Good Salespeople Tell Stories

One of my old sales managers had been in the insurance business for about 40 years and had probably forgotten more about sales than I will ever know. Every Monday morning during our weekly sales meeting he would open up a discussion on any topic related to our work. If one of us was having a hard time closing a client, we would analyze the situation as a group and try to find ways to help solve the problem. 

On those occasions when a new agent was having a hard time presenting a product our manager would say that a story would help. In some parts of the sales community, a good story is needed for every situation. If you are selling a car, you need to have a story about someone who bought that car and was the happiest person ever after. Selling homes? You probably have a story about how someone bought a fixer-upper and flipped it for a nice profit. 

One note: Don't make up or embellish a story. Someone may actually want to verify it, so make your story truthful. 

In the insurance field our stories can be a tad darker and may include the death of a person. For example, a story about a young lady who unexpectedly becomes a widow with a few children sounds awful. That's when we include the part where the husband had a big fat life insurance policy (plot twist) and the young widow now had enough money to pay the mortgage and other bills. Heck, she even had enough money to put all three kids through college!

When I enroll employee groups for their benefits I'm required to give a presentation to the staff about the products. I've found that this is when the actual selling takes place, so I tend to talk up a couple of the products. Our accident insurance plan is an easy one to discuss because I have a lot of stories regarding people getting hurt and the policy paying in spades. 

One of those stories involved a teacher (I was enrolling a school staff) who had taken her class of special needs students to the playground. Apparently one of the kids, who must have grown faster than the others, decided to make a break for it and run off the campus. The teacher made an attempt to stop him, only to be run over by the kid. It didn't take long for the news to circulate among the staff that the teacher had a broken arm. She also had, when I checked her file, an accident policy, which was going to pay her a nice benefit. I sold a lot of accident plans that week. And I continued to share that story in my group presentations.

My old manager had another suggestion that worked as well. He would draw what he called "air pictures" with his hands and arms as he told a story. Being Greek, my family would call it "talking with your hands" or just "talking", but it was effective. For instance, if he was telling you how a policy would build cash value over the years he would move his arms up like he was drawing on an invisible chalkboard. The weird part was he only did this when he was selling which told me he consciously drew his air pictures. I never saw him do it otherwise. 

Do stories work for you? Let me know in the comments section. In the meantime, stay healthy!

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.