Tell a short, true customer story that shows the before and after.
Pick one past client whose situation clearly changed after working with you, and write down in one sentence what was different for them afterwards. You will need sentences like that at a particular point in sales conversations. A buyer has heard the benefits and a good summary of their situation, and they are half convinced. Then they ask whether this has actually worked for someone like them.
The weak response is to repeat the benefits more firmly. The strong response is a story about a past client: "Last year I worked with someone in a similar spot." A benefit statement can't show the buyer anything happening. A story lets them see the change happen to a real person and picture it happening to themselves.
A sales story is a short, true story with a job: it shows the buyer what changed for someone like them. That job separates it from an anecdote, which isn't built to help the buyer decide. A useful sales story has four parts:
A person like the buyer: the same kind of business, the same life stage, the same worry. The problem, described the way that person felt it. The decision: what they weighed, what worried them, and what they chose. What changed afterwards.
Choose the client first. If the person doesn't match the buyer, the story won't land however good it is. A retired CEO's story will mean little to a young couple.
Describe the problem the way the client felt it, in their own words where you can. This is the same idea as using the buyer's words in Lesson 3.3, Summarise back what you heard, applied to your past client.
The decision is the part people most often skip, and it matters most. The buyer is at that same decision point and wants to know how someone else got past it.
Describe what changed in the same terms as the problem, so the difference is plain. A money problem needs a money change. If the client used to lose a Saturday, say they now have a Saturday back.
Then cut background, side characters and anything else that doesn't serve the four parts. Keep the story under a minute. Any longer and the conversation becomes about the story instead of the buyer.
A freelance bookkeeper is talking with a cafe owner who is considering their services. With a past client's permission, the bookkeeper says:
"Last year I worked with a small cafe in Joo Chiat. When we met, the owner was doing her own books on Sunday nights and dreading it. She only found out how a month had gone when the bank balance dropped. She wasn't sure about handing her accounts to someone else, so we agreed to try one quarter first. Now she gets a one-page summary every Monday. Last month she told me she's stopped dreading Sundays. How do you handle your books at the moment?"
The story is about 85 words and takes well under a minute to say. It has all four parts: a person like the buyer, a problem in plain words, a decision with a doubt in it, and a clear after described in the same terms as the before. It names the area and type of business, "a small cafe in Joo Chiat", and leaves out the cafe's name.
Leave out identifying details unless the client has agreed to be named. In a small market like Singapore, a few details can point to exactly one person: "a hawker in Tiong Bahru Market who sells chwee kueh" may be enough. Personal details are also covered by the PDPA, Singapore's personal data law. The safe default is to ask the client before you use their story at all, tell them how you will describe them, and remove anything they aren't comfortable with.
Never invent details, and never embellish a story to make it more vivid. Don't merge two clients into one person with the perfect problem and the perfect result. Buyers check. Some ask to speak to the client, some recognise a story as too neat, and some hear the same story twice with different details. Once a buyer suspects one story, they doubt everything else you have said. In regulated fields such as financial advice and property, a made-up or misleading example can also bring trouble from your firm or the regulator.
If you have no story that fits, say so. Tell the buyer you haven't worked with a business quite like theirs yet, then give the closest case you have. This costs nothing, and as you saw in Lesson 2.3, Credibility without bragging, an honest admission adds credibility. If you are new, you can use a well-known public example, as long as you say it isn't your own client.
End every story with a question about the buyer's own situation. Without one, the story is a small performance and the buyer just nods politely. With one, the story becomes a comparison: the buyer explains how their situation is the same and how it differs, and you learn something new. Keep the question simple: "How does that compare with what you're dealing with?", "Does any of that sound familiar?" or "What would be different in your case?"
Before the activity, go through your past clients or customers and list every case where something clearly changed for them. For each one, note whether you have permission to share it, or could ask for it.
Write two 100-word customer stories from real cases you are allowed to share. Give each one a before, a decision and an after.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).