Sell With A Story

Whether you’re trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful business tool that can mean the difference between lackluster enthusiasm and a rallying cry. Addressing a wide variety of business challenges, including specific stories to help you overcome twenty-one difficult situations, Lead with a Story gives you theability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. This how-to guidebook shows readers how powerful stories can help define culture and values, engender creativity and innovation, foster collaboration, build relationships, provide coaching and feedback, and lead change. Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for today’s leaders. Many highly 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. Complete with examples from these and many other high-profile companies, Lead with a Story gives readers the guidance they need to spin a narrative to stunning effect.

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.

NOW AN OWL (Outstanding Work of Literature) Leadership Award Winner! Every great leader is a great storyteller. As a manager, CEO, or team leader, how can you innovatively engage your employees so that they understand where your organization came from, where it's going, and how you're going to get there? How can you connect with your customers in a way that makes them believe in your company as passionately as you do? Paul Smith is one of the world's leading experts in business storytelling. He teaches people how to be more effective leaders by communicating their company's important mission, inspiring creativity, and earning the trust of valued stakeholders. The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell explores the journey behind success, and breaks down not just the importance of your company's story but how to craft compelling ones of your own.

Double and triple your sales--in any market. The purpose of this book is to give you a series of ideas, methods, strategies, and techniques that you can use immediately to make more sales, faster and easier than ever before. It's a promise of prosperity that sales guru Brian Tracy has seen fulfilled again and again. More sales people have become millionaires as a result of listening to and applying his ideas than from any other sales training process ever developed.

"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

“Play nice!” “Be kind!” “Don’t do that!” Every day, it seems half our conversations with young people is made up of commands dealing with character and niceties--all issues that need to be addressed and not ignored. But how is it working? Do you find yourself back at square one the next day, with a child acting as though they had no idea they shouldn’t be lying? In Parenting with a Story, author Paul Smith, one of the world’s leading experts in organizational storytelling, shows that when stories are used to illustrate to children how choices and consequences play out in the real world, with real people, the impact will be far more profound than the relentless commands that are forgotten or ignored as soon as the parent turns away. This collection of 101 narratives from people around the world and from all walks of life includes lessons that illuminate the power of character, integrity, curiosity, creativity, grit, kindness, patience, gratitude, and other essential characteristics every parent should be trying to instill in their children. Sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes funny, always compelling, these stories impart wisdom and help steer choices about: • Resisting peer pressure• Remaining open-minded• Being humble• Making courageous decisions• Standing by their word• Bouncing back from failure• Showing compassion• Picking friends wisely• And moreThroughout all of history, stories have been used to help shape who we are and who we aspire to come. But effective storytelling doesn’t have to be reserved for teachers, writers, and preachers. As a parent, learn how to share stories, discuss them with your child, and watch your child grow into the adult every parent would be proud of.

“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

This easy-to-read, follow and comprehend book takes the reader through a step-by-step process never previously compiled into one book alone. A short, 128 page ¿writer¿s dream book¿ with up-to-date resources and endless confidence building knowledge explores the traditional, self-publishing and print-on-demand options available to every author as well as numerous unique and proven methods to sell their book.