Selling Your Company Through the Power of Story Telling

Entrepreneurs aren’t just the ones behind the mastermind creations of products and businesses out of nowhere – they are led to their successes through their journey and experiences in (or out) of the business world. An important objective that entrepreneurs need to master is understanding how to sell and market towards their niche audience. 

Matthew Pollard, niche marketing expert, and sales systematic coach joins us today on today’s episode of Making Bank to discuss the importance of connecting to your audience through stories. By telling emotionally charging stories that contain certain elements, you can not only sell your product but forge a lifelong customer. 

Learn why telling emotionally charged stories allows for a greater chance to sell, but also how you can make your story the best it can be as you find your niche audience.   

Connecting Emotionally  

When it comes to sales, selling a story to create a connection is important. “So a lot of people focus on all the connection story, but in truth, the best type of story – or what I call the heart of the sale – is when you talk,” Matthew stresses the importance of planning and trying to reach your ideal niche audience. Connections will form when trying to sell things naturally – instead of trying to force someone to understand you. 

It’s creating a conversation that allows for dialogue, where your target audience engages in a more natural conversation with you that feels organic. This means that you’ve got to work even harder to sell what you’ve got with the emotional connection that leaves the customer with no other choice. “What we have to be looking at is bringing in what I call emotionally driven content into the stories. So, the stories are designed to motive and inspire action while embedding us as the only logical choice.” 

If you tell the story with all the facts straight up, it’s like watching the discovery channel. After ten minutes, people will get bored. It won’t appeal to their feelings, experiences, or emotions – all the things that you want to tap into. You keep people listening and engaged with emotions, and that often falls into how your company or your business changed the lives of others. 

The stories that are usually told are one-dimensional, and you need to build them out to entice people to be intrigued and to find out what’s next. Everyone likes to feel like they’re being understood in the situation they are in. Going hand in hand, everyone also likes to think of their situation as unique. 

“And they can tell that through the story – not only do they understand the problem and they understand what I need, but they understand me. And when they feel that all of a sudden, they feel like they’ve got this deep, rich, connection with you. [They] don’t care what you’re selling at that point, [they] want it.” Matthew says by creating a story that allows for emotional connection and individualized experiences, reaches the deeper level of the audience. 

What Makes a Good Story 

Matthew says that a good story has four elements. The first part of it is the problem that the customer is facing, or the outcome that they want or are looking for. A lot of the time, people rush this part and try to get to the point of the story in which they are the hero that can provide that solution. 

The next part of a good story is moral. “Moral is super important because you know, people’s perceptions are different based on, you know, their upbringing…Everything shifts the perspective that we have,” Matthew says that the moral of the story that you are telling is easy for you to understand but might be different to the listener. Moral includes the other two parts of a good story, and that is focusing on the cost of the problem financially, and the emotional cost of the problem that it has on a person. There’s a real-world cost of the problem in which the individual is spending money on something that isn’t working, added onto the emotional value. 

By focusing on the individual experience, there is a better chance at connecting and making a lasting impression that allows them to see how you and what you’re selling can ultimately help and change their life for the better. Understanding your audience’s mindset and selling things with a story that includes all aspects that Matt recommends can help you forge new customers.