We’re in the thick of it now!
Much of my day today has been consumed with unexpected technical issues around the launch of the Story Selling Master Class.
Add to that a last-minute business-related trip that I’m finalizing details on, and I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off!
But it’s all for the best, because it all has the potential to either directly or indirectly benefit you.
Big things are brewing in the world of Breakthrough Marketing Secrets!
But on to today’s topic: selling stories! (Surprised?!)
Specifically…
Let’s talk about how to tell selling stories that weave perfectly into your offer!
First, I want to talk about the WRONG way to pick the stories you’re going to tell in your selling message.
And in fact, this is more in lines with the “creative” approach, rather than the systematic, sales-focused approach that I teach and recommend.
So here’s the wrong way…
You find a story YOU are very excited about…
You find a story that excites YOU…
You find a story YOU want to tell…
And, you tell it.
Maybe you’re inspired by Hollywood, so you’re looking to tell a story of the hero’s journey. Maybe it’s unrelated to that, but you have a favorite story about your family, or a slice of life story, or something else.
Then, as you’re putting together your marketing piece, your sales letter, your webinar script, your speech, whatever… You stick that story in there.
Then, you have to find a way to connect the dots back to your offer.
You find it’s hard. Sure, that story may be compelling. People may like it. They may laugh, or cry. It may generate an emotional response.
But, it doesn’t generate a business response. It doesn’t bring the prospect any closer to doing business with you. It doesn’t persuade them to take action.
You have trouble making more than a cursory link back to your sales pitch. You can’t really tie it into the offer. And it doesn’t really feel like your prospect is any closer to the sale as a result of reading or hearing the story.
What gives?!
It’s because you approached the decision about which story to tell from the FRONT, not the BACK.
While it may seem perfectly normal to start with the story, that’s NOT the most effective way to approach story selling!
The best way to find the perfect selling stories is to work backwards — from the offer!
Today’s video (which JUST went out to the wait list) on story selling revealed specifically how I did this, with the sales letter for The Titans of Direct Response.
And I don’t want to give away too much about what’s in that video…
(If you’re on the wait list, you already have the link in your inbox — if you’re NOT on the wait list, you’ll get it soon, but you should also sign up here to get first notice for the next videos.)
What I do want to do though is reveal a tiny slice of what was given away.
You see, when I sat down to write that sales letter, one of the big first questions that I had to ask was, “What am I selling?”
And here, I’m not even talking about the benefits. We get to the benefits eventually. I’m talking about what product or service the customer actually gets when they buy from us.
The answer was a 2-day seminar, featuring some of the biggest names in direct response marketing, hosted by Brian Kurtz when he was still Executive VP at Boardroom. And the cost was $3,500.
This is all very feature-oriented.
Pretty compelling features, if you know what you’re getting, but still just features.
Then I started to think, with Brian (and David Deutsch, who helped early in the project), what that would mean to the buyers.
Well, even one idea from one of the greats has the potential to completely transform your life. A few minutes, listening to them speak, in conversation in the hallways, asking an important question… It could multiply your marketing results, your career, your business.
Even a slight shift in perspective, in the world of direct response, can move mountains. (Of cash!)
And so as I’m thinking about this, I’m thinking about all I know about Boardroom. I’ve been a student of the industry, so I know a lot.
Also, I’m asking Brian questions, trying to get the best ideas out of him.
I’m coming at it from lots of angles.
I’m sorting through far more that I will never use than what I will.
Then, I remember.
When Marty Edelston — in whose honor Titans was being held — started Boardroom, he’d hired copywriter Eugene Schwartz really early on to write a sales letter that pretty much launched the company.
Marty had been doing okay before that, but once Gene wrote his letter, Boardroom started its growth trajectory that would take them to over $100 million per year.
Well, I dug up the details on the story.
I found out that Marty spent 70% of the money left in his business bank account to hire Gene. It was the equivalent of $9,000 today. But he wrote the check without flinching. Because he knew the value of investing in Titans.
They spent 4 hours together. From that 4 hours, Gene was able to give Marty the headline and ad that would go on and put Boardroom on the map.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Notice how the details tie back into my selling goal…
I told this story at the beginning of the letter for Titans. By the end, I’m going to ask readers to invest in spending a few hours (2 days) with Titans. I’m not going to ask them to invest $9,000, but the total investment isn’t chump change, either.
I’m going to ask them, throughout the letter, to believe that spending this time with these Eugene-Schwartz-level Titans will change their life.
I made all those points through Marty’s story, without having to come out and say them.
And it’s because I knew to work backwards from the offer I was making, and find the details for my story that would justify my prospects to invest in what I’m selling them.
This is a huge difference between story telling and story selling…
They’re very different disciplines. With very different rules and best practices.
If you haven’t watched my first video on why you want to get good at story selling, plus The 3 Pillars of Highly Effective Story Selling, I urge you to. Pronto.
You’ll get a link to the case studies soon enough. But you’ll definitely want to watch Video 1 first.
Click here to watch the first story selling video, including the 3 pillars!
Even more story selling goodness to come next week…
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
