How to Win Prospects Over With A Story

BY Jessica Helinski
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Telling a story can be a unique and effective way to engage a prospect — have you tried this strategy? If not, the idea of becoming a storyteller may be a bit intimidating. But, Kannan Kasi, in a post for Pipeliner CRM Blog, discusses how telling a story can boost interest and create a connection with a prospect, and he gives readers tips to improve their storytelling skills.

First, Kasi cites several ways that storytelling can help you connect, including:

  • Storytelling helps the prospect visualize, and those visuals have lasting power.
  • It creates an emotional connection, which is helpful since buying can be an emotional decision.
  • Each story has a core, and that core should highlight a problem to be solved. Also, it should include a climax, in which a solution is presented (the solution being your product or service). The prospect will then view your product/​service as a “hero.”
  • Stories are far more entertaining than a standard presentation.

But, HOW do you tell an interesting, relevant story? Kasi suggests telling a story that focuses on the prospect’s ambition, i.e. where she is right now, where she wants to be, etc. It should not ask the prospect to buy but rather, Kasi explains, “provide the proof of the protagonist winning with your product/​service to solve the core problem.” Include elements that heighten the prospect’s emotion and call him or her to action.

Most importantly, it should be true. “We cannot make things up,” Kasi writes. “If we look close enough, we will be able to find that story. And don’t solve the core problem in one scene. It is important to explain how the protagonist suffered, went almost bankrupt, was frustrated but did not lose hope, had tremendous will power and narrate how he/​she fought back before becoming victorious by solving the core problem.” This type of story will resonate with the buyer and stick with him or her — and hopefully, inspire action.


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