Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell

by Mike Adams, Michael Bosworth (Foreword by)

Overview

How do the best salespeople connect, influence and persuade?

With stories.

'Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell' takes you on a high-stakes sales journey, using stories to establish rapport and trust, deliver insight, inspire action and close the deal, and in doing so win new friends and collaborators. When you share purposeful stories in your client conversations, you'll create more new business than you thought possible.

Sharing more than 50 stories from around the world, Mike draws on his diverse international sales career to teach and demonstrate the power of storytelling -- from first hello to signed contract.

You'll learn stories to help you:

• Establish rapport and trust
• Present challenging insights
• Differentiate your solution
• Share your company values
• Unstick negotiation stand-offs
• Create better business outcomes.

This book will change the way you think about selling. Rather than seeing your role as that of a transactional deal closer, you'll become a story master, creating new stories for your clients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925648690
Publisher:	Sales Growth Focus
Publication date:	07/05/2018
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Engineer turned salesman, Mike Adams taught himself storytelling 'on the job' while selling and managing sales teams in the United Kingdom, Russia, India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia for international corporations Schlumberger, Siemens, Nokia and Halliburton.
Since 2014, Mike has been helping companies find and develop their own stories through his storytelling consulting practice.
Mike is married with three sons and lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mike Bosworth ix

A note from the author vxii

Introduction 1

Part 1 - LURE — Story Fundamentals 10

1. Why use stories? 11

2. What is a story exactly? 31

3. Tell me how it’s done 43

Part 2 - HOOK — Making a Connection 60

4. Who the hell are you? 61

5. What makes a connection 71

6. Instant rapport! 87

Part 3 - FIGHT — Winning Mindshare 114

7. Why you? Why your company? 115

8. Be the only option 135

9. The fight for your customer’s mind 151

Part 4 - LAND – Landing the Deal 168

10. I submitted the proposal — now what? 169

11. Your buyer on remote control 181

12. Influence in the dark 195

Conclusion 211

Acknowledgements 218

Appendices 219

APPENDIX A - Summary of the Seven Stories 220

APPENDIX B - Reference Table for the Seven Stories 221

APPENDIX C - Story Catalogue 222

APPENDIX D - The Story Template 225

Recommended Reading 226

Index 234

Chapter Notes 235

About Mike 243

Your Seven Stories 244

Editorial Reviews

“Seven Stories” is a masterwork. This ground-breaking book offers every intelligent sales person a flexible framework to equip them to be consciously competent in this essential sales skill.

- Bob Apollo, Founder, Inflexion-Point Strategy Partner

‘Mike Adams has written a timelessly brilliant book for everyone who seeks to lead, influence or sell. He makes the profoundly simple point that “You’ll sell more and you’ll sell better when you tell and share purposeful stories”. Mike has real-world experience and has himself sold more than $1 billion of business. Selling is one of toughest professions and Mike explains exactly how “business storytelling is the master key that unlocks all stages of the buying and selling cycle”. Masterful storytelling is how to get to the next level of influence and success. I highly recommend this book for anyone in leadership or sales, regardless of their level of experience.’

- Tony Hughes. CEO RSVP Selling and author of The Joshua Principle and Combo Prospecting

‘Finally a book that calls out storytelling for its relevance, power and potential in the business world. Mike’s honesty and expertise in nailing and teaching the finer points of the “perfect story” is a great guide for all levels of sales professional to hone and adapt their storytelling skills to gain relevance, credibility and significant business outcomes, as well as build better connections with customers and stakeholders…“when you listen to another’s story carefully, with an open heart, the truth of the character shines through”.’



- Cheryl Robertson. State Director – WA, Microsoft Australia

‘Mike Adams’ Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell is a brilliant handbook on storytelling for sales professionals that delivers the key elements missing in other works to make this highest form of selling both intuitive and actionable. Highly recommended!’



- James Muir. CEO Best Practice International

‘Of the thousands of sales books written every year only a few stand out as ground-breaking — only a few will stand the test of time. Mike Adams’ book Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell is one of those. As the title suggests it is peppered with compelling true stories that reinforce why storytelling is an essential sales skill and why we need to prepare and practise our seven stories. And most importantly, Mike tells us how. He provides a very clear and structured approach to creating, practising and delivering our stories, each at the appropriate time in the buying journey and sales process. This book is an outstanding read and the best sales storytelling book I have read.’



- John Smibert. Founder Sales Masterminds APAC and CEO Custell Strategic Selling Group

'A highly practical and engaging guide to how storytelling can create both positive customer experience AND a competitive advantage in any crowded market. We all know storytelling works. Mike has provided the best guide to how to make it work I’ve seen in 30 years of sales globally.’



- Dean Mannix. CEO SalesROI and SalesITV

‘The ability of a salesperson to tell stories is extremely powerful. Mike Adams does an excellent job of providing a framework to lead sellers to success. He discusses the key elements of stories and the importance of sharing these with prospects, rather than boring case studies and bullet points. The bottom line: stories work! Adams shows how persuasive they can be when done right.’



- Mike Shulz. President of RAIN Group and co-author of Insight Selling

From the Publisher