S2E6: Nancy Duarte and Koula Callahan: How Story Helps You Sell
Customers and audiences no longer tolerate boring presentations or pitches. The pressure is on to persuasively present in a way that creates buy-in and gains influence.
On this episode of Revenue Harvest, Nigel Green talks with “the Storyteller of the Valley” and author of six best-selling books Nancy Duarte. Nigel also interviews Koula Callahan of StoryBrand, who has taught thousands of businesses how to use the power of story to create compelling marketing that engages customers.
Tune in as storytelling experts Nancy Duarte and Koula Callahan teach us how to structure our content and delivery so that you’ll be remembered and so that you’ll inspire people to act. Listen now>>
Show notes:
Most presentations leave buyers feeling nothing. They're dead inside during your presentation. For a long time, people just expected presentations to be boring. Not anymore. In the last few years, the mindsets flipped and you must have presentations that create an emotional response.
As you're thinking about your customer, you can't make it all about your sale. You can't make it all about your agenda. You can't make it all about you. You should show up and enrich your customer's life or your prospect's life in some way and create human flourishing.
It's not like one presentation is going to transform their hearts and minds. It's a bigger process.
Your presentation needs empathy. You need to know that the person you're presenting to is on their own epic journey. A lot of times, the leader is in a different place in the story than their team.
As a sales person, you are the mentor, you're not the hero. And so your sole purpose and your sole role is to help someone else get unstuck. That's your job, I'm going to bring a magical gift, a special tool and help them get unstuck.
I like to do some sort of really quick, not super-intense almost ritual if you will, before I get on a sales call with somebody just so I can really be present and pay attention.
The fundamental paradigm shift that you have to make before you go into a sales conversation is that the person you're talking to is the main character in the story. They're the hero, and the only reason your product or service matters to that person is because they have a problem that stands in the way of their success.The brain of every human being is trying to do two things: 1) it's constantly scanning the environment for things, that is, products, services, people, places that will help it survive and thrive; and then also, 2) conserve mental calories. So what that means for you as a seller is you must position your product or service as something that helps your customer survive. If you don't do it in simple language, they have to think a lot about what you're trying to show tem. They stop paying attention to you.
When you don't confidently call your customers to action (ask for the business), and you feel like that's rude, your customers interpret that as a lack of confidence and distrust in your own product. So you think you're being polite, your customer just thinks you're weak.
Links mentioned in this episode:
About Nancy
Nicole started her career in senior living as Thrive’s first Chief Sales Officer where she inspired Known as “the Storyteller of the Valley”, Nancy Duarte is CEO and author of six best-selling books. For over 30 years, Duarte, Inc. has worked with the highest performing brands and executives in the world. The insights from those engagements get transformed into training everyone can learn from. Duarte is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Time Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Cosmopolitan, LA Times, and on CNN. As a persuasion expert, she cracked the code for effectively incorporating story patterns into business communications. Oh, and she has two grandsons and a grand-dogger.
About Koula
For over 6 years, Koula Callahan has taught thousands of businesses how to use the power of story to create compelling marketing that engages customers. Koula has been a key part of the growth of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple, responsible for creating content and products that drive profitable sustainable growth. Koula leads the product effort at StoryBrand and has helped scale the company from <$1mm GAR to well over $17mm. Companies like Twitter, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Keller Williams trust Koula to help them create messaging and marketing the grows their business.
Whether she’s speaking at a conference, interviewing a thought leader on a podcast or launching a new product, Koula helps people find the clarity they need to see their business thrive. Perhaps her favorite part about her role is simplifying complex ideas into practical business advice that moves a company forward. Koula is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and spends most of her free time teaching yoga as a 200-hour RYT.