How to Tell a Seductive Sales Story

Good story telling and writing is a mark of a great sales master at work. The ability to tell a good story is a very persuasive way to quickly motivate a prospect into action. It is a medium that can touch the prospect in a very personal and intimate way. It has the ability to engage the emotions and inspire the prospect like no other medium. It provides a feeling that everything just fits and feels just right. Learn the magic of great story telling and your future as an aspiring sales master will be very secure.

If you are serious about becoming a sales master it is important that you learn how to tell a good story. Story telling is a very powerful way to communicate what you are offering clearly and convincingly. It will make what you are saying easier to understand and very memorable. Capture the imagination with a good story and you will be like the snake charmer. Everyone will be mesmerized and will fall under your persuasive spell. Use good story telling as a tool to put to rest any fears and inspire prospects into immediate action.

A story is the simplest way to help the prospect to make sense of what you are offering. It helps to fill in any blanks they may have and for them to quickly form a clear vision. Done well a story will connect the prospect to your product in a very special and personal way. As a result it is one of the best ways to persuade. The most persuasive people in history are greatest story tellers. Think of Jesus, Martin Luther King and Billy Graham etc. They all had the ability to tell a great story. Remember people do not like to be told things but do like to hear a story. The prospect is no different. Learn this very important skill and it will put you head and shoulders above everyone else. This is a potent skill that you must make very effort to master. Do not underestimate it magical ability to put prospects under your spell.

“So the burning question is what the secrets of telling a good story are?”

Also Read: Create And Prosper The Journey Of Your Life.

Write your story:

First you must write your story. You must begin to get it down on paper and begin to make it real. Do not rely on luck or divine inspiration. There is no excuse for not planning your story and how you are going to tell it. First just write down what your objectives of the story are going to be. What is your call to action? Now to begin planning you story by beginning to think about everything that is important about your proposal or product. What are the things that really matter and are important to this prospect? Think about the market, the main benefits and the features. Use brainstorming. As a part of this exercise consider current events and the latest news. You want to look for ways to make you story seem fresh and new. You also want your story to be relevant to the prospect as an individual as well as at the corporate level. This part of developing your story is a bit like throwing all the bits and pieces out onto the table. Now think about the prospect and how they can fit into the story. You must make a special effort to put them into the story. The best stories are those that include the prospect as a main character. This allows you to touch them in a very intimate way that will have very special and magical results for your selling.

Next begin to eliminate any unimportant or irrelevant points that will only bore the prospect. Now think about how what you have to offer fits together. What connects all the main point you have just thought about. You want to design a structure for your story to fit into. Do this by thinking about the bigger picture. What you want to try and do at this stage is find an angle where everything can easily make sense. To help form a structures that will just make sense think about analogies you can use in your story. Choose analogies that are relevant and meaningful to the prospect. Look back in history. What connections can you make to past events that help get you point across clearly. What shared experiences do you and the prospect both have that can be weaved into your story. Remember your story must have a beginning, middle and end.

Putting the story together is a bit like looking at a big jigsaw puzzle that has just been completed. The pieces are the points you have thought about above during your brainstorming. What your story does is put all the bits and pieces together. So now you must decide where and how these pieces fit together.

The story telling part helps the prospect to see the completed jigsaw puzzle in their mind. It helps the prospect to clearly see how all the bits and pieces fit together. It also helps the prospect to see the picture that the completed jigsaw puzzle reveals. This is where the prospect can go Aha! It just feels right and makes sense. This will comfort the prospect and remove any fear or doubt. Now you need to add some spice to your story. What is the ingredient that is going to motivate them into action? The best way to motivate them into action is to touch on their emotions. Aim at the heart and not the head in your story telling. Great story telling should be an emotional experience for your prospect. This can be done in both what you say and how you say it. The final part of writing a story that sells is to consider your call to action once again. What do you what the prospect to do? Add your call to action to the emotional energy that you have just created. Make sure that energy is now channelled to take action now.

Also Read: Create Your Own Story For Your Own Life.

8 steps to writing a good story – that sells!:

• Brainstorm for all important items and topics. Including key benefits, feature and market developments.

• Include current events and news to make the story seem fresh and new.

• Look for ways to include the prospect into the story. Put them centre stage as a lead character.

• Eliminate unimportant and irrelevant items and points.

• Design a structure for the bits of the story to fit. Look at analogies, past events and shared experiences

• Look at ways to engage the emotions.

• What is your call to action?

Secrets Selling Skills to good story telling:

As well as writing your story there are some very important points when it comes to telling a good story. The way you tell a good story allows the magic to come to life and for your planning to pay off. When it comes to telling your story you need to think about a number of things; your voice, how you are going to communicate with the audience, how you can make it seem personal and what visual aids can be used to support you story.

Develop and strong relaxed voice. Practices saying your story out aloud before you tell it live to the prospect. Make sure you talk with conviction and enthusiasm. You want the emotions from your voice and the way you tell the story to infect the prospect. By telling your story you want to achieve a transfer of feeling. Make sure the emotion in your voice is in line with what you are saying. Use the emotion in what you say to control, and lead what the audience should feel.

The worst presentation and stories are those that just talk at the prospect. You need to involve the prospect and make them a part of the story. Remember in your planning you made them a central character in your story. You should not just talk at the audience you should look for ways to actively involve them. You can do this by asking them questions that force a response. It doesn’t matter if the response is a silent response that they answer in their heads. Open a dialogue with the audience. Focus on one person at a time. By doing this it makes your story feel more personal. It makes the people in the audience feel like you are talking to them alone.

Visuals and imagery can be anything that the prospect can look at to support your story. It could be a physical item you can use as a prop or tools like power point. You will need to be your own judge on this. Some people tell great stories when that have impressive supporting visuals.

My personal preference is to minimise the use of tools like power point because too many people have abused its power. As a result it can stir up negative thoughts in the prospect before you even start. This happens when they first see the first power point slide up. People often have abused power point slides by using them to write their story on instead of properly planning and learning their story. They then read off the slides. NEVER ever do this. It is boring an insulting to the prospect since they can read.

The imagery on the slide should only ever support what you are saying. If power point is to be used it should be very visual to support the words that come out of your mouth. Promise me you will never commit this deadly sin of reading from a slide. As a result I find the use of cartoons as a very powerful visual aid to help tell the story. These are very effect ways to get your point across while talking to the prospect about how this relates to their individual situation.

Also Read: Creating A Plan For Your Life.