The sales process · Sales enablement
A story where nothing went wrong is an advertisement, and buyers hear it.
Stories are the three or four true accounts a salesperson keeps ready. A job that went wrong and was put right. A customer who almost walked away, and the reason the business exists. They are collected from your own team, written in a paragraph each, and told rather than read.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Stories are the three or four true accounts a salesperson keeps ready. A job that went wrong and was put right. A customer who almost walked away, and the reason the business exists. They are collected from your own team, written in a paragraph each, and told rather than read.
A buyer has already heard every claim in your pitch from two other suppliers. What he repeats to his partner a week later is the account of the week the wrong flange arrived and what your people did about it over that weekend. Nobody has written it down, and the fitter who lived through it retired in March.
Four kinds are worth having ready. The job that went wrong and was put right. The customer who nearly did not buy, and the thing that changed his mind. The enquiry you turned away. And why this business was started at all, which the owner tells well and everybody else garbles.
These are your stories, out of your own workshop or clinic, and collecting them is a morning's work you should not outsource. The follow-up mails in the step before stay short because a story is what you send when a reminder will not do. And the questions in the next step create the pause where one is worth telling.
Where this sits
Stage 5 of 10, sales enablement. What the person selling says, sends and answers with, written down instead of improvised.
- The stage before
- Lead generation
- The stage after
- Sales qualification
If you want this done for you
Document the whole story of a customer's problem and result, not just a one-line quote.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“Collect them from the people who were there”
Sit with the service engineer, the fitter and the person who handles complaints, one at a time. Ask what the worst week on a job looked like, and what you did about it. Write the answer in their words. Most owners find their team has stories they have never heard.
“The difficulty is the part that gets believed”
A buyer is listening for what you do when something goes wrong, because on a long job something will. Take the trouble out of the account and you have removed the only part he was weighing. A furnishings dealer in Chickpet who admits which order he delivered late, and what he did next, is the one who gets asked for a quotation.
“Permission before names, always”
Ask the customer while they are still pleased with you, and keep the written yes. If they would rather not be named, the story can still be told without the name and without the detail that identifies them. Any number in the story has to be one somebody actually measured, or it comes out.
“Ninety seconds, spoken”
A story read off a printed case study is a different object and lands as one. The person telling it has to answer three follow-up questions without notes, which means they were near the job or they have spoken at length to somebody who was.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
A story sheet per story
One page, four headings: what the customer wanted, what went wrong or worried them, what your team did, and what happened in the end. About 150 words, with a line at the bottom saying which moment it answers.
Result: Anyone selling can pick the right story instead of reaching for the only one they remember.
Written permission attached to each one
A single line from the customer, on mail or WhatsApp, agreeing to the name being used, to any figure in it, and to where it may be told. Store it with the sheet.
Result: Nobody hesitates halfway through a sentence wondering what they are allowed to say.
The founding story, written once
Why the business was started, in the owner's words, transcribed rather than polished. This is the one that gets mangled most, because everyone half remembers it and fills the gaps differently.
Result: The whole team tells the same origin, including the part that is not flattering.
A top-up when something goes sideways
Write the next one while a rescued job is fresh. Old stories date, and a buyer can hear it when your best work was years ago.
Result: The set stays current without anybody having to sit down and remember.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales management. A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3 · you are here
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Is it risky to tell a customer about a job that went wrong?
Can we name the customer in a story?
How is a story different from a case study?
Our salespeople were not there when any of this happened. What then?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of sales enablement
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.