Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 7. Rethinking Sales Success: Storytelling

Mike Bosworth

Story Leaders

This is Mike Bosworth, and I'd like to share with you the journey along the winding road that brought me to offering you these sales tips.

My journey in training salespeople began in 1976, while working for Xerox Computer Services. I was 29 years old when the executive team asked me to train others to do the things that had come naturally to me. The first thing Xerox wanted from me before I was to teach other salespeople was to learn the corporate sales methodology, PSS (Professional Selling Skills), inside and out. One thing that stuck from my studies was the thought, you can't teach rapport. Rapport is "chemistry," and the chemistry between every two humans is unique.

Since then, through my Solution Selling and Customer Centric Selling days, one area I avoided as a sales trainer was teaching sellers how to "establish rapport." I would spend literally 30 minutes out of a four-day workshop on the basics of not blowing your first impression: using eye contact, avoiding stereotypical sales language, avoiding the trophies and props in the buyer's office, silence up front so the buyer can lead in either getting right down to business or having some "small talk." That was it. I stayed away from the "rapport" issue because I had it in my head that it was not teachable. Instead, I taught people a system for managing complex sales cycles.

I know that the selling systems I created have dramatically improved the effectiveness ...