Emotional Stories vs. Data Stories are recalled 12x higher in the Gong Test.

I catch myself recounting stats to CROs all the time. I assume that they are floored by the findings.  Amazing, the data tells another story…

Here are the three topics this week:

Emotional Stories vs. Data Stories are recalled 12x higher in the Gong Test.

There is a stat that I recently heard that I can’t get out of my mind as a father:

From age 0 to 18, you will have spent 90% of your life with your children. From age 19 to your death, you will see (on AVG) your children the equivalent of 1 more year.

🤯Mind BLOWN.

I’ve been telling everyone that stat since. Crazy enough, my wife went to go tell that stat to someone around the firepit the other day, and couldn’t remember it.

But if I had told the story differently:

A Billionaire on his deathbed said his #1 regret in life was not spending Thanksgiving with his children, and in fact tried to trade $1BN to acquire that time each year with his children. They turned the money down. The money was worthless to the Billionaire. Time is the currency.

In this study done by Gong – we get sucked into believing that our customers want facts and analysis. Ironically, they can’t recount any of them weeks later. But emotional stories that resonate with the customer, are recounted and retold 12x more often!

I’ve always been a fan of S.C.R. / S.O.R. storytelling, and always telling the story from a Customer perspective.

(S) Situation – How did the customer get into this predicament? What decisions and chain of events get them to a point of Pain?

(C) Challenge / (O) Opportunity – What is the Pain? What are the symptoms to look out for? What is the pain doing as it metastases in the business?

(R) Resolution – What is the solution to the Pain? How did the customer get the painkillers, and when/how did they use them? How and how fast did the pain go away?

How do you tell Painkiller Stories vs. Vitamin Stories?

As per above, the painkiller pharmaceutical industry is 8x larger than the vitamin industry – for a reason. How many friends of yours are in top physical condition (preventative, vitamin users), vs. how many friends are sick, unhealthy, and injured (the reactive, painkiller users)? Most people are in search of a painkiller because they didn’t do the right things far enough in advance to prevent pain.

This article is helpful but also focuses on the product side of Painkiller vs. Vitamin. Our sellers don’t get to control product development, but we do control product narrative.

People buy pain 4 ways:

1. Financial Pain – This is the most obvious. Companies and their departments need to either MAKE MORE $ or SAVE MORE $. Can you articulate where a $ is wasted or not maximized?

2. Process Pain – Where does a company have expensive humans doing subscale things, to which a computer, AI, or offshore labor could buy back these tasks? Where is a company stuck?

3. Productivity Pain – How can you get more yield out of a person, department, software, etc. to maximize the ROI?

4. Support Pain – A vendor/supplier is dropping the ball. How can you offer support that is 10x better so that a customer can focus on their core offering?

As you analyze your stories to customers, look at them from the perspective of these 4 pain groupings.  Check out this Knight Capital Article

Clari Labs’ research uncovered a 14.9% revenue leak.

Imagine you have a sales quota of $100,000,000. According to a Clari Labs assessment, up to 14.9% of that plan is most likely going to leak due to one/all of these variables. That’s $14,900,000… that’s probably +10 AE’s worth of leak.

What I found interesting was that of the $14,900,000 in leakage, about 20% ($3,000,000) would be due to variables that are SO EASY to help solve for:

Spot Risks / Opportunities In Accounts

When a new key stakeholder is hired into an account, change happens. All Human Capital Migration at the CXO / VP level produces a change in your accounts.  

• Who’s hired?
• Who’s promoted?
• Who’s left?

That change will come fast. A key stakeholder will aim to evaluate areas to change & win and acquire the budget within 100 days.

Sales Productivity

What’s even crazier is watching $100,000/year Account Executives having to:

• Map all the accounts in their territory/portfolio
• Capture all the contacts per account in the Buying Committee
• Try to track all these changes in their accounts

This is a $5/hour task that partners like Pipeline Signals can do for each AE. Every moment a seller is squirreling around ZoomInfo and Apollo for this information is a moment lost in the market.

FREE RESOURCE – Activity & Pipeline Gap Calculator

Does each of your sellers know the exact number of conversations they will need to have next month to highly influence Pipeline Creation?  

Have they accounted for the headwinds and tailwinds?

• Leads from Marketing
• Leads from the BDR team
• Leads from Channel Partners

What is their ‘Self-Sourcing’ GAP?

Download it here