Episode 309: Kyle Gray

Storytelling is the fundamental method of communication that reaches the deepest part of humans. You can share an experience from your life to demonstrate why you understand someone, that you understand the problems they’re experiencing through the lens of your own story. This creates trust.

People want to know that the person on the other side of the email, phone call, or presentation understands them and cares. Storytelling introduces you, helps you overcome objections, and shares how your products and services have helped other people. What does choosing the right story look like? Kyle Gray fills in the details in this episode of Sales Reinvented!

Outline of This Episode

• [0:59] Why storytelling is an important skill to possess
• [2:14] Can storytelling be learned?
• [3:42] Meet your audience where they are
• [5:15] The attributes of a great storyteller
• [7:07] Choosing Your Perfect Story
• [8:56] The purpose of a framework
• [10:32] Top storytelling dos and don’ts
• [13:38] Choosing your perfect story from your experiences

Meet your audience where they are

You need a deep understanding of how your ideal client experiences the problems related to your product and service. The level of your depth of understanding will directly impact the rest of the stories you tell in the sales process. You need to know how they’d describe the problem they’re experiencing as if they were talking about it with a friend at coffee. Learn the words they’d use. Once you know their problem, ask yourself when you’ve experienced something like it. It will guide you to the right story to sell to them.

A powerful skill to learn is how to speak. Do you use musicality, tone, and rhythm? Do you pause and take a breath in the right places? You also need empathy. You’ll want to share stories that will create trust and openness, stories from vulnerable or tense moments in your life. A great storyteller needs emotional intelligence to be authentic and convert prospects to customers.

Choosing your perfect story

How do you know what story to choose? Is it to introduce yourself and create trust? Is it to overcome an objection? Is it to give someone a glimpse into what your program or product is like? Do you want to shift their beliefs about what’s possible in terms of their problem?

When people ask how to choose the perfect story, they typically want to know how they should introduce themselves, a sort of origin story. Kyle has a mini-course called, “Choosing Your Perfect Story,” that weaves in resources and ideas. 45 minutes of easy video content will help guide you to the perfect story to introduce yourself and help you put it into a simple framework to tell the story immediately.

Top storytelling dos and don’ts

What does Kyle believe greatly impacts the success of a story?

• Speak in the present tense as if it’s happening to you. It activates areas of the brain and makes the story more emotionally engaging.
• Whenever you use a list of examples, experiences, emotions, etc. in a story, use lists of three. It’s a naturally complete feeling number that keeps you from going into too much detail in any one place.
• Be conversational when you tell stories. The characters should be talking and engaging with you versus you simply narrating. It helps the listener imagine the story is happening to them.
• Don’t be long-winded. People share too many details and it can bore the listener.
• Don’t spend too much time in the pain point, which emotionally fatigues the audience.
• Don’t over-teach. People overteach because they feel the need to prove themselves or they aren’t aware of what their audience needs.

Choosing your perfect story from your experiences

Kyle had a health coach come to him who was working with women dealing with hormone imbalances but she wanted to work with children with ADHD. She had just learned she had ADHD but didn’t want to share it with anyone. She felt ashamed of who she was and felt unable to help.

They examined her emotions and frustrations and he helped her realize that she was one of the best people to speak to the problem because she’s experienced it on a deep life-long level. Her story was exactly what she needed to share to speak to parents and children.

When you’re choosing the perfect story, the first person you need to enroll is yourself. It should be so exciting for you that you want to overcome the objections you face and share it. You should feel so aligned with what you’re doing that you can face and overcome any challenge. No one should be as excited about your products or services as you are.

• Connect with Kyle Gray

  • The Story Engine
  • Connect on LinkedIn
  • Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

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Learn More About Kyle Gray

Are there any books on or including Storytelling that you recommend? The Story Engine (my book) and Wired for Story by Lisa Cron. This is not really a storytelling book but I believe “Becoming Supernatural By Joe Dispenza” is a great resource for creating the story of your life and business the way you want.

In the field of Business Story Telling – Who do you most admire and why? I also really admire Garrett Gunderson, who has been incorporating comedy and his own art into the work he is doing. I love seeing how lit up he his.

Are there any aspects of your own Story Telling skills that you are working on improving at the moment? I just started working on my voice and vocal exercises to help further the experience I create when storytelling.

Hobbies, Interests? Music production and DJing. I like to host Transcendental Dance experiences. A mix of breathwork, guided visualizations and fun dance music to create an exciting and transformational experience at live and virtual events.  (let me know if you would like to run one of these for your community – here’s a quick sample – https://www.instagram.com/p/CWY5W1DhYkX/

How can our listeners contact with you? https://www.facebook.com/kylethegray or Instagram @heykylegray