Episode 324: Steve Benson

Storytelling is how you help prospects and customers remember you and understand your product (and why it’s valuable to them). Humans interpret things through stories. If you can tell a story that makes sense, you’ll be more successful. But if you can tell a story interweaved with tension and release, you’ll hook your listener and they’ll be more invested in what you have to say. Steve Benson shares why this is his favorite storytelling strategy in this episode of Sales Reinvented!

Outline of This Episode

• [0:54] Why storytelling skills are important in sales
• [1:32] Is storytelling a skill that can be learned?
• [2:18] Tension and release are key to a great story
• [3:28] The attributes of a great storyteller
• [7:34] Resources to improve storytelling abilities
• [9:04] Steve’s top 3 storytelling dos and don’ts
• [12:59] Stories have the power to win new business

Tension and release are key to a great story

Some people are better speakers than others—but is it because they’re born that way or learned those skills as a young child? Anyone can become a better storyteller. It’s about communication, being articulate, and understanding the elements of what makes a story.

When you’re in a conversation and want to sound interesting, it comes down to tension and release. You lay out the characters, where you are, what time it is, and set the scene. Then you describe the tension/problem and the resolution. Movies build tension and have small resolutions throughout the story that keeps you hooked.

The attributes of a great storyteller

You need to be articulate and use variability within your voice. You can use a coach to learn what you’re doing right or wrong. Are you calm and relaxed? Or tense? You need to be confident, clear, crisp, and articulate. But the most important thing is to tell good stories that are interesting and relatable.

When you’re selling a service or product, a prospect is thinking about it from different perspectives, which is why it’s important to ask them questions so you understand how they view the problem. Then you can serve a story that’s framed in the right way. It all starts with asking, “Why are we here today? Why did you invite me in?” When you do this, your stories will resonate intensely.

Steve’s top 3 storytelling dos and don’ts

Steve shares a few key dos and don’ts of the storytelling process:

• Use storytelling to address objections before they’re voiced. If you suspect a customer will have a certain problem or question, bring it up casually and answer their question with a story.
• Use stories to make it easy for a prospect to say yes. You can shorten your sales cycle if you can help people connect with others who have been in a similar situation. It takes risk off the table.
• Uncover what the story needs to be about. Uncover the prospect’s perspective so you map the right story and frame it correctly.
• Don’t wing it. It’s better to have a framework for storytelling in your mind (set up the story, move into the problem/tension/challenge, and share the challenge).
• Don’t make your salespeople make up their own stories. Have a place where they can share relevant stories and build them into your sales culture.
• Don’t be boring. When you tell a story, use excitement in your voice. Build tension and release tension throughout your story to keep things interesting.

Stories have the power to win new business

When BadgerMaps was a startup (2013) they offered a service that did one thing well: They took customers and put them on a map so you could see where all your customers were based on their specific attributes. They were courting a large medical device company with revenues of $6 billion a year.

Because they were a small startup, they had to share who they were and what they did in an impactful way. They had to come across as trustworthy. So they were honest and open about where they were—but shared where they planned to go. They signed a three-year deal with the medical device company—large enough to cover their expenses for the entire next year. It allowed them to build out the product for other companies.

Learn more about Steve’s storytelling process in this episode of Sales Reinvented!

Resources & People Mentioned

• Say Less and Sell More: The Art of Storytelling
• Leveraging Storytelling to Close More Sales

Connect with Steve Benson

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

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Learn More About Steve Benson

Are there any books on or including Storytelling that you recommend? To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

In the field of Business Story Telling – Who do you most admire and why? Park Howell, because I think the way his structures and strategies can weave stories into the sales process.

Are there any aspects of your own Story Telling skills that you are working on improving at the moment? Our company is trying to gather more stories from across our customer base and sales reps. Then we can help our sales team know more of the stories. Basically, a lot of them are siloed right now.

Hobbies, Interests? I like snowboarding, and since I’m new to Salt Lake City, I’m hoping for good snow this winter.

How can our listeners contact with you? LinkedIn