Vending

Sales success: Tell a good story

One of the keys to making sure the customer likes having you in front of him or her is to engage them with a story rather than boring them with facts about your products.

Image provided by iStock.

July 7, 2021 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

When you're on a sales call, does the prospect enjoy talking with you?

If so, you've got a decent chance of making the sale.

One of the keys to making sure the customer likes having you in front of him or her is to engage them with a story rather than boring them with facts about your products.

Bob Tullio sells products by telling people stories. Image courtesy of NAMA

Bob Tullio, a successful OCS salesperson, has been storytelling all of his professional life. The owner of TullioB2B LLC consultancy and author of the National Automatic Merchandising Association's "Selling Convenience Services Online" course, Tullio gave some pointers about storytelling in a recent NAMA webinar.

The webinar was part of the NAMA education series.

Facts versus stories

Storytelling has been proven by science to stimulate seven areas of the brain instead of two, he said. And it is one of two ways to communicate your message, the other being facts.

An example of communicating a message to establish credibility with facts would include the following:

25 years in business.
2,000 customers.
Serves Los Angeles and Orange County.
1,000 single-cup brewers.
2,500 products.
100 employees.

To establish credibility with a story, on the other hand, you can describe how you came up with a good idea for coffee in the workplace.

He gave the example of how he came up with his coffee working with a roaster that involved cupping coffee and developing 25 private labels, which is now enjoyed by 2,000 customers.

"The beauty is this whole thing was based on wonderful coffee for the workplace, and that's still the concept today," he said. "A love of fine coffee and a desire to bring it to workplaces like yours."

What makes it a story?

Story telling requires the following:

Truth.
Main character(s).
A beginning, middle and ending.
The story is known companywide.

The story should be relevant, based on research or questions that have been asked.

And it should be engaging.

Tell the whole team

It is also important that your entire team be familiar with the stories the sales people use with customers.

"Your route drivers better know the stories you're out there telling, and your customer service reps better know, because when a client asks about it, and they have no idea what the client's talking about, that is questionable," Tullio said. By keeping your team in the loop, "The result is you're going to have a better connection with your clients and prospects."

It's important to have different stories to use since there are many situations that can call for stories, and no one story fits all questions a customer may have.

"Choose the ones that are appropriate to each situation," Tullio said.

How to prepare

A salesperson can know in advance what stories will likely be appropriate for the potential client. The salesperson can determine this from researching the prospect prior to the sales call.

Find out the following:

What does the company do?
Do we have any common LinkedIn connections?
What do we know about their corporate culture?
Who will you be dealing with?
What did you learn from the initial conversation?

For a company involved with environmental issues, the salesperson can offer a story based on their own company's environmental initiatives.

"If that's important to them, you can tell them what your company is doing to reduce the company footprint," Tullio said.

Tales from the road

Tullio gave examples of stories he told that worked.

Warner Brothers was considering switching from bottled water stations to POU filter systems.

The company, however, was concerned about complaints about POU filter systems. So Tullio told a story about another client that had "walls" of bottled water on its premises.

"It was an aesthetic problem, it was a spending problem, it was an environmental issue, and point-of-use water was the solution that I presented to them," he said.

"As it turned out, there weren't complaints. People appreciated the quality of the water, the regular filter changes, and the fact that there was an environmental benefit to the whole thing," he said. "It worked there and it will work here."

Any employee who wanted water in a bottle could have it delivered to their desk.

In another instance, an advertising agency had cases of soda all over the kitchen floor when Tullio visited. The company was buying 50 cases a month from Costco, including product the company believed to be out of date.

Tullio told this prospect a story about what he did at another ad agency. He provided the agency a free glass door cooler. Tullio's team would refill the cooler and rotate the products.

"What they learned and what you will learn is that organization and service will lead to a better amenity and better value," Tullio told the prospect.

"The moral — it worked there and it will work here."

In another case, a big law firm was trying to handle multiple pantries on their own. They had a dedicated employee managing the program, and there were always product shortages as well as overstocked products.

Tullio described what his company did at another law firm. His company delivered a full service program so the company could focus on their depositions.

"We could provide more efficient equipment so they could service those deposition rooms," he said.

The company was also worried the service would cost too much.

"But we showed them that our inventory control program eliminates overstocking, provides them exactly what they need on a weekly basis and mitigates the high cost concern, and allows them to manage the program without having to roll their sleeves up.

"The moral of the story is that inventory control plus service and great equipment results in savings, a better amenity and excellent value.

Timely topic: fourth wave coffee

Tullio also cited the importance of fourth wave roaster coffee, a product that especially popular with Gen Z and millennials that lends itself to storytelling.

What is the origin of the coffee? Is it sustainably farmed? Does the farm take good care of its workers? What does the roaster do to take care of the carbon footprint?

"The fourth wave roaster story is important," he said. "Cost is not usually a consideration when somebody wants coffee from the little roaster down the street. So tell the story of that roaster when you sell it."

LinkedIn is also a good forum for storytelling. Tullio has found it helpful to post stories about new accounts, in which he explains what makes the account special.

"What was the challenge you had to overcome?" he asked.

"Instead of our Costa Rican coffee is just plain delicious — a factual approach — tell us a story about where it comes from, how the company supports the farmer, tell us about your visit to the farm in Costa Rica. That is what will resonate with prospects and clients."

"Compelling stories simply have greater impact that facts alone," Tullio said.