When you work in sales, you have to be a good storyteller. This is true whether you're talking to potential customers, partners, or product distributors. For example, a grocery store with limited shelf space must convince retailers that placing products in a prominent location is in the greater interest of everyone. Likewise, at a sales convention, you need to convince potential customers that what you're selling is worth the investment. Both situations require some level of persuasion, which often involves telling a compelling story.
Gina is a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a consumer anthropologist who discovers and shares customer stories to help them create appropriate products and experiences, and is the director of the Leadership Story Lab, where she coaches business leaders on business storytelling techniques. Story Lab) Founder Success (Esther), we use storytelling as the cornerstone of our work.
Through our experience, we've learned that a “powerful story” is a story that explains why your product or service satisfies someone's need, especially in sales. This includes listening, connecting emotionally, and thinking from the customer’s perspective. The earlier you learn how to communicate in this way, the faster you are likely to grow in your role. The first step is to avoid common mistakes that newcomers to the industry often make.
What not to do
A food and beverage company we worked with wanted to persuade supermarket chains to place their drinks on more prominent shelves. The sales team talked about the product's biggest selling point: its state-of-the-art production process. They explained that placing beverages in a prominent location can increase sales, expand distribution, and ultimately increase access to premium products by lowering prices for customers.
This story was their first mistake, and one we see often.
The sales team's story focused entirely on why better shelf space would benefit the company and its customers. What did you focus on? they believed They differentiated their products but did little to address or consider the concerns of retailers.
Unsurprisingly, the supermarket chain refused to budge, citing low sales of the drink, which costs 50% more than similar products.
When food and beverage companies met with us to discuss how to overcome these challenges, their sales teams complained that “retailers just don’t get it.”
This was their second mistake.
Instead of passively and aggressively blaming customers for “not getting it,” the sales team needed to pause, listen more carefully, and reframe the story to fit the retailer’s needs.
Don't make mistakes like this when starting your career in sales. Instead, do this:
How to create a story that communicates with customers
The key to persuasive storytelling in sales is to suspend judgment about why others should buy, sell, or highlight your product or service. This doesn't mean your knowledge isn't important. You likely know your product or service better than anyone else. However, focusing too much on your own opinions can lead to a passive-aggressive mindset in which others “don’t get it.”
A better approach is to leverage your knowledge to highlight which products or services will meet your customers' needs. To do that, you need to get out of your own head and be curious about how the world looks, sounds, and feels to your customers.
By following these three steps: Identifying obstacles, cultivating shared understanding, and creating and curating meaningful stories, you will be better equipped to get buy-in from the people you want.
Step 1: Find and listen for blocks and obstacles.
Let's say you work at a car dealership and you're trying to sell a newly released vehicle. You told the story with compelling facts and figures and highlighted all the high-tech features. But disappointingly, customers aren't convinced this car is worth the money.
You feel frustrated. And we understand it. Like any food and beverage company, you may be struggling to understand why potential buyers don't appreciate the cutting-edge features associated with your product.
Rather than relying on that frustration, now is the time to take a step back and show humility. Remember, for you, the value proposition is clear. You believe your product is superior because of its special features and functions, and your instincts speak to those selling points. However, technical terms are often of interest only to a small number of speakers of the language. Jargon isn't as effective as the emotional connection created when you hear and empathize with someone else's problems.
So instead, be curious about your customers. Sticking with our original example, we could start with questions like: “Why do you want to buy a new vehicle today?” Then listen. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and try to empathize with them and figure out what obstacles this sale can help them overcome. In this case, you may find that your customer's current vehicle is not suitable for their growing family. You can use that information to tell a different story that responds to the customer's complaint.
In our conversations with food and beverage company representatives, we identified two obstacles that prevent supermarkets from putting their products on more prominent shelves: the high prices of drinks and low sales volumes. Sales teams at food and beverage companies will make no progress unless they specifically address these two points. In other words, they needed a different story.
Step 2: Use your emotions as well as your logic.
Emotions play an important role in decision making. Psychologists have discovered that our emotions influence what we believe to be true. This means that if you want to persuade someone, you have to approach it emotionally as well as rationally.
Consider the example of a car dealership. Now that you know your clients are raising families, you can aim to understand them on an emotional level by asking yourself: Why would a new parent want to buy this vehicle? What are parents most concerned about when driving with their family?
Similarly, sales teams at food and beverage companies have had to shift their tactics from purely logical to emotional. But this can only happen if we understand the range of emotions consumers experience before making a decision, especially parents (ideal customers) who often make decisions based on price in grocery stores. .
Instead of focusing on how the product was made, the sales team started asking themselves questions. What drives parents to spend more money on our products? Ultimately, this helped us gain a more complete view of our customers’ perspectives.
Step 3: Tell a different story.
Understanding your customers emotionally changes your story, and therefore your sales pitch. In the car dealership example, you might choose to focus on the vehicle's spacious backseat or its family-friendly entertainment system. You can also focus on the flashy bells and whistles you highlighted in your original presentation, while also telling a more intentional story created specifically for your customers. Explain why these new technologies make cars safer and more reliable. These are two things that may be of interest to parents.
A food and beverage company's sales team began thinking about how to shape new stories to better pitch to distributors and retailers. As a result, they had a chance meeting that changed everything. The sales team, all wearing company shirts, stopped by the restaurant for lunch. The waitress noticed the logo and approached the table. “I like your products,” she said. “I always buy it.”
Here was your ideal customer in person. Someone who was willing to pay a premium price for the product and, in her case, a decent salary. With her curiosity and empathy, they asked her her reasons.
“My son has health problems,” she explained. “Your product helped him a lot.”
Her decision was not based on the company's production process and filtration. Because she saw a difference in her son's health. This was the story they needed to tell distributors, retailers and consumers.
The sales team looked for reviews and feedback from other customers about why they purchased the drink despite the higher price. Feedback was consistent. Consumers believed the product saved them money in the long run by avoiding other costs, from nutritional supplements to medical care.
At the next meeting with the retailer, the sales team shared the waitress' story and other customer testimonials. The presentation centered around the product's value proposition, and this time it was a success. Retailers have made small commitments to give beverages premium shelf space, along with new marketing based on consumer stories. Sales increased, and over time, store shelf space commitments also increased.
As a sales professional, you have a story to tell. It’s the story you believe will differentiate the product you sell from everything else on the market. But the effectiveness of that story depends not on what you want to say, but on how meaningful it is to your customer. When your story removes obstacles, creates emotional connections, and fosters shared understanding, then your story will rise above the rest. That is the moment when everyone truly “gets it.”