How to use storytelling in your sales and marketing strategies

English story (history) and telling (count), the storytelling is defined as the ability to tell a story in which you can convey a message and emotionally engage the audience.

communication technique that can help a lot in dealing with their prospects. People tell stories all the time and, therefore, the storytelling has become an important tool to enable companies to connect with their consumers more effectively.

We know that the amount of information in abundance makes consumers are anesthetized, making it difficult for something catches your attention or generate some impact. With storytelling, you can tell a unique and true story that involves your potential customer and makes him associate your solution with the transmitted message.

The story is steeped in his mind, because it can activate a part of the brain that helps you better understand your content. Thus, mental triggers are activated an emotional process that causes it to identify, connect with your solution and is influenced in decision making, increasing the chances of closing a sale with you.

A good story has an ability to inspire people, different facts or isolated information. In addition, stories whet curiosity, what makes us direct our attention to listen and better understand what is being said.

For making easier the recall process of the foregoing, the storytelling is a communication technique that can and should be developed and refined in sales. Remember that you can use it throughout your sales process, especially when presenting its solution.

Also, be sure to apply it in other media and formats of communication with your prospects and customers, and in their marketing strategies offline and online, as well as presentations or lectures, for example.

The hero’s journey

When you create a story, the results will depend on the objectives to be achieved and how it was created.

Among the best known ways to create a storytelling, we cite the “hero’s journey” by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”

In it, the author explains a study showing the presence of a narrative pattern in famous and exciting stories in which everything revolves around a “hero” fictitious or real.

Let’s see what are the steps?

1. One person leads a normal life until the moment it is called to an adventure.
2. It can resist the call first.
3. Someone comes along that stimulates and encourages to take the adventure.
4. At that point, it starts to face obstacles and challenges.
5. To successfully overcome, you need to make a radical change.
6. Thus, bypassing the obstacles and challenges.
7. To fulfill the mission, an example to inspire others.

If you notice, the books and movies that tell stories, follow this sequence basically in which the plot contains a main character, a problem, the climax and the solution of this problem.

Thus, from the moment you cease to follow the stories and begin to notice how they were engineered, create a directory that can be used in very diverse opportunities for communication.

During a proposal for presentation to your potential customer, for example, the hero’s journey can be used well in presenting their success stories to tell the story of their clients , who have had success with your solution to go through the same problem that your prospect it is also undergoing at that time.

Tips for good storytelling

Check out the following nine tips that will help build the ideal storytelling for your sales process:

1. Create a beginning, middle and end: a history always have a beginning, development and conclusion and most basic that is often forgotten is that point in creating a storytelling.
2. Show the problem: to create a story, start with a normal situation that loses balance the appearance of a problem, conflict or obstacle.
3. Conquer the crowd: the person who is listening to the story needs to be moved as to hope that the problem is resolved. For this, it must identify and empathize with the main character, feeling the same problem.
4. Reveal solution: reveals how the problem was solved by determining a solution and the rounded.
5. Leave a reflection: the end of the story, let a reflection that will make the person remove some teaching.
6. Make your interactive story: ensure that the prospect get involved in history, through attractive and visual interactions or that arouse other senses as well. This will facilitate the understanding of your prospect about the history and the solution of the problem.
7. Inspire and motivate: to create a good story with good teaching, you will be inspiring and motivating your prospect to do the same. So it is essential to use good communication to keep your prospect involved in the story.
8. Do not tell a long history: interesting as a story is, if it is long, tiring and can even annoy people. This makes divert their attention to the message being conveyed and the solution of the problem.
9. Involve your prospect: here is important you tell a story that has to do with the reality of its prospect for him to feel emotionally touched. So, you get make sure he understands how the solution of history can help you in the problem you are solving.

So, have you thought about how to apply the storytelling in their sales presentations and marketing strategies?

Good job!