It’s often forgotten how the power of story can serve as good word of mouth marketing — and more so than that, how word of mouth can help move the sales process forward and close new business!
Think it through…
It’s pretty typical for Mike the salesperson to do the ‘ol “show up and throw up” on a sales call.
That is, Mike spews hundreds and hundreds of facts, features, and benefits about his services, completely inundating the potential buyer. Then, as a leave-behind, Mike drops off a bunch of brochures, technical reports, and data, leaving the buyer even more confused with all sorts of information, and thinking to himself, “Now how exactly is this service going to help my business?”
Lost sale.
It’s similar to when you go to Best Buy to purchase a new TV. You just want a nice 42?inch flat screen, and the next thing you know, the salesperson is showing you 50 TVs with hundreds of different options! How are you supposed to pick just one!? Overwhelmed, you just leave.
Lost sale.
Well, what if Mike just told one, simple story?
In any complex BtoB sale, there are multiple buying influences that affect the decision-making process. That means your prospect will be talking to other buying influencers within the buying organization — a word of mouth opportunity!
So what’s easier for a buying influencer to remember and share with their colleagues: Hundreds of factoids that Mike spews about his service, or a simple story that can be passed along via word of mouth?
Check out Leslie’s approach:
“It was a cold morning at a subway station in Washington D.C. A young man walked through the crowd, opened his violin case, and proceeded to play for 45 minutes.
Thousands of people walked by him; it was rush hour. Only six people stopped to listen. Twenty people threw change into his case — for a total of $32.
What people didn’t know:
- It was Joshua Bell;
- playing 6 of the most intricate Bach pieces;
- on a $3.2 million violin;
- and two days earlier, he had played in Boston to a sold-out crowd, where ticket prices started at $100 a seat.
If people had the above insights, they would have stopped, and Joshua would have garnered a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands. People walking towards the music could “hear” that the music was different, but their blockers were on, and he was playing for quarters, not $100’s.
Companies are using Leslie LLC because our services create insights, and we help your prospects remove their blockers to better understand the value that you’re delivering to their business.”
BOOM! We know what Leslie’s company DOES.
And unlike Mike’s countless factoids, Leslie’s simple story creates strong word of mouth, allowing the buyer to tell his colleagues, “We gotta go with Leslie! She’s seriously going to help us create value and win more business. Hey, have you heard the cool story about Joshua Bell playing violin in the subway?”
When used at the proper moment during the sales process, a story can be very powerful and give a buyer something to talk about.
Use word of mouth to move your sales process forward and to win more business!
About WindsorONE
WindsorONE CEO Craig Flynn and Director of Marketing Brian Bunt are big advocates of word of mouth marketing. Craig has worked with sales organizations across industries, is a certified Miller Heiman Facilitator, Word of Mouth Crash Course speaker, and recipient of Seth Godin's "In My Office" meeting. Brian is constantly working with lumberyards, suppliers, and builders to help them craft campaigns to spread the word about their companies. When they're not working at WindsorONE, they're teaching word of mouth marketing courses at TheEmptyBin.com to companies in different industries from building to insurance.
