Storytelling in sales is a skill. When used correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful way to convince your prospects of the value of your solution.
As humans, it’s in our nature to be drawn to stories. A good story grabs our attention, helps us visualize and understand information, and connects us to both the storyteller and the characters within the story.
In a selling situation, a well-timed and well-delivered story can help the prospect visualize how your product or service will solve their challenge or make their life easier. A great story can make a presentation compelling enough for people to act.
But for storytelling to be truly effective in sales, your sales professionals have to nail both the timing and the delivery.
Benefits of Storytelling in Sales
There are quite a few reasons why storytelling is a natural fit for sales. Great storytellers “sell” their tales—they relate experiences in a way that makes them believable. Storytelling has many benefits for sales professionals who use a consultative selling approach.
Connect Emotionally
Storytelling creates an emotional connection between the sales professional and the prospect. By sharing relatable anecdotes or case studies, sellers can evoke emotions such as empathy, trust, and excitement, which can significantly influence purchasing decisions.
Make Yourself Memorable
Facts and figures are important in a sales presentation, but they can easily be forgotten. Stories, on the other hand, are more memorable. When prospects remember the stories shared by the sales professional, they are more likely to recall the key points about the product or service being offered.
Differentiate Yourself
In a competitive market, it’s essential to differentiate your offering from competitors. Storytelling allows sales professionals to highlight unique features, benefits, or successes that set their product or service apart. This differentiation can help prospects see the merit of choosing your solution over others.
Illustrate Value
Stories provide a tangible illustration of the value your product or service can bring to the prospect. Instead of simply listing features, sales professionals can paint a vivid picture of how their solution has positively impacted other customers or solved similar problems. This helps prospects understand the benefits and envision themselves using the product or service.
Build Trust
People are more likely to buy from someone they trust. Through storytelling, sales professionals can build rapport and credibility with prospects. You can increase the likelihood of closing the sale by sharing authentic stories that demonstrate expertise, integrity, and understanding of the prospect’s needs.
Overcome Objections
Storytelling can be an effective tool for addressing objections or concerns. Sales professionals can anticipate common objections and prepare stories that illustrate how those concerns were successfully resolved for other customers. This helps alleviate doubts and build confidence in the prospect’s mind.
7 Tips for Using Storytelling in Sales Presentations
By leveraging the power of storytelling in sales presentations, sales professionals can create more engaging, memorable, and persuasive interactions with prospects—ultimately leading to increased sales success.
Here are seven tips for how to use storytelling in sales presentations.
1. Give your story structure.
A basic story has three main parts: a beginning, middle, and end. At the beginning, the listener is introduced to the hero. In the middle, the hero encounters a challenge or roadblock. At the end, the hero overcomes the challenge and emerges transformed.
In a sales story, the hero will likely be a customer, and your product or service will solve the challenge the hero faces. Any story your sales team members use in their presentations should have a solid beginning, middle, and end to ensure it is engaging and effective.
2. Appeal to emotion, not only logic.
One of the reasons stories are so effective in sales presentations is because they trigger an emotional response. This is powerful because emotions (not logic) drive most consumer decisions.
Encourage your sales professionals to think about a decision maker’s pain points and personal goals when developing a story to be used in a sales presentation. A visceral response to a story is what will inspire people to take action.
3. Keep the story brief and engaging.
It can be easy to get carried away with a good story. Keeping it to two minutes or less will have the most impact. Remind your sales professionals that stories should be used to enhance a sales presentation, not to replace it.
4. Practice, but don’t memorize.
A compelling story feels spontaneous and genuine instead of rehearsed. Coach your sales professionals to develop a handful of stories that can be used in their sales presentations, and then have them practice delivering them to you.
It’s not important to memorize the stories word for word. Once they feel confident with the fundamentals of the story, they’ll be able to weave them in naturally when the timing is right.
5. Tailor the story to the audience.
Your sales professionals should have several stories they can pull from during sales presentations, but they should tweak them based on the individual client and audience. The points the story conveys should link to what your sales professional has learned about the organization and/or the specific decision makers’ wants and needs.
6. Use humor (but don’t overdo it).
A little bit of humor goes a long way in adding life to a PowerPoint presentation. A story is a great opportunity to elicit a few laughs. Your sales professionals should be able to identify the behavior style of the prospect, which will help them determine the right amount of humor to use (and how to best communicate with them in general).
7. Choose the final words carefully.
Again, an overly rehearsed story can come off as stiff and inauthentic. It’s a good idea for sales professionals to know exactly how they want to end the story to have the most impact on the prospect. Coach your team to keep the beginning and middle of the story somewhat spontaneous, but really nail down the closing words.
Connecting Through Storytelling
Sales leaders, consider adding storytelling sales training to your plans. Incorporating storytelling into sales presentations allows sales professionals to connect with prospects on a human level and vividly illustrate a point. Stories are memorable and relatable, and using them in the sales process is an effective way to address difficult or challenging issues.
Learn More
Find out how to use storytelling in sales to help you sell more effectively in The Brooks Group’s Storytelling as a Sales Tool workshop.
