Stories fascinate and excite, facts and numbers do not. Discover how to create a connection with your customers using storyselling: they will look at your product with different eyes and fall in love with it. Whatever the industry we operate in or the business model we apply, we all sell something: products, services, ideas… From the company that wants to convince its customers to buy a new software to the entrepreneur looking for an investor for his project, the secret of success lies in our ability to get people’s attention, make them fall in love and close the deal .
During this (sometimes) complex
process, storyselling can be a very powerful tool. What is storyselling and what are its benefits? Storyselling is the art of telling a story that attracts the attention of our audience to remain imprinted in their memory, to create a connection and to convey the benefits that could be had by purchasing our product or service .
I certainly think there are some skills we’ll lose el salvador phone number library as we hand things over to automation. I can barely remember my own phone number now, let alone the long list of numbers I used to know, and my handwriting has completely gone.
We must build a bond through narratives
that attract their attention, but above all that strike the heart (and the brain). Storyselling has tremendous potential for sales teams. Telling stories can help you: capture the customer’s attention; establish a sincere relationship; push a customer to take action; create context around the data that makes it more relevant and (most importantly) more interesting.
You can use this technique at any stage of
the sales process: to explain product Библиотека данных электронной почты features, to manage expectations, to answer questions, or even to negotiate a contract. Why do good stories work? Stories are a form of communication that humans have been using for about 40,000 years.
Over time, they have been used to transmit
traditions, culture, religions, lessons… And bm lists their main characteristic is that they remain in our memory. Why? Because our brain stores, indexes and retrieves information precisely in the form of stories . Stanford Graduate School Business Marketing Professor Jennifer Aaker explains, “Our brains are not wired for logic or long-term retention of facts.
Instead, they are wired to grasp and retain
stories. A story is a journey that takes the listener on a journey, making them feel different. The result is persuasion and, sometimes, action.” storytelling When we listen to a story, some chemicals are released in our brain that are responsible for different emotions such as: empathy, affection, happiness, pain, fear… These reactions are what unite us to the person who is speaking, creating a bond .
Facts and numbers do not have the sam
e effect on us. Brands over the years have tried to influence customers through studies, numbers or big arguments to prove that their product is the best on the market. This approach, however, has generated distrust and as highlighted by the Edelman Significa study has created one-sided relationships between brands and consumers.
Conversely, by arousing feelings and emotions
through stories, it is much easier to break the barrier, as Jonathan Gottschall explains in the book The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human . But beyond that, storyselling also makes it more likely to be remembered: an article published on Medium reveals that a fact or data is 22 times more recognizable if it is presented within a good story.
A scene from one of Mad Men ’s most iconic
episodes perfectly demonstrates the power of storyselling. Don Draper presents a pitch to Kodak through a personal story that evokes so many emotions that it commands the undivided attention of his audience. How to create a compelling story that will make your audience fall in love? You don’t need any special skills or knowledge to be a good storyseller, you just need to understand how stories work and what characteristics they must have to have a positive effect on your interlocutor.
Here are the 4 ingredients to create compelling stories: 1. Characters In storyselling the customer must always be the hero or protagonist . The more he feels involved in the narrative, the easier it will be to create a connection. So who is the antagonist? The enemy will be personified by a problem and not by a person.
For example, it could be the lack of qualified customers or the difficulty of finding talents… 2. Context Every customer is different and lives in a universe of concrete circumstances that influence their way of making decisions. We must make an effort to understand this context and transport it into our narrative correctly .
This will help us to increase their trust in us and capture their attention, providing data and examples. 3. Joint Every story has a beginning, a turning point and a resolution. The turning point is the part of the story where a problem arises to be solved.
In our storyselling we must think about the pain point or the need of our customer and how to solve or satisfy it with our product or service. To be successful in sales, we must understand what the problems of our target are and why we cannot solve them.
4. End Once the needs analysis is complete, it is time to demonstrate the value of the product or service we want to sell . The protagonist of the story, of course, will emerge victorious, gaining one or more advantages. With these four components, you can build stories about your product, your company, or even yourself, to connect with customers and build trust .
Prepare them in advance, be transparent and authentic: you will become a fantastic storyteller.