How To Use Strategic Storytelling As An SDR To Book More meetings;
As human beings, we're all suckers for a good story!
If you're a sales pro, you'll already know that your job is to share strategic stories that connect with your prospects, allowing them to see themselves in the journey of your main character and ultimately choosing you as their guide to take them from pain to glory.
Nobody knows this better than Steve Schmidt, Founder and former CEO of Tidal (now SellX), who uses his background in speech and theatre to tell stories that connect and convert.
In today’s episode of The Influential Communicator, Steve examines why all sales reps should learn how to tell great stories, outlines the key elements of an influential story and shares his “problem, proof, persuade” framework that he uses to take Sales Development Reps (SDR's) from zero to hero!
Ready to start booking more meetings? Press play and let's go!
What We Discuss;
- (02:48) How Steve balances family and his growing company, TIDAL
- (05:44) Steve’s background in speech and theatre, and how that helps him in business
- (08:28) Why some SDRs think they don’t need storytelling
- (11:26) Problem, proof, persuade: Steve’s framework
- (16:41) The importance of personalization in strategic storytelling
- (25:54) Asking open-ended questions to encourage an exchange in stories
- (29:06) The wisdom behind not asking for the meeting
- (30:56) The one thing Steve wishes he could teach new SDRs
- (37:26) Steve’s advice for using storytelling to excite prospects and book meetings
- (40:15) Influential storytellers Steve looks up to
- (42:32) More on Steve’s company, TIDAL
Valuable Insights and Key Topics;
- Asking open-ended questions encourages your prospect to share a story with you, which builds a connection!
- The best SDRs don’t ask for meetings – they tell stories so well that the prospect desires the meeting on their own.
- Personalizing your stories – and introducing relatable main characters – helps prospects understand why your solution matters to them!
Notable Quotes;
- “We don't teach [storytelling]. Nobody teaches it. It's not a metric. Nobody, when they're interviewing to be a sales manager, says, tell me how you teach people to tell stories. They say, tell me how you overcome objections. Well, they object because your stories suck. They object because you're pitching them. They object because you're talking about your features, advantages, benefits, not what their life could be like.” – Steve Schmidt (25:02)
Useful Resources;
Ravi Rajani
- https://www.theravirajani.com/podcast
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravirajani/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@theravirajani
Steve Schmidt
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenwschmidt/
- https://www.risewithtidal.com/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/risewithtdal/