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Telling a Compelling Story 1

The Whale Hunters strongly believes that having a good company story or being able to weave a relevant storyline will make you standout in a whale’s mind with greater certainty than any other materials, proposals, or tours you planned.

    As you think about which story would make a good whale hunting tool, you should remember a few key points:

  • First, stick to the truth. Don’t embellish. Also, be sure the story is recent and verifiable.

  • Second, rehearse and then rehearse some more. Storytelling is a natural gift to some, but not to all. So even if you have a great story, you’ll still want to practice to make sure it’s delivered properly. Your timing and emphasis should be perfected to the point that you can tell the story without hesitation or the need to stop and search for the right words.

  • Third, keep it short and sweet. Don’t meander off into subplots or needless descriptions. Your purpose is to make a point. Make it and move on.

    You may be thinking, sure this is all a great idea. But what does a good story for a whale look and sound like? Can you give me some specifics?

    “Do you know the three biggest myths about air travel? The first is that online agencies such as Priceline offer the lowest prices on tickets. Never mind what William Shatner tells you. This simply is not true. The second is that larger agencies, like American Express, have “deals” that let them get tickets cheaper than smaller agencies because they have high volume. Again, not true. It’s in their best interest, obviously, that people believe this myth, but that doesn’t make it so. And finally, the trickiest myth of all is that the cost of airfare is the cost of the ticket plus a transaction fee. No. It isn’t.

    Belief in these myths is robbing you of hundreds of thousands of dollars every month. Let me tell you how.”

Rule #1. Arouse the listener’s curiosity and interest from the beginning. Our whale, a large corporation looking for the best travel options for its employees, will be intrigued by this opening. While the buyers don’t know—nor want to know—the ins and outs of their travel budgets, they do know that they don’t want to lose money.

Rule #2. Narrow the universe of knowledge as quickly as possible so that it includes only the immediate group. This makes them feel special and in the know. “I’m going to tell you something that few people even realize.” The only caveat here is, when you use a device such as myth-debunking, what you are saying must be absolutely true, and you must be able to prove it if challenged.

Rule #3. Set up the story’s objective. Don’t make your listeners wonder where the story’s going. Tell them, but do so in a way that retains their interest along the way. Saving money is a powerful attention-getter.

“We have analyzed our price structure, the value we give our corporate clients, and our technological capabilities, and compared ourselves to our competitors. What we discovered is that we can promise you, up front, a reduction in your costs year after year, as long as you are with our agency and your travel demands remain consistent.”

Rule #4. Insert the “WOW” factor. If you do not have a WOW factor, you probably aren’t ready to hunt whales. Cost reduction year after year is definitely a WOW factor.

“Among our three closest competitors, we have had the highest price per ticket because of our unusually high level of service and personal contact with clients. We believe these attributes are valuable, and we will continue to provide them at the same level. But we know that overall cost is increasingly a major concern for you.”

Rule #5. Alleviate any potential fears. Fears can arise at any point in your story, so anticipate those points and remove the fear immediately. In this case, the travel agency telling the story has a limited number of competitors, and the distinction has been the levels of service provided. The whale might fear that service offered would decline because of cost reduction. Get rid of that fear promptly.

“Did you know that, on average, 14% of all airline tickets you buy as a corporation are never used? You pay at the time the flights are booked, and the tendency is to forget about them if the flight is changed for some reason and another ticket is issued. Think how often this happens to you. What happen to the original ticket? Do you have a system that tracks these unused tickets across various airlines and then ensures they will be used so that a portion of your original cost will be recovered? Or do they get lost and forgotten? Tracking and using these tickets will result in great savings for you.”

Rule #6. State the whale’s problem concisely. Don’t get bogged down in a detailed description of the good you can do for the whale. State in a few words the specific problem the whale is having that you can resolve.

“We’ve developed an advanced technology that will track those tickets and ensure they will be used at a later date. In addition, because we are tracking these unused tickets, you will be able to manage your travel budgets with a greater degree of accuracy. No longer will you end the year with travel budgets massively overspent. None of our competitors has this technological capability, and as a result, none can promise you cost reduction year after year. Our new best friend will be your CFO.”

Rule #7. Provide your solution. Since this is a story, it is not the place to go into great amounts of detail. Simply state how you are going to do what you said you would do.

Rule #8. End with a bang, not a whimper. Don’t let your story drift away. Summarize what you have said, and end on a note that is positive and exciting. Few small companies can claim to a whale that its CFO will look favorably upon whatever change is being suggested.










Tom Searcy, The Whale Hunters Company, Large Account Sales, Business Growth, Sales Process Development, Fast Growth Strategies, RFPs, Key Account Management, Current Account Growth, Sales Management, Breaking Business Growth Plateau's, Prospecting System, Business Acceptance Process, Sales Management Development, Big Sales, Big Deals, Deal Coaching, Transform your company, Explosive Growth, Whale Hunting

FOOTNOTE: 1 COPYRIGHT 2006-2008, THE WHALE HUNTERS, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.