"War Stories" that help sell.

This is one in a series of articles on approaches to enhancing sales performance. The articles include presentation skills, cold calling, closing, questioning skills, territory management, progressing the sales and many others.

Here are some examples and approaches to using your stories to help you sell. If you would like to post comments on this article or share your stories follow this link

"Horror Stories" With Others.

Your goal as a salesperson is to get your prospects to buy. And fear is a powerful motivator. One way is to tell stories where someone else experiences the danger. Customers will put themselves in the story so you won’t have to.

“I know of family that lost their house due to an electrical fault, and the insurance company wouldn't pay because the wiring in the house was older than 1950.”

Self-Deprecating Stories and Humour.

People take a liking to those who can poke fun at themselves and admit their shortcomings, mistakes, and problems.. Plus it helps to drive home memorable points. I often mention the fact that I’m “mechanically challenged” when describing my handyman aptitude. Consider this example:

“I’m so bad when it comes to handyman stuff that once I couldn't assemble an Ikea wall unit, but even I was able to connect everything right first time when I got the computer”

Use Similar-Situation Examples.

Think about the effect this has on you when I say, “I saw someone who looked and sounded just like you, and they . . .” You were probably curious and interested, right? You can do the same with your products/services and prospects/customers.

“I was talking to another retailer last week who told me he was experiencing exactly the same thing with his displays. Let me tell you what he did ."

Put Them in The Story.

Help them visualize owning or using your product or service, or experiencing the problem you can solve:

“Let’s assume you did get the cheaper drill. It’s six months from now and you are still improving that old house of yours. You are just about to drill new holes so you can hang your new front door and it is getting close to 6:00pm. The drill burns out and you are stuck with no way to lock you door . . .”

Listeners tend to apply stories to their own lives, which helps them gain a firmer grasp of the message. You can make a suggestion in a story (or have a person in the story make the implication) that you wouldn’t dare attempt yourself. Stories also tend to relax people. They don’t feel like they’re being pressured or pitched when you employ a story or anecdote.

What's next?

As salespeople, we can present the boring features and benefits. Or, we can arouse, electrify, and sometimes poke at tender emotions with stories, metaphors, and analogies.

Create some of your own sales stories. Come up with at least two brief stories that relate to your products, your prospects and customers, and you. They don't need to be long, and shouldn't be. I'll be happy to comment on any you create.