You’ve heard the story of the blind men who touched different parts of an elephant, and how they argued about what they’d discovered. (It’s a spear! No, a snake! A tree trunk! A wall!) Many sales teams have similarly incomplete views of their markets.
A super-effective and easy way to pool your company’s collective experience — and help front-line salespeople better understand your organization and prospects’ needs — is to crowdsource stories from the sales team & company.
Ask your sales team to submit story videos in categories such as:
- The hardest objection they’re now comfortable handling
- Their go-to story for a particular vertical
- The best way they’ve de-positioned a competitor
We’ve seen many sales teams discover great “guide” stories with this approach.
Companies can also propagate these best practice stories into their own unique story guides. These can be used for upcoming weekly Story Workshops, or general use.
Here’s another interesting crowdsourcing approach: Host a company-wide contest for the best stories about a specific topic. (Like a recently-launched product.) Friendly competition is always a great motivator.
We find companies are surprised by how easy it is to capture great stories from their internal teams, once they have a story program with the right tools in place.
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Paul McGhee founded SharperAx in 2013. SharperAx develops role-play automation software.
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This article is the ninth excerpt from “10 Best Practices for a Great Storytelling Program,” an eBook written by Paul McGhee, based on years of research and practice in delivering great story programs. To download the entire eBook from Sharperax.com click below
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