Do You Have a Story To Illustrate That Point?

Don't you just love stories? You can tell stories about yourself. You can tell stories about your customers. You can tell stories about your kinfolks, your bosses, your employees , your friends, your enemies. fictional characters. People love stories. Jesus Christ showed us that. When you need to make a point in selling, what better way than a story? There is no better way than stories. Charts, maps, diagrams don't hold a candle to a good story. Not a mediocre story, a good story. You can tell stories about something that happen last week or when we were in elementary school. You can tell positive stories or you can tell negative stories. In selling, negative stories can come off as "high pressure". High pressure is not all bad. A little goes a long way. If you tell negative stories be careful. You can easily drift over the line to high pressure. Positive stories are never dangerous unless they are boring. How to avoid being boring? The same way you get to Carneige Hall. Have you heard this story? A young man with a music book in his hand walks up to a policeman in New York City and asks," How do get to Carnegie Hall?" The policeman replied, " Practice Practice and More Practice" There is a short two sentence story that makes a point. How can you make your sales presentation better? Practice and more practice. Here is a story that happen to me. It is a negative story. Usually when I tell this story, my audience (two customers) don't even reconize it as a negative story. I tell this story when a seller has been offered $295,000 for his house that the seller is asking $300,000 for. The seller counter offers at $298,000. The buyers love the property. They want it but for some strange reason they believe they are supposed to negotiate, like there is a prize or something. This reminds me when I was a little boy in south Georgia my grandpa had a old clishay that he used to say. He said," You can not teach a hog to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the hog." Grandpa would say that when I was wasting time doing something that I thought was important. As I grew up I discovered that this old saying was not as popular in other parts of the country.

I love flea markets and thrift stores. About ten years ago, we visited the flea market at Pickens, South Carolina. We were led to believe that this was the biggest flea market in the south. It was big. As we were walking around, I saw on a vendor's table a small pink sign that had a picture of a cartoon hog and the sign said," YOU CAN NOT TEACH A HOG TO SING. IT WASTES YOUR TIME AND IT ANNOYS THE HOG. I had to have that sign. I asked the vendor how much. He replied three dollars. I replied will you take a dollar? He said no but he would take two dollars. I must have lost my mind. I said I think I will wait and buy it when we come back out. For the next two hours, the only thing I thought about was that little sign. When we came back, it was gone. Did I show my disappointment to that vendor? Hell no. Wouldn't it have been better if I had just paid the two bucks? Wouldn't it better if you Mr. Buyer just pay the $298,000. You don't want your wife telling my hog story for the next ten years. Stories make a point that you can not say to people. They are fun and interesting. Jesus could have just told us, " Don't be afraid. Be bold in your business endeavors" But he didn't. He said, "There was a man going on a long journeyy and he summoned his three servants......" You can read the long version in Matthew 25. Tell stories to your clients and customers. They happen every day. Some happen to you. Some happen to your co worker. Use these stories. Entertain your customers. Many times as I was riding down the East West Expressway in Orlando with a customer in the car just as you go through the toll gate, I would point and say," See that house over there at 3300 Lake Underhill Drive. I met my first customer there at an open house a hundred years ago. I was sitting there waiting for a customer when Mary Beasley walked in. Mary and her husband, Terry could not afford that $32,000 house. I found them another house on the other side of Monterey Homes for $18,800 with FHA financing and three per cent down. That was my first sale. Twelve years later in 1984 , I was walking through the Fashion Square Mall one afternoon when a lady comes running up to me and says, " ARE YOU RON CLIMER YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU." She gives me a big hug. I said," Who are you?" She said " I am Mary Beasley. You sold us our first house about twelve years ago. We didn't have any money but you figured out that miracle financing. We became homeownewrs. That changed our lives. We sold that house about two years ago and made a bunch of money and bought a much nicer home. We could have never done that if you had not got us started thank you thank you thank you. I love to tell that story to first time home buyers. If you were a first time homebuyer hearing that story, what would you learn from that story? You never have to make up stories. There are too many of them happening every day. Tell some stories the next time you are with a customer. Call a prospect today.