Better Sales Through Better Storytelling | James Ontra - 1445

Today on The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by Shufflrr CEO and co-founder James Ontra to discuss the importance of storytelling in sales. What’s Shufflrr? They help companies transform humble PowerPoints into invaluable business assets. Even better, your entire company can present and share from those same decks. It’s a paradigm change in presentation management that’s long overdue.

Why are presentations so important?

• Presentations are an integral part of the business world. From product information to case studies to introductions, companies communicate to each other through presentations.
• We typically think of presentations as a single document, but it’s more nuanced than that. Every presentation is a story, and every slide is a scene.
• Within Shuffler, you can drag and drop slides to create custom stories, and your entire company can present and share from those same decks.
• Meaning, those coworkers presenting in London or Hong Kong will be unified with the same platform.

How do we tell better stories?

• Most modern presentations are slapped together to supplement basic information. (Remember that college lecture that made you fall asleep every Monday and Wednesday morning?)
• You want your slides to follow, not force, the conversation.
• Emotional storytelling conveys the experience when the time is right; that’s the difference between a $1 billion and $2 billion sponsor or whether or not you make your sale.
• If you move your audience, you’ve made an impact. There’s nothing worse than indifference.

Applying storytelling to sales.

• People buy emotionally and justify logically.
• The key to effective presentations is to determine which components emotionally drive you and your product or service.
• You probably have dozens of disorganized sales and marketing presentations. James recommends you put them in one place and decide which ones can best tell your story. (AKA exactly what Shufflrr will do for you.)
• Consistent presentations throughout your organization will help you achieve your goals.
• The typical funnel: sales make a PowerPoint and then send it to marketing for their blessing. Shufflrr gives you marketing-blessed PowerPoints to pick from that ensure brand consistency.

James’s final takeaway: Your presentations tell your company’s story, and each slide is a scene. Once you figure out which scenes appeal emotionally to your audience, use those across your company.

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com