Don Yaeger highlights the importance of storytelling in new book

Jordan Belfort’s famous “sell me this pen” exercise reinforces the notion that sellers aren’t best served by focusing on their own needs (to sell), but rather on those of their customers (finding a solution to their problem). It’s not about what the pen can do, of course, but what you the customer specifically need. With this as a North Star, sellers can create valuable connections with prospects. Storytelling is a crucial part of this tool kit, and is especially important in the era of AI workslop.

Author Don Yaeger is stressing the power of good storytelling in his new book, The Business of Storytelling, highlighting its importance for business leaders and founders as a way to break through the noise and make lasting connections. The book gives best practices of good storytelling and stresses the impact it can make as AI-powered automation threatens to make interactions stale and mundane.

Revenue Brew sat down with Yaeger to discuss his new book and how storytelling can improve a salesperson’s outcomes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?

I was a freshman in college when I was home for the holidays when my father, a preacher and really great storyteller, and my mother used to invite hundreds of people over for Thanksgiving. He would always stand up and tell a story. That year, instead of watching him tell a story, I watched the room watch him tell a story and how they were riveted to every word. I thought, “Man, I would love to learn how to do that,” so I began the process of studying the best storytellers in the world, getting access to many of them…to get an opportunity to go sit with them and learn what it is they do to make their stories so time-stopping.

Why do you think good storytelling is a skill sales reps need to have?

The sales rep that’s coming in right before you and right after you when you’re making a call, they’re probably stuck on trying to explain why their widget will do something better or faster than yours. If you come in and you’re the same, then you’re just one of three. If you come in and you actually tell that buyer a story about somebody who your widget recently helped improve their sales, or helped accelerate their company, you are in. You’re seen differently. You’re heard differently. You stand out and your opportunity for success is just markedly greater.

What crossovers do you see between a great storyteller and a great sales rep?

There is that ability, that skill. That’s a really important word: It’s a skill, it’s not a gift. It’s not something you’re born with. It is a skill you develop and it’s a muscle you exercise. The best salespeople always lean in…The best salespeople are almost always great storytellers.

What are some success stories you’ve seen with storytelling?

I do some work for the North American Latin American sales team of Nvidia. Obviously Nvidia is what it is right now—it’s on a roll and everything that it seems to touch turns to gold—but they recognize that if the source of their success remains just the good fortune of having a guy in a black jacket standing on stages, there are days that doesn’t always work and competition’s always catching up, so they are learning. They’re working so that they can maintain their competitive advantage. They recognize they’ve got one, but they also know that if they don’t develop themselves as storytellers intentionally—and that’s a really key word, it’s an intention to be good at this—that they risk their current market position.

In the era of AI, where does storytelling fit in with sales?

It’s great to lean into AI for a number of things. It can be helpful in research and in other places, but if you lean into AI for your story, you’re making a huge mistake. AI can give you words, but the words don’t have heart, and a good story has heart. AI can’t be curious like you are. AI can’t be visual like you are. AI can’t relate to others as you are required to do if you’re going to be successful in sales, so if you lean into AI to tell your story, you’re hurting yourself.