How to really stoke your sales in 350 or so words

We’ve all heard this before, “Selling is telling.” If you want more sales, the thinking goes, tell a better story. That’s a good start, but we can take it a few steps further.

Let’s go back in time first. Textbooks tell you marketing is important because it helps build your brand, and a solid brand helps you sell more, so the process looks something like this—

$$$ invested in –> marketing builds your brand, which allows you to –> sell more product, which generates more –> $$$ for more –> marketing in an endless, self-reinforcing, virtuous circle

This formula has been around for ages—its heyday was probably the 1960s, made famous in the Lionsgate produced, 7-season television series Mad Men.

But a crucial element is missing; the process should look more like this:

$$$ invested in –> marketing builds your brand, which allows you to create instant –> trust, and it’s trust that allows you to –> sell more product, which generates more –> $$$ for more –> marketing in an endless, self-reinforcing, virtuous circle

The missing element is trust. It’s not your brand that allows you to sell more products or services, it’s trust. Ever bought anything from someone you didn’t like or trust? Likely, only once.

Today, I would add yet another few elements to this formula:

$$$ invested in –> storytelling, which is simple to understand and –> builds your confidence with every repetition –> authentically rings true to your audience because it appeals directly to the –> limbic older, non verbal, instinctual part of your audience’s brain, which means your –> marketing builds your –> brand by instilling in your audience a –> belief that you actually know why you do what you do, and that you really mean what you say, which allows you to create instant –> trust within your stakeholder group, and it’s trust that allows you to –> sell more products or services, which generates more –> $$$ for more –> storytelling and marketing in an endless, self-reinforcing, virtuous circle

There, that’s my take on how to really grow and sustain your sales.

Prof Bruce