tell their stories. Tell their stories. Now, why is that important? Because when you get into these other categories in the order of power of storytelling, if it's an impersonal story, it's much more powerful if you really have a strong working knowledge of what that person has been through, even if it's not your story, if it's somebody else's, if you know it inside and out, if you've gotten to know them, if you know the story, maybe you worked with them, maybe you didn't, maybe you just know of the situation. The more you know, the easier it becomes for you to tell that story effectively. The more you know, the easier it be comes for you to tell that story effectively. If you don't know all of the details, how can you really be sure it's identical.

16:08 But the other reason why it's important that you do know and understand it is, even though it's not your story, it's impersonal to you. If you embrace that story and embody it in the way you describe it to your prospect and your client, it won't be as important to them that you didn't experience it yourself. If they believe in the power of the story and your ability to address whatever the particular need is as it's related to in the story, then you can still be extremely effective in that story. That story can still open the doors necessary for sales success, move things forward in a way that will get you where you want to go and ultimately get you the desired results that you have. But you really need to know and understand the story very very well, because the better you know it, the easier it is for you to convey it. You've all probably, at some point or another, heard two different people tell a similar story, one person who's been through it themselves.

17:24 On a personal level. You can sense the emotion, the true connection, the reality to it because of how they tell that story, and you may never be able to replicate that if you didn't experience it for yourself, and that's okay. You're not expected to. But what you are expected to be able to do is tell the story in a way that might generate some of that emotion in your prospect because you are able to tell it so well. I've worked with some amazing salespeople across my career, and I've had the great fortune and to train and lead and coach and mentor many of them. And one of the things that we spent a lot of time talking about was how could you have positioned something different using a story? And I've had a lot of opportunity to work with lesser experienced salespeople, people that don't have a tremendous amount of experience, and as a result, they didn't have this amazing repository of stories that they could pull from in their own experience. They were younger, or they didn't have a lot of sales experience, so they didn't have all the situational examples to be able to use.

18:36 So they were forced to become extremely proficient in sharing other people's stories. And that's okay, because I will tell you that what it does for you is it teaches you to be an even more powerful salesperson. You don't have to have all the stories yourself. You don't because if you find the most relevant stories that somebody else's experience but it is yet still identical to what your prospect is dealing with, and you tell that story the right way, you'll get the desired result. You'll get the desired result. I think sometimes people put pressure on themselves and they think that they have to be able to tell the story everybody's good as the person that experienced it, And the reality is nobody expects you to be able to do that. It's not your story to tell. But when it is somebody else's story and you know it and you have permission to share it, you get to be able to look at it through a different set of eyes. See, when it's your story, you aren't necessarily as concerned or focused about what other people think about what you're saying. It's your story, you're just sharing it.

19:49 But when you're talking about somebody else's story and it's not yours, and you have the opportunity to dissect it and ask questions and dig into it and really understand the nuances of it, you actually understand it from a different perspective, you understand it from your prospects perspective, which is an important perspective to have. If you can view it through their own eyes and telling the story, it becomes much easier for you to figure out where you may need to make adjustments to the story, or where you may need to focus on one thing more or focus less on something else. It's easier when you have objectivity in viewing it. Now, those are the top three categories in the order of power in storytelling. And I'm going to share with you the final category in the order of power, and it's the one that is the least impactful, but you still can have success when utilizing it.

20:47 And that is when your story is impersonal. It's not something you experienced, and it's simply just similar to what your prospect is dealing with or is going through, or the challenge that they have. It's impersonal. It's not your story, and it's only similar. It's as far removed as you can get and still be relevant. Okay, as far as you can be from it and still be relevant. Because if you think of it this way, if you take away that similarity, it's just some other story. It doesn't hit home there's no relevance. So that little bit of similarity is all that keeps it into that order of power.

21:33 But let's talk about that. Let's talk about how you can still leverage that. See if you're in a situation and you're talking to a prospect and you just don't have anything in common with them, and there's no combined similar experience that you have for yourself, right, it's not personal, it's impersonal, and you know that, and you're searching through examples of people you've worked with to try to find something that's identical and it's just not there. Right, Well, you don't want to force it. You certainly don't want to make up a story. You want your particular story to at least be similar to what they're dealing with. And sometimes it forces us to be a little bit better and more creative as salespeople when we use this fourth category, because you know, it allows us the opportunity to identify parallels, things that might not be the exact same thing, but are relatable. You know, I'm having a problem in social media, and my problem is on LinkedIn, for example, And you know you don't have a lot of experience in LinkedIn, but you have a lot of experience in Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or whatever it is that you're using. Well, it's a parallel. It's not identical, but it's similar. Right, you can tell that type of a story. So I think the benefit that sales professionals receive when using that fourth category, if they have nothing better, is it forces them to think and be creative about

23:05 how to tell the story. And again I'm not saying making things up. I'm saying being creative about examples, creative about how that similarity is still relevant. Now, maybe there isn't something that's similar, and that's okay, that's okay. You can always default to a situation where you say, you know, I haven't exactly addressed that particular issue. However, here's a list of other issues that I have addressed, and I could take a very similar approach to addressing that concern that you have. There are ways of positioning that, but for storytelling, that least impactful, least powerful way in the order of power is the option that is impersonal and similar. So, rather than give up and not have a more powerful story to tell, I encourage you to think creatively. I encourage you to come up with some type of parallel that may be relatable to your prospect. Sometimes it's drawing on experience that you don't automatically see the similarity, but you have to think through the comparison. Maybe it is a parallel industry they do completely different things, but they serve the same client. Or maybe it is a parallel

24:39 offering for a different market. Let's say the person that you're working with tailors to a very particular type of client. Well, maybe the similarity isn't the product. Maybe the similarity is the audience or vice versa. Or maybe the target market is entirely different and the industry is entirely different, but you use similar mechanisms to accomplish the same goal. There's an endless list of ways that you can creatively come up with something that may be similar. It just needs to be a conversation that is close enough to home that your prospect can view it and say, oh, oh, I get it. I can see how this could be beneficial.

25:30 I could see how this could help me. I could see how learning how to do that could make this different. And you only have to look at how different situations, different industries have been impacted by new things that have come around. Just think about the advent of technology, you know, in the ability for people to be able to deliver things. It doesn't have to be identical, it doesn't have to be done the same way, but it could be serving the same prospect pool, it could be serving the same client or industry. That's okay. So there is a lot of different ways of highlighting similarity. So those are the four powerful storytelling methods and what I call the order of power. The most powerful is in summary, personal and identical.

26:19 It's you and it's an identical situation. The second most powerful is it's personal. It's still your experience, but it's similar, not identical, to what they've dealt with. The third is it's impersonal. It's not your story, it's somebody else's story, but it's identical to what your prospect or client is dealing with. And then the fourth is impersonal. It's somebody else's story and it's only similar. It's just one step away from not being relevant. But we're grasping onto that last straw to come up with something that could be relevant to your prospect. Now I encourage you all to to take a hard look at storytelling in your sales process.

27:04 If you are not currently sharing at least one story analogy example, in your sales process, take a step back and think through where you may be able to incorporate one. And here's why. The power that comes from storytelling is it builds rapport, It builds subject matter expertise, It builds that trusted advisor's status because you may say something or share something that absolutely connects your prospect with you in a big way. But if you don't do that, if you don't share that story, if you don't mention it, you may never get that chance. And I encourage you to look at ways to make that happen. And I know we've covered a lot of material here, but I want you to really take a step back and think about the power of storytelling and how important it can be. Now, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back in just a moment. And we're back. This is Joe Beck, founder of The Sales Activist, and I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for joining us today. Today we talked all about the power of storytelling and the order of power and the type of story that you tell. Storytelling is truly an impressive and impactful skill that you should master in your sales journey.

28:28 It will help you close more sales than you can imagine, but it's important you tell the story the right way. If you need some help in how you share sales stories or position them in a way for maximum effect, it would be my pleasure to help you. Feel free to reach out to me by texting the word sales to the number four oh nine five nine seven three five five. You'll access my digital assistant and you can jump onto my schedule and we'll talk about storytelling and sales in your business. My name is Joe Beck and this has been the Impact Sales Podcast, and I thank you for joining us. Make sure that you follow all of the Impact Sales Podcast episodes on YouTube as well as your podcast destination of choice. This is Joe Beck and we'll see you soon. Take care,