How to get to the place where great things happen, and stay there.

Have you noticed that short words carry the most influence in our lives? Win or lose, trust or fear, deal or bust. Little words start great stories - but how do these stories get us to the place where great things happen? If you want to harness the power of storytelling, let me introduce you to Mike Bosworth.

“In the tough, competitive arena of corporate selling, Mike Bosworth made a lot of money as a top sales rep, a top sales manager, a top sales trainer, and author of highly influential best-selling books on sales training.” Arthur Lightbourn, Top corporate sales trainer offers new insights into the age-old mystery of successful selling, Del Mar Times 2012

How’s this for a story?

Ironically, we will recognise all the elements of a classic story in Mike’s journey: Mike’s dad was a violent, alcoholic salesman who never kept a job longer than three months. Further tragedy followed when Mike’s mother died. Mike was 18 and the youngest of his five siblings was nine. Things began to turn around when, after a 13-month tour of duty in Vietnam and then college, Mike accepted a job working for Jim Campbell at Xerox Computer Services. Jim became a powerful mentor and friend, then great things started to happen.

Mike’s career took off, during his first year on quota at Xerox he became the company’s top salesperson and secured leadership positions on the national team after only 5 years. Success followed success and by 1995, Mike’s own Solution Selling® courses were being used to train 15,000 IBM salespeople. “Of my four brothers,” Mike laughs, “I’m oldest, the shortest, the baldest and the richest.” Sadly, Mike’s sister, Leslie, died of cancer in 1977.

His first two books — Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets and Customer Centric Selling — have helped countless corporate sales people across the world implement a sales process. His next book, What Great Salespeople Do co-authored with Ben Zoldan, “is for everyone selling anything; using a combination of storytelling and empathetic listening.”

Why does storytelling work?

From mankind’s earliest days, storytelling helped us to pass on important tribal information and, Mike adds, motivate people to get difficult things done. Investigating how we respond to stories, Jonathan Gottschall confirms:

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

The scientific explanation is that when we hear a story that we relate too, our levels of feel-good hormone oxytocin increase. This works to create trust and empathy. It helps us to work with others; positively influencing our social behavior. Great brands all tap into storytelling power to build a base of engaged fans.

Respected philosopher Tom Morris taught a wildly popular class at Notre Dame for fifteen years, and he is the author of 30 books including the business favourite, If Aristotle Ran General Motors. He agrees that storytelling does not have to be complicated, and can be extremely effective:

“I think vivid, short, well told stories are uniquely important to us because we're each living our own story, an adventure into the unknown. We have all these emotions running from hope to fear that need either encouragement or management and we naturally, even viscerally, want to hear other stories that may shed light on our own.

The connection between story power and the short small words that often encapsulate very big meanings is also fascinating. The wolf among the sheep. The snake. The fruit. The boy. The girl. The little word, the simplest bit of significant language, most easily captures our attention in the deepest and oldest parts of our brains. Even philosophers who have had the biggest impact in history have given us simple words and ordinary images wrapped into a story, as Plato gave us the famous cave, around which great wisdom could be spun. Our modern tendency is to complicate and show off, but the farther we get from the simple, the more we leave behind the power of language.”

Using simple storytelling to your advantage

Mike knows that if you want to influence someone’s brain, you need to start with this science. But, in his experience, most corporations arm their salespeople with all the information to fill the left brain needs of their [potential] buyers — all the facts and figures — but that information doesn’t influence a potential buyer to change [to buy]. Storytelling is processed in the right side of the brain, where you trust and you say, ‘I want that’ and ‘I need that.’

Most powerful sales technique? Nouns = verbs

If you have a complicated product like x-ray machines or chemical analysis, most tech or glue, people just want to know how it’s going to transform their lives. The problem, Mike says, is if you ask a chemical engineer to tell you about glue they’ll start on about bonding, different temperatures, mold, and... No one cares. Mike’s advice? Change your noun into a verb. You are not selling glue (noun), you are telling the story of how customers stick (verb) things together. Imagine two marketers on the trade show floor.

Marketer 1: “We’re Acme Corporation, known for our industry-leading anvils. Our robust, end-to-end solution has best-of-breed features and can help increase business results for you by 2X. You need to learn more!”

Marketer 2: “May I tell you a story about another production engineer?” triggers true peer curiosity. What you don’t want to say is: “May I tell you a story about another person like you who is faced with challenges like yours? Being presumptuous is dangerous ground for sellers – “like you” and “like yours” is a huge turn off for most buyers.

Tell a story, and you eliminate the jargon - “best-of-breed,” “robust,” “solution,” “industry-leading,” - that makes buyers tune out. 

Do you want to make great things happen?

People in all walks of life struggle to get where they want to go: people who are underemployed struggle to get and influence job interviews; salespeople struggle to influence prospects and customers; leaders struggle to connect with and lead their teams; marketing professionals struggle to get potential buyers who should be looking, to look; and perhaps the most difficult situation of all, parents struggle to influence their teenagers.

Carol Crowell, publisher of Software Success, shares her experience of becoming a storyteller:

“Mike opened my eyes in a way that not only immediately profited my business, but also my career. To this day, Mike's influence kicks me into telling a story when CEOs trot out Death by PowerPoint. My story grabs the attention of potential clients, closing the deal.”

If we simply focus on B2B or B2C sales, stories can:

●     Connect with skeptical buyer

●     Make their problem relatable

●     Help them understand what you do

●     Humanize you and your company

●     Eliminate discovery resistance

●     Enable them to introduce other influencers and buyers to your brand

This approach works equally well for job seekers, leaders, friends, diplomats — anyone who needs to pass on important information or get difficult things done. Words shaped our yesterday, will anchor today and will determine our tomorrows. The question is, how will your words get you to the place where great things happen? Let’s end with a short, powerful blessing - You’ve Got This!

Want to build better relationships and sell more effectively?

Mike Bosworth’s engaging books are a great place to start! If you are a leader who desires to achieve breakthrough business results for your organization, take advantage of the powerful Story Seekers® workshops, tailored to a range of languages to help participants learn to use the power of story and connective listening.

These days, Mike is 90% retired from sales training. The majority of his coaching expertise is focused on helping people improve their relationships. Here’s why: Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the US will end in divorce or separation. 41 percent of all first marriages will end in divorce.

His wife, Jennifer Lehr, is a skilled couples therapist. She has created an online DIY system for couples to build, repair, and restore their relationships called WeConcile.

“I created WeConcile® because I knew first-hand how painful relationship problems could be, and because I knew couples needed more help. I wanted couples to have a path from disconnection and distress to the joy of support and connection and I knew this was possible.”

When couples reach the end of the WeConcile® Program, Mike and Jen expect that they will feel a greater sense of trust and closeness with their partner. They will understand how to communicate about their disagreements and will spend much less time feeling angry, sad or upset, and much more time feeling appreciation and gratitude for their partner. They will have gained tools and understanding they will use for the rest of their lives.

Want to accelerate your writing?

I love writing success stories like the incredible journey of Mike Bosworth. My name is Claire Vorster, founder of the Success Stories Academy. This is my personal invite for you to join the 3-2-1 Stories Challenge in June. Within a month you’ll learn to create dynamic, sellable stories by developing techniques used by successful authors. It’s a 2 hour a week commitment, for 4 weeks.

Discover how to Unlock The Secrets of Stories that Sell.

Build your resilience and confidence

I’m a professional writer, currently helping many adults, teachers and students to learn the craft of successful writing. I’ve made 100s of thousands of dollars over a career spanning 20 years, writing for publishers, businesses, magazines, and online markets in SE Asia, the US and Europe. I’m a member of the Oxford University Press Research Forum, but most importantly I am a student-centered teacher who loves to help people to develop dynamic, sellable stories. I look forward to helping you to find your success story.