Bernadette McClelland - THE STORY STRATEGIST % SALES LEADERSHIP SPEAKER
When I was a sales rep in Corporate Australia, it was quite common to receive multi 5-figure commissions for selling certain solutions – and most often selling those deals involved a series of detailed stages:
  1. Your normal sales discovery calls
  2. Demonstrations
  3. Trials
  4. Workflow blue-printing
  5. Proposal iterations and
  6. Board decisions that seemed to drag on for ever and left you hanging on the edge of your seat.
RFPs were even harder work.
This one particular day a deal just landed in my lap. A legitimate bluebird, and I remember saying to my manager, 

But I didn’t really earn it ‘

and his words back to me were:

It’s yours! ‘

And herein lies my message for this week.

There is power in the words we use especially when mixed with generational conditioning.

This was my own personal example where attributing the words ‘hard work‘ and ‘earning‘ were linked to financial abundance.

Coming from a family of seven, we were comfortable and didn’t go without the necessities, however my Dad worked multiple jobs, my grandmother sometimes bought our meat for the week and money was scarce. This environment forms a different belief system compared to someone who had access to cash and whose values were around experiencing wealth versus avoiding poverty.

And I am no Robinson Crusoe! The sales environment is littered with salespeople, and leaders, who have grown up in similar situations. Whilst some have overcome those beliefs, many haven’t.

And as a result, I see two challenges where both salespeople and sales leaders have roadblocks to attracting more financial success – whether that be by selling top of the range solutions, upselling, cross-selling, charging top dollar or even just making their minimum numbers.

Those two challenges are:

  1. Believing that ‘selling’ means ‘taking money‘ from a client
  2. Believing that ‘selling’ means ‘having to earn‘ the money.

And to those of you for whom this rings a bell, I am going to challenge you to be more aware of the language you use around selling, prospecting, negotiating, asking for the business and achieving (or overachieving) targets and encourage you to reassess your wording as a first step. There is a difference in giving yourself permission to ‘joyously receive‘ money rather than ‘taking, earning or getting money‘.

Language generates energy and depending on what energy you embody will determine the level and success of any commercial conversation you have – or don’t have.
When you are open to receiving something – and it could be anything – it could be asking for help, taking compliments, accepting feedback or hearing another person’s opinion, then you show up differently. 

And the more you can receive, the more diversifed your thinking and the more filled up your cup.

And we know that when your cup is full you have more to give to others.

Are you ready to receive more money
And isn’t that what selling is really about?
Giving value in exchange for value?
So rather than think of selling as 

giving or taking or earning money!

‘m going to suggest you begin to reframe your thinking to:

receiving and releasing and enjoying money!

If you want your team, your distributors, your members or your audience to be able to ‘receive more money, receive additional sales, receive higher profits‘ then consider helping them package their thinking around money a little differently.

Don’t be scared of different!!

One of the needle-moving concepts my brand new keynote, SELLING. SELLING. SOUL’d addresses is to UNLOCK MONEY BLOCKS because that’s where the light switch really goes on… and don’t you think your buyers might want to work with more bright sparks like you?

Stay Bold, Brave and Brilliant! 

Keynote Speaker - Bernadette McClelland - Sales Leadership and StorySelling Speaker Selling in the Connection Economy. A 5-step sales philosophy for franchises, associations and corporates

 

EVENT ORGANISERS (Video below) – As a speaker, my programs help CEOs of future-focussed sales organisations, who are concerned as to how to help their sales teams stand out more in a heavily competitive environment, gain the lead by securing more profitable and purposeful sales.

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