Matt Vaadi explains how storytelling works in sales prospecting. Instead of listing features, tell stories with concrete details so prospects can picture themselves using your product. Get them telling their own stories, and frame your recommendation using narrative structures like the hero's journey, where the client becomes the hero.
Now I wanna transition a little bit. One of the things I remember about your keynote is that you are a master storyteller. You told a story on stage that provided such detail that I can still in my mind picture what I think the prospect's facility looked like that you were in, which in my opinion is something that many of us are guilty of not doing is adding in little details to allow people to put themselves into the story because we feel like we're speaking too much, right? We don't want to be a blabbermouth sales rep. We don't want to dominate a conversation, which is obviously a great way to think, but also you might be leaving some things out which might not allow your prospect or your customer, whomever, to put themselves into the story. Talk to me a little bit about your philosophy at how storytelling helps sales, how you integrate it into your process, and what the value is for you.
Well, the thing about stories is stories are the way we communicate. So I mean, some people communicate really long stories. I'm from Georgia, so you can tell that I tell really long stories and I talk fast. So like, you know, that's what I do. And, but, and some people, you know, talk in short stories, but stories are the way that human beings communicate. And the reason that we tell stories to other people is so that we can be understood. So there's two things about stories. One, you want to get your prospect telling you stories. So that you can learn their language, learn what's important to them, learn what's in there. But at the same time, stories activate our brain. There's a lot of science around this, a lot of data around how stories activate the brain. So I'll give you a couple of examples. So in one example, it's how I tell a story of recommendation. So when I'm giving my proposal to someone, I use the hero's journey, which is essentially Star Wars. If you ever watch Star Wars, right? What is Star Wars? Luke is in an untenable position on Tatooine, I think is the name of the, of the planet, and he meets old Ben Kenobi, right? So Ben Kenobi, an old Jedi, um, he mentors him and says, listen, this— you can do better than this. And Ben Kenobi shows him a better place. We could go here, a recommendation. And, and then they go, right? And then, and then Luke comes back and he's the hero, right? So what's going to happen. So I, I can't wait that long. I can't wait for my client to become a hero, so I need to tell them the story of how they're going to be a hero.
