{"id":11146,"date":"2017-03-23T23:42:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T23:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales\/"},"modified":"2022-10-17T21:26:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T21:26:33","slug":"how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"How Storytelling Can Improve Your Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Third-party stories, testimonials, case study, reviews, and other \u201csocial proof\u201d can be a powerful technique in your sales toolkit. Storytelling carries a fair amount influence with your prospects and clients when done correctly. Stories can also redirect conflict, create an emotional connection, and help illustrate key features and benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By referencing other similar projects or situations, you help your prospect better understand their situation, discover your solutions, set appropriate budgets, and even paint a picture of the desired outcome. That\u2019s a lot of pressure and responsibility on your storytelling skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales\/#How_would_you_rate_your_current_storytelling_abilities\" >How would you rate your current storytelling abilities?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales\/#Do_you_recognize_the_heros_journey_story_template\" >Do you recognize the hero\u2019s journey story template?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-storytelling-can-improve-your-sales\/#A_Sandler_Training_Story\" >A Sandler Training Story<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_would_you_rate_your_current_storytelling_abilities\"><\/span>How would you rate your current storytelling abilities?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a common storytelling template called the Hero\u2019s Journey, and it has a powerful lesson for your sales strategy. This technique, used in storytelling for thousands of years, goes something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We meet the hero. He or she might be a known hero, a reluctant hero, or a hero in waiting, but they are the focus of the story. The hero usually has some goal, vision of the future, or gap between where they are and where they want to be. It could be survival, a better life, or solving a problem with their current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is they also have some conflict or obstacle to overcome. The heroes are sick, imprisoned, or otherwise stuck in their quest for the goal until they meet a mentor. The mentor is wise, magical, or has a special skill to bring out the best in our hero. The mentor shows the hero the way out and encourages them to take the heroic path. Through the hero\u2019s journey, there is always a moral to the story. The hero and audience learn why the hero got stuck or learns a fundamental truth about life so they can move on and live happily ever after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_you_recognize_the_heros_journey_story_template\"><\/span>Do you recognize the hero\u2019s journey story template?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It is in virtually every great action movie, animated movie, and science fiction story., but what does it have to do with your prospect and your sales skills? Can you see the hero\u2019s journey story template in your prospects and customers? Your heroes, your customers, are stuck. They are dreaming and hoping for a better life, more money, or easier solution, but they are missing something. Your goal is to be the mentor, to find your heroes, and help them discover a way out of their conflict and how to reach their goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The moral of the story is your unique value, which you provide to your customers. Anyone can sell a product or perform a service, but how you do it differently, better, or faster than anyone else is a lesson worth learning. That lesson goes for you and your client. Once you discover your unique value, you can use it over and over to beat the competition and grow your business. Once your prospect understands your unique value, they will become customers and raving fans for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Sandler_Training_Story\"><\/span>A Sandler Training Story<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Dale was not your typical salesperson, although he was in a typical situation. Dale had a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and specialized in plant breeding and genetics. Those skills lead him into green roofing for sustainable buildings, and very quickly he found himself in a sales position for a local roofing company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dale was very smart and very hard working. When we met him, he was the top sales person at the roofing company. He had done over 250 proposals last year and closed over 30 deals for around $250,000 in sales. The problem was that he was working too hard for too little. He was up on roofs every day and writing proposals every night, and his average sale was quite low when you factored in roof repairs and not just complete reroofs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s when the owner of the roofing company made an investment in Sandler Training, and he offered a 50\/50 split to cover the cost of any of his salespeople that wanted to take the training. At first, Dale was too busy and too successful, but as he saw other salespeople in the company getting better and closing the gap, he decided to start training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only six months later, Dale stands up in class and announces that he has started qualifying his prospects before doing proposals, and while his numbers of proposals had dropped by 90%, his number of sales and total revenue had doubled. He finished the year with 29 proposals and $500,000 in revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amazing part of Dale\u2019s story is that he didn\u2019t stop there. He decided to see exactly how far he could take this new sales strategy. The next year he did 15 proposals and $1 Million in revenue. The year after eight proposals and $2 Million. And, in his final year in roofing sales, Dale made just four proposals and closed two deals for over $4 Million dollars! He told us that if he stayed in that position, his goal was going to be $8 Million in 2 proposals. Instead, Dale was able to write his own ticket in sales and take a new job closer to his grandkids and live happily ever after. To this day, Dale lists Sandler Training in his LinkedIn description and education section above his Ph.D. and credits Sandler for his sales successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you or someone you know, maybe someone on your team right now, is working too hard for too little and is open-minded enough to learn a better way, we encourage you to download our free ebook&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandler.com\/wsf\"><strong>Why Salespeople Fail, And What To Do About It<\/strong><\/a><strong>&nbsp;and start your hero\u2019s journey to sales success!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Third-party stories, testimonials, case study, reviews, and other \u201csocial proof\u201d can be a powerful technique in your sales toolkit. Storytelling carries a fair amount influence with your prospects and clients when done correctly. Stories can also redirect conflict, create an emotional connection, and help illustrate key features and benefits. By referencing other similar projects or&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":11147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Storytelling Can Improve Your Sales | Sandler Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Third-party stories, testimonials, case study, reviews, and other \u201csocial proof\u201d can be a powerful technique in your sales toolkit. 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