Fiction in Sales: The Storybook Ending

I watched a recorded sales call last week. It was the second call this sales professional had had with a prospect, and I was excited to watch because the initial call had been one of the best I had seen all year. In the first call, the professional listened, was very genuine, and when the prospect (who had been very unwilling to share much information) mentioned a pain point they had been having, the sales professional asked a great question: “When is your company going to make this a priority so everyone stops having to do double work?”

The prospect was stunned, but not offended. It simply was how the professional had been throughout the call—honest and direct. The prospect opened up after this, became engaged, and seemed excited for the second call. I was excited for the second call.

The second call was terrible. The call was boring, unengaging, and the professional did not seem like they knew where to go. They just repeated much of what was said on the first call.

This week, we take our second look at Freytag’s triangle to see how to get everything beyond the beginning of a story right. Being good at a discovery call is not enough. You need to be able to finish the story with the right middle and ending.

RISING ACTION

It is 2018. I am sitting in class. My tall, lanky teacher stands up to show us something (The thing the sales professional from last week was missing). “Everyone makes the same mistake when writing a novel,” he says as he draws a triangle. “They think that from the beginning until the climax, it looks like this.” He points to the left side of the triangle, a smooth, slanted line, perfectly straight from corner to tip.

“That’s wrong,” he continues. “It’s just a line with a constant expected pace from start to end. It’s boring, and your reader is going to fall down it like a slide if the book is written with perfect moments all building and building until your big moment. It’s too uniform, too predictable, and it’s never going to hold anyone’s attention for 200 pages.”

At this moment, he erases the entire lefthand side of the triangle, and we are confused. He just said this was one of his favorite ways to think about books. Then he begins to redraw. He begins at the bottom left corner and draws towards the top, pauses, and brings the dry-erase marker down a bit, like a tiny mountain. Then he goes back toward the top until he pauses again and draws another mountain. He does this several times until he reaches the top and the triangle is closed again. He steps back.

On the board is a triangle, with the left side like a mountain range, several peaks that all build and build until they reach the highest point, and then go back down normally on the other side.

“This,” he says, and pauses to let us take in his genius, “is the key to a good novel. A story is not actually one climax, but many climaxes that keep you engaged, get you on your toes, and then let you relax again. Notice that after the small peaks, some lines dip down a bit, others flatline.”

“Sometimes it’s good to have mini resolutions after a small climax. Sometimes it’s good to leave moments unresolved to keep the reader a bit stressed, to keep them waiting for the big moment of tension so the climax is earned, and then the chapter after feels like a whirlwind of release, the resolution they needed, so they can close your book happier (or sadder on purpose) than when they started.”

In sales, people often lose prospects along the way, and my teacher’s mini mountain peaks are the way to never do it again. The point between the discovery and the close is not the time to just give the same, constant flow of information, hoping something finally hooks them to say, “let’s close.”

You need to have planned steps that give small moments of excitement to keep them engaged, while purposely pointing out things that will go unresolved until they sign. Create tension; create stress for them. Have moments where you point out why not going with you will be negative, and don’t let those moments be forgotten, and don’t let that tension be solved until the climax. You must keep your upward momentum, but you have to plan it smartly to reach the destination.

CLIMAX

The climax is the moment we all love. The part in the movie we waited two hours to see, the big battle, the moment in the Titanic where the boat hits the iceberg and now we get to find out who lives and who dies. It’s the whole point of a book or movie, and it’s the whole point of a sale—asking for a deal and getting a yes or no. (It’s worth noting that sometimes no’s are the tiny mountains and not actually the end of a deal. Sometimes the tragedy can turn into a happy finish).

Climaxes do not just happen. They are not accidents, but the intentional effort of 300 pages of work. They make sure plot loops are tied in, they make sure this is the biggest peak, and they do everything they can to make sure it is perfect.

Getting a verbal is not something you should just ask at random and hope it works. You need to plan exactly when to do it, how you want to do it, and, like a published book, it should be checked and rechecked, practiced and repracticed. You should be able to ask without batting an eye, be confident, and know exactly how to handle objections or common attempts to barter on price.

The climax is the best part, but it’s also the simplest part because it’s where all the fun is, as long as you know how to stay composed. It’s the part of the book where the main character shows how prepared they are by staying calm to get what they want, and you have to do the same.

FALLING ACTION/RESOLUTION

The falling action and resolution are the parts of the book people forget about, and falling action is a term most people are unfamiliar with. There is an almost perfect analogy to sales here, because after a verbal, when people receive that “yes,” this is also the part of the sale with which people are most unfamiliar.

A deal is not done until it is signed and passed off to your customer success team, and a book would be awful if the big fight scene finished and we got nothing after. People long for resolution, and the same is true in a sale.

Falling action is that part of the book just after the climax. It’s when the big battle ends and you watch the main character walk the battle scene and see their friends dead on the ground. It’s when you see them go home and take care of their wounds. It leads to the resolution when you find out they were successful in their mission.

Good falling action does a few things. It makes sure to wrap up any plot lines that haven’t been wrapped, it shows the outcome of the climax in full, and it’s a chance for the reader to get a bit of tension release before they close the book. It’s a small moment for them to relax just before the close so they can leave feeling satisfied. The climax is great, but we have all finished a book or show where even though the last battle was amazing, or the last little bit of drama was exciting, we were left wanting more (Game of Thrones, nothing more to say).

It’s unprofessional to have a prospect sign a deal, then leave them to their own devices to figure out how to mesh with the next team or figure out your product. It won’t make for a good experience for them, it won’t get you a recommendation, and it’s just unprofessional to get paid and not care about the other person anymore.

Books are amazing. They teach about life, sales, and fun. They are ways to pass down stories and lessons. They are all different yet have similar structures. Sales is the same. No two sales are alike, nor are any two sales professionals. But if you look at the basic structure, and take a little help from our friend Freytag, you are on your way to write your best stories, time and time again.

Do you know what’s not fictional? How much you’ll learn from a Maestro workshop. Reach out at mastery@maestrogroup.co to find out more about our live trainings and self-paced learning modules.