Despite the high-tech tools available to salespeople today, the most personal method still works best. Through storytelling, a salesperson can explain products or services in ways that resonate, connect people to the mission, and help determine what decisions are made. A well-crafted story can pack the emotional punch to turn routine presentations into productive relationships. In Sell with a Story, organizational storytelling expert and author Paul Smith focuses his popular and proven formula to the sales arena. Smith identifies the ingredients of the most effective sales stories and reveals how to: Select the right story Craft a compelling and memorable narrative Incorporate challenge, conflict, and resolution• And more Learning from model stories, skill-building exercises, and enlightening examples from Microsoft, Costco, Xerox, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hewlett-Packard, and other top companies, you will soon be able to turn their personal experiences into stories that introduce yourself, build rapport, address objections, add value to the product, bring data to life, create a sense of urgency…and most importantly, sell! If you want to become a better communicator and transform your sales results, Sell with a Story is for you.

Storytelling has come of age in the business world. Today, many of the most successful companies use storytelling as a leadership tool. At Nike, all senior executives are designated "corporate storytellers." 3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing "strategic narratives." Procter Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques. Some forward-thinking business schools have even added storytelling courses to their management curriculum. The reason for this is simple: Stories have the ability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. Whether you are trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful business tool that can mean the difference between mediocre results and phenomenal success. Lead with a Story contains both ready-to-use stories and how-to guidance for readers looking to craft their own. Designed for a wide variety of business challenges, the book shows how narrative can help: * Define culture and values * Engender creativity and innovation * Foster collaboration and build relationships * Provide coaching and feedback * Lead change * And more Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for success. Complete with examples from companies like Kellogg's, Merrill-Lynch, Procter Gamble, National Car Rental, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, and more, this practical resource gives readers the guidance they need to deliver stories to stunning effect.

A literary scholar and investment banker applies economic criticism to canonical novels, dramatically changing the way we read these classics and proposing a new model for how economics can inform literary analysis. Every writer is a player in the marketplace for literature. Jonathan Paine locates the economics ingrained within the stories themselves, revealing how a text provides a record of its author’s attempt to sell the story to his or her readers. An unusual literary scholar with a background in finance, Paine mines stories for evidence of the conditions of their production. Through his wholly original reading, Balzac’s The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans becomes a secret diary of its author’s struggles to cope with the commercializing influence of serial publication in newspapers. The Brothers Karamazov transforms into a story of Dostoevsky’s sequential bets with his readers, present and future, about how to write a novel. Zola’s Money documents the rise of big business and is itself a product of Zola’s own big business, his factory of novels. Combining close readings with detailed analyses of the nineteenth-century publishing contexts in which prose fiction first became a product, Selling the Story shows how the business of literature affects even literary devices such as genre, plot, and repetition. Paine argues that no book can be properly understood without reference to its point of sale: the author’s knowledge of the market, of reader expectations, and of his or her own efforts to define and achieve literary value.

“John Livesay creates a compelling connection between revenue, reviews, and influence and our ability to tell brand and personal stories.” —Tracy Leigh Hazzard, INC. columnist, brandcaster, product strategist The old way of selling is to push a message or product. The new way of selling is to pull people in with a compelling story—one that is magnetic to clients. Better Selling Through Storytelling helps people become master storytellers so they can truly love what they do and get off the self-esteem roller coaster of only feeling good if their numbers are up. John Livesay encourages readers to give up selling—and become storytellers instead! He teaches sales representatives and entrepreneurs alike how to become irresistible to their clients and what the best storytelling strategy is to get a yes. From learning how not to take rejection personally to overcoming the three faces of fear, readers learn to embrace disruption with new tools that prepare them for any unexpected waves that come their way and get the sale. “If you want to reinvent how you sell, let John Livesay show you how . . . [He] holds nothing back and fills his pages with new ideas, tips, information, and steps to becoming your own Revenue Rockstar.” —Josh Linkner, New York Times–bestselling author of Big Little Breakthroughs “Not your grandparent’s sales manual; it’s where the storytelling rubber and results hit the road. If you think it’s too soft for your ROI brain, you’re missing the whole story, which is why you need it.” —Dr. Mark Goulston, author of Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

How do the best salespeople connect, influence and persuade? With stories. 'Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell' takes you on a high-stakes sales journey, using stories to establish rapport and trust, deliver insight, inspire action and close the deal, and in doing so win new friends and collaborators. When you share purposeful stories in your client conversations, you'll create more new business than you thought possible. Sharing more than 50 stories from around the world, Mike draws on his diverse international sales career to teach and demonstrate the power of storytelling -- from first hello to signed contract. You'll learn stories to help you: Establish rapport and trust Present challenging insights Differentiate your solution Share your company values Unstick negotiation stand-offs Create better business outcomes. This book will change the way you think about selling. Rather than seeing your role as that of a transactional deal closer, you'll become a story master, creating new stories for your clients.

Your career can be made in 60 seconds - if you make the right pitch! Master the Elevator Pitch, even when you've got less than 60 seconds. Get your screenplay or Novel read by the major power of Hollywood - guaranteed!

"The first book on capturing and using customer stories to grow your business or cause. Introduces a proven process for leveraging your current successes into new sales. Learn success-story marketing best practices from author Casey Hibbard, leading expert on creating and managing customer stories, with insight from organizations such as Sage Software, SAP, Toyota, Kronos, Amdocs, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and dozens of other businesses, independent consultants, and nonprofits"--Page 4 of cover

"Before I learned to sell with story, I struggled at both sales and marketing. Despite my grandest dreams, I just couldn't get consistent results for myself or clients. I tried nearly every selling trick in the book, with little improvement. Discovering these principles behind effective story selling changed everything. Now my selling messages make me and my clients a small fortune. And I've packaged my most powerful selling story formula here in this book." - Roy Furr Cut Through the Marketing Clutter... Today's prospect is over-marketed and over-promised, with their anti-selling filters turned up to 11. Your first job in any selling situation, in person or through media, is to cut through that clutter and get attention. Story is the secret. Forge a Powerful Bond With Your Market... Not only does story cut through the clutter, it forms a deep and lasting bond with your market. It's not about mere exchanges of cash. It's about forming a deep and lasting human connection. A connection that both stimulates and transcends business. Story selling is the quickest way to get your market to know, like, and trust you, a prerequisite for doing business with you. And Set up the Sale in the Clearest, Most Direct Way Possible... Ultimately, our goal is sales and profits. That's why we're in business. And so the right selling story must not only entertain and connect, it must move the prospect toward the sale. Using the Hero's Journey of Story Selling... The Hero's Journey is the universal story formula hidden underneath nearly every great work of fiction. "The Hero's Journey of Story Selling" is Roy Furr's affectionate title for slightly different story formula, The Ultimate Selling Story. This is the single-most effective story template for selling nearly any product, in any media, to any market.

Fifty stories providing sage advice and common sense about sales and success.