If your job is to sell your company’s products or services, you need to know how to communicate their value in a compelling way. When we work with salespeople, they already understand that storytelling can be a powerful tool for them, but they struggle with how to leverage stories appropriately. Sometimes they can come up with a story, but it’s too literal and leads them down a rabbit hole of demo-ing their product rather than actually telling a story. Other times they drone on and on, losing their audience along the way. Sometimes they just can’t come up with a story idea, even if they know they should be telling stories! Here are some tips and tricks to get you started if you’re having the same challenges.

Where to Source Ideas for stories

• Case Studies
  Your company probably already has these stacked up somewhere in a set of PDFs or listed on your website. Pick one that you are passionate about and turn it into a story you can use during the course of a pitch or conversation.

• Past Deals
  Similar to case studies, look at the last month or year of sales, and try to find a customer whose challenge you remember. Think about the problem your customer had, and how you were able to help. Turn that into a story you can share with similar clients in the future.

• End User
  Salespeople often sell to someone who isn’t the end user of the product or service. This is especially true in the B2B world. Challenge yourself to put together a story that highlights a moment in your end user’s life. Focus on creating understanding and empathy for the end user’s journey or challenge.

• Your Personal Career
  Some of the sotries you share can (and should!) be stories about yourself and your personal lived experience. These stories are crucial to helping you build rapport and trust with your prospects. Consider answers to questions like, Why did you choose this industry you work in? What attracted you to your company? and What do you love about the work you do? Stories that answer these questions will help your customers get to know you and like you more.

Don’t Forget to Craft the Stories

If salespeople can successfully identify stories to tell, the next challenge is to actually craft them for influence. Being intentional in story crafting can be especially hard because salespeople either don’t know where to start or think their stories will be good enough when delivered off-the-cuff. Here are some tips for how to get started and why crafting your story ahead of time can be valuable:

• Your story is just an answer to a question
  Good sales people make the sales process a conversation. When crafting your stories, imagine the question your prospect might ask that could prompt the story. This will help make sure your stories still feel organic, relevant, and extemporaneous even if you thought about what you want to say ahead of time.

• Keep it short and sweet
  Sales stories can be as short as one minute. We often find salespeople get caught up in the 45-minute presentation or demo they have to give, and forget about the micro-moments along the way where a quick story can fit in. Think about sprinkling stories throughout your conversations.

• Humility is key
  While it makes sense to “big up” your company/product/service, coming off as arrogant can ruin everything. People don’t like it, and they won’t like you. If your story is about how you or your product saved the day, make sure you spend enough time describing the challenge or conflict first. If you just skip to the end, you don’t build the stakes enough for your audience to be bought into your solution. 

• Invite curiosity
  Engage your prospect by embedding mystery and problem solving into your story. This ensures they come along the journey with you and may even start ideating a solution before it’s even offered as part of the storyline. This psychologically builds buy-in to your idea, increasing the likelihood you’ll close the deal.

• Ask your customers for their stories
  Again, sales takes place in conversation and over time. Don’t forget to ask your prospects and customers for their stories. This will help you get to know them, tailor your own stories appropriately, AND will offer you more fodder for future stories you might tell.

What are your strategies for developing sales stories?