What great sales people do by Ben Zoldan and Michael Bosworth was a good read on selling through the use of emotional connection by listening and sharing stories.
Much of the content in the book is focused around the art of sharing stories and being able to connect and resonate with buyers, leading them through the sales process through story telling.
The material presented in the book is general enough that I think it is applicable not just in sales but in the common act of sharing and communicating ideas in a persuasive manner.
The book presents a common framework for story building by defining a Setting, Complication, Turning Point and Resolution. The framework that they present, named the Story Leaders Card System, assigns a colored card to each topic and guides you through the thought process of constructing a story that has each of these aspects.
With this framework you are encouraged to build stories about your product to assist in moving customers through the sales ladder and also to create stories about yourself to answer questions such as:
- Who I am?
- Who I represent?
- Who I've helped?
The book rounds out at the end by emphasizing the importance of empathic listening presenting the model of Awareness, Encouragement and Reflection. Highlighting the importance to allow your customer to speak and for you to understand what it is they are saying with their verbal and non verbal cues.
Finally the book covers the topic of selling to a large organisation and talks about the model of adoption and the importance of having stories that are viral enough that key people in the organisation begin telling and inevitably sell for you. To do this they use the analogy of Story Teller, Tribal Leader and Tribes.
