Using Narratives as a Sales Tool
Ever hear the story about the tortoise and the hare? It all starts with the speedy hare ridiculing the tortoise for being so slow-moving. The tortoise challenges the hare to a race and the hare happily obliges. After the hare takes an early lead, he arrogantly takes a nap halfway through. In the end, the tortoise crosses the finish line first, much to the hare’s chagrin.
Humans are natural storytellers. We also have an inherent ability to learn from stories in a way that sticks. There have been many studies on why this is, and the theories range from hormonal to evolutionary.
Stories range in complexity. Some stories are told in novels that are filled with words carefully displayed across hundreds of pages, while others are told verbally in a matter of minutes. The one thing that all stories have in common is that they use narratives as a vehicle to convey how the audience should perceive the story.
Sales interactions are the perfect place to apply stories and narratives. Whether you have a presentation to a boardroom of clients, a virtual demo, or even a quick follow up call, narratives can be used to help convey the purpose of the interaction.
This is especially true for sales teams in tech companies. Products and services in tech are often feature-rich and targeted to a very specific group of users. There’s often more information than prospects have the attention span to digest. However, crafting a narrative that compliments, and helps convey the product’s fit with your prospect, will help create a clear and meaningful message.
In sales, the use of a storyline and narrative are most commonly applied during the initial presentation. These meetings often include a couple of slides, followed by a demo of the technology. It’s very easy to fall into the standard formatting of slideshows: title, about us, the team, our customers, and then the demo. Unless you are pitching to your dream client, it can be tough for the other party to feel engaged, when the messaging isn’t tailored specifically to them.
An alternative would be to structure your presentation similarly to how a Hollywood movie plot is set up to tell the “Hero’s Journey”. Rather than the hero of the story being a super-powered protagonist, it can easily be focused on the product or services you are trying to sell. Focus on telling the story of how your platform came to be, and how different challenges you faced have molded and informed the most popular features. Not only will this give you credibility as a subject matter expert, but your tech will be that much more compelling with a narrative backing it up.
An easy way to start structuring your presentations as a story is to follow the graph below, from the book: The Challenger Sale. Notice how, beyond the presentation being structured as a story, it also takes into consideration how the audience should perceive each step.
It’s important to note that stories and narratives are not only useful for long-form interactions with prospects. They can be extremely useful for explaining individual features or shaping up your elevator pitch.
This brings us back to the famous story about the tortoise and the hare. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock will recognize the story right away. However, rather than being able to recount every detail, most remember only the main idea: slow and steady wins the race.
Questions? Email me at shane@agilesales.ca
