EP029: Storytelling to Build Trust & Sell Your Service – with Sandra Younger of ComeBACK Solutions
Emotional connection builds trust, and trust leads to sales. But what is the best way to establish that emotional connection? The answer lies in storytelling. Stories help us make sense of technical concepts, illustrate the ideas we want to express, and serve to substantiate our claims. Not only that, stories told well actually produce a bonding hormone that facilitates trust. So, how do we incorporate storytelling in the RFP writing process?
Sandra Younger is a reporter, magazine editor and author with more than 30 years of professional experience. She is also the founder of ComeBACK Solutions International, an organization that works with disaster survivors and emergency leaders, and Strategic Story Solutions, a firm that helps individuals and businesses discover their own stories. Sandra is best-known for her Amazon bestseller, The Fire Outside My Window, a memoir of her experience with the catastrophic California Cedar Fire of 2003.
Sandra is back on the RFP Success Show to share her take on storytelling as a kind of cultural currency, explaining why we are creatures of story and how stories help us make sense of facts and figures. She offers insight around the three types of stories every business should have, discussing how ‘sticky stories’ can be used to illustrate the benefits of your product or service. Listen in to understand how a little vulnerability lends to business success and learn how to leverage the narrative arc to earn trust in an RFP!
Key Takeaways
Sandra’s take on story as a kind of cultural currency
How stories help us make sense of facts and figures
Why needs and pain points are considered stories
How metaphors are stories that allow us to visualize
The 3 kinds of stories every business should have
Signature story
Case studies
Testimonials
How a signature story gives your business credibility
How sticky stories illustrate the benefits of a product
How success stories serve in substantiating claims
The narrative arc and its function in building trust
GET TO KNOW THIS WEEK'S GUEST
Connect with Sandra
Resources
The ComeBACK Formula: A Resilience-Building Guidebook by Sandra Millers Younger