Quality Storytelling Slant
A Chief Exec regaled me with his current favourite recently-acquired client story.
It was a cracker.
He loves sales storytelling. And on this occasion told the tale of his new customer’s growth. Stellar, explosive. He covered where they were and why they went there.
Jaw-dropping stats about their product range were liberally thrown in.
And then the story ended.
At no point did he mention anything about his own company’s wares.
The inference was to be clear.
All the elements of their story were ones that he, beyond all others, could help make happen.
And as the prospect audience, if you want the same things, then you simply gotta go with him too.
It’s a shame I can’t recount the tale in its entirety, because some of the info is sensitive. But at least I can give the following colour for an account that fits into 45 seconds;
From a village in the middle of nowhere, the aim was to take on the giants at the top-end…
Product development was aimed only at a tiny niche, just a fraction of point-one of one percent of the overall market…
Expansion was rapid, and seemed to occur in one specific, and potentially troublesome location to do business…
So they decided to focus solely on this treacherous territory… but needed specific help with a key area…
The problems were many; logistical, operational, tactical…
And after carefully examining the landscape for the best partner with whom to entrust underpinning their precious growth hopes…
…they chose us.
This is only the rough framework of course, but is a salutary reminder about how to tell stories. Interestingly, this doesn’t really follow text-book high-impact rubric. It’s a humble-origins made-it-big then hit-a-wall arc. In a narrative setting that hopes the salient bangs along the way are duly taken by the listener, rather than spelling them out.
Immerse yourself in what your customer is doing that makes them interesting, and great. Make sure the points you make are aligned to the uniqueness of your offerings. Resist the urge to say anything about what you do. Then sit back and let the prospect talk about where they’re trying to do something similar.