In an earlier post, I outlined the five essential elements of a winning sales strategy, which together give you a better chance to win any services sale:

1. A Compelling Story – Help clients see their future and your role in the story.
2. An Airtight Case for Change – Why your client needs to make a change now.
3. A Comprehensive View of Value – Address obvious and unexpected sources of value.
4. Mitigation of Risk – Take the reasons to say no out of the equation.
5. Trustworthiness and Trust – Transform trustworthy into trusted.

First up for a more detailed discussion is how to offer clients a compelling story.

It’s not exactly a newsflash that stories are a powerful tool for communicating ideas. You don’t have to look far to find many articles, books, and workshops on crafting the perfect story. If it’s true that we’re all enamored of a good story, why do so many sellers leave their best stories behind when they head into a sales meeting?

Maybe sellers (and their managers) believe it’s just safer to stick to the facts. Well, think about the last dry, fact-based sales presentation you listened to. If you were still awake when the speaker finished the corporate overview, you likely still had to endure a heavy dose of unreadable slides, dense charts, and generic case studies.

Lulling clients to sleep like that during a sales meeting is hardly a safe bet. But sellers do that, over and over. The good news is that leaves plenty of opportunity to connect more effectively with clients and strengthen your position by animating your presentations with stories.

In any services sale, consider using stories with at least two aims. First, help your clients understand the need for change. Your stories can confirm or illustrate the urgency for the client to take action and also address resistance to change. In short, the story should breathe life into the problem or issue the client is facing by showing the implications of maintaining the status quo.

After all, the toughest competitor you’ll usually face is the client’s “do nothing” option. To beat that competitor, you’ll need more than a handful of facts. A good story can help push through the natural inertia that prevents change.

You could craft stories that show how others met similar challenges, but it’s best to highlight precisely how the issue impacts your client. You might tell a story about how unresponsive information systems affect customer service, for example. Or you could relate how one of your client’s best customers suffers as a result of seemingly small errors in the information your systems generate.

Maybe you have a video of the customer talking about late shipments, unknown order status, and incorrectly shipped packages. You could underscore the point by showing how the client’s sales reps and warehouse workers struggle with the customer complaints that arise from the systems problems.

What’s important is to tell the story behind the facts. Don’t just report that customer complaints are on the rise. Let your client hear from the customer directly via quotes, video, audio, or in person. Nothing connects with clients faster than experiencing the impact of the current issues on customers, employees, and others.

The second point of using a story is to paint a picture of the client’s future once the proposed project is done. Too many sales presentations and proposals get bogged down in unimaginative descriptions of “deliverables” and “end products” and lose sight of what the future will really look like. Offering a laundry list of “value” may seem to be a good way to comply with your client’s request, but think again.

Everyone you compete with will generate that same list. When the client compares your proposals side by side, it may be impossible to tell one firm from another. Once that happens, you’ve lost any advantage you might have had. Using a story of how your client’s business will change adds a compelling dimension to your proposal.

You can begin with relevant testimonials from other clients to tell the story of how you changed their businesses. If possible, get those testimonials in more than just written form. And be sure each testimonial is tailored to fit your client’s challenge.

But you can do more.

Why not ask your client’s customers to comment on how their lives will change if the proposed project is successful? And don’t forget the client’s employees. They can add to your narrative of what the future holds if your client achieves your vision of the future.

You won’t always need to tell an elaborate story with video interviews and extensive testimonials, nor will your client necessarily want that. But, as a rule, think about how you can use stories to enliven your sales strategy. Sticking to the facts and figures may be comfortable, but that strategy can easily backfire.

If you’ve read about the power of stories, the first thing you learn is that we’re all “wired” to learn through stories. Given that so much of selling is an educational process, why not use every tool at your disposal, including the story? Your clients will thank you.