I’m at the Tano Bistro restaurant, just outside of Cincinnati, having dinner with my client and 10 of his top employees. I was the featured speaker at this high-tech firm’s second-half kickoff meeting.
We are all enjoying ourselves. The company is ahead of its sales projections, headed towards another record year.
Our waitress asks us for our drink orders. Steve, a very engaging individual from this firm, asks, “Do you have Weller Full Proof Bourbon?”
STEVE
She says, “Yes, and we have our own barrel!”
Steve is ecstatic!
I’m clueless in Cleveland!
I’m a beer guy—specifically, Belgium dark beers. I have not consumed hard alcohol in decades. Coincidently, I have not been drunk or had a hangover in decades. I think there is a connection.
I’m a lightweight when it comes to drinking. And there is no shame in my game.
Over the years, I’ve had friends and family members attempt to coerce me into drinking hard alcohol, and I’d never give in.
At our end of the long dinner table, Steve tells us a story of Weller Full Proof Bourbon.
“Most bourbons are blended by pouring multiple barrels into a filling process. It makes for a more consistent flavor from bottle to bottle.
However, Weller Full Proof is from a single barrel picked by the restaurant. Full-proof bourbon is usually in the premium price range because there’s no water added during the bottling process. That means the bourbon in the bottle is in its purest form—with the most intense flavors and aromas possible. It’s 125 proof going into the barrel and 125 proof coming out.
As you sip, open your mouth as you sniff bourbon. It opens the nasal passage, making your taste buds more involved in the aroma.
Many purists only drink bourbon neat – without ice. I will do that when I try a new bourbon. I have a set of bourbon-specific glasses at home that allow the bourbon to breathe.
But I like a bit of chill on bourbon. I have whiskey stones, but they don’t keep it cool enough/long enough. I prefer a large cube or ball of ice. It keeps it chilled just enough and melts slowly to not water down the bourbon like a regular ice cube.
And you’ve got to try it with chocolate. It enhances the flavor.”
Five Bourbons, Please!
Weller Full Proof Bourbon
Everyone within earshot of Steve’s story orders bourbon with an extra-large ice cube–including me–a card-carrying lightweight!
I could not wait to try it with dessert.
Why did I buy?
Why did I agree to order bourbon on this occasion when I have turned down hard alcohol hundreds, if not thousands of times before?
It was not peer pressure.
A better question is, what did I buy? I bought the story, not the bourbon!
It was the story that Steve told at our table.
We bought the story, not the bourbon.
The story was intriguing, spreadable, and repeatable.
When I think about it, for all my favorite products:
- iPhone
- My health monitoring sports watch
- My car (Lexus)
- My home (on a Golf course)
I bought the story, not the product. The anecdote persuaded me; the product was a buy-product (Get the pun?)
To take a step further, we buy the story, not the product, who we date, vote for, trust, and believe.
If you want your clients to buy from you in a high-stakes sales presentation, you’ve got to have a spreadable, shareable, repeatable, tweetable story.
You want your audience to spread that unique story about your products and services as enthusiastically as Steve did about Weller Full Proof Bourbon. (I thought he worked for Weller!)
If you do, you will set yourself apart and win your subsequent high-stakes presentations.
Next episode, we will explore the elements of spreadable, shareable story selling.
PS: If you had been with us, would you have tried the bourbon?
