In selling, there is no denying that analysis, number crunching, logic and organization play a necessary role. However, these left-brain functions constitute, at best, about 10 to 20 percent of the critical mass necessary for sales success. The other 89 to 90 percent comes from right-brain functions, which play primary roles in the sales realm. In sales, we talk about the need for people skills because we are selling ourselves. People skills are a right-brain function. We talk about being able to read people. This reading is a right-brain function. We talk about sensing, skilled listening, communication flair and skill, intuitive problem solving, innovation, and humor when describing highly successful salespeople – and the very best do possess these traits. All of these traits and abilities are based in the right side of the brain.
Most people are fairly balanced in their right-brain and left-brain orientation. Many people who naturally excel in sales, however, lean toward a left-brain dominance from whence these necessary sales skills are rooted. The prototype sales achiever is an imaginative and motivated risk taker, a colorful communicator, an incisive questioner, an insightful listener and a likable personality. Chances are this person also likes to have a lot of things going on (multitasker), is passionate and persuasive, abhors detail and needless paperwork, can’t stand being on a short leash (micromanaged) and needs freedom to improvise and try our creative strategies. These individuals detest being boxed in and love to respond spontaneously to situations and solve problems intuitively. The more an individual leans to this right-brain orientation, the more necessary it becomes to be surrounded by administrative assistance to attend to detail, manage multiple activities, organize ambitious schedules and generally keep aware of the linear world in which the individual lives.
Read on for a detailed breakdown of Telling the Financial Story.
What Can I Expect?
Here’s an outline of Telling the Financial Story
Journey Outline
PART I HOW TO PUT HALF OF YOUR CLIENT’S BRAIN TO SLEEP
- Why Statistics Don’ t Sell and Stories Do
- Science & Art
- The Map of Your Brain
- The Roots of Story Selling
- Capturing Your Client’s Attention
- Risks and Decisions
- Learning to Speak the Language of the Right Brain
- Story Selling Triggers
- Visual Storytelling
- Emotional Affirmation
- What is your Gut Feeling? How Decisions Really Get Made
PART II BECOMING A BETTER STORYTELLER
- Reading and Leading Others
- Getting Others to Tell their Story
- How Humor Get You Further than Self Promotion
- Making The Intuitive Leap with Your Client
- Using Analogies and Metaphors to Move Your Clients and Products
PART III STORYTELLING IN DESIRABLE MARKETS
- Telling the Story of the Affluent
- Telling the Story of the 65+
- Telling the Woman’ s Story
- Let Me Tell You A Story
About Peter de Kuster
Peter de Kuster is the founder of The Heroine’s Journey & Hero’s Journey project, a storyteller which helps professionals to create careers and lives based on whatever story is most integral to their lives and careers (values, traits, skills and experiences). Peter’s approach combines in-depth storytelling and marketing expertise, and for over 20 years clients have found it effective with a wide range of creative business issues.
Peter is writer of the series The Heroine’s Journey and Hero’s Journey books, he has an MBA in Marketing, MBA in Financial Economics and graduated at university in Sociology and Communication Sciences.
To book your place in the “Telling the Financial Story” mail peter at theherojourneyquestionnaires@gmail.com