Storytelling.

These days storytelling is one of the most essential tools in business in terms of talking about your company and your everyday sales. It has always been important, but now more than ever!

Only 100 years ago, advertising was much more accessible due to the lack of competition. Currently, there are hundreds of companies doing the same thing, and most likely, you are one of them. That is why your storytelling knowledge matters the most. People will not buy from you only because you exist.

Stories come in different forms, shapes and sizes, but we all love them. Through evolution, our brains learnt to love stories because they are an excellent simulator of life. Just like when you learn to be a pilot, you get thrown into situations of different complexity levels so that you know how to react in the future. Stories are like a flight simulator for each and every one of us.

There are thousands of different sales techniques out there. However, they all boil down to basic storytelling principles used in books, movies and even social media all the time.

#1 Immerse yourself in your client’s world.
A good story requires a deep submerging into your hero’s universe. You need to go into his world when you meet your client (or even before that). All good stories start from within. Trying to sell from a viewer’s seat just doesn’t give you the necessary connection.

#2 Don’t take sides.
A good writer is genuinely impartial. To get to good character development, you need to think like the side you are writing about at the time. You have to switch hats. The same goes for sales. Even if your client doesn’t appreciate the honesty, they will feel in control of their decisions. Your fairness and deep understanding of pros and cons is a point of trust between you and the client.

#3 Make it interesting.
If you open a book and it doesn’t capture you almost instantly, what are the chances of you closing it and never thinking about it again? If you are boring to talk to and not giving out the right energy from the start, it is absolutely irrelevant how good your services are.

#4 The Hero’s Journey
From the beginning of times, all stories follow the principles of The Hero’s Journey. There is a place for swaps, changes, etc., but the basic steps stay the same. You can easily find a full description online, but basically, it has 3 major steps.

The Ordinary World
This is where your hero (client) realizes the need for change. There is something that triggered them to contact you. So-called “call to adventure”. Often changes come with resistance from within. That is why in stories, there is always someone or something that acts as a mentor. In this case, you are your client’s mentor. Remember that your client’s world is about to change. So your job is to explain everything, make sure he feels comfortable enough with the changes (even minor ones), and listen to his doubts.

After this, if you are successful, your work begins. Successful companies never end a sales journey on this step. The process is never-ending because the way your work with your client is a sale in itself.

So now, together with your customer, you enter a Special (Unknown) World. This is where everything happens. You create your action plan together; you execute it and face different issues (big or small) together. The process is not as dramatic as in books most of the time, but you get the allegory. At the end of this, your client gets the rewards he was looking for at the very beginning.

Taking that reward, he now enters a stage of Return To The Ordinary World. Now his everyday life has whatever you had to offer. It is a good idea to tell them what (and how) to do next with their new gained assets. This is also a good opportunity for you to continue your relationship and put your client on a retainer, making their new ordinary world a little easier for them to navigate.

The beauty of this process is that you are not just an outsider for your customer anymore. They get you, and you get them. This way, you grow together, and the circle never ends.