There’s one type of story I think everyone should have prepared. It’s the #1 story for building an emotional connection with your audience. It enables you to quickly build a level of trust that’s crucial in any selling situation.
Unfortunately few people have this story in their toolkit.
The story I’m referring to is what I call, Your Personal Story. It’s the story about why you do what you do. What makes it so powerful, is that the story transitions you from just another guy selling stuff, to someone who is doing what they do as a part of a larger mission.
Let me give you a couple of examples, so you can see what I mean.
If you probe a bit with many financial advisors, about why they decided to get into that business, you usually hear an interesting story. It often has to do with a family member, loved one or relative who got themselves into terrible financial straights because they didn’t understand investing. This experience was the catalyst for the fledgling advisor to say, “I’m not going to have that happen to me or to others I care about.” And that was the genesis for why they embarked on the path to becoming a financial advisor.
Now think about that, and compare it to how most financial advisors present their services. Most of the time it’s all about “Here’s my unique financial strategy that you should adopt.” Which in the ear of the prospective client, quickly translates into “Blah, blah, blah.”
Telling the story about why you got into the business makes the emotional connection. Pitching your solution, doesn’t. I don’t care whether we sell to individuals or to large corporations, in order for me to buy from you, you need to be someone who seems real to me. The story about why you do what you do, breaks down the barriers of skepticism that almost always exist, and accelerates the relationship building process.
That’s why learning to tell stories is a crucial, not a “nice to have” skill for anyone who sells or needs to persuade others. (Minor pitch-if you have a team of people who would benefit from getting better at using stories to sell, we should talk. Information about my one-day program is HERE.)
Second example.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that my first few years as a consultant were anything but a total disaster. A large part of the problem was that I positioned myself as this “expert from on high” who was born knowing all the answers. The truth, of course, was much different. In fact, I made every mistake possible, prompting my wife to comment, “It would be great if you would get it right the first time, just once.”
But here’s the point. Once I stopped trying so hard to be the expert, and instead told a story about how I struggled, learned from my mistakes, developed a system that worked for me and also for my clients…now people could begin to relate to me. My willingness to share my vulnerabilities made it safe for them to share that their business wasn’t dong as well as they hoped. Largely because of that story, they knew that I wasn’t going to be looking down on them, because I’d been in that exact same situation. (If you’d like to get a copy of the PDF that shares my story, just shoot me an email and I’ll send one along.)
The final point is this.
Whatever we are selling requires that people trust us, because unless they do so they won’t be open to discussing some rather important issues in their life. Whether it’s the corporate project, which if it isn’t done right could cause someone a missed promotion, to the individual who’s worried about having enough income to live on in their retirement, in order for these people to ask for our help, we have to make it safe for them to do so.
Your personal story is a powerful method for beginning that process.
Food for thought
Mark
mark@gentlerainmarketing.com
