FundingStrat

 

In Storyt(S)elling we highlighted Kindra Hall’s message from Broker Fair 2019: the power of storytelling in sales.

 

Storytelling in sales helps Funding Pros capture the attention and resonate with customers as well as humanize transactions between us.

 

Effective storytelling does this by inducing an emotional response in the listener.

 

A great story, well placed in the Sales Process, will induce three key biochemicals in the prospect to elicit the most receptive emotional response:

 

Cortisol– is the stress hormone released in response to a perceived threat.

 

It causes our fight or flight reaction, especially if there is a perceived danger, risk and potential reward.

 

Cortisol sharpens your focus and dials in your attention to whatever is causing this emotional tension.  It is valuable to the storyteller, because it grabs attention and cuts away distraction.

 

Oxytocin– is the ultimate empathy hormone.  In many scientific circles it is also known as the “love hormone.”

 

It is released when we are bonding with others that we like or love.  It is strongest in new mothers directly following birth, and will even generate a protective response if there is enough connection there.  This hormone, unlike cortisol, feels good.

 

Cortisol might hook us into the story, its oxytocin that keeps us there.  It is very valuable to the storyteller because, as long as the story has at least one character we can identify with, we will empathize and bond with this character, thus bond to the story, and the one telling it.

 

Dopamine– is one of the most important neurotransmitters, which releases the pleasurable feelings of satisfaction as part of the brain’s reward system.

 

Now that we feel bonded to the character in the story, and we subconsciously feel our fate is intertwined with theirs, if there is a positive resolution to the story, we will feel satisfied and rewarded as if we arrived at the positive outcome ourselves.

 

This is extremely valuable to the storyteller because he has satisfied us and shifted the audience into an emotional state of optimism charged to take action (and overcome risks) on their own perceived rewards/outcomes.

 

So what’s a great sales story look like?

Keep on Reading!

 

IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient.

 

The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Test was developed by Alfred Binet in 1904 to best evaluate the “intelligence” of students.

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines intelligence as:

 

(1): the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations

 

 

(2): the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria 

(such as tests)

 

 

A higher IQ would translate to a higher probability of the student doing well in school.

 

 

Doing well, according to our school system, is primarily based around attention, memory and problem solving.

 

 

A higher IQ has been used for decades as a predictive measure of how proficient someone could also be in the workforce.

 

 

So a higher IQ makes for a great Funding Pro?

 

Keep on Reading!

 

When to use it?

 

After deploying the Utility Close and the merchant asking for you to repeat the terms (you’ve already described.)

 

What does it sound like?

 

Describe the terms again and then shut up (until the merchant jumps back in).

 

So, basically, silence.

 

How it works?

 

You are describing the terms of the product once again, slower this time, so all can be completely heard, understood and processed.

 

Then you are deliberately stopping to talk, in anticipation of a favorable response from the buyer.

 

There is an old saying in sales that goes “he who speaks first loses.”

 

Now, there is value in this old saying, but it is a bit outdated for us because if we are truly Funding Pros, and advising them through their Key Business Outcomes, no one loses.

 

Only win-wins all the way around.  To update this old trope, “he who jumps in to break the silence with sound first is the most eager to make a deal at that time.”

 

Why it works?

Keep on Reading!

 

What is the Way of the Funding Pro?

 

This great article on deBanked about the power of consultative selling describes the approach that separates top performers from the rest.

 

What is the consultative approach?

 

The consultative approach is a holistic method rooted in building strong relationships with prospects, not through flattery or gab, but through deliberate discovery and understanding of buyer needs to more effectively fulfill them with customized solutions.

 

But how important, really, is the consultative approach?

 

Well, we first have to look at what most sales left to their own devices descend to if the consultative approach is not deployed:

 

B2B sales can be very transactional, but if this is all they ever are, over time there’s a lot of revenue left on the table.  Transaction approaches are pushing products’ features and benefits with little to no concern for how these align with, or can help address, buyer needs.

 

Well, how is this approach working out for most outfits?

Keep on Reading!

 

What does it sound like?

 

“It’s too expensive!”

 

Where does it typically tend to show up?

 

Closing Call: selling an Approval to a prospect.

 

What do we do with it?

 

Turn around.  Key Objective: to turn around the objection, engage the prospect further, and continue to guide through the sales process to ultimately close and fund!

 

How do we turn it around?

 

“Too expensive?”  (Shut up and wait 3-5 seconds.)

 

Wait!  How can asking this one question turn this whole objection around?

Keep on Reading!