Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Story-Selling with Bernadette McClelland

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Story-Selling with Bernadette McClelland · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  And the stories that we need to look at are the root causes of the challenges in those three
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  areas, the internal stories that Sanyat sells people, and sales leaders tell themselves about
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  the buyer or the deal, more the cost, or the product, It's the external stories that is the
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  stories that they tell their buyer.
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  And it's the essential stories, the stories they need to elicit.
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  From their buyer.
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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, I left off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the smallbizchat podcast.
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  With the number one small business expert, Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure.
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  And she'll give you the information lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the Small Bushed podcast Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners, bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
• 1:19
  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bridge podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small busily.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I'm so excited to welcome you to another
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  episode of the small biz chat podcast.
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  Now today, we're gonna be talking about storytelling, how to turn around a business in
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  tough times and how to boost your brand.
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  How do you story selling to boost your sales is key And it's not how it used to be, so it's
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  important to talk about it.
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  And how would you know how to reinvent your business if things got really, really tight.
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  And many of you are going through that right now and how to build a brand will always be
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  able to bring you in customer.
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  We're gonna be talking with a small business expert who's gonna teach us all how to do just
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  that.
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  If you're looking for ways to grow your sales, you are in the right place.
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  Our guest new book is about how do you story selling to grow your sales.
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  And if this economy had your business struggling, I got the charter route expert He
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  is here, and he's gonna give all of us advice on what you need to do and how you need to
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  reinvigorate your staff to do it.
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  And certainly all of us want to know how to build a quality brand.
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  Because when you build a quality brand, your customers will find you.
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  And so we're gonna be talking about that on today's show as well.
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  Here on the small biz chat, we talk about small business topic from all different angles.
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  Think of it as a peer to peer mentoring program.
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  You can't afford our advice, but we're giving it to you free today.
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  And that is to fulfill our mission of the small biz chat podcast to end small business failure.
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  Now the small bitch chat broadcast can be seen on my small business lady Facebook page and on
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  YouTube.
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  Please subscribe and share and leave us a comment.
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  If there's a topic you want us to tackle, Leave it in the chat or leave it in the comments, and
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  we will be sure to address it on a future episode.
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  Now it's time for me to introduce my very first guest, my good friend, Bernadette McCleiden,
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  and she's gonna kill me because I keep screwing up her last name.
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  She is a high content speaker on sales leadership and storytelling.
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  She offers her clients a unique experience in helping them sell in this new connection
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  economy.
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  She's a natural storyteller and very inspirational speaker on leadership, sales, and
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  motivation, as she's currently a sales mentor for a Harvard MBA student.
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  She's rated 1 of the top 50 sales speakers has been a master coach for Anthony Robbins, and
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  she is recognized as a top 1% sales leader globally Her new book, shift, and disrupt, stop
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  selling widgets, start selling wisdom is available now.
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  If you want more information on her, go to Bernadettemcclendon.com.
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  Bernadette, how are you?
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  I am really good, Belinda, and it well done.
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  Like, I gotta give you points.
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  I think there was about 4 different varieties of mcclellan.
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  Waiting into my head and not all my heart.
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  You know, I do my best.
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  I'm, wonderful, wonderful to see you.
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  Wonderful to be here.
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  Now, Bernadette, you have an Australian accent, but you're coming to us from Denver, Colorado.
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  Tell us how you ended up in the US and how you became a small business.
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  We'll stay out expert.
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  Jenna, let's talk.
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  Look, like, I've been on the on a prac tissue nurse.
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  So I, I am just like everybody else out there.
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  I am still a salesperson, and, you know, it's important that I walk my talk.
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  I I've been in corporate Australia for a number of years and stepped out into the world of
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  small business, you know, a decade or so ago.
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  Coming to America was, a gift back in 2018.
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  My husband and I just threw the dice and thought, let's see what it takes to To become a
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  resident of the United States, and I was extremely lucky.
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  I submitted a proposal to immigration in 12 weeks later as stepped it, and I was rather
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  than immediate green card, which is no tourist visa.
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  I'm here as a resident, so you're stuck with me.
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  And we're loving it here in Denver, but we're absolutely loving it.
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  So how did you become a sales expert?
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  Quite certain.
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  I kind of like that expert part.
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  I have grown up in companies in a Australia like Xerox and Kodak and computer associates as
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  a sales as a salesperson and, watch my way up from self trainee when I left corporate, I was
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  one of, you know, the senior executives.
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  And I decided that, you know, I believed that, you know, back in the eighties that was very
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  much the whole approach to sales was very clangari, Greg Ross, you know, very wolf of
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  Wall Street, almost.
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  You know, I just the leave that there was another way to sell, and that is really
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  bringing in our our ability or our tendency to wanna just Be ourselves to bring story into the
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  equation and lose that real hustle for one of a better word, and so I started to deliver
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  trainings and work with businesses in Australia, and that's that's been ongoing now
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  for
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  a number of years, and and I just love it.
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  So tell me, how do you think this selling has been disrupted since the pandemic?
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  Or, look, I think all of our have seen that shift, you know, having to move from face to
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  face to hybrid to to online, 100% online for a couple of years, and now we're kinda moving
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  into the hybrid world.
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  I'm seeing more and more businesses are wanting their people to come back into the office.
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  And and use the offices there based.
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  You know, I think one of the challenges for salespeople today is is not being able to walk
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  into a business or, you know, walk into into the door and find the person that you're
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  wanting to get hold of with with businesses or with you know, decision maker still working
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  from home, having the ability to kind of ring them or to contact them is a real you at the
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  moment that, you know, there's a flipside to that too.
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  And that is when you do have the conversation with them, I think, you know, if it's on zoom,
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  I think there's I don't know.
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  I think we've all got used now used to seeing people in their home office environment, and I
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  think that That's almost bought a little bit of, I don't know, intimacy or or connection,
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  the ability there to connect at a different level.
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  So they I think there's there's both of the gate.
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  So I know that you like the term story selling,
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  and I and I want you to define it for us and tell us how it's used today in the selling
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  process.
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  Look, you know, there's a number of of really great programs out there.
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  I've run a number
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  of them, for salespeople based on storytelling.
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  And that is, you know, how do you take the the whole, I guess, methodology of telling a story
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  in order to be able to interact with somebody, connect with the better emotional level through
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  story because we we all know that, you know, that's a given.
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  That's gonna connect with somebody more and more when you're able to, you know, tell a
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  story.
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  But I was sitting there late last year, and I was thinking, oh, hang on.
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  I really think these are more two story than just telling stories.
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  So I thought, you know, story is our oldest form of communication.
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  We know that for a fact, you know, I've I've just come back from, you know, the Mesavera
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  here up in in in Colorado and seeing that the picroglifts on the rocks, like, I mean, stories
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  go back thousands of beers.
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  So we know that that's our oldest form of communication.
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  Sailing is our oldest form of commerce.
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  So when we look at communication and commerce, I just thought, you know, there's this
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  portmanteau bringing these two words together as storytelling.
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  And it's like, okay.
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  How can I bring something different to to the market that that augment existing sale
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  methodologies that businesses out there have, but also got is that a little bit deeper than
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  just telling stories?
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  So The book shipped and disrupt, which, I've just launched is based on the story selling
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  circles, the the philosophy.
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  And basically, that is the the three things that we need to focus on for a business is
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  connecting with our buyers the right level.
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  It's deepening our conversations and it's accelerating our conversions.
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  And so those stories are the, sit at the intersections of those three Challenges, if you
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  like.
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  And the stories that we need to look at are the root causes of the challenges in those three
• 10:35
  areas.
• 10:35
  The internal stories that Sanyat salespeople and sales leaders tell themselves about the
• 10:43
  buyer or the deal, more the cost or the product, It's the external stories that is the
• 10:49
  stories that they tell their buyer.
• 10:52
  And it's the essential stories, the stories they need to elicit.
• 10:56
  From their buyer.
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  And so that's my, I guess, my big model in coming off that model are 9 story modes.
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  So that That's the body of work.
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  There's a bit of
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  a game changer because it's taking story and selling to a totally different level.
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  Well, one of the things that you talk about in your book also is how we just need to shift
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  from selling stuff to selling wisdom.
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  And talk about that.
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  Yeah.
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  So if you've, if you you think of the shift that salespeople have gotta make, they've gotta
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  stop talking about their product or their service.
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  It's we know that.
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  We've heard that mantra and that cliche forever.
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  You know, it's it's not about you.
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  And so how do we what is the wisdom part of it?
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  Well, if we think of what wisdom is, wisdom is acting or contemplating with, you know, with
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  experience, with knowledge, with insight.
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  And so then you link that to all the studies that have been done where 53% of salespeople
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  pick a number either side of 50 are not making their number but then 71% of buyers are saying
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  that salespeople aren't coming to the table.
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  With enough value, with enough insights.
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  And so as part of one of my models, we're we're tasting it up a notch, a couple of notches,
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  actually, and how do you come to the table with relevance and wisdom?
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  Can you
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  share an example, all of this like, you know, how storytelling has positively impacted, like,
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  one of your sales efforts?
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  Yes.
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  So so okay.
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  One of my clients is, is a a global telecommunications company.
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  And they've gone through, you know, probably over the past 5 or 6 years, you know, massive
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  disruption.
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  Outside of COVID, they're rebranding themselves completely and part of their go to market is to
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  become a storytelling company.
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  And so it's really interesting because they're telling that telecommunications industry, the
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  CTOs or the the technical offices, the the sales people are very much technical.
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  And so technical people will tend to think, you know, story.
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  I don't need story.
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  You know, it's it's not logistical.
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  It's not bits and bytes.
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  It's not technical, but because there's kind of like certain structures to it, They love it,
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  and they actually become some of the best storytellers, whereas the typical sales person
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  who loves to tell a really good story sometimes is not relevant.
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  So there's this whole in this, you can see the shift.
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  And and so the there is an impact being made.
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  Thank you so much, Bernadette.
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  When we come back, we're gonna talk more about story selling and how it can help you be more
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  effective.
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  You're watching the small business chat podcast and we will be right back.
• 14:02
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• 14:05
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• 14:11
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• 14:20
  Yeah.
• 14:20
  That's you.
• 14:24
  Hi there.
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  Welcome back to the small business chat podcast.
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  I am Belinda Emerson, your host.
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  We're talking with a sales expert about storytelling, Bernadette, tell me something,
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  can you adapt a storytelling approach to different customer segments or in multiple
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  industries?
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  Oh, absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  But and I think from a commercial perspective, if you're able to do your research, and then be
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  able to look for the patterns in that research, bring it into some form of a mental model
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  because that is another way to tell a story and sit there and co create with your buyer We're
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  both on the same side of the table now, and they know that
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  you get them.
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  And you share any best practice sisters for, salesperson that wants to incorporate
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  storytelling into how they're pitching, you know, their corporate client.
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  Definitely.
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  I'm just thinking, yeah, yes, definitely.
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  So make sure that whatever it is that you are sharing in from a story perspective has a
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  business point.
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  There must be some relevant business point And and secondly is to really hone in on your
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  questions.
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  And when you can when you can frame your questions, from the angle of eliciting their
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  story, you'll actually naturally become more present to the conversation They'll do more of
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  the heavy lifting, and you will have more data
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  or when it's time to deliver your proposal.
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  And then what is the best business advice you've ever been given?
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  Buffalo, do you taxes?
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  And I always have.
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  That is good advice.
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  Thank you so much, Bernadette, for being here with me on the small Bishop podcast.
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  You guys don't forget to grab her new book.
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  It is shift and disrupt.
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  Stop selling widgets.
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  Start selling wisdom.
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  And when we come right back, we're gonna be talking about how to turn things around.
• 16:32
  If you've been struggling in your business, you're watching the small business chat
• 16:36
  podcast, and we will be right back.
• 16:41
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• 16:42
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• 17:23
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• 17:28
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• 17:31
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 17:35
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 17:39
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.