In my latest tip, with the subject line, "Are your success stories ready to tell," I gave some ideas for avoiding "blank mind syndrome" when someone asks you for "success stories" and linked to a worksheet from our book, The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing, to help you mine your own stories. (If you missed that, read it here.)
A couple readers responded with a few more ideas:
- Bob Bly, longtime Marketing Mentor client and inveterate marketer, wrote, "Here's what I do. I tell the prospect to go to www.bly.com and click on Testimonials. When he is on the page, I tell him: "Here are my success stories."
- Audeliz Perez wrote, "When I first started selling real estate, I didn’t have any success stories, but that didn’t limit my ability to tell one. I would listen to what the other realtors were doing and what success they had. Then I would relate those same experiences to my clients; sometimes I related them in the first person and sometimes I told it as an all-knowing, 3rd person outsider. Ironically, the successes were received the same, as long as I believed in the story. Maybe when you someone asks you for a success story, they are looking for reassurance and maybe they’re looking to be motivated. The morale to this story is: learn to tell a story in any business, even if it’s not your own."
Any more ideas from the peanut gallery?
I'm still in the habit of telling other people's success stories as my own. Is this cheating? Not at all. I was a high school coach and one thing I learned from that experience is that you have to change the way people feel about a situation to get to ACT: Albiet play better or get to a YES or a buying decision.
Good Structure for a success story:
Characters (people), problem or challenge and solution. Stick to this formula. It works.
Posted by: Audeliz Abgie Perez | September 29, 2009 at 06:49 AM