Learn How Body Language can help you Boost Your Sales W/ Linda Clemons

0:28Welcome to the Big Success Podcast. amazing salesperson, always been in commission sales for her life. Now she's in that whole top sales trainers in the world. And I want you to learn everything you can from her, not just about sales and communication and body language, but also about her philosophies on success, especially the stuff her grandma throws in, some of the things she tells about how she got to learn about success from those lessons. She said to share the stage with Oprah, she's been on there with presidents. He is an amazing teacher. And I think you're going to a lot of learning from Linda today.

1:00Take some notes. Let's make success happen. Linda Clemens, I can't wait to have you on these answering these questions for me, but I always start with this one. What is success to you? Well, success to me, and thank you so much, success to me is freedom. And freedom is not free, but freedom allows you to choose what to eat, your education, where you want to live and be content in it. One of my mentors told me years ago that when you get to a point of happiness and contentment, not always yearning, if you will, like it's never enough or never enough, then you are at the point of success. So successful to me is being at peace and having freedom and the power and the right to choose.

1:51Do you think that's changed for you over the years? Was it always that way or did you have to grow into that definition? Great question. I had to grow into it because sometimes we rush things. Sometimes we want things sooner than I guess the universe has in store for us. My grandmother used to say, honey, some things are greater later. And that's the thing that builds the strength. Like a person who's going out to win the gold in the Olympian, they just can't wake up one morning and says, I'm going to the Olympian. They have to build the muscle, the determination, the stamina, the strength, the routine, the system to be able to do that.

2:34So it took some time. And with that time and the years of experience, the greatest teacher in the world, it gave me an area of understanding and patience that I wouldn't probably been able to appreciate, Brad, if it all happened right now. Yeah, yeah. Grandma had some good advice, that is for sure. So let's go back then in your life. When did you choose success? When did you, was it a specific thing? Was there a time? Was there an era? How did you choose it? I chose success as an elementary student in elementary school because I'm the oldest of four kids. And at the time growing up, it was difficult financially for a mother to provide everything for all of us, in essence, our wants rather than our needs.

3:22But we didn't know it, Brad. We didn't know it. So there was an opportunity for me to get involved in a contest. And the reason why I wanted a bicycle, all of my friends, my age had a bicycle and I wanted to ride with my friends. Mom couldn't afford it. And there was an opportunity in elementary school to win a bike because they had a fundraiser and that was selling candy. And oh my goodness, my why was so big. And it was that bike. See, I'm a youngster. My why was that bike. And I saw it every day, every night. And that's the same thing with a vision. You wake up with it. You live with it. You eat it.

4:02You drink it. And I did that and I was able to accomplish my goal. So that's where my sales career started in elementary school as the number one candy seller in my school. Oh, that's phenomenal. I love it. When did you get into sales? When I was a kid. Every kid's a great salesperson. We should learn a lot from them. Well, let's take that a step further then and think, what is your formula? How does success happen in your world? What's your way of making success happen? Well, how I make success happen, first of all, I get clear on what my why is and my vision, and then I create a plan. So sometimes we have to pause and create the plan, and I create possible obstacles, possible rewards, and I also look at, will I need partners to help me in my success plan?

4:56See, so many of us think that I'm going to do it by alone. I'm going to do it alone and do it by myself. And my granny would say, honey, someone had to pull you out into the world. You couldn't get here by yourself until someone pulled you out, smacked you on the behind and you yelled and said, hello world. So sometimes we need success partners and we need help and support. It's like with the organization that you've created, you've built. It's built with tools and all the things that you need, but the formula is you have to add yourself. So one thing I knew, I couldn't do it alone. And I also knew that I didn't know everything.

5:32I just needed to slay, as the young people would say, slay in my lane and bring in the partners who had the mastery in their lane. And that's the thing that I still do to this day. And it also helps me in networking as well. Now, you mentioned you start with finding your why, your vision. If someone's struggling with that, what's some strategies they can use that you use to find your why, to define your vision for yourself? I love this. So if you look around the world, you look in the news, you read newspapers if they're still around, magazines, online, doesn't matter whether it's online, print or whatever, you'll see people who are great in specific areas.

6:11So if someone is great in social justice, so if someone is great as an educator or as a CEO and a leader, here's what takes place. The problem that you see, the problem that you notice, it keeps calling you. So an example like this, can anybody see that these people are hungry? Why aren't people doing something to feed the hungry, create a center? And no one else may be thinking, well, you know, someone else will do it. But it keeps calling you. And I tell people all the time, your job is what you are paid for, but your purpose is what you're made for. So everyone, I believe, was put on this earth to be attached to a problem that you are gifted to solve.

6:55And it never leaves your mind. It bugs you when you see things not moving that way. That is your assignment. And now that's what works for me. So when I see things that are challenging, why don't someone do something about it? Maybe we can do this better. It may not be we. The assignment may be given to me to make the first move. And for me, that's the first sign. Love it. I love that. So let's dive onto the opposite side of that, Ben. How does failure teach success or is it even failure? How do we learn from that? Okay. I love this. I love these questions. You need your own talk show on TV. So check this out.

7:34Failure, and this is to everyone that's listening. Failure is not final. Failure is feedback. That's how I look at failure. It's not final, it's feedback. What if Edison would have stopped at the very first try? We'd probably be sitting in the dark. But what, he attempted over 10 ,000 times? So it's feedback. This didn't work. This didn't work. Let me try this. Let me try that. So do not look at failure as final. Look at it as feedback and learn from that. So when you think about and you're coaching and working with and teaching and training, How do you get someone to actually shift that mindset?

8:22Because some people get stuck in the failure, scared of making a mistake, that whole thing. Well, one of the things that I tell my master's students, and there's a quote that I love, if you can see it in your mind, you can have it in your hand. And someone would say, well, Linda, what does that mean? If you look around, be it in your room, wherever you are listening or watching this broadcast, and ask yourself, wonder how someone invented this object? Wonder how someone created this? It started, it was a birth and a seed in the mind. So if you can see it and dream it, you could become it. So one of the things that I do in sales, when someone says, well, I can't do this, or if someone says to me, well, I can never ever see myself.

9:10And I go like this. So Brad, if you could, if you were able to do it, what would it look like? What would it feel like? And the moment that you begin to speak it, then you begin to activate things in the brain, because the subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between falsehood or reality, and you begin to activate it as if you were performing that, and you begin to feel those things. So once people can believe it up here, it can manifest out here. I love it. You're on the Big Success Podcast. I'm your host, Brad Sugars. We'll be back with the Linda Clemens in just a moment. We're going to get into sales, communication, how to get commitments.

9:52Unleash your business's profit potential with instant cashflow by Brad Scherters. Learn from the self-made multimillionaire and business development expert as he reveals actionable strategies to identify hidden gold mines and achieve immediate profits. Understand how you can optimize cashflow, seize untapped opportunities, and make informed decisions that drive extraordinary growth. You're back on the Big Success Podcast. Linda, I got to ask you, and being here with you today, I'm always self-conscious when I'm with someone who's a body language expert, that sort of thing. But it's like communication, let's start there.

10:28How do we succeed at being a great communicator? One of the things that's so important, and I think even Warren Buffett spoke about it, is that when you're able to level up your communication skills, it puts you on a higher ground. People always seek to understand or be understood. And what's so important about communication, it allows you to step into another person's space or their world. Many of us concentrate on the verbal form of it. And I believe it was Dr. Maharabian in a study in UCLA well over 50 years ago that talked about the communication theory, meaning, you know, 7 % of our communication are words, but Brad, 7%.

11:12So the question, are the words coming out of your mouth? Are they powerful or powerless? Passionate or passive, poison or potent? You know, just saying the word cancer is feared in over 12 languages. And one of the most revered words in the world is mother, in addition to the sound of your name. So your words are important. Ask any actor in Hollywood that's waiting for that script with the right words, but that's 7%. And I want you all to remember that once the words are out, you can't retrieve them. I believe that Stephen Covey once said, begin with the end in mind. So when you speak, what is your goal?

11:52What is your purpose? Is it to transform, uplift, educate, empower, equip, motivate? What is the purpose? And then 38 % in the communication theory is tonality. And many of you might have heard the phrase, it's not what you say or how you say it. I beg to different. It's what they hear. It's what they hear. So it's so important in the intonation. And then 55 % is nonverbal. So the little tagline or soundbite that I can give to those that are listening, if all three words, tone, and nonverbal, if all three don't agree, then there's a disconnect in the message between you and me. So every time someone is in your presence, when they walk in your presence, they should lead better than when they walk through the door.

12:45And that's the power of leveling up your communication. Wow. Let's apply that to sales. Okay. When most people in sales need to get better and better and better. How do we succeed at sales in this day and age? Oh my gosh. I love this. So here's the deal. The thing is about sales. And I hope I could say this to all the adults listening and listen very carefully. Sales is just like sex. Nothing happens until someone gets excited. Think about it. Sales is just like sex. Nothing happens until someone gets excited. You need to be excited about your product, your service. Not only have the commitment to selling it, but having the conviction so that when you are selling your products or your services, they see it in the 43 facial muscles in your face.

13:41They see it in your body. That's what's so important in the process of selling. But here is a tip that so many professionals forget. And when they're selling, I'm gonna use something from my broadcasting days I've been a radio personality for about 15 years. So many times as sales professionals, sales concierge, sales directors, whatever your label you call, sales comes from the Scandinavian root word, which means to serve. So think about it. What we do, we are serving. What happens quite often as professionals, we have a tendency, Brad, to be so anxious just to get out ourselves presentation and never taking the temperature of the people that we're talking to.

14:31Are they engaged? Are they leaning forward? Are they listening with their ear, where they're tuning in the ear? Are they auditory, kinesthetic, are digital learners, are visual learners? We are so busy getting our information out. So as a broadcaster, I'm going to say, how many of you are so busy broadcasting and not tuning in. So imagine if your client customer prospect is leaning in and they're listening to every word you say, then all of a sudden something happens in the presentation. You might've said something, done something, and they all of a sudden sit back. Thus the turn, whoa, I was taken aback.

15:12So we're missing those cues because we are not present in our own presentations. So let's dive into those cues then. One of the great things that you teach is the whole art of deception, like understanding when someone's being deceptive in their body language. Take me through some of that stuff because I love it. So a lot of my friends invite me out to dinner all the time. And I tell the story that I don't have to purchase groceries because they invite me out, Brad, in their words, as their human lie detector, go figure, right? Go figure. Here's the thing, how you detect deception, because someone could be very good at being deceptive, especially if they believe it.

15:57So one of the little tips you want to remember that when you're doing presentations face-to-face and virtual, because some of us are still doing virtual presentations, that again, that there is congruency in the words, the tone, and the nonverbal. So if you're watching me, for example, if I say that I'm happy to be here and yet my arms are folded, it's not congruent. If I say, yes, I'm interested and tell me more and I'm not leaning forward, I'm sitting backwards. And one of the things, just a little tip, don't try this at home unless you practice. Just a little tip if you want to tell if someone is being deceptive.

16:35People who are lying are being deceptive, cannot tell the story backwards. So if I'm talking to you, he says, okay, Brad, tell me what happened. You know, like if I'm interviewing a witness or a suspect, so Brad, tell me what happened from the very beginning. And so you're telling me the whole story. Now you might've memorized it, but by the way, if you're being deceptive, you are very still in conveying the story. You're not animated. it. You're not using hand gestures because you're trying to think of it as you go along and you're trying to gauge if I'm buying it. So here you go telling me the story.

17:11And then all of a sudden, here's a little trick. You're going to love this. Then I take a deep breath. I exhale. I go like this. Okay. Thank you, Brad, for giving me the information. Guess what takes place? If Brad or Sandy or Joe or Linda is being deceptive. When I exhale, guess what the person does, Brad? They exhale. Why do they exhale? Like she bought it. Gotcha. I'm trying that with my kids. You can test it out with your kids. You're going to love it. And then here's what you do. You say this, check this out. I want to make sure that this isn't a sales process. I want to make sure that I've got everything right that you shared with me.

17:55So I always ask permission. If I'm taking notes, I ask permission to do that. So to make sure that I've got everything right, frontwards and backwards, do you mind if you just walk with me and just share with me what happened starting with the end? Then they freeze. Then they go into the amygdala, the reptilian part of the brain. Now they're afraid because they can't tell the story backwards. And your kids would freak out if you do this too bad. I'm going to definitely try that. So let's look at body language in sales then. What are the top three or four things we can do to succeed with body language in sales?

18:33Very good. So one of the things you want to do, body language in sales, say what you mean, mean what you say, believe in your product. You have to buy and own your own product. So when I say this to people, they say, do you mean physically by it. If you don't own it in your mind, if you don't have a commitment or conviction to it, and I know there's a saying, and it was coined by the late Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay, and the saying goes like this, fake it until you make it. But Linda Clemens has a saying, and it goes like this, the fake will fade because the brain is going to say, I'm tired of not being who I am because the amygdala is the truth part of the brain, and it's going to send signals to the body.

19:16So it's very, very important. So say what you mean and mean what you say. Now in sales, your hands are very important, not just in sales, also as a speaker, also when you're communicating and there's something, there's power in the palms. So everybody take note of that. There's power in my palms. What does that mean, Linda? Power in your hands. Studies have shown that those successful TED Talk presenters. Hear me out. And we're talking about TED Talks, those of you that watched and learned from them, the top ones that have millions and millions of views, they use over 422 hand gestures in an 18-minute span.

19:58Wow. Because you're using your hands to punctuate, to accentuate. It's very important and you're moving with purpose. But there's something else about the hands. I just completed an eight-week training with the FBI. So there's something else important about the hands. People who are being truthful, authentic, when they're sharing their story, sharing their products and their services, and they're using their hands, the palms are exposed. Think about it. When someone accuses you of something and says, did you take my computer? or did you take my tablet? I didn't do it. We never do our hands like this.

20:37I didn't do it. It's naturally. So it's very important. So a person who is being deceptive, and here's the qualifier, excluding any disabilities or invisible disabilities, excluding any of that so that they're physically able and capable. But a person who's being deceptive, unless they are a sociopath or a psychopath, it's very difficult for them to lie for long periods of time with the palms exposed. That's why when someone asks the sales professional, is this the best offer you can give me? And remember, hands are all on deck. The salesperson has her hands on showing the numbers and it's the end of the month and you haven't written an order and I don't know how long.

21:26And then all of a sudden the client says, is this the best offer? Guess what happens? Quite often the sales person begins to thigh cleanse. So Brad, raise your hands, both hands. Raise them both hands. Put them on your thighs. Put them on your thighs and start stroking. You did it. You did it. Because they're getting a little nervous and it's called self-soothing gestures. So when the client sees that, it makes them a little nervous because now they're going to disappear. So I hope that tip helps. I get excited about this. you could tell. Absolutely. Now, you mentioned that sales is serving others.

21:59One of the big groups you serve is women entrepreneurs. What do you think are some of the keys to success? I've got four daughters. What is going to be their keys to success when they grow up being a superstar entrepreneur? Absolutely. Now, here in the United States, and the data is high in other countries and part of the world as well, but the power of the purse, women control 85 % of all consumer purchasing. They have that consumer purchasing power. So to the men out there, and if you're selling to women, you need to know that because quite often you have people that are, if they have a husband and wife or partners that are there, you may ask or defer to the masculine when the woman may be the one that make the decision.

22:42What women are good at in the sales process as entrepreneurs is the emotional component of the EQ, is being present, telling the stories and utilizing empathy, which is very, very important. So as women entrepreneurs and speaking to them, you know, the struggles that perhaps a woman might've gone through in corporate America, rising to the top, you know, the struggles that a woman may go through just running her home as a mother and a wife business. So another woman can relate to that. So it's very important to be able to have that compassion and that empathy is key. You know, Microsoft got turned around when the new CEO was, you know, led the company as an empathy leadership.

23:30And that's putting yourself in other people's shoes. And that's one of the things that women do well at. Now, the other thing they need to work on in the sales process and as women entrepreneurs, Sometimes, and this is Linda talking, you can get too emotionally attached that you can't detach. And I have to tell women all the time, do not mix the emotions with the money, which men are good at. Not all men, but men are good at. But that's my tip. You're on the Big Success Podcast. We're with Linda Clemens. We're going to come back and we're going to talk about scaling up, going from good to great.

24:06Linda Clemens from Indianapolis, Indiana is the CEO of Sisterpreneur Inc. Linda is an award-winning, record-setting sales producer, as well as one of the top sales trainers in the world in the resort timeshare industry, where clients have generated over$2 billion in sales. To learn more about Linda Clemens, please visit lindaclemons.com. Welcome back on the podcast. Linda Clemens, I have to ask, because when we had you training for us at events, one of the things that I love is your perspective on people who go for okay results or just good results versus people who go for great results. Share with us more your thoughts on the difference between those two types of people.

24:49Well, number one, there are people out there just, you know what? I don't want to exert too much energy, brain power, physical energy. and if I can just do just good enough just to get by, that should be acceptable. Here's what I want to say to you. The difference between that individual and the person who wants to scale up and go to the highest level, you want to use this as your mantra. Average is the enemy of excellence. Average is the enemy of excellence. You can drive a sports car and you have to wonder, you take out the manual and you look at the sports car. Now I live in Indiana, home of the largest racing spectacle in the world, the Indianapolis 500, where cars are going around that track over 200 some odd miles an hour.

25:37But you can go out to your car, look at the manual and see how fast it can go. And that means that, hey, if I get into a wide open space, man, I'm going to put my foot, the pedal to the metal, I'm going to make it go. So my question is, If we can take the car to the maximum because it's built that way, it's also built in you. You were put here and given that gift and that talent, not just to give the world average, but to take it to the limit. You owe it to yourself. And that's the thing that you see people who are great at what they do. They wanted to live beyond the average. So, enemy, you know, average is the enemy of excellence.

26:23Strive for excellence. What if I'm scared though, Linda? What if I'm sitting there going, you know what? That all sounds great, but how do I make the, because to me, it feels like a leap to go from there to there. How do I get there? So, you know, folks used to say to me all the time, oh, Linda, you know the acronym, the definition of fear. And you remember that thing, Brad, they would say false. What was it? False evidence or something? False evidence of fearing real, yes. And so you tell me that if it's real to you and you're afraid, it's not false to you. So if you have to tell your little kid, tell a little kid that there's nothing under the bed, you know, they look at the little dusties and think it is a monster.

27:03So you shift your paradigm on that. So how do you do it? So the acronym fear, you face everything and rise or you face everything and roar. So how do you do it? You make the commitment to get it done. You get up and you move. You get up and you move. You change your language and you change your talk. It is very critical because if you're saying that you're just fearful, can't get it done, here's what I'm saying to you. I'll say to you, Brad, what is it that you can't do? Well, Linda, I just can't go across the road because of this, or I can't get to the next level in sales because of this. I know all their superstars are doing this.

27:45I can't do it. So my thing, I'm going to say to you why. then you're going to give me some reason why. This is where I'm going to get you. If you tell me that you can't do it and my niece is here, she's my assistant and I do it to everyone. If you tell me you can't do it and you tell me the reason why you can't do it, then it's over. And here's why. If you birthed that doubt in you, so you are the parent of that doubt. If you've birthed that doubt in you, so this little baby of negativity, this little baby of doubt comes out. So I'm looking at the baby, baby crying. So you birthed that thought.

28:23So that means if you birthed it, then you can name it. Then you claimed it. You said you can't do it. Then you can tame it. You can tame it. So if you already know, if you gave birth to that, then how about taming it? And this is what we begin to shift the paradigm. So you've named it, you claimed it, you tamed it. So now we're going to create the positive part of it. And here's how we're going to raise, take those doubts out and bring in success. So anytime someone tells me what they can't do and they tell me why, that means somebody is the author of that. You've named it. You tamed it. So my thing is, and you named it, you claimed it as you should be able to tame that thing, that monster that's in your head because you own it.