We’ve got a new book out, 101 Things You Need to Know to Make it as a Travel Writer, that answers 101 questions that we hear from travel writers all the time that are holding them back from achieving their Dream of Travel Writing. To celebrate the new book, we’ll be tackling a new sticky travel-writing situation each Monday here on The Six-Figure Travel Writer blog.

“What is story selling and how can I use it to pitch clients?”

Story selling is this really neat thing where you use some very age-old techniques of how to create a beginning, middle and end of a story around the issue that you see that an organization is facing but you paint yourself as an integral part of that story. With story selling, you show the prospect that the golden land on the other side isn’t possible without your help.

There are five steps to this. My friend who came up with this concept calls it the “5 C’s”:

  1. Current state: The prospect has a lackluster blog, Facebook page, etc.
    At the start of the pitch, you discuss something positive about the prospect’s site or social media right now and also something negative. The idea is to show that there are some things that they’re doing well, but there are some things that really can be improved on.
  2. Conflict: They don’t know how to achieve what they want.
    You’ve come to show them how! Here, you include a statistic and show how important it is to have effective [social media strategy/blog etc.].
  3. Climax: Show them what their business will look like once they’ve achieved their aim.
    In this step, you dive into exactly what you propose to do, but in an over-arching way so that they can’t do it without you. The type of package or plan that you’re proposing for them … that’s the climax. You’re demonstrating the type of content marketing they will have by working with you and that will allow them to reach the point illustrated by the statistic that you shared.
  4. Consequences: You show them how these improvements will impact their business.
    This is where you talk to your prospect about your past experience and how it will help them.
  5. Conclusion: In the last line of your pitch, you ask them to hop on the phone.
    The conclusion is that you should obviously work together and that they should just say, “Hey, yes, let’s chat next week.”

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