Storytelling and Painting the Picture

Ever think about what makes a good salesman? Not necessarily the traditional salesman selling used cars or life insurance. I’m talking about the person who is responsible for making things happen. In a way, aren’t most of us sales professionals?

Think about your current situation. Are you responsible for selling ideas, a product or service? I know this, if you ever find yourself in job transition you better figure out how to sell yourself. Better yet, I’d highly suggest you become good at storytelling and painting the picture. Let me explain.

Rule #1: If you want people to be interested in you, be interesting and interested.

Seth Godin often refers to this concept as being remarkable. You know what makes him remarkable? It’s his ability to be a master storyteller. He’s also great at painting the picture so that just about everyone can understand exactly the point he’s trying to make. Ever notice that the brightest minds do nothing more than state the obvious. What makes them great, different, and remarkable is their ability to be effective at storytelling and painting the picture.

It can’t be just about you all the time. Actually caring about other people’s success in a sincere manner is part of the process or at least should be. Notice how the people around you light up when you take a genuine interest in them, what they do, and what excites them. This does not mean you have to start faking your encounters. The goal is to surround yourself with people that actually are fun to be with and enjoy your company.

Rule #2: We have different backgrounds, experiences, and education so find common ground that relates to the masses.

I use to be a financial advisor and the process of learning how to be effective selling big ticket items has been invaluable. Have you ever sold anything where the cost to your customer or client was in excessive of $30K? It requires a little more than, “Want to buy my Mutual Fund?” as a close. What I learned over the years was that I needed to get good at painting the picture if I was to be successful in that highly competitive industry.

When it was time to talk about retirement, the focus wasn’t on having 10K per month income, earning 6% with an expected depreciation of capital at 2% per year. That wasn’t going to excite anyone let alone paint the picture in a way that made any sense. Instead, the focus would be about helping them reach their goals. Letting them visualize what it looks like at retirement was a better route.

Picture this: You plan the cruise of a lifetime and invite the entire family because money is not an issue.  Instead of sitting at home receiving postcards from your friends, you’re the one living the dream.  Now its graduation day for your sweetest granddaughter and thanks to you, she was able to graduate at the top of her class because you helped contribute to her college fund. I can still visualize the smiles on my former client’s faces as I told stories of success and painted wonder masterpieces. I made it easy for them to visualize what successful planning would create for them.

The world is changing as we know it. Budgets have been shrinking, competition is extremely fierce. The ability to sell or be a master storyteller is becoming more and more important. How do you stack up? Are you a modern day Vincent Van Gogh, Bob Ross, or do you struggle with drawing stick figures? Share a story with us, we want to hear them.

Picture credit: http://0-0-0checkmate.com/Hot/

Tagged as: compelling, engaging, painting the picture, sales, storytelling, success