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ART OF SALES 2, 4.07 (V) What’s Your Story?

4.07 (V) What's Your Story?

You've disciplined yourself to be more aware of the stories that are all around you and you've begun to collect these on your personal story matrix sales tool. Now it's time to tell these stories. All stories have a structure, and it looks like this. It has an arc that goes from context up in the conflict, to the climax of the story, and then finally, the closure of the story. The context at the beginning pulls you in. It pulls you, draws you into the story immediately. The conflict, as it builds, it steadily builds a compelling tension. And then the climax, of course, is the clear high point of the story. And finally, the closure points the way to action. This is the typical structure of any story. When we tell stories in business, there are several elements of the structure we should keep in mind as we capture our stories for use in our sales process. The business arc follows that same four step arc. In the context, in a business story, you might be sharing relevant background, you might just help set the scene or help people understand why they should care. In the conflict, as the tension builds, you're building tension, you're outlining problems or opportunities or helping people understand your mission. As you get to the climax of a business story, this is the aha moment, the idea, the concept, the demo, the business model, the pure insight. You have evidence and supporting data. And it's what makes you unique. And then as you come to closure, there's a call to action of a business story, the clear next steps, the plan for execution. That's the business arc of a story, of a story well-told. But remember, from our conversation about the power of story, stories do two things that are different from facts and other forms of information, they create context and they connect to emotion. So we should always be aware of the emotions we're hoping to trigger with our stories. The emotional arc of a story looks like this. Same arc. But in the context setting, you might be trying to go for the emotion of making someone curious or intrigued. As you build conflict, you might want to make them empathetic to you or even anxious or frustrated. At the climax, you might want them to be excited or energized or optimistic. And then, finally at the closure, the emotion you might be striving for is hopeful or inspired or motivated. That's the emotional arc of a story.


4.07 (V) What’s Your Story?

You've disciplined yourself to be more aware of the stories that are all around you and you've begun to collect these on your personal story matrix sales tool. Now it's time to tell these stories. All stories have a structure, and it looks like this. It has an arc that goes from context up in the conflict, to the climax of the story, and then finally, the closure of the story. The context at the beginning pulls you in. It pulls you, draws you into the story immediately. The conflict, as it builds, it steadily builds a compelling tension. And then the climax, of course, is the clear high point of the story. And finally, the closure points the way to action. This is the typical structure of any story. When we tell stories in business, there are several elements of the structure we should keep in mind as we capture our stories for use in our sales process. The business arc follows that same four step arc. In the context, in a business story, you might be sharing relevant background, you might just help set the scene or help people understand why they should care. In the conflict, as the tension builds, you're building tension, you're outlining problems or opportunities or helping people understand your mission. As you get to the climax of a business story, this is the aha moment, the idea, the concept, the demo, the business model, the pure insight. You have evidence and supporting data. And it's what makes you unique. And then as you come to closure, there's a call to action of a business story, the clear next steps, the plan for execution. That's the business arc of a story, of a story well-told. But remember, from our conversation about the power of story, stories do two things that are different from facts and other forms of information, they create context and they connect to emotion. So we should always be aware of the emotions we're hoping to trigger with our stories. The emotional arc of a story looks like this. Same arc. But in the context setting, you might be trying to go for the emotion of making someone curious or intrigued. As you build conflict, you might want to make them empathetic to you or even anxious or frustrated. At the climax, you might want them to be excited or energized or optimistic. And then, finally at the closure, the emotion you might be striving for is hopeful or inspired or motivated. That's the emotional arc of a story.