Book review: SELL WITH A STORY

How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale

by Paul Smith

Genres:

Sales
Communications Skills
Business
Storytelling

Review posted on:

25.03.2017

The number of pages:

304 pages

Book rating:

3/5

Year the book was published:

First edition published 2016

Who should read this book:

People in sales and marketing.

Why did I pick up this book and what did I expect to get out of it:

The first book I picked up by Paul Smith was Lead With a Story and that book had a big impact on me. From then on I started paying more attention to how people talked, and how they told their memories, experiences, and beliefs. I started to notice a bit more when they were telling me something because they just wanted to tell me something or when they were trying to influence me. I noticed that people who were better at storytelling made the conversation more of an experience for everyone and because of it were better at persuasion. So when Paul Smith published Sell With a Story it was automatically on my “To read list”. You see in Lead With a Story Paul Smith not only shared compelling and useful stories about leadership but also when and how to use them. So in Sell With a Story I expect to read the same format of the book, but with more of an emphasis on persuading in sales and not so much in a leadership role. So in short I expect that Paul Smith will again provide a scenario in which a certain story is a good fit to use and some comments on how not to use the same story and where.

My thoughts about the book:

In the beginning, Paul Smith explains how stories should be structured, what kind of stories for what kind of occasions should be told, and how they should be told. Paul Smith actually provides free templates that you can download at www.leadwithastory.com. You should definitely check that out. But if you have already read Lead With a Story, Sell with a Story will seem a little repetitive as some stories are from the previous book. As you go through the book Sell with a Story the author uses only one story to explain different points made from different chapters. Otherwise, you will get to read quite a lot of different stories for different occasions. If this is the first book you will pick up about storytelling then it’s definitely a great one, but if you read a couple of books about this topic, then I would say that Sell Wit a Story, is somewhere there in the middle. To sum up, it’s a good book and if you are interested in storytelling you should definitely pick it up.

My notes from the book:

When telling a story be sure to include the basic elements of the story, and do not give away the ending until the actual end of the story. Keep the tension in the “air” as long as you can. The story loses its power if you give up the ending right from the start.
Never ask for permission to tell a story and never apologize for telling a story.
Always get as much information about the person you are talking with before telling a story. Because if you know what and how your listeners think about a certain subject you will easier know what kind of story to tell them to get them on your side.
Never ask for permission to tell a story and never apologize for telling a story.
Stories have six identifiable features. A time, a place, a main character, an obstacle, a goal, and an event.
Telling a story can help you build a connection because it provides a personal, intimate, and perhaps vulnerable glimpse into your world.
Storytelling highlights your main idea by moving it to another context.
The way you answer the question about what you do will determine how much interest your prospects have in listening to anything else you have to say. When creating an introduction story start by inventing a main character who’s in a typical industry you serve. Then describe a plausible series of events that results in the problem your product or service is designed to fix. finish with a one-sentence description of what you do to solve that problem.
People want to hear stories that will help them understand:
1. Why and how your company was founded.
2. Who you are and what your values are.
3. How and why the product you’re selling was invented.
4. Stories about how the product is made.
5. The level of integrity they can expect from you and your company.
When you are in the introduction phase your goal with your stories is to entice the prospect into meeting with you – give them a glimpse of what they’ll miss out on if they don’t talk to you later.
Your first objective in a sales call should be to get buyers to tell you their stories, not the other way around. If you don’t hear their stories first, how will you know which of your stories to tell?
One way of getting people to tell you their story or at least something is to shut up and listen. People are desperate to fill the void with something.
Ask your customers about specific events in time. People don’t think about their stories as “stories”, rather they think of them as events in their lives. You can always ask “Can you tell me what a typical day is like for someone like you in the position you are.”
A great way to get a glimpse of the buyer’s vision for the future and how you might be a part of that is by asking him/her “A year from now if everything is going perfectly, what would your day be like? Walk me through that.”
Customer success stories are most effective when they’re written or recorded in the first-person perspective, told by the customers themselves.
A “Two roads” story strategy – You tell two stories, both telling the same events but one story is when a customer decides wrong (cheap product/or competitor) and the other when they decide right (for you). And then ask them which road they want to take. You can use this strategy when the customer says "your competition is cheaper."
One of the most powerful uses of storytelling to resolve objections is to settle them before they’re brought up in the first place.
When telling a story don’t introduce the story by giving away to many details, or the ending, or even the specific lesson.
The more your audience can see themselves as the hero, the more interested they’ll be in your story.
There is a risk that the audience may not draw exactly the same lesson from the story that you intended them to. It’s usually a good idea to clarify what you think that lesson should be. “What I learned from that story…” By telling them what you learned from the story, you’re giving them the freedom to draw their own conclusions, but guiding their thinking in the direction you want it to go.
After telling a story shut up and listen. Give your listener a chance to respond.
Research by Kerry Mallan showed that “emotional engagement is why information presented in the structure of the story is more easily remembered.” And since good decision-making requires an accurate recall of permanent information, emotion again plays a positive role in the decision-making process.
A surprise at the end of your story helps your audience remember it better because adrenalin will be present in the brain during the important memory consolidation period.
Whenever possible, refer to your characters by name instead of just job titles. It’s easier for your audience to care about “Julie from accounting” than it is to care about “the accounting payable clerk.”