“Can I Tell You a Story?”
If you have been in sales for any length of time you have probably read, or been told of the substance of by tales in your sales presentations. Although this concept is far from new, it is not used as often or effectively as doable.
One of the objectives of telling tales is to help your prospect or customer conjure up a mental image or picture of their situation with your product or service as part of the solution. Making this mental image requires you to tell the most appropriate tale for a particular situation.
One of the inherent challenges is that many people are not excellent tale tellers. Plus, the vast majority of sales people have never learned how and when to use tales in their presentations. But, with a bit of practise you can learn to use this approach in virtually every sales situation. Here’s what you do.
Use the “Can I tell you a tale?” approach. This is how it facility.
My wife and I browsed through a new furniture store and we questioned a question about the ease of cleaning the fabric on a particular chair. Rather than simply state an answer the sales person questioned, “Can I tell you a tale?” He then went on to share a real-life example of a customer who had bought that furniture and had spilled wine on it the very first weekend after it was delivered. BTW: the fabric was cream colored so a red wine stain could have been devastating.
He repeated this process a couple of era during our conversation and although the “can I tell you a tale” question got stale, his ability to relate an actual example of a customer’s experience was more fascinating AND effective than the standard approach of simply answering the question.
This approach is powerful is because people like tales. Tales keep a person’s attention. Tales that use real-life examples help people relate your product or service to their specific situation. Tales that are well-told are compelling, fascinating, and fascinating.
This technique can also be used when responding to objections. After you have empathized and clarified the objection you can question, “Would it be okay if I told you a tale?” This permission-based question really encourages the other person to say yes which means they will more receptive to your solution.
One word of caution. Your tale does not require every stitch of detail. Highly analytical people may be compelled to include every ounce of information including dates, era, the position of the moon, sun and stars and every other detail they can reckon of.
Don’t!
Keep the level of detail to a minimum; otherwise you run the risk of having your customer tune out or reckon, “Get to the point already!” The point of your tale will quickly get lost if you use too much detail.
Here’s how to make this work in the real world.
Reckon of the questions and objections you hear most frequently. Start with no more than two or three situations.
- Develop specific tales and edit these tales so they are small, sweet and to the point. Include ONLY the information that is vital to making your point.
- Practise reciting your tales so they flow comfortably and naturally. If you only have two to three tales, this won’t take too much
- When you hear a question or objection question, “Can I tell you a tale?”
- Tell your tale.
Integrate tale-telling into your approach and you will notice a difference in how people respond to you. And it should result in more sales.