Story Selling in the Connected Economy

I’ll never forget one of my family’s visits to my grandmother’s house.  I was a senior in college.  My classes included an investment course on portfolio management. My grandmother, like any good grandmother, asked, “So Bill, what are you learning?” I told her what I’d learned about investing:  “People like me, at younger years in life, are interested in growing our wealth. We’re willing to take more risks in order to get higher returns.”  I went on to say, “People like you, who have retired, are much more interested in safety, liquidity and income.  At your age, asset growth is no longer a priority.  You want to protect and preserve what you have so that you can maintain your retirement lifestyle.”

After I delivered this little speech, my grandmother looked over at my dad.  (By the way my dad’s name is Jim, he’s a stockbroker and he manages my Grandmother’s money).  My grandmother said, “Jim, I would put my money with this boy.” It was a wonderful feeling. I had just discovered the power of education-based marketing, or EBM for short.  Looking back, I now realize that what I did can easily be done for a wide variety of topics.  If you can articulate someone’s problem and then share helpful, friendly advice, you can build instant credibility.  You will position yourself as the kind of person that people want to do business with.  You will become the trusted advisor.

Unfortunately, we all have to sell to people other than our grandmothers.  Here’s how this helpful, friendly style of selling may be delivered on a larger scale.  Let’s suppose I was a financial advisor and wanted to grow my practice. One good way to raise awareness and build credibility would be to put on a marketing seminar.  If I were a financial advisor, the name of my seminar would be, “The top three ways to grow and preserve your wealth.”  If I presented it properly (which is a big if, because most people botch this step), I would share lots of good ideas and helpful information with my audience.  This practice is known as abundant sharing.  The entire seminar would come across as very much of a soft-sell approach.   If you do that kind of seminar properly, in almost every case your audience will think: “This guy is smart. I trust this guy.  When it’s time to go forward, I think I’ll do it with this person.”

Here’s a good example of the power of becoming a trusted advisor.  A major food services company was trying to improve the image of its sales staff.  The company wanted its reps to be seen as value-added consultants, not just order takers.  One of their stars in this effort was the rep who called on a 10-location restaurant chain. 

To add value, the company offered customers a free menu analysis and a menu design.  When the rep analyzed the menu for the chain, he realized that two fast moving items, coffee and fried chicken, were under priced.  He recommended the restaurant chain increase the price on both items.

The result?  The restaurant made $500,000 in profit.  This restaurant chain now views their rep as a valuable resource and will always buy from his company.