How to Start a Conversation by Slaying a Dragon

While all the considerations around social media, marketing automation and email marketing are pertinent, effective and important, at the end of the day people buy from people and that buying cycle gets started with a “conversation.”

So, how can you have conversations with your prospects and customers? Become a great story teller! Hats off to Cindy Phillips at LaFrance International, for sharing her strategy to develop her stories and find fires that need to be extinguished:

Universal truth – We all learn from stories.  It doesn’t matter what culture you are in or where you are from, we all learn from stories.

Elements of a Story:

there is a hero
there is an adversary or dragon
the hero has to slay the dragon
you have to find the dragon to slay it
you have to know where the dragon is hiding to slay it

Slaying a Dragon:

if you think about broken systems
that’s just a dragon running around breathing fire on stuff
the dragon is putting stuff up in flames
you got to be looking for people who have problems, let’s call them dragons
you don’t want people who have little hang-nail problems, you want people to have flaming fires

Now, tell a story from the buyer’s perspective, not seller’s perspective.  Stand in the buyer’s shoes for a minute, live and experience his day, and find out where his fires are and determine how you can extinguish  his fire so everyone can live happily ever after.  Now, weave this story into your conversation with your buyer.