The Skill of Storytelling
As a sales professional, telling a story can foster dialogue that ultimately inspires and motivates the customer to take action.
The skill of storytelling is intended to help sales professionals create momentum that leads to identifying and closing opportunities. Implementing both a process and the skills needed to tell an effective story will enable your sales organization to:
- Use narrative to overcome the status quo
- Make an emotional connection with customers
- Draw your customers’ attention to an important issue
- Inspire and motivate customers to act
When telling a story, your sales team needs to consider where they are in the sales process and where the client is in the buying process. That will help to define a more specific goal, which is critical when crafting your story.
Richardson’s Storytelling Program
Richardson’s Storytelling program is an instructor-led program that enables your sales professionals with the process and skills to tell a great story that will lead to more closed business.
In the program, we provide participants with a storytelling framework that helps them to craft the setup, conflict, turning point, and resolution of a story. In addition to the framework, we really focus on two areas: how to build a great story and how to tell a great story.
We teach sales professionals how to use the right words, incorporate data, use visuals, and discuss what gestures, voice, and expressions are best to use and avoid.
Richardson’s Storytelling program teaches the behavioral science behind why stories work and create an emotional connection to helps to ignite action. As a result of participating in this workshop, your sales organization will be able to:
- Apply techniques for delivering a customer-centric story in an engaging and animated way
- Identify opportunities to use stories when selling to foster dialogue, encourage customers to think in new ways, and motivate them to take action
- Describe the elements of an effective story and use those elements to structure a story that is relevant, memorable, and emotionally compelling
- Walk away with stories you can use at multiple points in the sales process to build your credibility, raise and explore issues with customers, differentiate your organization from the competition, and demonstrate value
Delivery Options
Richardson’s Storytelling program is available as a half-day or one-day instructor-led program.