A business storytelling specialist and author explains how well-timed and well-told anecdotes can be a powerful tool in a mortgage broker's day to day work.
Business storytelling specialist and author, Shawn Callahan works with leaders and sellers around the world helping them find and tell oral stories to spark action. Here he explains how well-timed and well-told anecdotes can be a powerful tool in a mortgage broker's day to day work.
Six months ago, a couple – let’s call them Sally and David – sat in the office of a broker finalising their first home loan.
David worked in construction and Sally was a stay-at-home mum. Their two highly energetic daughters, aged four and two, bounced around the office as the paperwork was completed. The broker, Angela, strongly suggested Sally and David take out mortgage insurance. At first the couple resisted. They felt a bit annoyed at the idea of being hit with yet another fee. But to Angela’s relief they eventually agreed. Everything was now set for Sally and David to move into their new house.
Four months later Angela received the phone call she dreaded. It was Sally, and she was beside herself: David had been killed in a workplace accident. Angela could not take away Sally’s pain, but she could ease it a little by reminding Sally that she had taken out mortgage insurance. After Angela had explained that the family home was fully protected, Sally just said, ‘Thank you’.
I heard this anecdote while I was helping a group of mortgage lenders find and tell stories to help their clients understand the importance of what they were being offered. To begin with, the lenders didn’t think they had any stories to tell. But soon they started to remember the successes they’d had over the years, which they could now share with their customers.
The experienced, successful broker, in fact any effective seller, intuitively shares personal experiences and anecdotes. It helps them connect emotionally with clients and inspire action. I remember working with a group of financial advisers to identify the traits of the most successful among them. Two things set the best apart from the rest: they proactively contacted their clients when there was bad news – novices avoided their clients when bad things happened – and they freely shared their experiences, their stories, as lessons.
The best way to share a success story is to deliver it as an insight. The renowned psychologist Gary Klein says that an insight is an unexpected shift to a better story. Everyone has stories in their head. One of your jobs is to help people find the most beneficial one.
It’s better to offer your success story as a hard-learned lesson than to gloat over it like a trophy. For example, if your customer is resisting mortgage insurance, you might say something like, ‘I understand. This just feels like another fee on top of a bunch of others. I helped a couple about six months ago who felt the same way. Their names were Sally and David …’ Then you tell their story.
Crafting a success story
A good success story has a defined structure. First, you should introduce the characters and show how they are like your listener. This is important because we are more influenced by people who are just like us. For example, you might not share the story of Sally and David with a single, wealthy lawyer, but it would be ideal for another working couple. Don’t make up this common ground on the fly. Rather, find a bunch of stories that you can match with different audiences.
And use names. People like to hear stories about people. If you can’t share someone’s real name, use a pseudonym. Just make sure it’s clear that you have made up the name, just as I did when telling the story of Sally and David.
Now introduce the problem the characters faced and how they felt about it. In the case of Sally and David, it was the problem of having to pay yet another fee – for mortgage insurance – and the frustration that caused them to resist this. It’s important that your audience connects with the emotions felt by the story’s characters. You want them to be thinking: ‘That’s just how I feel’.
Then share the solution and how that felt. In the story of Sally and David, it’s Sally who feels thankful that she and her husband said yes to mortgage insurance. You can imagine how relieved she felt. The story should leave your audience thinking, ‘If I was in that situation, I would want to feel relieved and thankful too’.
Granted, the story of Sally and David is an extreme one, but it’s not uncommon. Most times, however, success stories are less about life and death and more about someone making a better financial decision, getting something done for their family or pursuing their desired lifestyle. Regardless, take the same approach: start with the characters, share their problem and how it felt, then share the solution and how that felt, leaving your audience to infer they want to feel that way too.
Finding and remembering good stories to tell
To use this technique, you have to notice the good stories that are most likely washing past you right now. Jot down important details such as the date and people’s names and store them where they are easy to access. I use the smartphone app Evernote but a trusty notebook will also do the job as your story bank.
Of course, the best stories are the ones you can tell off the cuff. To get a story into your memory, first tell it to someone who’s willing to have a good conversation about it. Discuss with that person what the story means to you and listen to what it means to them. They might say it’s all about how a small investment can ultimately save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, or how insurance means peace of mind. This conversation helps you make meaning of the story and triggers the remembering process. Now just tell the story three times and it will be locked in.
In the case of Sally and David, Angela saw their story as being about how dismissing something as ‘yet another fee’ could leave someone uninsured and vulnerable. Somewhere down the track, when she’s talking to someone who’s baulking at getting mortgage insurance, that story will pop into her mind and she can share it.
Shawn Callahan is business storytelling specialist and founder of Anecdote. Shawn works with leaders and sellers around the world helping them find and tell oral stories to spark action. He is the author of Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling (Pepperberg Press). For more information visit www.anecdote.com or contact [email protected]
Six months ago, a couple – let’s call them Sally and David – sat in the office of a broker finalising their first home loan.
David worked in construction and Sally was a stay-at-home mum. Their two highly energetic daughters, aged four and two, bounced around the office as the paperwork was completed. The broker, Angela, strongly suggested Sally and David take out mortgage insurance. At first the couple resisted. They felt a bit annoyed at the idea of being hit with yet another fee. But to Angela’s relief they eventually agreed. Everything was now set for Sally and David to move into their new house.
Four months later Angela received the phone call she dreaded. It was Sally, and she was beside herself: David had been killed in a workplace accident. Angela could not take away Sally’s pain, but she could ease it a little by reminding Sally that she had taken out mortgage insurance. After Angela had explained that the family home was fully protected, Sally just said, ‘Thank you’.
I heard this anecdote while I was helping a group of mortgage lenders find and tell stories to help their clients understand the importance of what they were being offered. To begin with, the lenders didn’t think they had any stories to tell. But soon they started to remember the successes they’d had over the years, which they could now share with their customers.
The experienced, successful broker, in fact any effective seller, intuitively shares personal experiences and anecdotes. It helps them connect emotionally with clients and inspire action. I remember working with a group of financial advisers to identify the traits of the most successful among them. Two things set the best apart from the rest: they proactively contacted their clients when there was bad news – novices avoided their clients when bad things happened – and they freely shared their experiences, their stories, as lessons.
The best way to share a success story is to deliver it as an insight. The renowned psychologist Gary Klein says that an insight is an unexpected shift to a better story. Everyone has stories in their head. One of your jobs is to help people find the most beneficial one.
It’s better to offer your success story as a hard-learned lesson than to gloat over it like a trophy. For example, if your customer is resisting mortgage insurance, you might say something like, ‘I understand. This just feels like another fee on top of a bunch of others. I helped a couple about six months ago who felt the same way. Their names were Sally and David …’ Then you tell their story.
Crafting a success story
A good success story has a defined structure. First, you should introduce the characters and show how they are like your listener. This is important because we are more influenced by people who are just like us. For example, you might not share the story of Sally and David with a single, wealthy lawyer, but it would be ideal for another working couple. Don’t make up this common ground on the fly. Rather, find a bunch of stories that you can match with different audiences.
And use names. People like to hear stories about people. If you can’t share someone’s real name, use a pseudonym. Just make sure it’s clear that you have made up the name, just as I did when telling the story of Sally and David.
Now introduce the problem the characters faced and how they felt about it. In the case of Sally and David, it was the problem of having to pay yet another fee – for mortgage insurance – and the frustration that caused them to resist this. It’s important that your audience connects with the emotions felt by the story’s characters. You want them to be thinking: ‘That’s just how I feel’.
Then share the solution and how that felt. In the story of Sally and David, it’s Sally who feels thankful that she and her husband said yes to mortgage insurance. You can imagine how relieved she felt. The story should leave your audience thinking, ‘If I was in that situation, I would want to feel relieved and thankful too’.
Granted, the story of Sally and David is an extreme one, but it’s not uncommon. Most times, however, success stories are less about life and death and more about someone making a better financial decision, getting something done for their family or pursuing their desired lifestyle. Regardless, take the same approach: start with the characters, share their problem and how it felt, then share the solution and how that felt, leaving your audience to infer they want to feel that way too.
Finding and remembering good stories to tell
To use this technique, you have to notice the good stories that are most likely washing past you right now. Jot down important details such as the date and people’s names and store them where they are easy to access. I use the smartphone app Evernote but a trusty notebook will also do the job as your story bank.
Of course, the best stories are the ones you can tell off the cuff. To get a story into your memory, first tell it to someone who’s willing to have a good conversation about it. Discuss with that person what the story means to you and listen to what it means to them. They might say it’s all about how a small investment can ultimately save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, or how insurance means peace of mind. This conversation helps you make meaning of the story and triggers the remembering process. Now just tell the story three times and it will be locked in.
In the case of Sally and David, Angela saw their story as being about how dismissing something as ‘yet another fee’ could leave someone uninsured and vulnerable. Somewhere down the track, when she’s talking to someone who’s baulking at getting mortgage insurance, that story will pop into her mind and she can share it.
Shawn Callahan is business storytelling specialist and founder of Anecdote. Shawn works with leaders and sellers around the world helping them find and tell oral stories to spark action. He is the author of Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling (Pepperberg Press). For more information visit www.anecdote.com or contact [email protected]
