{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"#492 4 Stories to Add to Your Sales Toolbelt (ft. Mark Dixon)","description":"Shownotes Most sales training tells you to talk about your past projects. Mark Dixon talks about spaghetti. In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan Shinholser sits down with Mark Dixon, co-owner of Odd Fellows Contracting in Michigan and a remodeler with more than 40 years in the trade. Logan first heard Mark speak at the Rise Conference earlier this year and expected a talk about project storytelling. Instead he got Italian food. Mark walks through the three analogies he actually uses in the field: the spaghetti dinner that explains why nobody can price an addition over the phone, the client who told him remodeling is exactly like giving birth to a baby, and the tomato aisle that dismantles the "all remodelers are the same" objection without ever mentioning what remodeling costs. The conversation gets into the mechanics, not just the metaphors. Mark explains why he asks questions inside the story instead of narrating it, how he lands on four possible decisions at the end of the spaghetti dinner \u2014 including the fourth one, going hungry, that nobody ever picks. He talks about when he chooses not to tell the story at all. There's a stretch on why he uses clients' real first and last names when he tells these stories in someone's living room, plus the dumpster he wrapped in a three-foot red bow and the kids' drywall paintings he cut out and framed as a closing gift. Logan pushes on where a contractor who isn't a natural storyteller should begin, and Mark's answer starts at the dinner table with your own family. If you've ever watched a homeowner's face go blank while you explained your design process, this episode gives you three stories you can borrow and a method for building your own. Timestamps: 00:00 \u2014 Why every story Mark tells comes back to food 00:55 \u2014 Two guys doing odd jobs: how Odd Fellows got its name 03:06 \u2014 The spaghetti story: what happens when you push the cart together 06:33 \u2014 You don't know the price until you get to the checkout 11:47 \u2014 The four decisions every homeowner makes, including the one nobody picks 14:52 \u2014 Read the room first: when Mark skips the story entirely 19:29 \u2014 A client tells Mark that remodeling is like giving birth 26:37 \u2014 Not all tomatoes are created equal 33:38 \u2014 The dumpster with a three-foot red bow on it 45:24 \u2014 Where to start if telling stories feels unnatural ","author_name":"Contractor Growth Network","author_url":"http:\/\/contractormarketingtips.libsyn.com\/website","html":"