Stories provide customers a frame of reference for making decisions. Stories also shape customers perspective of the products and services they seek and the brands and companies by which they buy from. Because of this companies spend millions of dollars training their salespeople on the stories behind their products and services so that they can convey them to customers. Billions of dollars are spent on telling those stories to customers through marketing and branding campaigns.

What good, however, is the story of your product or even the story of your customers if your salespeople don’t know their own story?

For far too long I’ve seen well intentioned sales professionals, their confidence masked by insecurities they refuse to acknowledge, attempt to get by with antiquated sales tactics, strategies and yes, stories, that simply don’t work. This is especially true in today’s world. Customers are savvier as to when, why and from whom they make purchases. Choices as to where to buy and who to buy from are more abundant. Customer loyalty has become the exception rather than the rule. Customers simply do not tolerate average salespeople to the degree they used to.

Think about the customers you call on. If you’re in the medical device or pharmaceutical industry the doctors you’re calling on have most likely been subjected to hundreds of sales calls from reps. They’ve learned to anticipate your sales pitch because they’ve heard it at nauseum. The moment you show up at their practice their defenses go up and you get little to no clues about their story. The same is true with their staff. Without changing the patterns and experiences that form their story of salespeople, getting them to see past their perspective of who they think you are and making the sale will be an uphill battle.

Whether the stories they have told themselves about salespeople are distorted or 100% accurate, if they believe salespeople are unethical, rude and only out to make a sale, no matter how much you’re not like that, they will see you as the salesperson in their story. To change their perspective you will have to rewrite a new version of their story.

The first step is learning your customer’s story and then applying what you learned to create a smoother sale. When you listen and apply you will find yourself no longer having to force the close. Instead, you will find yourself facilitating your customers closing themselves. Before you can learn their stories, though, you must first understand your own.