Everyone Has A Story, Tell Yours

Everyone is selling something. Whatever your profession, you've got an idea, a product, a proposition, or a service to sell. Everyone also has a story to tell. The most successful sales people are those who tell their stories well and in a way their customers hear it best. We all tell our stories differently and what interesting to you may not be interesting or important to me. What's important is that we tell it truthfully and with enthusiasm. I can't count the number of times someone has been telling me a story about something whose subject isn't at first glance all that interesting to me, but their enthusiasm and knowledge of the material is so honest and interesting, I eventually want to know more. I've watched countless documentaries on Netflix where the subject matter isn't the reason I'm searching, but because the person recommending it to me explains it to me with a story so engaging that the subject becomes almost secondary. 

As salespeople, I think storytelling is a lost art in getting the customer to relate to you in a way that wants them to know more about what you do or have to offer. The first order of prospecting is to get the meeting and i'm not sure there is a more effective way to interest a customer than with a story that ties their story to yours. As a consumer, I'm not likely to buy from you if the story you're telling doesn't hold my interest.

I'm not pretending that we're all Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, but I'm sure Stephen King and J.K. Rowling are OK with that. They understand the stories they are telling are THEIR stories and they sell plenty of books to people who love their stories. I've never read one Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay) or Stefenie Meyer (Twilight) book, but does that mean that neither of those two storytellers have a quality product to sell? Collins has sold almost 90 million books and Meyers has sold over 100 million copies of her books!

We all have a story to tell and if we stick to our own, we will reach those customers who can relate. We might not reach them all, but we will have success working with people who relate or enjoy our story because we tell it honestly and with enthusiasm. Try it the next time you want to get something from a customer. Whether that something is an appointment from a hard to reach CEO, or your 3-year old who needs to pick up those painful legos from the living room floor. 

We all have a story to tell, what's yours?