By: Stephen Bergeron, Founder of Mountain Ties
Customers never want to be “sold to.” Yet they rarely make discovery easy, they are typically on the defensive and make it difficult to uncover problems that we can solve. It is an art to put the customer at ease and allow them to open up and share.
Story Selling is an effective way to gain customer confidence in your company and solution. It allows you to uncover opportunities in discovery mode without making the prospect feel interrogated. Your competencies and corresponding questions were developed in the Mind Mapping section.
Depending on your core competencies, you may need to meet with several groups within the prospect’s organization. It may be appropriate to bring your corresponding counterpart to the meeting with you. This is sometime known as K-Q-R sales, King to King, Queen to Queen and Rook to Rook. I also builds relationships deep between the two organizations.
By sharing relevant success stories and case studies, you can demonstrate how your solutions have addressed similar challenges for other clients. This approach helps build trust and sets the stage for a collaborative relationship. It takes a significant amount of practice to perfect the Story Selling technique. Hosting an internal break out session at a sales meeting is the perfect time to practice, it allows input from your peers and team building. Some companies actually video these “sales calls” replay them and talk openly about what went on in the call both good and bad. Continual improvement.
Done properly, the insights gathered during this phase become the basis for a compelling proposal.
About the Author
Stephen Bergeron is an accomplished international sales and marketing executive with over 30 years of experience in B2B, SaaS, and retail point of sale industries. He excels in strategic business development and delivering exceptional marketing campaigns. A performance-oriented leader, Stephen approaches problem-solving, customer acquisition, and profit targets with a strategic and analytical mindset.
With a deep passion for technology and a talent for building high-performing teams, Stephen consistently drives data-driven results and sets new industry standards. His extensive expertise and commitment to excellence make him a trusted authority in sales and marketing, known for achieving outstanding outcomes.
