As a Sales Manager, Director or VP, you have devised your script, pitch or process to be perfect. So why, then, are the results you get from your team members so variable?

You’re very good at your job. You came up with a robust sales plan, you hired good people and you taught them well. But now… it feels like you’re still having to teach them. In fact, it’s occurred to you that you’re spending most of your time with your weakest team members. Your strongest performers are left to go out and do what they do best, while you’re stuck working on the slowest horses. Which seems… backwards. 

And if that feels frustrating, it’s nothing compared to the feeling of seeing two reps who are speaking to similar prospects, using the same processes, words and pitch decks, and yet are getting dramatically different results. 

Want to know why that’s happening? Spoiler: it isn’t (MATT WHAT DO THEY THINK IS THE PROBLEM?)

It’s not the process. It’s the person. 

Specifically, it’s their ability to connect with the prospect…or not.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to guarantee instant connection for every member of your team in any sales interaction? Wouldn’t it be incredible if you could remove the variant of the results and let every team member do justice to your brilliant systems and actually sell more?

I have some good news for you: there is.

There is a scientifically proven way for people to forge connections quickly, even with a stranger.

How?

By using Storytelling.

Storytelling leads the prospect to create an emotional connection both to the sales rep, and to the experience of using the product or service. As every good salesperson knows, your buyer will always make an emotional decision.

When you use storytelling, you’re no longer just giving a potential client a laundry list of what the company does. Instead, you’re allowing them to time travel from the pain of their current situation to the beautiful future they could have after they buy.

Storytelling cuts out the need for your prospects to figure out how your product or service would fit in their life, by describing a scenario in a way that (quite literally) makes their brains think it’s happening right now. This closes the gap between “should I get this?” and “I definitely need it right now!”.

By equipping your team with the skills to use storytelling language as they sell, you’re giving them the opportunity to make quick and powerful connections with their prospects, building their know, like and trust factor in record time.

And the effects last long beyond that one meeting. Telling a story activates completely different parts of the listener’s brain than sharing data does. This allows your team members — and your message — to become unforgettable. 

Stories are sticky. When a sales rep can weave storytelling language into their sales conversation, in a way that is both quick and engaging, that salesperson becomes more memorable.

So does the product or service they’re selling.

Even better? They’re selling in a way that allows them to inject their personality into work, so work feels more like play.

The result: a more successful, happier, more motivated workforce, who feel connected to the product or service they’re selling and each other. And a team of brilliant salespeople who are much less likely to abandon ship at the next time a headhunter slides into their DMs.

I’m Marsha Shandur, and I help sales teams sell more.

I give engaging, funny and exceptionally informative training on the thing that gets clients most fired up about products and services (and salespeople fired up about their work) — which happens to be the thing I’m best at:

Storytelling.

I have developed a system that pulls in storytelling foundations, brain science, Ethical Persuasion and powerful, impactful communication skills. In my former career as a Radio DJ, I understood how to forge individual, personal connections with strangers (even when I was speaking to 300,000 of them, all at the same time). Having spent 10 years as a Storytelling, Communication and Sales Trainer, I have taken what I’ve learned and worked with organizations to help them [MATT, WHAT HAVE I HELPED THEM DO?

Here are some of the people I’ve XXXX[WHAT, MATT?]X:

 

*I like this line from Radio DJ stuff but prob we don’t need it?:

It’s also where I learned how to hone in on the best bits of a story and arrange them to make the most impact — in the 20 seconds between songs.

Also: Psychology Degree from Edinburgh University — fold in or leave out?

 

As humans, we connect to each other through stories on the most fundamental, primal levels. We can’t help it! Our brains are wired to mirror each other through stories, to empathize through anecdotes, and to feel really, really good when we’re able to interact in such a way that we feel heard.

When you know how to make storytelling a part of your sales process, things really take off.

Suddenly, prospects are listening intently and (much more importantly) actually caring about what your sales people have to say. Pitches run more smoothly because everyone’s getting on with each other, they become more memorable because storytelling is tickling brand new parts of the prospect’s brain, and any communication goes from a boring lecture to an engaging conversation.

All this translates into:

• Higher motivation that lasts much longer than the effects of a three day motivational seminar
• Increased employee retention — happy people who feel connected to each other and the work they do are much more likely to stay at their jobs
• Brand loyalty from customers, because they feel an emotional connection to what they’re buying
• And, of course MORE SALES

 

 

This is not your typical training event.

All of my work with organizations — from 20 minute speeches to 3 day events — are incredibly informative and practical. You practice everything you learn while I’m right there with you because (1) it’s one of the best ways to learn anything and (2) it beats the pants off of sitting around a conference table watching someone click through slides for a day.

(Full disclosure: I do have slides. But they have clips of the Rocky Training Montage on them, not badly formatted bullet points.)

So how does this actually play out?

It depends on what your business needs. If you want to teach the basics of storytelling to your team, I can come in for a Storytelling 101 workshop that leaves them hitting the ground (and their pitches) running with their new-found storytelling skills. If you’re launching a sales team, you can bring me in to show them the power of Storytelling and Ethical Persuasion when it comes to turbo-charging the processes you’ve introduced them to.

These things always happen though:

• • People walk away feeling genuinely excited about selling.
  • Everyone learns actionable strategies they’ll actually use in their sales process, no matter the audience.
  • Those awkward moments of prospect defensiveness get washed away in a flood of oxytocin.
  • People create the kind of bonds over the course of the workshop that often take years and endless “team building exercises” to form otherwise.
  • And your company gets the kind of forward momentum that can only happen when everyone’s excited about pulling in the same direction.
    

The bottom line: stories can be absolutely transformational for your bottom line.

And I’d love to prove it to you. To learn more about how you can book me to up the bonding in your business, click here or email me at hello@yesyesmarsha.com.

 

“Marsha presented to our entire senior leadership team – not an easy task, especially virtually – and the end result was a motivating and practical talk that featured easy-to-adopt actions that our executives could implement immediately to engage and motivate our workforce.  Storytelling leads to empathy, empathy leads to connections, and Marsha helped make this real and tangible for us.” Jackie Roberts, VP Talent, Loblaw Companies Limited, Toronto, ON

SHOULD I PUT THIS IN? https://vimeo.com/769967473

 

Want to find out how to create a culture where your team are selling at their best and excited to come to work every day? Let’s talk. To book in a call, click below or email me at hello@yesyesmarsha.com.