Comments on: Your Story is More Interesting than You

By: Content Is People @ ProStylus: The Blog

Content Is People @ ProStylus: The Blog — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:41:02 +0000

[...] sales strategy, and why marketing copy should do likewise. Sales staff are like actors hired to tell your company’s story. They’re out there on that stage every day performing variations on a theme. As the guy hired to [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:32:51 +0000

One very hard thing about teleprospecting actually getting a good call guide. I stress the fact that we need more narrative and I'm frequently shot down that we just need to be simple and factual. But tell me how does writing a script of questions intrigue the decision maker and make them feel comfortable with you? If someone is highly interested but even more highly time constrained this is a great approach. But we all know that many DM's have a fair share of free time throughout the day. Basic and advanced time management figures show that we waste at least 4 hours of every day no matter what we're doing in any job. So yes back to the point – most of the time the time is available to have a much more in depth conversation with narrative, personal story, fact and figure, etc… But there's this huge mindset that narrative is irrelevant and it drives me bonkers!!!
The purpose of speaking directly to a potential buyer is to narrate a story. I'll give a B2B and a B2C example here:
B2B: I'm on the phone with someone who potentially is a customer for a software company. I tell that that software X can match “identities” across applications and systems even if they're external to gain a single view of that “identity.” So what do I do after giving the basic value prop? Do I jump in and just start asking them how many records they have, if the quality of their data is bad, etc…? Or do I show them that I have some knowledge of practical use and application to them in their pains? Sure this requires my learning on my part but seriously what is wrong with that? Is it so wrong to narrate a story of how a competitor or similar organization experienced success and pain resolution?
B2C: So I'm working for a company that provides satellite, phone and internet to apartment and condominium buildings. We're conducting an event at a large complex that comprises both condos and apartments. The manager is trying to sell people on simple fact that HD is available and it's a great price. This would simply be my close. I go into the conversation with the consumer with interest in what they like and not just on television. I then help them try to imagine themselves having a great time watching all of their favorite shows and learning about new ones only available to our subscribers. Surfing the internet with 99% reliability and a steady data speed. Than getting that bill at the end of the month which is 25% less than the two competitors in the area for phone and cable service. He was so frustrated that I raked in 10 new customers over his 3. (It may also help that he was much older and all the ladies came over to me – which he commented on).

By: prostylus

prostylus — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:24:12 +0000

Thanks, Jason. Your example of the engineering/design/test company illustrates my point exactly. Features are just details. People want to hear the benefits, the value.

Benefits comprise narrative. They imply a conflict (e.g. the current inadequate way of doing things), and resolution (e.g. how life could be better). That exactly mirrors my point that value = narrative.

And, again, you nail it with your point about the human touch - particularly in B2B. Consumers may buy brands. But the same doesn't always apply to business. Business decisions are based less on a feeling or experience (i.e. what consumer advertising aims for), than on risk and returns. A solid narrative or track record helps prime the pump for attracting new prospects, but it takes a real person to establish a connection, build trust and maintain the relationship.

Your perspective is always welcome here. Virtually any rule of solid business copy has its corollary in teleprospecting. They're two sides of the same coin.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:55:08 +0000

My day to day work requires narrative. But is it fair for me to assess narrative as being equivalent to teleprospecting?
True it may not be copy but what is the real difference between spoken word and written word?
If my narrative is not effective verbally what difference will it make when I send copy to my contacts and connections? None at all because they won't like the person that I am so they will disregard my copy, my text, my nurturing materials and my everything that I am.
Everything that I'm not makes me everything that I am. I narrate to my contacts with honesty, with humor, with passion, with an urge to invoke their feelings of pain in the area that my solution solves and with the human touch.
The human touch is what drives narration to success. We are all human no matter how hard or how soft we all present ourselves to the world. We cannot get around this in any way.
So yes I've had great success with narrating stories. Stories like your competitor uses this, this company had this problem and solved it with this, we can't do this because this is our focus, etc… etc… etc… really these narrative stories go on and on and one because examples, solutions, products and services are so variant and can benefit or adversely affect a decision maker in so many ways.
A great example of my work helping a client draft narrative is with a company who manufactures engineering design test equipment for stregnths of materials and dynamics of mechanics. Because they're engineers they're so focused on the stats and numbers of the product. Like you said – this doesn't stick to the minds of the customers as there is no meat to put on there bones with this narrative. I helped them to realize that they need to speak to their industry targets with an understanding of their needs, challenges and how they can help to solve that and how they've helped others solve those problems. It worked, at least from my perspective, and I hope that counts because I'm, again, on the front line “narrating stories” to my clients targets and I seen greater response to this.