In today’s world, influencing is the best approach to sell, persuade, and convince anyone. There are influencers in almost every segment, whether it is Leadership, Education, Marketing, Politics, Family, Corporate or Business. And to become a great influencer, you have to be a powerful story seller. Knowing the techniques behind story selling and using it as an art can make you immensely powerful. This book puts some light on the science of story selling and talks about the powerful tools that can help you use the power to influence, and change the quality of your life. In a nutshell, it is the perfect guide to become successful by using the power of story selling.
Storytelling has come of age in the business world. Today, many of the most successful companies use storytelling as a leadership tool. At Nike, all senior executives are designated "corporate storytellers." 3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing "strategic narratives." Procter Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques. Some forward-thinking business schools have even added storytelling courses to their management curriculum. The reason for this is simple: Stories have the ability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. Whether you are trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful business tool that can mean the difference between mediocre results and phenomenal success. Lead with a Story contains both ready-to-use stories and how-to guidance for readers looking to craft their own. Designed for a wide variety of business challenges, the book shows how narrative can help: * Define culture and values * Engender creativity and innovation * Foster collaboration and build relationships * Provide coaching and feedback * Lead change * And more Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for success. Complete with examples from companies like Kellogg's, Merrill-Lynch, Procter Gamble, National Car Rental, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, and more, this practical resource gives readers the guidance they need to deliver stories to stunning effect.
Build better relationships and Sell More Effectively With a Powerful SALES STORY “Throughout our careers, we have been trained to ask diagnostic questions, deliver value props, and conduct ROI studies. It usually doesn’t work; best case, we can argue with the customer about numbers—purely a left brain exercise, which turns buyers off. This book explains a better way.” —John Burke, Group Vice President, Oracle Corporation “Forget music, a great story has charm to soothe the savage beast and win over the most challenging customer. And one of the best guides in crafting it, feeling it, and telling it is What Great Salespeople Do. A must-read for anyone seeking to influence another human being.” —Mark Goulston, M.D., author of the #1 international bestseller Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone “Good salespeople tell stories that inform prospects; great salespeople tell stories that persuade prospects. This book reveals what salespeople need to do to become persuasive story sellers.” —Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power “This book breaks the paradigm. It really works miracles!” —David R. Hibbard, President, Dialexis IncTM “What Great Salespeople Do humanizes the sales process.” —Kevin Popovic, founder, Ideahaus® “Mike and Ben have translated what therapists have known for years into a business solution—utilizing and developing one’s Emotional Intelligence to engage and lessen the defenses of others. What Great Salespeople Do is a step-by-step manual on how to use compelling storytelling to masterfully engage others and make their organizations great.” —Christine Miles, M.S., Psychological Services, Executive Coach, Miles Consulting LLC About the Book: This groundbreaking book offers extraordinary insight into the greatest mystery in sales: how the very best salespeople consistently and successfully influence change in others, inspiring their customers to say yes. Top-performing salespeople have always had a knack for forging connections and building relationships with buyers. Until now, this has been considered an innate talent. What Great Salespeople Do challenges some of the most widely accepted paradigms in selling in order to prove that influencing change in buyers is a skill that anyone can learn. The creator of Solution Selling and CustomerCentric Selling, Michael Bosworth, along with veteran sales executive Ben Zoldan, synthesize discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines, combining it all into a field-tested framework—helping you break down barriers, build trust, forge meaningful relationships, and win more customers. This book teaches you how to: Relax a buyer’s skepticism while activating the part of his or her brain where trust is formed and connections are forged Use the power of story to influence buyers to change Make your ideas, beliefs, and experiences “storiable” using a proven story structure Build a personal inventory of stories to use throughout your sales cycle Tell your stories with authenticity and real passion Use empathic listening to get others to reveal themselves Incorporate storytelling and empathic listening to achieve collaborative conversations with buyers Breakthroughs in neuroscience have determined that people don’t make decisions solely on the basis of logic; in fact, emotions play the dominant role in most decision-making processes. What Great Salespeople Do gives you the tools and techniques to influence change and win more sales.
“John Livesay creates a compelling connection between revenue, reviews, and influence and our ability to tell brand and personal stories.” —Tracy Leigh Hazzard, INC. columnist, brandcaster, product strategist The old way of selling is to push a message or product. The new way of selling is to pull people in with a compelling story—one that is magnetic to clients. Better Selling Through Storytelling helps people become master storytellers so they can truly love what they do and get off the self-esteem roller coaster of only feeling good if their numbers are up. John Livesay encourages readers to give up selling—and become storytellers instead! He teaches sales representatives and entrepreneurs alike how to become irresistible to their clients and what the best storytelling strategy is to get a yes. From learning how not to take rejection personally to overcoming the three faces of fear, readers learn to embrace disruption with new tools that prepare them for any unexpected waves that come their way and get the sale. “If you want to reinvent how you sell, let John Livesay show you how . . . [He] holds nothing back and fills his pages with new ideas, tips, information, and steps to becoming your own Revenue Rockstar.” —Josh Linkner, New York Times–bestselling author of Big Little Breakthroughs “Not your grandparent’s sales manual; it’s where the storytelling rubber and results hit the road. If you think it’s too soft for your ROI brain, you’re missing the whole story, which is why you need it.” —Dr. Mark Goulston, author of Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone
Despite the high-tech tools available to salespeople today, the most personal method still works best. Through storytelling, a salesperson can explain products or services in ways that resonate, connect people to the mission, and help determine what decisions are made. A well-crafted story can pack the emotional punch to turn routine presentations into productive relationships. In Sell with a Story, organizational storytelling expert and author Paul Smith focuses his popular and proven formula to the sales arena. Smith identifies the ingredients of the most effective sales stories and reveals how to: Select the right story Craft a compelling and memorable narrative Incorporate challenge, conflict, and resolution• And more Learning from model stories, skill-building exercises, and enlightening examples from Microsoft, Costco, Xerox, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hewlett-Packard, and other top companies, you will soon be able to turn their personal experiences into stories that introduce yourself, build rapport, address objections, add value to the product, bring data to life, create a sense of urgency…and most importantly, sell! If you want to become a better communicator and transform your sales results, Sell with a Story is for you.
More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.
What do winners of major sales do differently than the sellers who almost won, but ultimately came in second place? Mike Schultz and John Doerr, bestselling authors and world-renowned sales experts, set out to find the answer. They studied more than 700 business-to-business purchases made by buyers who represented a total of $3.1 billion in annual purchasing power. When they compared the winners to the second-place finishers, they found surprising results. Not only do sales winners sell differently, they sell radically differently, than the second-place finishers. In recent years, buyers have increasingly seen products and services as replaceable. You might think this would mean that the sale goes to the lowest bidder. Not true! A new breed of seller—the insight seller—is winning the sale with strong prices and margins even in the face of increasing competition and commoditization. In Insight Selling, Schultz and Doerr share the surprising results of their research on what sales winners do differently, and outline exactly what you need to do to transform yourself and your team into insight sellers. They introduce a simple three-level model based on what buyers say tip the scales in favor of the winners: Level 1 "Connect." Winners connect the dots between customer needs and company solutions, while also connecting with buyers as people. Level 2 "Convince." Winners convince buyers that they can achieve maximum return, that the risks are acceptable, and that the seller is the best choice among all options. Level 3 "Collaborate." Winners collaborate with buyers by bringing new ideas to the table, delivering new ideas and insights, and working with buyers as a team. They also found that much of the popular and current advice given to sellers can damage sales results. Insight Selling is both a strategic and tactical guide that will separate the good advice from the bad, and teach you how to put the three levels of selling to work to inspire buyers, influence their agendas, and maximize value. If you want to find yourself and your team in the winner's circle more often, this book is a must-read.
