7 Ways You Should Be Selling With Stories, with Mike Adams #116

The best salespeople in the world are selling with stories. Why? Because it’s one of the best and fastest ways to build rapport and trust. Not to mention that it enables you to segue into the business part of a sales conversation as “friends” with your prospect rather than as a seller (who they may be hard-wired to resist). I believe that selling with stories is so powerful, I invited Mike Adams to be my guest on this episode of #SellingWithSocial.

Mike is the author of “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell” and in this episode, he tells many stories – about how he moved from being an engineer to being a salesperson, why stories are so powerful for sales, 7 story types that can help you at every stage of the sales cycle, and more. Be sure you listen to hear how to improve your sales skills by telling more stories!

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When Prospecting, Only Tell Half Of The Story

We all like a good story. There’s no doubt about it. And there is something about leaving a story ending unresolved that has us chomping at the bit to hear more. As Mike and I began talking about the use of stories in sales, he mentioned that when prospecting, sellers should utilize the “cliffhanger” technique to incentivize the prospect to set a second appointment. He points out that Netflix does this all the time with its episodic shows and that as viewers, we get hooked into binge watching as a result. You can prompt the same kind of “hook” when having your initial conversation with prospects by using cliffhanger stories. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be cheesy and can actually be done in a way that feels very natural to your potential buyer. Listen to Mike’s explanation so you can learn how to do it the right way!

3 Stages Of The Buying Cycle And How Stories Fit Each One

In his book, “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell,” Mike breaks the selling process down into 3 stages…

Connect with the buyer ⇒ Change their mind ⇒ Close the deal

At each of those stages, your goal as a seller is to move the buyer into the next stage. How do you do it? Through telling stories that enable you to accomplish the objective of the particular stage you are in. As you listen to this episode, pay attention to how Mike maps his 7 story types into each of these stages and notice how each of them helps you accomplish the goals of that stage. You’ll quickly see that selling with stories is one of the most effective ways to answer objections and questions, establish trust, and move your buyer to a purchase decision.

Be Scrupulous About Ensuring Your Sales Stories Are True

Selling with stories is a powerful skill to develop, almost like acquiring a sales superpower. But you have to be meticulously careful when telling stories to make sure they are 100% true. No embellishment, no shading of the truth, no exaggeration. Why? Because if you are not being entirely accurate with the details of your stories – and your buyer gets a hint of the embellishment (no matter how small) – they will begin to wonder, “What else about the claims she’s making are not true?”

Do you see how quickly this one lapse in judgment can jeopardize the entire sales process? You’ve got to be more than careful – you’ve got to be meticulously truthful. Listen to hear Mike explain how to do this without fail, on this episode.

Start Selling With Stories By Using These 7 Story Types

Mike has developed 7 types of stories that map exactly to the 3 stages of the sales cycle. You can use these stories at their appropriate stage of the buying cycle to help buyers move toward a purchasing decision. Here they are…

CONNECT WITH THE BUYER (stage 1)

Personal stories

Key staff stories

Company story

CHANGE THEIR MIND (stage 2)

Insight story

Success story

CLOSING THE DEAL (stage 3)

Value story

Teaching story

As you might expect, Mike has excellent stories of his own to illustrate each of these types of stories and shows you how to use them to give your clients the perception that you can be trusted and are a company they want to work with. Listen to hear all the details and to ramp up your ability to sell with stories.

Outline of This Selling with Stories Episode

• [1:20] Mike Adams, author of “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell”
• [9:35] Why storytelling can help salespeople increase their sales skills
• [16:18] Create rapport by telling personal stories
• [21:29] How hard is it to learn selling with stories?
• [24:05] Why business stories must be scrupulously true
• [28:37] Walking through the 7 types of sales stories
• [44:22] The ways stories help you close deals

Resources Mentioned On This Episode of Selling with Stories

• Mike’s website: www.TheStoryLeader.com
• Mike’s book: Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell
• Mike on LinkedIn
• Mike on Twitter: @MikeAdamsSales
• Mike’s all-time favorite movie: Jaws
• Modern Marketing Engine Podcast – Bernie Borges
• The Complete Guide to Making the most of Dreamforce 2022

Connect with Mario!

• www.vengreso.com
• On Facebook
• On Twitter
• On YouTube
• On LinkedIn

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