3 Steps to Storytelling Success to Women
Dear Lovely Business Owner,
RE: 3 Steps to Storytelling Success to Women.
First of all, why storytelling Carrie?
Well… Marketing Guru Seth Godin. says:
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, it is about the stories you tell.” Seth Godin
Stories are powerful, as Gary Vaynerchuk backs up:
“Your number-one job is to tell your story to the consumer wherever they are, and preferably at the moment they are deciding to make a purchase.” in his book: ‘ Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to tell your story in a noisy world. ‘
The way the story is told, in my view differs between men and women; for example… as Jamie Dunham a Marketing to Women specialist says:
” Men get the point, women get the picture. ”
( Same with story-telling!!!)
Awareness of this, leads me nicely on to my 3 Steps to Story-telling success to women.I will give you three examples, and I will highlight key points, for those of you short on time, or wanting to get to the point ! ( ie mostly the men!!) .
1. Women need to like you to buy from you- so it’s relationship first, Business second. ( 2 of my 7 Keys to Selling to Women™)
unlike men…
Let me share a quick example... in 2012, I came across the name Nigel Botterill, who runs the Entrepreneur's Circle,(http://entrepreneurscircle.org ) in the same region as me in the UK,in the West Midlands.
Honestly, I did not exactly like him on my initial examination. I came across him mostly on Facebook, in his ads of him posing in photos next to Rhianna, or Katherine Jenkins and it totally turned me off. Even if he had built 4, 5, or 6 multi-million pound Businesses, I just did not care….
Fast-forward, 2014 around Easter time, at the Federation of Small Businesses ( http://www.fsb.org.uk) Conference at the International Convention Centre in the centre of Birmingham, when I came across a stand for Nigel’s Entrepreneur’s Circle.
You could not miss his company, not even if you wanted to!! They were brightly dressed and very stand-out uniforms, which were sweatshirts, a stark contrast to most of the other exhibitors who were all ‘suited and booted.’
Another stark contrast was that they were not only smiling, but laughing too!!! So, I tentatively wandered over, and apprehensively had an open-minded chat with Frahana, who seemed to be in charge!
(* understatement, think Lioness in charge of her 5 cubs… 🙂
She could not have been more attentive, empathetic, or well helpful. After quite an open and honest chat, she asked me if I had heard about Nigel, and I explained that I was not impressed by his Facebook Ads. She admitted that he can be like ‘marmite,’ and that there was much more to him than just posing with young, hot women!
She persuaded me through her sheer loveliness and actually through her incredible ability to really listen to my needs, few stands do this, and recommended that I sign up for a month’s free trial, and gave me one of their free copies of Nigel’s book called:” Botty’s Rules,” And I tottered off with a surprising grin across my face. Bowled over, does not quite do her justice. …( Like Apple’s customer service and er well any service that they provide..yup.. that good!!)
Fast-forward, a few months, after loving Nigel’s book, I still did not quite connect with this rather tall, rather intimidating, rather intelligent Yorkshire man; although I was warming to him…
It was not until I read his Circular that came in the post, about him locking himself out of his house and having to walk to his son’s friends without shoes to retrieve some house keys that I really connected to him……
This is purely because, I have many years under my ‘belt,’ of losing my keys, and locking myself out of many houses, hotel rooms, university dorms and having to squeeze through windows, climb up ladders. to get into my home and so it made me think… ” aha he’s human!!!” OMG!!
Then a few months later, I had the good fortune of speaking to the man himself over the phone, and although I was rather nervous, he could not have been more brilliant. He was perceptive, thoughtful, empowering. a million miles away from my initial first impression and negative judgement of the chap.
Moving, swiftly on to Step Two, in how to story tell to women successfully..
2. She loves and needs all the DETAILS.
Let me give you a very recent example. Just today, I took a call from, a Mentoring company based in London, and I rarely take calls as I am usually in the zone writing away, to be truthful. But today, I just did!
The company in question, who shall remain nameless, were calling me to follow up on a questionnaire that I had completed last week, and were wanting to see how they could help along their buying process.
The chap asked if I had attended one of their events before, or met their main man or even read his books. I explained that I had come across this chap’s name a few years ago, but felt no connection with him, so just brushed him aside, so to speak!!!
One of my coaching friends had explained to me quite recently what a lovely chap he was and that I really ought to ‘give his work,’ another try!! So, under her influence I decided to. And much to my surprise, I realised that all of his systems, and structures and logical side of his Business was really just what I needed. So, off I spent over 20 hours listening to videos and podcasts with him, last week. Then, unexpectedly became..Hooked, totally HOOKED!!
Strangely, the chap this afternoon, was not really it seemed trained to listen, and he was to me at least, obviously reading from a script, and making all kinds of assumptions about me, my Business and my vision.
He hardly, therefore went into much detail about well anything really… It was beyond exasperating..
He asked me if I had read any of this chap’s book’s and explained that I had not, yet. He offered to send me a copy of one of the books, and then he backtracked it felt, offering me a audio version, or a PDF version. I explained that I rarely listened to audiobooks, as it all depended on how their voice sounded!!( ie. listening to Napolean Hill ‘drone’ on with his ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ audio book.. his voice.. I could not bear for the entire length of the book… Gosh no, not at all, I love soothing, calming voices most of all, and his was monotone and just.. awfully grating.. )
And as for a PDF, well, I am now wanting to spend less time reading from a screen, as too much screen time is starting to affect my sight; so he went back to his original offer of posting me the copy.
Had he listened properly to me and gone into a more of a detailed conversation with me; instead of making assumptions, pushing me along ‘his script,’ he would have clocked that by me announcing that I had printed out all of their documents on their website, which included PDF the copy of the book, but those details escaped him, as in his mind he was onto the next call…
Does it mean that I am no longer interested in this company? Possibly. I am less interested than I was last week, as I just did not feel that he listened to me, (* the biggest turn off to female buyers.. not listening!!!) or actually paid attention to my needs; it was more about him ticking a box, it felt like to me.
Awareness is everything, isn’t it!! So, onto our third and final step, on how to story tell to women successfully…
3. Wrap up facts and figures about your Business in an emotional story.
This story happened over 18 months ago when I was listening into Nicola Cairncross’s Podcast, called: ‘ The Business Success Factory,’http://www.thebusinesssuccessfactory.com and on this occasion she was interviewing Sarah Arrow from http://www.sarkemedia.com.
Well, what I truly loved about this interview, more than any of the other ones, that I had listened to, was that Sarah shared her heart.
( Remember Step One- relationship first, Business second, she needs to like you to buy from you!! ) which I loved.
She truly opened up about her upbringing and about how despite her parents been teenagers when they had her, that they instilled a determination to succeed in her, which was more than inspiring!
I loved how you could easily see these childhood attitudes translated into her highly successful Business, coaching Blogging, and Marketing to people globally.
She shared her heartache of being in an abusive relationship, yet still she gave her all in whatever she was doing, and kept on saying that she competed with no-one but herself. It was deeply moving, and deeply inspiring. She was absolutely building an emotional connection, as you felt her outpouring of her heart, her realness, and you truly felt like you were having a cuppa with her eating one of her beloved Jaffa cakes!
She expanded her story into so much detail, that it again felt like she was just talking to you, without holding back. She just kept sharing about how she eventually reunited with her college sweet heart Kevin and like they could never imagine their lives apart, it was just so lovely! It was like it was not even about her Business, yet it was…
As the interview draws to a close, you hear how successful Sarah really is, that she has been sought out by Tony Robbins, Martha Stewart, amongst many, many others,she’s one of the top bloggers not just in the UK, but in the world! Yet listening to this podcast, it was just ‘Sarah from a rough part of East London’..
Yet, she revealed powerful mantras like : “She’s not just a Xmas ornament, she’s a rubberband and she can bounce back at anything that has been thrown at her!”
And quite frankly, after listening to this interview it’s hard to not believe this. Does this make you trust her? Make you like her? Make you feel that whatever inevitable challenge that could happen when you take part in her 30 Day Blogging Challenge, or her Blogging VIPs course, or when you invest her coaching… that it will be sorted, it will be dealt with and most importantly get DONE!! Powerful, indeed.
And to sum up this 3 Steps to story-telling to women, the biggest thing about the storytelling process is that..
“We want to hear a story about ourselves. And you can only do that if you have empathy for the people you’re talking to.” Seth Godin
And this, is why in my mind, it is vital to become aware of the differences of telling stories to women and men, as they have different experiences of life and communicate differently so stories need to reflect this!
I know you are very busy and might not have 10,000 hours spare to learn more about how to sell and market to women.. so…
I have my course- for you to save you time, energy, so you can increase your conversion rates with female buyers here: http://www.theblondepreneur.com/shop/
I’d love your comments and feedback as always,
Thanks for reading!
Love Carrie Eddins x
