Story Spine Instructions
The purpose of the exercise is to co-create a team story.
This will initially be done in pairs (use Breakout Rooms if you’re on Zoom)
Each pair has 10 minutes to create a ‘story’.
The first 2 elements are about the past. Element 3 is about what caused a change. Elements 4-9 are how the team reacted.
- Once upon a time there was a successful sales team.
- They were successful because….
- But then one day…
- And because of that…
- And because of that…
- And because of that…
- And because of that…
- Which meant that eventually…
- And the moral of the story is…
When the pairs have completed the exercise, bring the team together as a whole and listen to each story. Discuss the points raised in plenary.
A (very) generic example might read:
- Once upon a time there was a successful sales team.
- They were successful because… they committed to communicating as effectively with each other as they did with their clients.
- But then one day… the virus struck and they were forced to work remotely. This meant they had to find more innovative and flexible ways to operate.
- And because of that… they used better question sets and were more tech savvy.
- And because of that…they engaged with and understood their clients to a degree they hadn’t managed before.
- And because of that… they were able to sell with greater flexibility and maintained their marketshare.
- And because of that…they realised they’d only been operating at 80% potential.
- Which meant that eventually… when things returned to normal, they were able to apply their new skill-sets in different ways and become yet more effective.
- And the moral of the story is… we get better when we’re tested.
Don’t give your team this, or any, example as all you’ll get back is a slight variant. And let them go a bit crazy with their stories if they want to – it makes the exercise fun and you can always pick out the salient points afterwards.
If you want more information on any aspect of sales storytelling or coaching, email me at greg@gregkeen.co.uk
