Greg's Right FIT #541 – This week: Joy, Stories, Writing group

Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.

In this issue: 

• Thoughts on Joy
• Being Human
• Random Stuff
• Back In The Day

Thoughts on Joy

• We're in the middle of planning an event and talking about what will bring guests the most joy. One tactic to keep an event from being sub-par is to check with guests along the way. Ask them "best and worst so far" questions during the event. This works because joyful experiences depend as much on the stories told about the event as the event itself.
• At a wonderful wedding reception I told the hostess how much we were enjoying it. She said, "my mother says, 'the people make the party'" and the more I think about it, her mother's right. As Mark Twain said, ". . .to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
• To get more from people's stories, resist the urge to tell your own related tale. Instead, ask questions that let them relive the details of their experience. Like asking "best and worst so far" questions. You'll get enjoyment and everyone appreciates an attentive audience.
• “We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.” —Maya Angelou
  Have a joyful weekend.

Being Human – Better selling through stories

"History’ is mostly ‘story."— Ken Burns

To improve your team's sales technique, listen to recordings and find places in the presentations where they can tell stories. Most of us use stories to get points across, but we don't always do it on purpose. When I observe sales calls there are multiple times I think, "oh, right here, tell the XXX story," but I rarely hear a story being told. This is especially true when their prospects are asking questions/objecting to something. 

The reason telling stories works is similar to the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." A well-placed story does heavy lifting in a short time. Best of all, it's easy. There aren't many rules to follow. I suggest these: it's good to use personal anecdotes, short stories work better than epic tales, and specifics work better than generalities. 

Help your people gather these stories by reviewing their common objection cards. You know the ones. We've talked about it here before. The 3x5 cards that have an objection on one side, and the rebuttal/question on the back side. Grab a stack from your people. Read out the objection, listen to the rebuttal, then ask them, "What's a quick story we can tell instead of our standard rebuttal?" It will take a few tries, but stories will emerge. They'll start rough, but get better over time.

Once you have a couple stories to work with, refine them by pretending to tell the story to a novice. I suggest thinking of a relative unfamiliar with your services. Someone like my Mom. If I can tell the story in a way that helps her understand, I'm well on the way to getting some serious jumps in understanding.

Improve your selling by encouraging the use of short stories, metaphors, analogies, and similes. It's how humans have communicated for eons and it still works.

Random Stuff

“Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.” – Dylan Thomas

I haven't written much about my writing group.

Years ago, my daughter dated a boy and his father is a poet. The kids were returning from a trip to Europe and I found myself talking to this poet while standing in the airport terminal awaiting their return. He asked what I did and I mentioned dabbling in writing and he invited me to join one of his workshops. My daughter was horrified at the time. "Dad," she said, "are you sure you want to do this? These are the kind of people who call writing 'prose'."

I said yes, ignoring her warning. Despite my novice status, I got a lot out of the structure and coaching. For weeks we explored different types of creative writing, not just poetry. At the end, we did a public reading of our work. Big stage, bright lights, and everything. It was great. Whenever I see a person from that group it's like seeing a long lost friend, even though the workshop happened over ten years ago.

The intimacy you develop from reading and hearing other people's writing is like studying their breathing patterns while rooting around inside their head.

It's such a powerful feeling when the workshop was done we formed an alumni group. For these last ten years after the workshop a small group of us has made an effort to get together each month and share some writing. In that time we've learned a lot about one another. Deaths, births, sickness, health, trips, politics, even dealing with a pandemic.

This week, this group of humans helped me with a poem. A new work I plan on reading to my eldest daughter and her new husband as we celebrate their marriage. Although I've spoken in front of groups for decades, it's taken these last ten years for me to be comfortable reading a poem I wrote in public. I'm not a poet, but I've learned to enjoy the process, getting better along the way.

On this day it seems fitting that I should share a poem I've written with the person responsible for my renewed interest in 'prose.'

Today we'll learn if I can read it without sobbing.

Back in the Day

What I was thinking about last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.

• Last Year: Right FIT #489 – Negotiating price jumps out of this one. I was trying to explain to a client a preference I have in price discussions and could have used this. He is getting pressed for price concessions by a potentially big client. I told him I'd offer him an extensive free period in lieu of a discount for buying the tool for the entire company. My idea was rejected outright, but like most things you know a lot about, if you haven't experienced the power of such a tactic, it's hard to understand.
• Five Years Ago: Right FIT #280 – I get a lot of mileage out of the Dunning-Krueger Effect graph. It explains a lot. Lately I've been using it to explain how I see generative AI's summary capabilities. When I know little, the results look informative. The more I know of a subject, the less impressive they are.
• Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #18 – A remembrance of my wife's grandmother who lived to be 95 years old. At the time I was considering what life as Greg 3.0 would be like. Now, firmly entrenched, it's funny that the new stage is real. I was musing, but this is another version of me and my family, different from what came before. Unique and perfect in its own way.