Storytelling in Demos: The Hero’s Journey in 60 Seconds…!

Nearly all sales and presales folks want to improve their storytelling skills in demos and discovery conversations. Here’s one simple approach: present a hero’s journey story in 60 seconds…!

How do you do this?

• Identify the hero – use an existing, successful customer that your product has helped (best if the job title is the same or similar as your prospect)
• Describe the situation – the challenge faced by that person
• Articulate the depth of the pain suffered by that person, prior to implementing your solution
• Share what happened when that person used your product, including a compelling, tangible outcome or reward
• Finish with how it has changed that person’s job (for the better)

The hero should be the prior customer, and your product is the enabler (e.g., Thor the hero, his hammer – Mjölnir – the enabler).

Here’s an example:

“Wow – we just heard how another customer in a very similar situation was able to declare a major victory. They were struggling with their digital transformation and their manual processes were rife with errors. It was so bad, in fact, that they were losing customers who received erroneous information. They implemented our solution and in just a few days they had eliminated all of the manual processes that generated these errors. What’s more, they were able to recover many of their lost customers, several of whom actually became extremely strong references and brought even more business aboard. Now they are moving forward with the next stage of their transformation project!”

Read this example out loud – you’ll find you can complete this short story in about 30-45 seconds.

If you want other examples of the Hero’s Journey delivered in a minute or less, check out the commercials you often see on the web or TV!

For the definitive work on storytelling, see Chip and Dan Health’s excellent book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

For more on using stories in demos and discovery conversations, read the article Storytelling and Demos. To learn these methods, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Discovery or Demonstration Skills Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! LinkedIn Group to share your experiences and learn from others.