The biggest challenges for a sales rep are establishing your expert status in your niche and
answering the question of why people should do business with you. Added to your pain is the fact that the product or service you’re offering isn’t always something a lot of people are
clamoring to buy: life insurance, radio advertising, payroll services, etc.
How much time are you talking with people on the phone and in-person, offering free client
education through seminars or talks at local businesses? These activities generate attention,
but don’t guarantee the long-term relationships your business thrives on. In fact, participants at your events seem to be more interested in the free donuts you provide.
Your website is attractive and gets lots of compliments, but the upkeep on the blog is sporadic.
You don’t enjoy writing so you prefer to copy and paste articles about trending topics from top
industry producers. Or you hired a content farm to create articles for your blog by writers who
don’t know you. And then there are the weeks you ignore the blog in the hopes that others will
ignore it too.
• Did you know your blog is a great vehicle for storytelling?
• Did you know you’ve already experienced enough stories to write a compelling 400-800
word post each week?
• Did you know you could share that same post on your Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin
accounts?
• Did you know that in several months you could generate enough posts for an eBook?
Storytelling is a natural fit for you and your business blog, because it isn’t about selling product features, it’s about selling your features. It’s where you talk about the engine of the person under the hood of your suit. Don’t you hate making a connection with someone who admits, “I’d like to do business with you but we always buy from my mother’s cousin”? If that person followed your storytelling blog, you’d have a greater chance of earning her business. She isn’t interested in reading about why insurance is a great savings vehicle; she’s interested in the story of how a real family benefited from the savings vehicle you sold them. “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.” Zig Ziglar.
Let’s outline a post:
1. Pick one product or service you want to focus on selling.
2. Choose a life story that relates to this product (your own or a customer’s).
3. Identify your target audience for this type of product. Write to them not at them.
4. Identify any other people you want to influence: current customers, potential
customers, or other sales people.
5. How do you want to be perceived by peers and customers? (Are you striving to be
a trusted advisor, a thought leader, or top sales rep for the year? It’s the difference
between sounding like an HSN sales guy and Tony Robbins.)
6. What industry and real life knowledge/experience can you offer through the story that
will make your target audiences connect with you?
7. What do you want your readers to do when they finish the post? Call to action.
When you start writing, you’ll discover that building a post one question at a time is faster and keeps you organized. When you have the answers jotted down, go back and flesh them out,
especially #2, #5, and #6. Keep it human and don’t let your call to action overwhelm the story.
Add your blogging and social sharing into your weekly calendar. Once it becomes routine, you’ll
get faster at it and sticking to an outline will help keep your writing focused. The art of selling is all about life. So is storytelling. And blogging is uniquely designed for the
purpose of sharing those life stories you’ve been gathering up. You’d better get busy. Your
readers are waiting. -Mike Wolpert