Cindy King's International Business Blog » casey hibbard

Stories That Sell By Casey Hibbard

Cindy King — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:00:51 +0000

Book & Product Reviews

I have been waiting impatiently for this book to come out ever since I first heard it was in the works last year, because:

Casey Hibbard is the leading Case Study and Success Story expert.
Success Stories are great lead generation tools for international sales. They can often be the tipping point you need to get the international sale, simply because stories are so powerful and can translate across cultures.

It took one month for this book to get here from Amazon.com.

Stories That Sell – Turn Satisfied Customers Into Your Most Powerful Sales And Marketing Asset – by Casey Hibbard

It was a long wait, and when expectations are high, there is a greater danger of disappointment. This was not the case: no disappointment here. In fact, I got more excited as I read through the book. Stories That Sell spoke to both the writer and the marketer in me.

The Quotes Frame The Story

Before I go any further, I have to tell you something else. Many books have quotes in the beginning of a chapter. Few of these quotes really stand out. The quotes in Stories That Sell added depth to my reading experience.

I want to share them with you. Here are the quotes Casey uses in her book:

The fast is, everyone is in sales. Whatever area you work in, you do have clients and you do need to sell. – Jay Abraham

If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story. – Barbara Greene

You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story. – Anthony de Mello

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. – Robert McKee

Stories give life to past experience. Stories make the events in memory memorable to others and to ourselves. This is one of the reasons why people like to tell stories. – Roger C. Shank

People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. – Studs Terkel

Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal. – Howard Gardner

If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think. – David Ogilvy

Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. – Janet Litherland

Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories. – Mary Catherine Bateson

The story-from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace- is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. – Ursula K. LeGuin

What Are Success Stories?

Success Stories are stories of satisfied customers that are leveraged to improve the sales process. Here are the different types of Success Stories:

Success Stories – from a paragraph to 2-3 pages long
Case Studies – generally a bit more in depth than Success Stories
Testimonials
References

Stories That Sell goes into detail about the many ways to use these different types of Success Stories for both marketing and sales. Many companies have Customer-Reference Programs to encourage, qualify and track suitable customers. This book also gives you ideas on how you can get more Success Stories and in a way that is suitable for your business.

Why Success Stories Bring In Sales

Employers use references before deciding to hire someone. People like hearing stories from others who have bought something they are thinking of buying. It is a natural part of the decision process. We seek confirmation before purchasing something:

At the top of the list: we trust people we know
In second position: we trust strangers with experience. This is where Success Stories come into play.

Success Stories became popular with the rise of expensive high tech equipment. Hearing the story of other happy customers:

Proves there are other customers
Proves the product gets results

Success Stories show, they do not tell. This helps companies gain credibility, which in turn gives them a competitive edge. These stories answer many of the questions buyers have.

Stories Than Sell gives you details to help you create your own Success Story Marketing strategy.

Why You Need More Than One Success Story

The more a Success Story reflects your prospective buyer’s situation, the more relevant and valuable a Success Story is in the decision making process. And your buyers always feel their situation is unique, so they look for similarities between their situation and your Success Story.

Success Stories work best when they mirror the reader’s own particular situation. It provides an effective case for buying the product or service.

Buyers now want Success Stories about their particular industry and they want stories that show how to solve the exact problem they have. This means that you should have Success Stories for each of your different customer profiles. You can have Success Stories for different:

Products and services
Industries
Customer size
Geography
Problems/solutions
Technical or business focus

One Success Story can cover several of these points. Stories That Sell shows you how to strategically plan your Success Story creation to fit your business needs. It shows you how to create Success Stories to present a new idea, new product or new benefits.

Who Should Read Stories That Sell

Stories That Sell is written for both:

People who write Success Stories
People who use Success Stories and would like to improve their sales results with better Success Story Marketing

For Success Story Writers

Casey covers everything you need to write Success Stories. There are guidelines and examples at the end of the book. I found the comparison at the end of the book very useful. There is an example of a Success Story in traditional format and one in a feature-story format.

For Marketing & Sales Managers

Marketing managers will appreciate all of this book. Stories That Sell lays out all you need to create an effective Success Story Marketing program. There are suggestions on how to deal with any problems that come up, and also many ideas on how to market with Success Stories.

Sales managers are always looking for the right tools to have in their arsenal. This book shows how collaboration between sales and marketing teams can give sales people their strongest sales tools. Sales people are on the front line. They often hear about Success Stories from their customers and know the details before anyone else. And sales people also know what stories they need in order to close more sales. Stories That Sell shows you how sales and marketing teams can work together to get more effective sales tools.

To Get More Sales

I would like to add that anyone interested in improving their sales should read this book and learn more about Success Story Marketing. This book lives up to its title and shows you how and why Success Stories can become your most powerful sales and marketing asset.

What I Got Out Of It

I have used Success Stories effectively in previous marketing positions. And yet I discovered things I did not know in Stories That Sell. I also greatly appreciated Casey’s advice on how to deal with approval’s for Success Stories. With my international business background I usually rely on my cross-cultural skills for International Success Stories. But after reading this book, I feel that I now have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

As I read through the book, I jotted down ideas for Success Stories for my own business. I suggest anyone reading this book to do the same. I came up with 14 new ideas for Success Stories that I had not thought of before… simply because I now have more ideas how to market them.

Thank you Casey, for writing this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to facilitate the sales process in national or international markets. This book is particularly valuable in today’s economy.

Communication For International Sales

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with communication for international sales:

A Writer’s Guide To Powerful Paragraphs By Victor C. Pellegrino
Content Rich By Jon Wuebben
Get Content Get Customers by Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett
Letting Go Of The Words – Writing Web Content That Works By Janice Redish
Stories That Sell By Casey Hibbard
The Culturally Customized Web Site By Nitish Singh And Arun Pereira
The Magic Of Pre-Writing By Steven Osborne
The Secret To Writing A Successful And Outstanding Blog By Liz Strauss

International Sales

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international sales:

All of the Little Sales Books by Jeffrey Gitomer
Asinine Advertising By Herschell Gordon Lewis
Influencer: The Power To Change Anything by Kerry Patterson – Joseph Grenny – David Maxfield – Ron McMillian & Al Switzler
Sales Strategy From The Inside Out By Duane Sparks

International Web Marketing

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international web marketing:

Bit Literacy Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload By Mark Hurst
Dotcomology The Science Of Making Money Online By Stone Evans
How The Internet Works By Preston Gralla
How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda
Landing Page Optimization By Tim Ash
Mastering Online Marketing By Mitch Meyerson
Multichannel Marketing By Akin Arikan
Online Competitive Intelligence By Helen P. Burwell
ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
Stats Faceslap By Ed Rivis
The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy By Ed Rivis
Website Optimization by Andrew B. King

Here are some Product Reviews:

All of the book and product reviews here are totally unsolicited… spontaneous …and without affiliate links. These are books I have read recently and only the ones that I share with friends. So all of the reviews you find here are on books and products that I highly recommend.

Also, as these are books and products that I have recently read since, this is not a list of my all-time favorite books. Hopefully I will get around to reviewing my favorite culture and international business books sometime soon.

Use these skills in your international tactics on the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map:

Guide To Multichannel Marketing

• Do you know how to communicate with different countries?

This guide shows you how

Guide To International Web Marketing

• Do you know how to pull all of your different international marketing pieces together?

This guide shows you how

Step 5 – Connect With Your International Markets

Connect…

• With culture customized content

• With trust and empathy

• With strong cross-cultural communication

International Business Success Basics

• Do you feel at a loss with regards to dealing with international business?

This guide gives you the background information you need right from the start.

White Papers For International Lead Generation

Cindy King — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:00:18 +0000

White Papers For International Sales

As an International English Copywriter I like to keep up-to-date with North American copywriting practices. That’s why I’m spending this evening listening to over 3 hours of an informative webinar.

It is the Copywriting Success Summit 2008 organized by Michael Stelzner from the White Paper Source.

In fact, this is the first event I have attended of its kind. You get the value of a 2 or 3 day live day event without the travel and hassle of hotel rooms. All of the attendees listen through the web or by phone. Content is delivered in several sessions at one time. For me here in France it is in the evenings. This maintains a good learning level without the travel.

Tonight’s presentations are given by Peter Bowerman, Michael Stelzner and Casey Hibbard.

Listening to these presentations tonight highlighted the strong reasons why companies targeting new foreign markets should create specific White Papers for these new markets.

International Lead Generation

White Papers are a great lead generation tool. They can easily be used online. And they are also a great communication tool for live events, conferences and exhibitions.

International business development based on web marketing needs strong lead generation tools. And there are not many strong lead generation tools available when targeting foreign markets primarily through international web marketing.

This reason alone is why companies selling abroad need to use White Papers.

White Papers Go Viral

White Papers have great viral potential with the right online marketing.

And this viral potential is even more valuable if you are developing a new market with limited content available to target your new audience.

All online marketing can be tracked. This means you can calculate the results your White Paper brings to your business. Another great advantage when discovering new markets.

Adapting White Papers To Specific Cultural Behaviors

Now…

Let’s take this a little bit further.

Imagine you take a closer look at the cultural behaviors for the country you are targeting. And imagine tweaking your White Papers to appeal more to your specific foreign market.

This makes your White Paper a powerful international lead generation tool.

And what are the different cultural behaviors to look for?

There are 5 different scales of cultural behaviors:

Individualism/Collectivism
Femininity/Masculinity
High Uncertainty Avoidance/Low Uncertainty Avoidance
High Power Distance/Low Power Distance
High Context/Low Context

When writing a White Paper for a specific culture, you can take all of these different scales of cultural behavior into account. In writing your White Paper. And also in how you format it and how you market it.

By adapting your White Papers for specific international markets you can generate more international leads.

Let’s Write Write Papers

Many of my French clients believe it takes months and months to write a White Paper. They are surprised when I say I can easily write one a month for Get International Clients.

It does take a lot of work. But this is where good copywriting skills come in.

According to this evenings summit:

Businesses spend on average 50 hours over a period of months write a White Paper.
A copywriter spends on average 25 hours over 4 weeks to write a White Paper.

Writing a White Paper involves:

A series of interviews
Research
Writing

In today’s world of information overload the best length for a white paper is between 6-12 pages. And the tendency is towards the lower number of pages.

And the price? The average price for a 6-10 page White Paper is over $4000. But you need to compare this with the value of what you are selling.

White Papers provide credibility and authority. These elements are usually missing when targeting new markets.

Are you interested in a White Paper for an international audience? I write for both European and North American companies and I work closely with both North American copywriters and French writers. Contact me to find out more.