Connection, Communication & Confidence: Our storytelling workshop helped Airtel Business's mid-market sales team sell better

For a minute, let's think of sales as a staircase.

A salesperson takes their first step up armed with sales theory, in-depth product knowledge, and a drive to win a purchase order. Ahead of them lies the pathway to fulfilment: handling an account → successfully selling the product → directly impacting revenue.

But often, the finish line isn't the closing of a deal, but the beginning of a long-term relationship. Selling is hard enough -- how do you then retain your customers, ensuring they choose you over the competition time and time again?

Can storytelling help account managers connect with mid-market leaders?

The Mid-Market Sales team at Airtel Business, spread across NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore, had the same question.

Their target audience was CXOs of emerging businesses who choose their vendor-partners based on relationship and trust, more than the product and its features. But KAMs at Airtel Business were unable to connect with their CXO buyers directly. They often interacted with one or two levels below.

The KAMs needed a tool that would help them empathise, connect and build trust with their customers, instead of sticking to a generic script. A tool that had benefited other Airtel sales teams -- and they entrusted us at Tellable to help them bridge that communication gap.

Identifying the sales communication gaps

As it happens, close to 40% of the salespeople in the Mid-Market Sales segment were fresh out of college. Bright, talented, enthusiastic...but also lacking in the confidence that comes with experience.

The tendency to stay in your comfort zone is understandable, but not helpful for business. When the new team members met a prospective buyer, their first instinct under pressure and fear was to pitch the Airtel Business product they knew best, irrespective of what the customer actually needed. The communication gap widened.

Remember that staircase analogy? For new salespeople, without the right tools that upward journey can feel more like scaling a mountain. ("Don't look down!")

But it's not the end of the world: they just needed the communication techniques to handle executive conversations. To resist the pressure to pitch.

And what is storytelling if not a tool to communicate?

Storytelling workshop design and delivery for mid-market sales teams

We built our workshop accordingly. The session would help KAMs build relationships with prospects, and guide new salespeople in navigating sales conversations like pros. Together, it would help the Mid-Market segment move from product pushers to product partners.

In two weeks' time, we were ready to roll out the workshop across Airtel Business's HQ in Gurgaon, and branches in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The first half of the workshop focused on giving participants a thorough understanding of the storytelling concepts, encouraging them to ask questions and problem-solve in real time.

The participants then had to apply those concepts to the central question: how can we shift a sales conversation from product-led to problem-led, which would make it more customer-focussed?

With an interactive quiz game and situational roleplay, the participants arrived at the answer:

• Listening first, solutions second

• Asking questions to understand the problem(s) in-depth

• Articulating the customer's problems, rather than pitching what you know best

• Consultative selling rather than pitching in the dark

To see is to do, and to do is to learn. The Airtel Business Mid-Market Sales segment now had a tool to fill the gaps.

Upwards and onwards

When a salesperson is faced with uncertainty, it's only human to hesitate, stumble, or feel like the end is no longer in sight. Climbing stairs is tiring, after all.

But storytelling is the handrails on this staircase. A support system that guides you upward, and a safety net you can rely on when you get stuck.

Together we can climb to new heights. Let's connect.

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