Mastering Your Sales Story: Connection Over Discovery

Summary

Episode Summary: Mastering Your Sales Story: Connection Over Discovery

Release Date: March 31, 2025
Podcast: The Advanced Selling Podcast
Hosts: Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale

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1. Celebrating Longevity and Listener Engagement

Bill and Bryan kick off the episode by celebrating the podcast's impressive longevity. They humorously acknowledge that after 19 years, Google finally recognizes The Advanced Selling Podcast as the longest-running sales training podcast. This milestone underscores their commitment and consistency in providing valuable sales insights.

Bill shares a fun fact about podcast longevity:

“There are only like 11,000 podcasts that have been going for longer than 10 years... we are in the top... we are in the top.” (00:56)

The hosts express gratitude towards their listeners, highlighting a memorable encounter with a listener named Bob F., who is part of a veteran group. This interaction emphasizes the podcast's real-world impact and the strong community they've built over the years.

2. Announcing Upcoming Events

The hosts take a moment to promote their upcoming event, Sales Process Mastery. They emphasize the importance of visualizing and clearly defining a sales process to effectively communicate it to clients. This event is scheduled for the first Friday in April and is designed to help sales professionals refine their processes for greater success.

Bill highlights the event's value:

“If you haven't committed your process to visual, to a visualized graphic and a picture... then it's going to be impossible for you to share that.” (02:47)

3. The Power of Storytelling in Sales

The core of the episode delves into the art of storytelling in sales, focusing on creating connections rather than merely conducting discovery. Bill introduces the concept by sharing a recent experience with a new client, the VP of Sales, who struggled with articulating his team's sales story during cold calls. This interaction leads to a discussion on the essence of effective storytelling.

Bill emphasizes the need for connection:

“How do we tell the story of what we do so that the person is going to be somewhat connected to it?” (05:27)

4. Crafting Effective Sales Stories

Bryan builds on Bill's thoughts by distinguishing between personal brand stories and market-oriented stories. He advocates for narratives that resonate with the customer's experiences and challenges, rather than focusing solely on the company's origin or personal anecdotes.

Bryan explains:

“It's our story through the customer's eyes. It's our story related to them.” (06:08)

The hosts discuss the importance of including emotion in stories, making them relatable and authentic. They argue that stories should reflect genuine struggles and resolutions, allowing prospects to see the value in the solutions offered.

Bill illustrates with a personal example:

“I was a really bad salesperson. I thought I was pretty good... I realized one day, it's not the company.” (09:00)

5. Moving Beyond Traditional Discovery

A significant portion of the conversation critiques the overemphasis on the discovery phase in sales. Bill and Bryan suggest that excessive questioning can be counterproductive, advocating instead for a balanced approach that includes clearly explaining the value proposition after a brief understanding of the client's needs.

Bill critiques the traditional approach:

“Let’s just call that what it is.” (16:24)

They propose reallocating the time typically spent on discovery to demonstrating how their solutions can specifically address the client's problems, thereby enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in the sales process.

6. Leveraging Digital Assets for Storytelling

The hosts highlight the role of digital assets in conveying their sales stories. Bill shares an example where digital materials effectively communicated their value proposition, reducing the need for repetitive explanations during client interactions.

Bill questions listeners:

“Do your digital assets do that or do you find yourself having to justify. Explain.” (17:11)

7. Competitive Advantage Through Storytelling

Bryan reinforces the idea that having a compelling sales story sets them apart from competitors. By sharing authentic and emotionally resonant stories, they establish a deeper connection with clients, making them the preferred choice over others who may lack a strong narrative.

Bryan concludes:

“The story is not meant to hook. The story is meant to create understanding and connection...” (17:44)

8. Closing Thoughts and Future Topics

As the episode wraps up, Bill and Bryan invite listeners to engage with them through LinkedIn or their community groups to share feedback and suggest deeper dives into discussed topics. They hint at exploring the pitfalls of over-discovery and excessive questioning in future episodes.

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Notable Quotes:

• Bill: “There are only like 11,000 podcasts that have been going for longer than 10 years... we are in the top... we are in the top.” (00:56)

• Bill: “How do we tell the story of what we do so that the person is going to be somewhat connected to it?” (05:27)

• Bryan: “It's our story through the customer's eyes. It's our story related to them.” (06:08)

• Bill: “I was a really bad salesperson. I thought I was pretty good... I realized one day, it's not the company.” (09:00)

• Bill: “Let’s just call that what it is.” (16:24)

• Bryan: “The story is not meant to hook. The story is meant to create understanding and connection...” (17:44)

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Key Takeaways:

• Storytelling is a powerful tool in sales for building genuine connections with prospects.
• Focus on market-oriented stories that resonate with the client's experiences and challenges.
• Incorporate emotion and authenticity to make stories more relatable and impactful.
• Balance the discovery phase with clear and concise value propositions to enhance sales effectiveness.
• Utilize digital assets to communicate your sales story, reducing the need for repetitive explanations during client interactions.
• A compelling sales story offers a competitive advantage, setting you apart in a crowded market.

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For more insights and discussions on mastering your sales story, join The Advanced Selling Podcast community on LinkedIn or reach out via DM to share your thoughts and suggestions for future episodes.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Welcome back to the advanced selling podcast. The longest running sales training podcast Podcast sister Ann.

[B]

Bill Caskey, Brian Neal, A little bit.

[A]

Of a callback here. Last week I was futzing around with Google and I was asking about podcasts and it came up said do you know what the longest running sales training podcast is? And I clicked and it said the advanced selling podcast and it is. So if you didn't hear last week's episode it is official. We we've been saying it for 19 years and now Google has finally picked.

[B]

Up on who was the one that started when we did that was the most we're like tied the two guys.

[A]

One called the sales roundup.

[B]

Sales roundup that just fizzled away, right?

[A]

I think so. Do you know what the. What the average number of days that a podcast exists is?

[B]

No. Just days, huh? No.

[A]

Well, a few months but 174 days.

[B]

That's it.

[A]

19 episodes or 20 episodes or basically it's 20 weeks. You know, three months, four months, something like that. Six months. But I found that interesting and the stat was there's only like 11 000. Even though there's tens of millions of podcasts there's only like 11000 that have been going for longer than 10 years or 6 years or something.

[B]

It's wild.

[A]

So it's like 0.0018 of all podcaster. So we are in the. We are in the top we.

[B]

Yeah. I looked at one of our things.1% of all podcasts in downloads popularity in some stat that I read we are 0.1%. Yeah. I mean basically because we've done it so long. Not because it's any good lasted everybody shout out to listeners. Speaking of I went and gave a little talk. We talked a little bit about speaking last time gave a talk to a company here and guy comes up, it's like hey man, I've been listening to the advanced selling podcast for years and years and years. I'm like thanks man. That's really nice. So great to meet those people in the wild. His name is didn't get permission. I'll go. Bob F. Sounds like we're in a 12 step meeting. Bob F. Welcome to the program. Hey Bob, glad you're here. No, but it was great. The great, great group veteran veteran group who is very open minded. I really appreciate that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When you know what I mean you've got a veteran very hard to find. Yeah. It just makes me happy. It's refreshing to see that that kind of old school of like I got this all figured out. It wasn't there. Which I really, really appreciated from his team.

[A]

Absolutely. Great. So good. Hello, Bob F. Glad you're with us today.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

One day at a time, brother.

[B]

One day at a time.

[A]

We say here the promises.

[B]

Let's see, what do we. Oh, I know what we're doing. You want to plug your topic, you said for. You want to plug the topic for Insider.

[A]

Yes, I do want to plug it. It's. We call it Sales Process Mastery. And even though sales process sounds really unsexy and non orgasmic, actually the sales process is an asset that we all have and I don't think we look at it that way. And if you haven't committed your process to visual, to a visualized graphic and a picture really are super clear not just about what it is, but why it is, then it's going to be impossible for you to share that. And we have found we've done a lot of this work for some of our corporate clients. We're going to bring it to the Insider on Friday, April, the first Friday in April.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And so if you haven't joined that and want to get really, really buttoned up on the sales process, that's a good one to come to.

[B]

I love it. All right, topic today.

[A]

Topic. So I was, I've got a new client and Congratulations, Bill. Thank you.

[B]

Congrats, Bill. Better go. New client.

[A]

New client.

[B]

And you have a gong over there. Do you have a bill or drum? You should get a gong or a bell or something.

[A]

I got a cash register.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

And he just started, he just started with us. And it's the VP of Sales.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And he might listen, I don't know. He'll probably recognize the story.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

But we were talking about stories about how do, how does your team depict. And we have, I haven't even met with this team yet. Brand new. How does your team depict the story they tell when they go into a cold call or a cold outreach or first call? He said, well, I don't think we're very good at that. Said, okay, well, well, what do you say? So you're out in the field talking to people. And so he went, he, he gave it a stab and it was a long stab. It was a painful stab. He sort of turned the knife inside me and it took a while. And after about two minutes he said, doesn't sound like I have it buttoned up, does it? I said, no, but, but it's not unusual because a, I hit you out of the blue with it. B, you probably, if you had a meeting with somebody, you probably would have rehearsed it or at least thought about what you were going to say. But the bottom line is sometimes it doesn't roll off our tongue. And I think we hear a lot about stories today, but we really haven't gotten to the essence of it. And we've talked. We had Bo Eason on who's a big story guy. And I want to. I want to take a stab at it in a slightly different way, which is how do we tell the story of what we do so that the person is going to be somewhat connected to it? This is not about me growing up in the six and, you know, not making the basketball team, which I didn't. I can tell that story sometime, but. But it's not about that story. That's a, That's a good story personally, but that's not. Doesn't help the customer any.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

So what kinds of stories can we tell our prospects that help us understand, Helps them understand a little bit about who we are and it connect. It connects at a deeper level with them. So that's my idea for.

[B]

I love that. I love that. And we are, we are going through a story branding exercise with someone who's helping us with messaging. But it's really telling what the brand story is. And it's exactly what you're saying, Bill. It's not the, oh, well, you know, When I was 24 years old, I went bankrupt and D Story. It's. It's our story through the customer's eyes. It's our story related to them. So that's the, the first thing that I, I think of with this.

[A]

Good.

[B]

Is I need to tell a customer story or a story about the market that the. Our customers are in, what they are experiencing right now.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

That they can connect to exactly what you said and they can visualize it, see it, feel it before I ever talk about our product or what we do or the mechanics or the implementation or anything like that. And I think sometimes we try to tell. When we tell a story, we tell our story.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You want to tell the story. I think those are two different things. And when you bring up a story like, well, I'll tell my story well, you know, I graduated from college and I sold the radio.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

It's like, that's not the deal. The deal is there's a market story that's being written every day and changing, and something that you do impacts that market story. And that's the story that I think we need to work on telling is the story outside of us, not our own customers, but the story that's in the market outside of us.

[A]

So that's the market story, which it might be slightly different than the company, the. Or the company origin story, which I think is a. Is a story worth telling. But I think those two are slightly different because the market story is where you are saying, look, the market has undergone change in the last 10 years. This has happened. It was three incidents. Number one, this, number two, this. Number three, this. And, and it brings us to today where people are struggling with A, B, C, D and E. And we can help you do that. Yes, we can help you with that.

[B]

Yes, go ahead. I was going to give an example. This is again, it was a little off the top of the dome here, so it's not baked out, but this is what you start to do. So I started in sale selling in 1991 and we had no computers, there was no CRM, there was no sales stack technology. And we had problems like trying to get a hold of people, trying to get people to call us back, trying to get people to agree to a meeting or trying to get someone to say yes or no and not ghost me, flash forward. We've spent trillions of dollars on tech stacks now we have every sales AI known demand. We have AI Google, everything else. We have Salesforce, Monsters, D. And we still have the same problem.

[A]

We've spent trillions on sales training.

[B]

Thank you. That's the other side of it. Training. And we still have the same problem. Why that's that, that's part of the story. Because that's the market story. Yeah, I look, yeah, I look at your CRM right now. If you're a VP of sales, if you look in your CRM, I guarantee you I will find close dates in the past, guaranteed. And everyone, if you say that to a CRO, they're going to go. They're going to look down and go, yep, guilty. Why is that? You know what I mean? It's because you've been working on the wrong problem. You try to have training and tech solve a problem that's not a training or tech problem.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Telling the story.

[A]

Working on the wrong problem.

[B]

Working on the wrong problem.

[A]

So that's an example.

[B]

Yeah. Yep.

[A]

So here's one way to think about it is. And this is, this is a little bit different thing. And that is the I was where you are story. The I was where you are story is, is a story that, that's kind of that one there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's a little like I would say, you know, I was. I was a really bad salesperson. I thought I was pretty good. But the numbers, the stack ra didn't show that. It didn't show that I was very good. And I hopped around from company to company to company thinking, man, these companies suck. They're bad. Why can't I sell? These companies are not very good. And then I realized one day, common thread here. It's not the company. And so that was the time when I. So. But I was once where you are now Once where you are now. There's a song like that.

[B]

Is there a song? I don't even know what that is.

[A]

And that's a powerful story because you can then incorporate. What did you discover? You know, we've all had this problem. We had it in spades. We really had a problem. And yet one time we discovered a couple of things that helped us. And that's. That's what. So therefore, today, that's exactly how we help companies, is we share with our clients what we discovered that has taken this pain away.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So that's an example. It's kind of mirrors to what you do. But, yeah, it's an example of. But when you're. And I was telling this, gentlemen, I said, when we tell the story, there's got to be some emotion in it. It can't just be. Yes, well, we struggled and we had this. And I went to. I listened to a podcast once in Presto.

[B]

It was curious.

[A]

Well, there's no emotion there. I mean, I want to hear. I want to hear how you struggled with this and how you stayed up nights and you had to get up in the morning and go run. It was always. It was cons. I was battling, trying to figure out how to solve this problem, and I couldn't do. And I went for two years. That's what I wanted. I want you to put yourself in that. I was searching and I was seeking, and we couldn't find it because that's exactly the way where the prospect is or has. So that's fantastic.

[B]

I think of the resolution of this story too, can also be positive. So this was the scenario the. Before. There were these things in the way. I know when I first started in sales, I. I had. I always started having panic attacks, and a doctor put me on Xanax in 1992. I'm like, huh, Xanax? I don't even know. Damn. Should have kept him. But I accidentally took two one day at lunchtime and fell asleep on the way Home slept for three hours inside the road and threw them out and never took them again.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Now learned to manage on, you know, breathing and meditation stuff better. So.

[A]

Sorry.

[B]

Much quicker.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's throttled up from beer, so. But the point is. And I worried. I had Sunday scaries all the time for years and years and years and years and, you know, until I started to think and do some things a different way. I can't tell you the last time I had the Sunday scaries from my job. I just love what I do. And it's because I have a system now and I trust the system. I have to worry about me doing it. I trust the system and system works. Usually never perfect things like that. It resolves to positive. Like. Like, I don't worry about the end of the month. Yeah, we don't worry about the. We never worry about the end of the month here, ever. Everyone else worries about the end of month. How do you do that? I'm like, it's a system.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Process. So positive is the point.

[A]

And the thing is that, you know, when I hear your story and if you were to hear my story. Yeah, they're going. Because we are in a similar kind of business. Not exactly, but we're similar businesses. You would think the stories would be identical, but they're not. They're not at all. Because your experience of your history is different than my experience of my history. And that's what, that's what makes it fascinating.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And some people that you tell your story, like, if they call you in and call me in and they're. We're competing against each other, they're going to hear two different stories. One might relate better to yours or to mine.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

But most of the time, if you're listening, your competitor probably doesn't even have a good story. So if you have any story that's worth its weight and following some of the advice we're giving you here, you're going to be heads and shoulders above anybody else in the market.

[B]

No doubt. There's no doubt in my mind that that's the case. Everyone wants to, you know, another. This is cyber. We should do a topic on this one. I think people are over discovering people, you know, discovery phase, like the discovery step. I think people are overdoing that. We just went into a, like a competitive sales environment. The people were against, like that 90 minutes of the entire senior leadership team and basically just pegged them with questions the whole time. I'm like, we did our research outside of that. I mean, we, we had some. We validated some things. So that's another topic over discovery. But being able to connect what you find in the discovery to something, whether it's another client or another experience, that's what people want. They went here like, so what did you do and what was the outcome? Like, here's what happened. I also think it's okay to tell a failure story where things didn't work because it shows that you're real and honest and vulnerable and no one's magic. And to say, you know, this scenario, we did this.

[A]

We.

[B]

We had these programs. We worked for a year. It just didn't click the way we thought it would. And if we had done something different, we probably would have done a different way. We didn't. So it didn't work. Yeah, I think it's okay. A story that didn't work. Everyone wants to tell the story where everything's awesome, you know, so.

[A]

God, you brought up something there that I've been. I've been kind of. Let's do, dare we say, harping.

[B]

You can say harping.

[A]

I think on for a while. And that is the idea that this whole discovery and finding the problem and digging deep for the problem and trying to make people feel uncomfortable because they have the problem, it seems like that's a relic. Oh, God. Of an old era.

[B]

It's brutal.

[A]

I think it's still appropriate to under. To seek to understand the, the nature of why you're there and. And what. What they're looking for. But I think the new art in selling is the art of explaining value.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And explaining. Okay, we know you have a problem. You've shared with me, it sounds like. And I've. I've done some research. So let's just say the problems are one through three. That might take five minutes.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then the other 60 minutes are if you hire us. Let me tell you what it looks like. If you decide to do business with us and we decide to do business with you, let's just say that we decide that we're not there yet, but I'll say we do. Let me tell you exactly what it looks like when we come in and work with your team. The other people don't have time to do that because they've spent 90 minutes asking questions.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So how are you at declaring, constructing and proclaiming your offering or. Or the solution? I think that's a skill of the future because people, People are going to be diagnosing their own stuff if they, if they haven't already through Claude and chat and AI, I mean.

[B]

Yes. And none of us are in a business where we hear something we've never heard before. You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like you and I go into a company and talk to a VP of sales, we're not going to hear like, well, the problem is everybody we hired is left handed. You've been around left handed people lately. But I mean like what? I've never heard that before. Most of the stuff you and I have heard before. Right. Got an accountability issue. We're not doing deep discovery enough. We're chasing people around. We got long sales. Like it's been the same thing since the beginning of eternity.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So why do we have to like keep digging it up? Let's just call that what it is.

[A]

And if it's a credibility issue, I don't think either one of us have a problem because we have 2,000 podcasts out there. Right?

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Talking to somebody. Was talking to somebody the other day. Just a brand new prospect. We just had our first meeting today, but I sent her a, a piece that I did on online a video and then I sent her a couple of podcasts that we've done on, on the topic that she's. And she appreciated. She's like, well, you know what? I know we've worked with your, your team before and based on what I'm so I'm not looking at anybody else. Why would I. You. You.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's, it's because we've, it's because we, we got out of that. Having to show who we are. Because our digital assets do.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

And my question for listeners is, do your digital assets do that or do you find yourself having to justify. Explain. Well, let me tell you why our company exists. That should all be handled digitally. That should not be handled physically.

[B]

Totally. And also keep in mind the intention behind these stories. Bill said earlier, Bill and I are like in a competitive situation and they're talking, they're hearing both of our stories even though we're in a similar adjacent place. We're good friends, partners on this thing. One of us is going to connect differently with that person and better, which is actually good for the client.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

Does that make sense? It's like, it's not like, like, oh, I lost or oh dang it, it's like, oh, shoot, I lost. You know what I mean? You know, if they want. The company's got tall sales people, so they want bill because he's 6 4. I'm barely hanging on to 6ft. Sorry, I can't 6 5C. I can. Can't. Can't compete against that. It's just. He's better for that. And it doesn't matter. Let's just say a bonus detachment. Move on. So the story is not met. The point of this is the story is not meant to hook. The story is meant to create understanding and connection and then. And connection and understanding enough to know you're not my guy. Be Neil. You're. You know, we're going with Bill. Like. Good. Got it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So.

[A]

Okay. Good job today. That was. I think that the story topic. And we can come back to that. We'd like to hear what you think of that topic. Send us a Note in the LinkedIn DM US or. And just announce it in the group what you think of the topic. If we want to go a little deeper on it. I just wanted to introduce it because I. I think people struggle with it and we shouldn't. We should have these stories down for sure.

[B]

I'd love to talk about over discovery and over asking. Yeah, maybe on our next episode.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

All right.

[A]

I'll see you next time.

[B]

All right. Cheers. Bye.