Category Archives: Story Selling

Building Trust in Sales One Story at a Time

In Story Selling | Focus on the Story not Baiting the Hook

In story selling focus on helping the customer satisfy needs, not baiting the hook.“There is a popular style of writing sales copy that starts with casting a hook.”

“The reader, like a fish, is meant to swallow the hook, and is then slowly reeled in by the copywriter.”

“I’m not a big fan of catching readers on hooks and reeling them in.” by Nick Usborne

Read on about how to make your sales copy more human: http://www.nickusborne.com/sales-hook/

See on Scoop.it – Story Selling

Ken Jondahl‘s insight:

I like how Nick reminds us not every customer is the same and it is dangerous to “assume” the customer is “just like me”. He provides a clear example of what not to do and also how to improve the opening of a sales piece.

My advice is to build on where Nick leaves off and complete the story. Open with the setting of a live person who is facing the situation Nick describes.

Move on to the complications life tosses at the individual in the story which in Nicks case could be the 3 ways to solve the problem. Or complications which lead to examining the 3 ways to solve the problem.

As the story unfolds, the person in the story, who by the way is the “hero”, (not the product or service), examines the 3 ways to solve their complications. Finding good and bad in each solution.

The climax is when one of the potential solutions is found to work the best for the hero in a round about “ah hay” moment. We’ve all had these, so make them real.

Wrap up with the resolution and the hero heading off down a better road in life.

“How we help” in a visual story is much better then discussing features and benefits. Visual referring to the style of writing and of course use images.

Think about Nick’s approach which is dead end.  The end game in sales is “not” to hook the customer. It is to get them to jump in the boat with all of their friends. B2B sales is H2H, (Human to Human)  when the power of story selling is applied across sales and marketing.

Can Storytelling Help B2B Social Selling?

“Stories do not exist in media, they are created and experienced in the mind.”Stories are created in the mind

“…transmedia storytelling is a fundamental approach to communications—internal and external—that all organizations should adopt. The drivers of the success do not rest on the economics, but on the quality and integrity of the story.”

“While many scholars and practitioners approach transmedia storytelling with game studies or fan culture roots, the true power of transmedia storytelling rests on the story, not the articulated media elaborations.”

“A story is created and experienced, first and foremost, in the mind.”

Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D.

Ken Jondahl‘s insight:

An issue we have in sales, “It is no longer about how we sell, it is all about how the buyer buys.” If a buyer comes to any of your social media sites, what story do they see?

 After reading the above, consider some of the B2B social sites you’ve visited over the last few years. Do any stand out in your mind? If you are in sales, do any even look like they might help you in your job?

Can one turn moving dirt into a story? For ideas, check out Caterpillar, click on the time line and view how they are unfolding their story via Facebook as one example.

See on Scoop.it – Story Selling