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Here be dragons by richard mulholland

WHO SHOULD READ:

We are all salesmen in one form or the other. So this book will definitely benefit everyone to learn how to influence ideas, change minds and solve problems. The world is obsessed with the power of storytelling and this book delivers fresh ideas on the topic

SUMMARY:

The main theme of this book is that we need to be storysellers instead of story tellers. Over the years, we have learnt through many mediums the importance of good story telling. The stories we tell however needs to support the stories we want to sell. This book highlights that when you are trying to persuade a person, it is important to realise there is a story that matters - and that’s theirs. Therefore, the most critical part for me in this book was that you need to stop telling them your story and rather focus on selling them theirs. We are all so focused on our own lives, so it’s important to realise that we are only extras in someone else’s movie (story). They are the hero in their own movie.

It is vital to know what matters most to your customers - more than just their job requirements, and the company itself. You need to figure out how they want their movie to play out. This is know as the victory condition.

  1. A critical concept in this book is that customers have a blind spot and standing in that blind spot between them, and their potential is a fire breathing dragon.

  2. A similar analogy is that your prospect needs to see the problem you fix like a great big iceberg between where they are and where they want to be. Sometimes they don’t even know it’s there. That is also where the opportunity exists for you.

From these two themes we learn that the first anchor is the dragon/ iceberg, and the second anchor is the treasure/ victory condition. you need to spend as much time selling the dragon as you do anything else. The most important part is that you need to sell the dragon that only you can sell. During the discovery process you need to get the customer to show the dragon to you. This is done through probing with questions. Every bit of detail better rendering the dragon. Just keep asking questions until you understand their worldview. The more they render the dragon, the easier your job gets. If the cost of inaction in your prospects business is high, they will be more likely to give you an order. Therefore, you also need to determine this cost during your discovery process.

Rich Mulholland further explains the happiness hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt called Rider riding an elephant. The rider oversees your conscious reasoning (rational decision). Everything else is the elephant. This means that if you want to persuade someone to do anything, you need to speak to their elephant first. If the elephant likes what you’re saying then the rider is easily influenced. In sales we first buy with emotion and then justify with logic. So, the picture of the future that you are selling to your hero ( the danger of the dragon and the desire for the treasure), must speak straight to their elephant.

The real lesson of this book is that the most powerful storysellers are not the ones with the best answers, but the ones with the best questions.

“ Your story can be rewritten any time you want, you don’t need permission, you just need to start daydreaming about some treasure-guarding dragons and the quest you would have to commit to in order to defeat them.”