How to Leverage Storytelling in Sales: The Essential Guide to Driving Change

Discover the power of storytelling in sales and how it can revolutionize your client interactions and drive change.

You can use a number of stories while selling. The most common story for some salespeople is their company's story, even though it rarely scores points with prospective clients. The second most common type of story may be about a struggling client and how your solution turned things around. While these stories are often helpful, they can cause your client to feel as if you are pitching to them. The third most common type of story comes from clients in the form of testimonials that your company does good work.

You might use other stories to help your prospective client advance their change initiative, but few salespeople have what might be the most important story for a salesperson to share with their decision-makers, buyers, and other stakeholders.

Why Storytelling Matters in Sales

The most important story explains why the client needs to change. Lacking this story may cause you to go through your sales process only to find that the client stalls. Without a compelling reason to change early in the sales conversation, you are forced to make this case at the end of the sales process when it is too late to be effective.

The reason so many salespeople tell a client story is that sales leaders and sales managers believe that their solution is the most important topic to discuss. Some still believe that their solution is best in class, even though it is as good as what the competition offers. Focusing on your solution results in parity with your competitors; not differentiation.

Not only is there parity between solutions, but there is also parity in the sales conversation. This leads clients to believe that you and your company are a commodity. To differentiate yourself from your many competitors, you might tell a better, more compelling story—one about change.

Understanding “Why Change”

Let’s start with a few important storytelling concepts. The first concept is “why change.” You may have the most interesting solution in the known universe, but if there is no clear reason why the client should change, you will have a challenging time compelling them to buy what you sell.

The second concept suggests that you don’t need to ask your client to define their problems for you in a first meeting. When you have to ask about the client’s problem, they may believe you are not an expert in your industry. You take a different course by sharing a set of insights that provide evidence of the need to change.

Building a Story about Change

Let’s explore how to build a story about change. We will use a set of insights to tell this story:

1. The trucking industry is anticipated to face a shortage of 160,000 drivers by 2030, creating opportunities for new entrants (Warrior Logistics).
2. Driver wages have increased by 15% over the past five years to attract more workers to the industry (Nova Lines).
3. Insurance premiums for trucking have risen by 47% from 2009 to 2018 due to higher litigation payouts.

Together, these insights tell a story about change. If your client is in logistics or trucking, they face a future where they will have too few drivers, higher wages, and higher insurance premiums. To be prepared to face these challenges, a company in this industry will need to change.

Let’s look at the difference between asking the client about their problem and showing up with a well-designed story about change. If you present a well-crafted story about change, while your rival asks the client about their problems, you will have an advantage in this contest. When your story identifies you as an expert and authority, the kind that does their homework, your client will find you to be a better—and safer—salesperson to work with on the change they need to improve their results.

Integrating the “Why Change” Story into Your Sales Strategy

Your story starts with a reason to change now, but it is important that your solution is capable of addressing that. If the story doesn’t lead to the better results the client needs, the story or the solution must change.

If you use stories, start with the story of why—and how—the client will need to change. You may also need a number of stories explaining “why change” to face different problems, and to address other problems or challenges your clients are trying to overcome.

Conclusion

You should have a number of stories to sell effectively, but the most important sales story is the one that allows the client to see themselves. It is also important to get the sequence right. It doesn’t make sense to tell a story about your solution before you have established that there is a reason to change.

If you are a salesperson, you should work on a story about change. You should test your approach with friendly clients who can give you feedback on how compelling your story is. If you are a sales leader and you need help enabling this powerful sales approach, go here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/beth85.

Do good work, and I’ll see you tomorrow.