A few months ago I was having a pint with a mate of mine and he seemed a bit agitated. I asked him what was going on. “Let’s get another round, and I’ll tell you,” he said, rolling his eyes.

I’d scarcely got the drinks back to the table, and he was off. He launched into a tirade about a meeting at work the previous week and how unimpressed he was with what happened.

He explained that their sales results had been slipping, and their manager was pushing them to use ‘story’ as a sales technique to try to turn things around.

Again he rolled his eyes and harrumphed. “This isn’t kiddies corner at the library,” he complained. “Our customers are all engineers. They want facts, not fluff. And anyway we’re technical sales professionals. That stuff’s for actors and movie scriptwriters like you and your drama school friends.”

I couldn’t contain a slight chuckle and asked him gently, “If you don’t think you’re a natural storyteller, what have you been doing for the last 10 minutes? How about using that approach in your next sales call?”

He nearly choked on his beer, but after he’d calmed down a bit, we talked about how a powerful narrative can take your customer on a journey that helps them see the value of your offer. Even if they’re engineers!