Well, suppose you're in the chicken business. They're pretty perishable things and I don't know if you've ever unwrapped a chicken you've bought at the grocery store that's gone bad, but it's not an experience you want to repeat. Anyway, the tricky part is, how do you get the chicken from the farm to the retail store, in less than three days, all ready for cooking and smelling nice? That process has a lot of moving parts, a lot of people involved, actually a lot of different companies, and if one thing breaks down from farm to grocery store, the whole thing turns into an enormous, foul-smelling hair ball real quickly.
So basically what I do is to look at all the steps in the process and try to figure out if there is some way we can do them faster, better, less expensively, or more efficiently.#4271•
Start by inventing a main character who's in a typical industry you serve ("Suppose you're in the chicken business"). Then describe a plausible series of events ("get the chicken from the farm to the retail store") that results in the problem your product or service is designed to fix ("the whole thing turns into an enormous, foul-smelling hair ball").
Finish with a one-sentence description of what you do to solve that problem ("So basically what I do is to look at all the steps in the process and try to figure out if there is some way we can do them faster, better .
.
.").#4283•
Stories that highlight how important their job is to them personally had no effect. But stories about how much good they were doing for other people—stories that gave their work a noble purpose—had a tremendous effect.#4266•
Think about a time when you made a real difference for one of your customers. This would be a time you went above and beyond what was expected of you or when what was expected of you resulted in an extraordinary success for your customer.
Recall the situation that surrounded it. What problem did the customer come to you with? What was your first reaction? Your second? How did you solve the problem for them? What did they say to you when you delivered the solution? How did it make them feel?
Finally, think about the moment when you realized that what you had done made an extraordinary difference to the customer. Was it the words that they said to you? The tone of their voice? The sincere look in their eyes? The complimentary note they wrote to your boss? The "supplier of the year" award that was handed to you on stage? Something else? And how did you feel at that moment? Close your eyes and think through that moment.
That moment is the climax of the story you're going to create.
Write down all of the events leading up to that moment and how it felt to know in that instant how important you were to that customer.
This is your personal motivation story.#4264•
Iceland closed its airports almost immediately after the eruption. Denmark closed its airspace below 21,000 feet the next day. By the third day, more than 1,600 flights were canceled in Scotland, England, Wales, Sweden, and Ireland. Day four saw 600 more affected flights in Germany. All told, it was more than a week before many stranded passengers reached their destinations, making this one of the largest natural disruptions to global air traffic on record.
While all of this was occurring in Europe, 6,000 miles away in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft was just concluding a sales planning meeting with more than 200 of its leaders from around the world. Many of those leaders were now stranded and couldn't get home. And as long as the volcano continued erupting, there was no way to tell how long the problem was going to last.
All of a sudden, Microsoft's travel department had a huge problem.#4277•
Working with their main travel consultants, they went to work on the situation. John Stephens, Microsoft's senior director of strategic sourcing, described the work this way: "First, find out who's stranded (about 180 different people). Second, let them know we're on it. Third, extend their local hotel reservations so they don't get thrown out while they're waiting for flights home.
Fourth, get them office space nearby to remain productive during the delay.
And last, but most importantly, figure out how to get them home as quick as possible."#4273•
John tells this story to salespeople at existing suppliers as well as potential ones—even suppliers not in the travel business. Why? "Because it communicates to them what real partnering looks like," he says. It also shows a supplier what it looks like to have the right focus on priorities (getting people home) and to demonstrate trust that the money will all work itself out.
Of course, he could just tell salespeople that Microsoft values all those attributes in a supplier.
But the story does a much better job of explaining it.#4288•
Third, use "problem prompts." Ask about specific problems you think your prospects might have with their current supplier. For example, as Rick Rhine of Tailwind Marketing explains:
If you're selling high-speed Internet service, asking "Do you like your current Internet service?" won't get you any stories. But if you ask "Have you ever noticed that your Internet slows down after dinner?" your prospect is likely to launch into a story about the last time that happened: "Oh yeah, it does! Last Monday night I had all the guys over for the football game.
In the middle of the first quarter, it started to buffer every few seconds.
It got so bad, we had to go to Jim's house to finish the game.
It was embarrassing for me, and Jim's wife wasn't too happy with us either .
.
.'#4286•
The major premise of Simon Sinek's bestselling book Start with Why can be summarized in his statement "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it."#4262•
One of the things I learned from interviewing professional buyers was that there are two things salespeople can do to immediately earn buyers' trust and credibility. In the words one buyer used to explain it, "First, tell me when you cannot help me. And second, tell me when you made a mistake before I find out from someone else."#4284•