getting personal
There are certain cultural norms and rules of decorum people are expected to adhere to in society and in business contexts specifically. I am of the mind that rules are meant to be bent, if not broken entirely.
In business, the rules of professional decorum tell us that we shouldn’t get too personal with our prospects or clients. Of course, there are absolutely topics which should not be brought up and things which shouldn’t be said, but I truly believe that our prospects and clients are looking for us to get personal.
Adding storytelling to your business interactions is one way to build and keep amazing relationships that will last a lifetime.
Our goal is to create rapport powerfully and quickly with all of our prospects and one of the fastest ways to this is this statement: “Let me share a secret with you. . . ” A secret? Aren’t secrets exciting? Doesn’t the word ‘secret’ make you want to know more? When someone shares a secret with you, don’t you feel special, like you’re about to be in the know.
By working these secrets and other personal anecdotes into your criteria elicitation, you speed up the trust a person has in you. I’m not suggesting you come out with anything absurd, but a pointed story that has a point in what you’re selling.
In seminars I often share personal stories from my youth. I have even been known to really open up about some mistakes I’ve made in the past as they relate to persuasion in terms of not really completely understanding that honesty and integrity have always got to be the highest things on the list. These are very difficult stories for me to recount because I’m not particularly proud of tactics I used as a young man. It’s not pleasant to relate things that I feel are real blotches on my personal inventory. And yet, because I have learned from my past, overcome incongruencies in my way of existing in the world, a little discomfort can be endured because I’m making a point, teaching a lesson on what to do and what *not* to do.
When I get into the more personal aspects of teaching like this, I also make sure to step outside of the first person and enter into a meta state to explain how this personal storytelling can really be an art. When you think about it, you can be an artist at nearly anything. You can be an artist at creating amazing friendships. You can be an artist in business. You can be an artist of persuasion. Some of our creativity within certain arenas is natural. . . we’ve got it to start with and we can make magical things happen as a result of it. Other things are learned. I wasn’t born the persuader I am today. I have put years and years into my art and each and every day I wake up and realize what all that hard work has done for me.
So for your story, make sure it relates to what you’re selling and start with the ending. Reverse engineer it so that you begin the story with, “Let me tell you a secret. . . ” Stand back and watch the rapport and trust increase in magnitudes. All of us crave a good story.
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