How Sales Reps Can Leverage the Power of Storytelling to Persuade Buyers and Win More Deals (Tips + Examples)

How Sales Reps Can Leverage the Power of Storytelling to Persuade Buyers and Win More Deals (Tips + Examples)



An effective sales pitch should gain your customer's attention and build trust to create long-lasting relationships. Stories help you exactly do that. Stories are a powerful tool in helping you connect with your buyers and influence their emotions in remembering you as a brand. Facts tell but stories sell, still relevant to this day and time, as stories are 22% more effective than stats. And as a salesperson, time is money for you. You always look for ways to close a deal. If you could weave stories in your sales pitch, it is  a guaranteed win for you.

Need proof? A salesman tried selling various antiques on eBay. However, none of them turned up to buy it. So, he added beautiful stories to it. And again, he put them on eBay for sale. Did the stories make any difference? He bought a cat head antique for 0.99 cents but sold it for over $69.82. He totally spent around $121 to buy the objects and sold them for over $8000 along with the stories. He earned a whopping gross profit of 6511% just by weaving beautiful stories to it. Leveraging the power of storytelling in your sales pitch can easily persuade your audience to sell more products.
 
So let us see how to draft a powerful sales pitch with 3 simple strategies to convince and persuade your buyers.

Commence with questions




The first step in weaving stories into your sales pitch is to ask the right questions to your potential prospects and build a relatable narrative from it. Let us see an example.
 
Without asking questions: Hello, I'm calling from XYZ CRM solutions. Am I speaking to Serina? Thanks for your interest in evaluating our solution. As you are from the real estate domain, we have a lot of real estate agents using our CRM. Any industry can customize and implement our CRM solution in seconds
 
Asking the right questions: Hello, I'm calling from XYZ CRM solutions. Am I speaking to Serina? Thanks for your interest in evaluating our solution, Serina. Before we proceed, I'd like to know how long you've been in this industry and if you have been using any other solutions so far.  This information will help me suggest the right solution for your business.

Why these two questions? 

The answer to the first question tells you whether the prospect is an expert or a novice. Based on the answer, you can vary the pitch with respect to their experience.  

The answer to the second question tells you about their expertise on using the product. If they are starting off, you can assist them with the benefits. If they have used various tools in the past, explain what your solution has to offer in addition to what the potential buyer already knows.

Tips:
  • Questions help you engage and strike an insightful conversation with the prospects. It paves the way to understand more about your customer and to position your story accordingly.
  • Don't exhaust the users with too many questions. Try not to exceed more than 4 questions.

Challenges




After gathering the information about the user, the next step is to summarize the problems and challenges that your prospect is struggling with. 
 
Without using the challenge: XYZ CRM is the best solution for all your problems. Whether it is to automate your business operations or to manage your day-to-day critical tasks - XYZ CRM, with its robust and powerful technology, optimises your business seamlessly
 
Enunciating the challenges: As a budding solopreuneur in the real estate industry, I believe that you have to perform various taxing tasks- from listing thousands of properties to invoice generation. It's, not an easy feat. Due to this, you might have to shuffle between multiple tools and spreadsheets to update the information periodically, leaving you very less time to sell.

Tips:
  • When addressing their challenges, always be specific and engage them with their real-life day-to-day problems.
  • Never fan your buyer's negative emotions by over emphasizing the problem and its consequences. A classic example would be a particular clip from the Tommy boy movie where Tommy tries to convince the dealer to use his car brakes but, he gave way too much priority to the problem that ended up in him losing the deal.  His approach intimidated the dealer and fed his negative emotions. 

Conclusion




After the challenge is explained briefly, conclude your pitch with your product, and how it will solve their business problems.. Leave them with a positive thought on how it would make their lives better. 
 
Without conclusion: So, can we schedule a free demo to walk you through the product?
 
Proper conclusion: It must be challenging and very time-consuming for you to stay on top of all the operations. We have a solution to automate the whole process and make it less time and resource-intensive for you. We'll be more than happy to schedule a free demo and walk you through the product.
 
Tips:
  • Adding supportive stats builds credibility on your brand.
  • Empathizing with your audience creates the most needed human touch. 

The next time when you are pitching to a potential, do weave a beautiful story using the "3C" strategy. Here are some bonus tips to help you deliver an exceptional pitch 
  • Listening is the key. Don't be a monologue but strike a conversation with the buyers. There is a preconception that talking more will make the sale. But it is the other way around. Letting your buyers speak about their challenges helps you to build meaningful connections and to create a story that is more relevant to them. 
  • To deliver the pitch exceptionally well? You need to practice, practice and practice until you can't get it wrong.
  • Being empathic is the golden rule. And that's what makes us human.
  • Control your emotions if the buyer disagrees with you. Don't find ways to prove them wrong, instead, figure out ways to find a common ground.
  • Don't affect your customer's emotions or cause any emotional pain that might cause cognitive dissonance.
A lot of businesses have started embracing storytelling as part of their brand identity. Sales reps have challenged the conventional sales pitch by prioritising customer connections leveraging storytelling. Comment below, how are you utilising storytelling in your sales pitch.


      • Sticky Posts

      • As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

        Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has
      • Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

        It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET

        • Recent Topics

        • Top Menu Disappeared from Blog Page

          Hi, Our top menu disappeared at Blog Posts page. However, it's still visible any other page on the website. I attached two screenshots, so it can be understood clearly. How can we bring back top menu? Thanks, K.
        • Subforms and automation

          If a user updates a field how do we create an automation etc. We have a field for returned parts and i want to get an email when that field is ticked. How please as Zoho tells me no automation on subforms. The Reason- Why having waited for ever for FSM
        • My Zoho mail has been blocked for suspicious activity. cannot unblock it! need urgent help!

          Hi, I was accessing my email on an airplane which for some reason resulted in my mail being blocked. I have managed to unblock my incoming however outgoing is still blocked. I have contacted all your support emails but it still says contact support when I try to unblock outgoing emails. Its now been over 8 days with the same issue which is really serious as I'm not able to send several business emails during this period. I have followed all your steps to unblock this and contacted your support 5
        • Copy Widget to another Dashboard

          I can see the option to clone a widget to the same dashboard but is it possible to copy it to another dashboard?
        • booking link that expires

          I have a suggestion that is  crucial. When i send booking URL to clients they keep the link and they book appointment whenever they want multiple times. You should give us the Booking URL feature. We should be able to send it and the user can use it only
        • Error while importing products Purchase Price: Value in the field does not match with the data type supported by us.

          I am trying to import items into zoho inventory using an excel spreadsheet. I keep getting this error Purchase Price: Value in the field does not match with the data type supported by us. no matter how i format the cells this comes up and will not import
        • Quotes Module - import data

          Hello Zoho, is it possible to import Quotes records? I was trying and i have no results. Raport shows no data imported. Could you help me please how to do it?
        • Year-End Wrap: Disconnect now; Reconnect later with Offline Mode

          🎄Happy Holidays🎄 Let's say you are travelling home to spend the holiday season with your loved ones. Before you even board the train, you check your phone only to find your inbox rapidly filling with urgent emails that need your attention. There’s no
        • Exploring SalesIQ's Top Features of 2024: An Insider's Look 🔍

          As we wrap up another year at Zoho SalesIQ, it's time to reflect on how far we've come. This year has been incredible for us in our journey to build a more powerful, flexible, and customer-centric engagement platform. We've introduced several features
        • Resource booking functionality questions

          I'm exploring the resource booking functionality in Zoho Bookings for my organisation's needs. I have a few questions about the available Zoho Bookings functionalities. Is it possible to force all users to sign up for an account before they book a resource?
        • How to create a Field with answers as Yes, No> Further if no is selected a new field to be visible to give details

          Dear All, I am creating a feedback form in HR Letter. The question is were you satisfied with the work allotted. Expected answer to this is Yes, No. Further if the response is no, then a field to be give to fill more details as to why no was selected.
        • Modify the way a phone number is shown in footer on ZOHO Booking Page

          The default display of the phone number field in the footer is not customer friendly - See image below. We would like it to use the accepted standards of phone number display: +61 (0)2 88545440, or allow us to choose. At the moment ZOHO Booking sets how
        • Zoho Bookings Multilingual ?

          Hello, Not sure if there is a way to do it currently, but it would be very helpful if Zoho bookings allowed multilingual translations so we could have our booking pages and notifications setup in multiple languages. Thanks,
        • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

          My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these
        • Problem viewing document imported from google drive.

          Hello, When I add a document via my google drive, it is impossible to preview it. I get the error “Files without extensions cannot be previewed. Download to view this file”. Could you please help me? Also, and this is more of a question: is there a way
        • Two way sync Zoho Mail and Bookings

          Hi, I know it’s possible to view Bookings appointments in Zoho Mail, but is there a way to see my Zoho Mail meetings in the Bookings calendar?
        • Modifying iframe data of Zoho booking iframe

          Hello, I have integrated a Zoho Bookings embedded iframe into my website. Currently, I am pre-filling the booking form with default values as part of our process flow. However, I want to ensure that if an input field is already populated with a default
        • Sending my emails to Spam Folder

          I am loosing my business because of this issue, many of my customers are receiving their email in the spam sometimes no one checks them
        • Why can't I sync my Zoho Mail tasks and notes with my mobile device, and is there a way to fix this issue?

          I'm having trouble syncing my Zoho Mail tasks and notes with my mobile device. Despite following the usual steps, the tasks and notes don't appear on my phone. Is there a way to fix this issue? Regards, Adamjes, Tekskills India Pvt Limited, India.
        • attributed automatically database section

          Hello everyone and happy holidays... here in zoho CRM, I created 3 bases: - Properties (House, apartment ...) - Transactions (Notaries, ...) - Real estate ads I want when the address is identical on these three bases, that in "Properties" the transactions
        • Re: constant rejected email form and to my account

          Hi, have had several rejection when I sent an email to Zoho account as well as other people have sent emails to my as your health Centre they have account and all aspects have been ejected. i wonder why the email are rejecting to and from. If you see
        • How do I redeem credits?

          How do I redeem credits that are shown in billing section?
        • Introducing 'Queries' In Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone! We are here with an exciting feature - Queries in Zoho CRM! A little context before we dive right into the feature specifics :) In today’s fast-paced business environment, immediate access to relevant data is essential for informed decision-making.
        • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

          title
        • Cannot add IMAP account to "new" Outlook

          Hi, I am attempting to add an IMAP account to my copy of the "new" Outlook on my desktop computer. I have tried using the default password when MFA was disabled and an app password when MFA was enabled. But neither attempt worked. My Windows 11 OS number
        • How to Implement Time-Based Filters in Zoho Workflows?

          Hi everyone, I’m looking for a workaround to implement time-based filters in Zoho workflows. Specifically, I need a workflow to trigger only within certain hours (e.g., between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM, Sunday to Friday). Currently, Zoho workflows execute
        • Update Zoho Flow on Sprint Work Item Status Change

          Hello, I've contacted Zoho One support but have been unable to help in a timely manner, so I'm asking the community. I want to start using sprints, but I'm having an issue. I need to post updates to Slack when a Work Item has a status change. My understanding
        • Issue with skip_workflow Not Preventing Edit Workflow Trigger

          Hi Team, I am trying to upload a file to a form in Zoho Creator. However, during the upload, an edit workflow is being triggered. I want to prevent this workflow from running, so I have used the skip_workflow parameter as mentioned in the API documentation:
        • Create Dashboard using data/tables from different workspaces

          Is it possible do create a Dashboard using different tables that are part of different Workspaces? 
        • Este domínio já está associado a esta conta

          quando digitei meu domínio recebi essa mensagem que meu domínio estava associado a uma conta que eu nem faço idéia de quem seja. Como que faço pra resolver isso?
        • Storage addon failed to upgrade

          Hi, I am trying to purchase addon storage, but i am getting upgrade failed error Sorry! We are unable to process your information. Please try again after some time. If the problem occurs again, please visit our Contact Us page to reach out to the appropriate
        • no puedo recibir correos

          Hola, en la cuenta de la empresa desde hace unos tres días dejamos de recibir correos y no hemos realizado ningun cambio de configuracion, requerimos asistencia urgente por favor
        • Default reminders on Emails

          I have seen that it is possible to set, for each email, a reminder when the email remains unresponded for some time. This is very useful, so useful that I would like to set it for all my emails, by default. Because an unanswered email usually requires
        • NO PUEDO RECIBIR CORREOS EN MI CUENTA ZOHO MAIL

          LO QUE SI PUEDO HACER ES ENVIAR CORREOS PERO NO PUEDO RECIBIR CORREOS. Y LA CONFIGUIRACION DE MI DNS YA ESTA CORRECTA Y APUNTAN A ZOHO PERO AUN ASI NO PUEDO RECIBIR  NECESITO AYUDA URGENTE YA QUE EN MEXICO NO HAY FORMA DE COMUNICARNOS VIA TELEFONIA CON
        • Send email is not authenticated

          Hi, I’m getting an error in Gmail, when receiving an email from my account in zoho, my email is already authenticated in my domain, and I don't know why I keep receiving this message... also testing in outlook, the message goes directly to "junk".
        • Using Queries with dynamic parameters in Kiosk Studio

          Hi, I'm pretty new when it comes to developing within Zoho (I'm really a .NET developer), as it was just added to my responsibilities. For a new feature in the CRM, I'm trying to develop a Kiosk function to show a list of records (retrieved by the new
        • Workflow Based on Manual Journal

          Manual journal entries are one of the few areas that cannot kick off a workflow automation in Zoho Books currently. I would propose considering adding that. My use case is that the payroll provider I use (a flavor of SurePayroll) has a Zoho Books automation
        • How do I hide all leads from Standard users in my CRM ZOHO

          I want to configure my crm zoho in such a way that standard users will only see leads owned or assigned to them. How do I go about doing this? I have tried all i could, but nothing...can anyone help me?
        • Zoho sheets to crm and mapping

          i want to know more about mapping the contacts that i upload from the spreadsheet also couldnt able to understand flow
        • Condition-based data sharing rules are now available in CRM

          Dear All,   We are excited to introduce a much awaited feature: condition-based data sharing rules. We'd love to explain more about this enhancement.   Specify record conditions in data sharing rules Data sharing rules enable you to share all the CRM
        • Next Page