The Top 13 Percent of Sales People

Here's a little insight regarding the top 13 percent of sales people: They are a group of people who connect emotionally with others. They form this connection through vulnerability. When something sensitive is revealed about a person, it’s a reminder that they are “just human”. This emotional connection is the starting point. From there, through storytelling and story “tending”, the relationship grows.

In a well-crafted story, it’s the emotional conflict that will open the hearts of the listener. Hearing an emotional story will inspire the listener to share their own story. As this happens, trust is formed between two people that may not have been there before.

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In order to be emotionally connected, you need to be vulnerable.

In order to be vulnerable, you need to have courage.

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It’s not easy to share emotional conflict with others, in a personal or a professional story. Most people are conditioned to hide what might make them appear weak. Learning to show vulnerability through storytelling will help you make more emotional connections, develop trust with people and have greater success.

How Do I Know When I Have Listened Enough?

Over the years, in all the 'effective listening' courses or books I have been exposed to, I have not seen where these methodologies have helped a seller or a partner know when they have listened 'enough'.
This past week in our public Story Leaders™ StorySelling workshop, I had a breakthrough in understanding about listening. In past workshops we have avoided building our "Who am I" stories until we first learned the building blocks in the much less emotional subjects of "Who I Represent" or "Who I Have Helped".

This time, because Ben and I now realize how important vulnerability is to connection, we decided to have our participants build their "Who Am I" stories first.

This enabled us on day 2 to use those stories in our Story Tending exercises. When the 'seller' in those role-plays purposely tended the buyer's "Who Am I" story, magical, emotional connections started happening—even in the 'lab'.

It struck me that once you 'get' the building blocks of your own story [point, setting, complication, turning point & resolution] you now know what building blocks you need to 'get' of your buyer's or partner's story in order to listen 'enough'.

The process of tending the others story until you have 'enough' was magical.

Mike Bosworth --How Storytelling Helps You Sell

Geoffry James Interviews Mike Bosworth on BNET

If you’ve been in sales for more than a week or two, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Mike Bosworth. He’s the author of two huge and highly influential best-selling books in the sales training field: Solution Selling and Customer-Centric Selling. Mike has recently gone through a major transformation in how he trains people to sell — an approach that I honestly believe can help most sales pros to sell more quickly and easily. Yesterday we spent some time talking, and here’s the high points of that conversation:...

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/michael-bosworth-how-storytelling-helps-you-sell/10193?tag=content%3Bdrawer-container

Ben Zoldan and The Power of Listening

Geoffry James Interviews Ben about The Power of Listening on BNET

While sales trainers always talk about the importance of listening, they almost never explain how to do it effectively. Well, it turns out that listening is the most important part of telling a compelling story. It sounds backwards, but it’s true! To help you understand why, here’s an interview with Mike’s business partner, Ben Zoldan. I think you’ll find it a real “ear-opener.” ...

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/ben-zoldan-the-power-of-listening/13215

The New York Times takes a look at Story Telling

Tell your company story and tell it well. This article offers some good pointers from the writers at the New York Times

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/trying-to-connect-with-customers-tell-a-story/