Crafting a compelling story to sell more Professional Services

How many stories do you need?

You have probably met some of life's great natural storytellers.
They mentally record their experiences as stories and have no trouble recalling them in an interesting and entertaining way.
A few years ago I was lucky enough to realise a personal goal and spend " A Round with Allis".
I played golf with Peter Allis the golf commentator, wit and raconteur. 
For the whole time he just trotted out story after story...
It was a great experience on many levels.

For the rest of us, telling stories takes a little work.
I suggest that you need to have a set of compelling stories 6 or 7 in your armoury.
They should cover a variety of situations where you, your products or your services have added significant value. This will allow you to select from the stories as needed to fit the particular circumstances based on what you think might be relevant and interesting to your prospect.

You with a little modification be able to use the same story as part of your introduction of your company or in an expanded version when the prospect opens up and talks about a particular issue they have.

Crafting a Compelling Story

To craft the stories, first think about the typical problems your product or service solves.
Now bring to mind recent examples of specific customers where this has happened.
Write a short paragraph summarising the example.  A good book here is BRAG! by Peggy Klaus
A few guidelines should help here:

• Make the story personal.
• Don’t just talk about a company.
• Talk about a named individual who “owned” the problem your product & service solved.
• Talk first about the challenges the person faced. Describe them in personal terms turn them into the hero of the story
• Build a connection to your story with your prsopect.
• Don’t spend a lot of time describing what you or your service actually did.
• Ask whether the problem you solved for this cliet is similar to their problem
• Do mention what value or benefits did your solution bring.
• Close with the benefits your product or service provided – but underplay this,almost add it as an afterthought
• Avoid boasting.

Write these examples up using natural, conversational language and revise them until they sound right.
Then learn and practice their main points so that they don’t sound like a script.
Absolutely make sure you get the permission of anyone whose name you use.

Putting the Stories to Work

Armed with your stories you can begin to put them into action in sales situations.
Don’t overuse them. You risk talking too much when you should be listening.
Use them sparingly to spark the curiosity of the prospect, gain credibility, and provoke a reaction or question.

We suggest you use one story to introduce your company and what you focus on.
Select the story based on what you think is likely to be of most relevance.
Use further stories later on to illustrate a point, or to show that you understand their situation.

We suggest that you rarely use more than a couple in a sales meeting of an hour or less.
To do so runs the risk of dominating the conversation and not giving the client enough space to open up about their problems and if they don’t talk about their specific problems, then you can’t begin to show them how you can help them.

I hope that you appreciate us sharing our views with you and that the ideas have given you food for thought and action..

You must remember to look out for our next e-tip where we'll show you how to construct a few of your own stories ...

If you have an opinion on this or you believe that your team has these issues and would like some help
then email us at info@rainmaker-coaching.co.uk