(By Loyd Ford) Radio is creativity, speed, being nimble, right? What about telling a story? That’s our thing, too, right? We use imagination in the mind of our listeners to craft compelling ads that deliver customers.
Now, what about telling the story of success about local business owners where your local radio brand or brands play a key role? How many sellers go on a sales call and only rely on numbers? Are you training storytellers that also carry data? Which kind do you think will sell more advertising?
Forget about party affiliation for a minute. Don’t think about the right or the left, liberal or conservative. Think about the people. Think about the office of the President Of The United States. Think about candidates even. Who stands out? The storytellers. They sold the vision. Who are the sellers who can sell the vision of client advertising with you? When you are recruiting sellers, do you try to identify those who are really great storytellers? Effective storytelling can boost sales by 30 – 50% over pure data points. Why do you think that is true?
- Because storytelling is built-in to our human expectation and experience
- As we know from radio itself, people will paint their own picture with a story
- Humans can emotionally get caught up in a story
- People can often become more connected to someone telling a story (people buy from people they like)
- Used effectively, stories lead people to a conclusion that they can own (instead of instructing clients to buy the numbers)
Business people will largely agree that time is money. When you sit or stand in front of one, best bring value in an entertaining way. What are some of the most effective ways to use storytelling so that the right emotions and strong attitudes transfer directly to the client?
- Take the potential client on a trip in your story (go somewhere)
- Use testimonials related to your story but highlighting success (trust elevates when someone they know backs up a story)
- Make your potential client the hero of the story (or someone like him or her that they will essentially see as themselves)
- Weave your own vulnerability into your story (let them see you are human)
- Experiment with getting potential clients to say, “that’s right”
Like your best personalities, sales people who want to score the highest on likability will do their homework, but those who want to sell more will value learning effective storytelling and do the work to create a great story around your product or services that will separate them from other sellers local business people see every day.
While we are looking at the value of storytelling, get to know your on-air personalities. If you find one you connect with and they are an effective storyteller, bring them with you. Make your presentation immersive.
Invest the time and energy into preparing, understanding the client, learning their DISC profiles whenever possible and meeting them where they are in their business story today. Just like the presidents you think about when someone brings up the most effective presidents, when clients think about the person who will help them most with their advertising…it will be the storytellers because they believe them. But you’ve heard this before: Most people won’t do the work. Distance yourself from the pack and create unique separation that gives you fruit: Become the best storyteller with your business community, local clients and others in their area of influence.
Storytellers win the biggest place in history and they have the largest commission checks.
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio with RPC. If you’re on the Clubhouse app, you can join Loyd’s radio pro encouragement group “The Encouragers.” Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
