A Plug for Narratives

This will be the first time I am linking to and plugging another blog and I have to say its a pretty great post to kick it off with.

Mark Suster posted on his Both Sides of the Table blog this morning about using narrative to make your point. Check it out here.

This post really got my wheels spinning about sales process. The most meaningful word that Mark uses in his post is "connection". It's so important to cross that line when presenting an idea (or selling a product for you sales folks out there). Making an emotional connection with the audience you are speaking to helps them buy into your message and builds irreplaceable rapport.

Mark's narrative on narrative's (loved the set up of that too) details how to build your pitch and does a really good job of it.  He leaves the implementation of it, however, to our own imaginations.  Naturally, having been progressing along with sales process here at 2-Pros I made the instant connection.

The five pieces of narratives that Mark details are:

• Start with a thesis
• Have supporting evidence
• Use analogies
• Keep it human
• Reinforce the storyline at the end

And really, what sales pitch is not enhanced by adding these narrative components?  Even to the most persistent, number-crunching CFOs the addition of a story that includes a human element will help to better connect them to the idea.