Don’t Be Fooled, This Isn’t Just “Off The Cuff”
Do you admire people who can do things, “off the cuff?”
When someone makes something look easy, many of us assume the person is just naturally talented. We don't often get a peek behind the curtain to know how much time and effort someone has put into honing their particular skill.
I had the very same assumption the first time I heard a master storyteller use her skills to influence an audience. She was so natural and it seemed as if the story she was telling was almost an afterthought. It just rolled off her tongue. I was mesmerized. To this day, I still remember in great detail the story she shared that made me fall madly in love with stories.
Years later after taking and assisting in many storytelling workshops, I've come to appreciate the advanced skill of storytelling. It's the number one skill I utilize to teach selling skills. Many of my loyal weekly newsletter readers have come to expect a story to be shared with every sales tip offered.
Off The Cuff: What Clients Remember Most
Through the years quite a few clients have recounted stories I've told to help them understand a concept. There's been so much research done to support that storytelling is the true language of the brain. Data, facts, and truths do not have the same impact on the listener the way a story does.
Yet, one of the biggest concerns clients share regarding storytelling is that they don't think they have any relevant stories to share. This is simply not true. Everyone has relevant stories, they just need to know how to access them.
Off The Cuff: It Doesn't Have To Be Complicated
One of my very first VIP clients showed up to her VIP Intensive day in need of a signature talk. She'd been asked to speak to a large group of ideal clients and didn't know what to talk about. She also had no idea how to include relevant stories into her talk to bring her talking points to life. One the spot I created a simple exercise to show her how to access the stories she already knew. It took us less than an hour to come up with her talking points and a story for each one.
This same exercise is now included in the VIP manual. Many clients have used it to create courses, talks, and ebooks. Just a few weeks back during a VIP session, a client wanted to create a simple self-study course. Her intent was to have something to sell as an entry-level way for people to work with her. She was stuck because she didn't think she had the time needed to even come up with an outline. In 10 minutes we created the outline using the same exercise. We also talked about what stories she'd want to add to the course.
Off The Cuff: If One Person Can Do It, So Can You
One of the greatest lessons all of my years of studying NLP is that there's a structure to excellence. Once you understand the structure of how someone does something well, you can implement that same structure to improve your own results.
For the last few weeks, I've been working on my framework for crafting the stories you need to be ready to tell in your business. These are not stories you're going to be able to just tell “off the cuff.” They require some thought and preparation. Yet once you have them ready to tell, you'll increase your influence in a conversation exponentially. And more than likely, people will assume you're telling them “off the cuff” because you've prepared ahead of time.
These are the 4 categories of the Sales Maven Storytelling Framework:
Expertise
Stories to demonstrate your credibility and knowledge
Surprise Benefits
Stories to reveal often unthought-of benefits of your product/service
Chunking Sideways
Stories to overcome objections
So What…
Stories to demonstrate relevance and transformation
This framework will continue to be offered to my VIP clients and once a year I'll teach an all-day master class on Storytelling. Participants will be shown how to access stories to fit all 4 of the above categories. The intent is for each person to increase their confidence in the selling process by knowing how and when to use storytelling.
Wishing you an amazing week.
