How do you engage prospects with stories and anecdotes?

The best salespeople are the greatest story tellers! People remember stories not a list of your best features or logos. If you uncover pain points and know of a relevant case study, share the story!

When preparing for a cold call, I always ask myself: what do I want to get out of it? what are the next steps I want to take? It could be follow up call, Demo, schedule a meeting, getting a certain awareness across - it really depends on the bio of the prospect. Based on that I pick my story which must be concise and relevant.

You need a script, discovery questions, common objections with answers and a few short case studies relevant to the industry you are targeting. Make sure your story (case study) is no longer than 2 paragraphs and only share this after you have discovered pain points.

In my experience, the story needs to be authentic. No fancy words. Keep it simple. Tech is already complicated and we don´t need it to make it more complicated.

Stories need to support the outcome you want to achieve. Always ask yourself: what do I want to achieve? Stay true, concise and always relevant.

This is why I believe it's crucial to have your "stories" prepared beforehand. The last thing you want to be doing is stumberling over yourself looking unconfident and untrustworthy. The easiest way is to target 1 industry and pick 3/4 relevant case studies that speak to common pain points. When telling your story speak with conviction. At this point all they have is your word, be confident!

A major task is to give the opposite time to reflect on the story. It took me a while to understand that. So embrace the silence. It shows that you conveyed the story effectively or at least it triggered something that your counterpart needs to think about it. Allow them time to respond effectively.

Research, research, research your counterpart before the cold call. Read win notes and especially lost notes of your company to better understand how you win and how to avoid losing. Understanding a variety of success stories is paramount. More importantly, what is your USP, how is your product and service different, and why is it better? Where is the sweet spot for your service or product?

Write like you speak! If you're telling stories and talking about something that happened, then it needs to sound like you. Don't use language you wouldn't use in every day life just to make yourself sound smarter, it doesn't work! But writing how you speak does! It enables the reader to get a real feel for you, what you're about and how you are a person. And when we don't write like how we speak, when we finally jump on a call with this person, they will feel like they've been lied to, because you're nothing like how you're portraying yourself online. So make sure everything you do, is true to you.