I’ve long wanted an opportunity to incorporate my love of storytelling with my K-12 education sales day job, and I finally had an opportunity to do that today, leading a session called The Power of Storytelling during my company sales offsite.
To do so, I borrowed material from Richard Freishtat, Vice President of Curriculum at UC Berkeley Executive Education. Richard is a master of helping companies and individuals craft their stories and I was fortunate enough to attend his Art of the Pitch class a few years back. He says that as we talk about stories in sales, really what we are thinking about is how people make decisions. And then how can we communicate in a way that will resonate with how the brain naturally wants to work through information.
There is a very traditional method of presenting information that most companies focus on through data, statistics, and logical arguments, but that’s not going to be compelling for a lot of sales prospects because as you’re talking, they’re fighting with you in their head with their own data, statistics, arguments, and their own personal experiences.
What’s missing from that is emotion. As soon as we start bringing emotion in with an idea, we begin to trip up the way the brain might logically think of reasons not to do something. Like if I am emotionally attached to a product I know I rationally can’t afford- a red Tesla Model S for example- my brain will start to come up with reasons it actually is a smart investment in order to rationalize the purchase.
So in thinking about how we can use emotions in sales pitches, it isn't about manipulation but about how we can set up an audience to be receptive to what we’re saying. And one of the best ways to bring out emotions in sales pitches is by using stories. What did a current customer want to achieve before they started working with you? What was standing in their way? And how did your product help them solve this challenge and become a hero within their organization? If a prospect can relate to this story and to the customer, it will hopefully bring out an emotion in them, meaning they will be more receptive to doing business with you.
It will also help people remember you and your product for far longer than they would have otherwise. According to the London School of Business, when people hear statistics alone, they retain only 5% to 10% of what they hear. When the statistic is coupled with a picture related to it, retention jumps to 25%. When stories are used to convey that same information, retention jumps to 65% to 70%.
So go write and tell more stories and stop distracting people with busy PowerPoints that will bore them to death.
