Yesterday I attended a local Chamber lunch which is a great place to hear stories. The speaker representing the holistic health company providing the presentation told the story of an over-the-road truck driver who broke his hip and leg (in two places) after being blown off his rig by a large gust of wind while he tried to tarp his load. This truck driver went to the acupuncturist for treatment with a full leg cast, so the treatment was not provided directly to the areas where the breaks occurred, but he was still able to offer some indirect treatment to this patient. Not only did the patient get relief from some of the pain, but according to the doctor treating this man, he was amazed at the quick rate in which the swelling in the leg subsided after the acupuncture treatment.
The speaker went on to tell success stories about others who were relieved of back pain, leg pain and relief for people who have cold toes or feet. (Having neuropathy and continually cold toes myself, my ears perked up at this story!)
So, why do I tell this story? Because of the order of information in which the speaker decided to present his information and the response from the audience once he told his success stories. Let me explain.
The speaker started out saying he would hope the audience would forgive him as he was not a natural public speaker. This was unfortunate as he really turned out to be quite interesting and his apology was unnecessary. After this opening, he provided some basic information about acupuncture and answered a few most commonly asked questions of those in his profession. For example, he said that no, acupuncture does not hurt and is a pain reliever, not a pain inducer. Think of a salesperson who is a "feature creature" and simply gives product information to a prospective client. The acupuncturist then provided some additional information about his profession before launching into success stories. But here is the thing; the success stories were the most interesting part of the presentation.
That is why I opened this post with the success story he told. If I would have opened this post in the same order as the speaker opened his presentation, you might not have read this far. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging or criticizing the speaker. Public speaking is not something he has been trained in and being in front of a group of people is not something he is asked to do often. As I mentioned, he was quite interesting to listen to. But, I think salespeople can learn from these situations.
For example, the facts he provided at the beginning of his presentation could have been woven into the success stories. Using the examples above, he could have really grabbed the attention of the audience by launching right into the success story about the truck driver and then simply said something like; "and by the way, no, acupuncture treatment does not hurt, especially when you are dealing with the pain of a broken hip and leg!
The stories are really what made the presentation. But this even gets better, and maybe I should have moved this further up the order in this post, as an interesting thing happened when he finished telling his success stories, or what I would call "who I have helped" stories. A lady in the room raised her had and asked if she could tell a story of her spouse who had received relief from pain by receiving treatment from this acupuncturist and of course he said "yes." This was a very compelling story to hear from an audience member. Then to my surprise, the stories continued. Another lady told a story about how her friend had received treatment and relief from pain from a different provider, then there was another similar story told after that. To cap it off, another person told a story about a friend who had a dog that suffered from arthritis and the dog received acupuncture treatment and relief! (If you are a dog lover, you understand!) It was interesting to see how one story generated another story, and another, and another.
We can learn from this in the sales profession. Learn how to tell a good story, one that has a purpose, one that makes a hero of someone else (such as another client you work with) and see if you don't receive a story in kind from your prospect. That is the reason to tell a story in the first place, to get someone else's story. You do need to know how to craft a good story and I suggest the book "What Great Salespeople Do - The Science of Selling Through Emotional Connection and the Power of Story" co-written by Mike Bosworth. This book will provide you with the road map on how, why and the brain science behind the power of story.
Mr. Bosworth and his affiliates provide training on how to use storytelling as an influence strategy for business executives, salespeople and job seekers. If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me at rjs@mblstoryseekers.com
Now, let's see, where are those thin little needles....
Good Selling!
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