Episode 215: Robert Kennedy III – Crafting Authentic Connections: Mastering Social Sales Through Personalized Storytelling

Robert Kennedy  00:03

You know that old saying about used car salesmen how nobody wants to be around them because it feels sleazy and icky. And it doesn’t feel really personal. So when you talk about social, social intimate connection, it means community in some ways.

And so how can I make sales without being sleazy or salesy? How can I make sales by connecting with people in a way that feels authentic, real and community-based or communal is the word that I’m looking for. So that’s what social selling or social sales means to me man.

Intro  00:42

Welcome to the Making Sales Social Podcast featuring the Top Voices in Sales, Marketing, and Business join Brynne Tillman and me, Bob Woods. As we each bring you the best tips and strategies. Our guests are teaching their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. Enjoy the show!

Bob Woods  01:05

My guest for this episode of Making Sales Social is Robert Kennedy III, president of Kinetic Communications, which is a minority-owned training firm. Robert has a mission to equip 1 million leaders with the ability to impact, influence and inspire through communication and storytelling. And speaking of communication, and storytelling. Today, we’re going to be talking about finding your voice and your story that connects which is really important for salespeople and people on sales teams and things like that. 

Because everything in my mind, and I’m sure that Robert would agree with this, comes down to being able to tell stories that resonate, that connect stories that your audience of prospects can identify with, so that they’ll want to have a conversation with you. And then you can continue to tell stories and stories are actually very important in that regard as well. So, Robert, Welcome. Thank you very much for joining us. Appreciate your time.

Robert Kennedy  02:08

Hey, Bob. Listen, I love your name, by the way. Yeah, love you. too. So yeah, so listen, I’m a speaker, right? And I like to make a little bit of an entrance here. So please do. I just need you. I need you to do this for me. Just say ladies and gentlemen introducing Robert Kennedy III.

Bob Woods  02:25

Ladies and gentlemen introducing Robert Kennedy III. And if you’re with us on audio right now his Zoom has like confetti coming down and stuff like that. It’s great. I’m gonna have to learn how to do that. Because that’s amazing. Thank you very much for that. That’s too cool. That is too cool. So our first traditional question here on making sales social is What does Making Sales Social Mean to you?

Robert Kennedy  02:59

Wow, that old saying about used car salesmen? How nobody wants to be around them because it feels sleazy and icky. And it doesn’t feel really personal. So when you talk about social, social, intimate connection, it means community in some ways. And so how can I make sales without being sleazy or salesy? How can I make sales by connecting with people in a way that feels authentic, real, and community-based or communal? Is this the word that I’m looking for? So that’s what social selling or social sales means to me, man. 

Bob Woods  03:37

Yeah, it’s interesting that you bring up that analogy, too, because you’re kind of going from one one to one, which is with that proverbial used car sales person, which there are good used car salespeople out there, by the way, too. But, you know, so you’re actually talking about almost two different types of communication storytelling, the one-to-one as well as the one to a broader audience as well.

Robert Kennedy  04:01

Yes. Fantastic. Yeah. So I think when you’re dealing with one-to-one, I think that the concept is the same in both in that in order for people to listen to you, in order for people to connect with you and engage with you, then you’ve got to hit them somewhere. And typically, that is in a place of, of the emotion of some sort. A lot of us think that we sell by giving the data and giving the facts, but people ultimately make decisions through any emotions where all things considered are even. They’re gonna make a choice based on what makes them feel better. So emotions are where we’ve got to hit people. And storytelling is key for that.

Bob Woods  04:44

Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s fantastic. And it actually dovetails really well into my next question, which this whole concept of finding your voice and your story that connects, I guess, tells me about the genesis of that. and, and how you apply that in what you do, especially in your training and things like that. Yeah.

Robert Kennedy  05:06

A lot of times when I was doing public speaking coaching, I would really have people come to me and they would ask, okay, what are the specific things? What are the specific techniques that I need to use in order to be a better public speaker or in order to appear more confident? And I would typically say, “Well, you’ve got to really show up as yourself, you’ve got to be your best self, you’ve got to find your superhero, you’ve got to show up as finding your own voice.” And that’s really what is attractive to people. 

And when I stated that a lot of people weren’t really clear on what it meant to find their own voice, because they were already lacking confidence, they were uncertain. And so we would go through this process of what it means to find your own voice. Some people, especially people who came from other countries thought that their accent, for example, was the thing that inhibited them from speaking or communicating. And I would say “No, that’s the thing that makes you uniquely you, that’s your superpower.” 

How about we lean into that, and then add a couple of other things that will then help you to connect even better with your audience. So finding your voice really comes from, what is the thing that is uniquely you that you can lean into, and that may be an attribute that you have, or maybe an experience that you’ve had, that you can lean into, that allows you to be able to more effectively connect with people?

Bob Woods  06:32

Yes. So you kind of got into the process? A little bit there. But is there? Is there like a formal process behind that? Or is it more about being more not reflective? inflicted? Is that a word but something along those lines about, you know, who you are? And what you do and how you feel and what type of person you are that contributes to your story is there like a kind of a formal process about that? Or is it just like a bunch of looking inward?

Robert Kennedy  07:06

Well, it’s it would, it’s different for everybody, but you really, ultimately want to find out? What are the things that really make you uniquely you? And sometimes, it’s the thing that we are scared of, and sometimes it’s the thing that we take for granted.

Bob Woods  07:22

Right? That’s why I’m asking this question. Yeah, that’s why I’m asking the question. Yeah, absolutely.

Robert Kennedy  07:27

Yeah. So for example, my wife says to me, “Babe, can you look up something on Google for me?” And I’m like, “Do you have the same Google I have?, Why don’t you?”

Bob Woods  07:40

Right, but she’s my brother-in-law’s the same way. Yeah, my brother-in-law’s the same way as like, she’s fine.

Robert Kennedy  07:48

Yeah. She says, “No, if when I look it up, I don’t get the same answers that you get.” There’s something that you do. There’s a way that you search that allows you to go in and you grab some answers, and you grab this thing, easily. And it takes me 10-15 minutes to grab the answer. And so I think each of us has that thing that we do naturally, easily, innately that we just don’t even pay attention to. And everybody else is blown away by it. Or they’re like, “Oh, my gosh, Robert, go ask Bob.”

Bob Woods  08:19

That’s interesting. Wow. Yeah, that’s something that I think that people who are listening are like, yeah, either I know someone who’s like that, or Yeah, I’m the person that they go to for that type of thing. And then if you start multiplying that and thinking about that, in different types of situations, there’s probably very similar types of things where you’re either on the asking side, or you’re on the, on the delivery side of things. 

Robert Kennedy  08:51

Well, and I’ll go to another layer with this your time. It’s simply experiences that we’ve had, right? A lot of times when I talk about storytelling, people say, “I don’t know how to tell a story, or I don’t have a story to tell nothing.” An extraordinary thing has happened in my life. I’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes, two noses, no one knows. Everything’s, exactly. Everything’s going great in my life. What stories do I tell? And I say, “Listen, some of the things that you’ve gone through in your life that are just normal for you are experiences that are encouraging for other people,” 

For example, you at some point, took a driver’s test or road test for your license, Right? What was that? Like? Did you feel nervous about it? Did you pass it the first time? Was there ever a time in school where you were uncertain about something or a test or an exam and you had to study hard or study differently? And you’ve probably forgotten those experiences, but we all have these things? Is there some skill that you have to learn for work? Is there a new application or software that you have to learn in order to do something at work or to accomplish a project or meet a deadline of some sort. 

You’re just living life walking by these things. But these are simple tidbits that people go through that people experience. And when you share how you walk through it, you don’t know there’s somebody else who’s freaked out by that very thing that says, “Oh, my gosh, if Robert could do that thing, if Robert could pass this road test, if Robert could pass his road test after failing it once or twice, then I should probably go back for mine as well.” And so if we turn that towards a sales perspective when you’re speaking to your audience, when you’re speaking to your potential customers, a lot of times we come at our customers with the product with the information with the data. 

And what customers really want to know is, will this work for me? Will my problem be solved? Or is it or how do I know? And so instead of me just saying, yeah, 49% of people do bla bla bla. And my response to connect with them is, you know what, I went through a similar experience, right? If I’m using real estate, as an example, I speak to a lot of real estate companies, real estate agents, etc. So I might say, “Listen, if you’re trying to convince somebody about buying a home, and the process of buying a home,” I lean into you know what.

I remember my first home-buying experience, I remember what it was like, I remember having to go through the inspection. I remember having to go to the bank, I remember freaking out about the pre-approval, I remember how I thought it was simple. And there were all these different people that I had to speak to. And you know what? It was scary. But here’s the thing, and here’s the nugget that I want to pass on to you that helped me make it through. Yeah.

Bob Woods  11:48

Yeah, it’s interesting, because from everything that you’ve told me, it kind of seems like that, to develop these stories, people actually need to be a little more present in their own lives. So then they can think about things. Think about, okay, maybe I can use this as a story or, I’ll just kind of store that. Or maybe I’ll even write something down, because it may come back to haunt me in quotes, obviously, one day, like that type thing? Would you agree with that, that people should probably be a little more present in their own lives to come up with this stuff?

Robert Kennedy  12:26

Absolutely. So I’ll share two things. Number one, there’s this great book by a guy named Matthew Dix called story worthy, and he has this practice in his book, where at the end of each day, he just writes down five things that happened during the day, Right? And then as he writes, after he writes down those five things, he writes down five little lessons, they could be big lessons, they could be just, small, doesn’t really matter. But he just now has a story vault that he continues to build. Right? So that’s the first thing. 

The second thing is, if anybody’s ever heard of Simon Sinek Simon Sinek has a great TED Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, and he’s got this book Start with Why. And inside of that, he tells all of these different stories about different companies and ultimately says, “People don’t care what you do, they really care about why you do it.” Right. So if I want to, if I want to be able to connect with people, especially now when they’re bombarded by all sorts of information and options, people are now looking a little bit deeper into “Okay, do I want to follow this person?” 

Is this person just going to kind of grab my money and then leave? Or are they in it for the long haul? Are they committed to this? What’s the rest of their story? That’s why social media works, right? Because, yeah, people follow your stories, they will follow your stories on social media, because they want to know why you do what you do, and who you are. So if you begin to lean into your daily experiences and what that means and what the lessons are that you’re learning, you’ll find that you’ll be able to engage and connect with people a lot easier, because they’re having human experiences, just like you.

Bob Woods  14:07

Yeah, So showing that you’re human, I may be like you because I see so much content out there. That is like, it’s, it sounds like it probably came off a Chat GPT nowadays, you know, it’s like, it’s, you know, it’s devoid of anything human. You can even tell it’s probably a robot cranking out stuff in the background. And there’s, there’s nothing personal and I think that when people hear.

“Ooh, personal, I’ve got to get personal, I’m uncomfortable with getting personal.” You don’t have to get truly personal. I mean, you could take like an element of a story, apply it to whatever it is that you’re selling, or whatever without getting too personal and yet come up with a good story that will resonate with the people, the audience of prospects that you’re trying to have sales conversation with. Would you agree with that?

Robert Kennedy  14:58

Yeah, Sometimes people think about personal things as this deeply vulnerable stuff. And it doesn’t always have to be that, Right. So if I think about this company, Warby Parker, Warby Parker is a company, they make glasses, Right? And here’s how the company started. And this is on their website.

You can go to their website about page, it says, “They were a bunch of kids, they went camping, and one of one of the students lost their glasses, and they were in college, and they lost my glasses, went back to school, and realize that they couldn’t afford glasses anymore because it because they were just super expensive.” 

And they spent the entire semester squinting. And they decided at that point, that they were no longer going to have people live in a world where having eyeglasses was an expensive process. Right? And so that was the principle. That’s the origin story of Warby Parker, and a lot of us have, that’s a reason why we do certain things. That’s the reason why a lot of companies were formed by people finding a solution to a problem that they experienced themselves. 

If you’re thinking about social selling, again, you might be selling a service or a product, why is it that you sell that service or product? Is it because there was a challenge that you experienced? Or did you see somebody experienced it? Or Did somebody in your family experience it? And so you’re like, okay, yeah, I want to, I want to sell this, or I want to do this, or I want to share this solution? Because I know the effect of it, or I know the effectiveness of it. Right? So yeah, we’ve got to lean into that.

Bob Woods  16:27

Yeah, absolutely. So now kind of taking a bit, a little bit of a flip on that. And you’ll understand why I’m saying that in a second here is something that just came out is that LinkedIn algorithm is now starting to favor expert content more, rather than just the raw personal stories that work better on you know, say Facebook, I used to use the phrase, the Facebook of vacation, which is a mouthful and of itself of LinkedIn. So with that in mind, how do you think that people can alter their content, to make it more expert thought leadership oriented to take advantage, take better advantage of this shift in the LinkedIn algorithm?

Robert Kennedy  17:09

I love that. So if you think about Facebook, a lot of times people just share information just to share it. Hey, y’all, I went to Paris today. Here’s a picture. All right. Hey, you ate at this new vegan restaurant today? Right, yeah, exactly. What is the point that you want to make? What is the thing that you really want people to know or take away? So if you’re thinking about LinkedIn use, you can still share stories? What I would think about is okay, what is the expert point? 

Or what is the solution that you’re wanting to point people to, with that story? So I might start out with a challenge that people have. So if I think about storytelling, stories have four main elements: context, characters, conflict, and conclusion, Right? And so what is the conflict that people are having? So if you, if you can highlight that conflict and highlight a teaching point, inside of that conflict in your post, then you can, of course, you can include a story on how you got to that teaching point, or something that you shared with an audience.

But you really want to point it towards something that gives a I would, I don’t want to say makes business sense. But something that has a professional point of some sort, that, you know, you can have hashtags for and LinkedIn can say, “Yeah, this is professional content.” This is valuable content that caters to the type of audience that we’re seeking to reach.

Bob Woods  18:43

Excellent, very good, very, very good stuff. So um, we all love those. And by all, I mean, me, but I think that other people would agree with this. We all love those one thing that you can do right now, takeaways kind of thing. So what’s the one thing that salespeople can do right now to build a story that connects with their audience or prospects?

Robert Kennedy  19:04

Wow. So I think the one thing that I would say is, look for Focus on your audience. First, find out what it is that you’re, what’s the biggest challenge that your audience is facing. And then once you have figured that thing out, lean into either a personal story, or a story of your clients that you can use to really bring that point home or show how that challenge can be navigated.

Bob Woods  19:37

Very, very good. And that’s concise too, which is one of the other things I like about just one thing because it’s like, boom, do this. Do it now. So that’s great. If people want to learn more about you and your offerings, Robert, where can they go?

Robert Kennedy  19:51

The simplest place to go is get in touch with R-K three.com That has all my social channels. Anything that I’m doing, my speaker website is Robertkennedy3.com. But if you go to get in touch with our R K three, as in Robert Kennedy, third, R K three, get in touch with our R K three.com. That’s the easiest place to get all of my information.

Bob Woods  20:09

I call and then and then just so people know, whenever he says three, it’s actually the number three and you’re not spelling out the word three. So get in touch with our K. Three, the number three, don’t type that part out.com. So with that, Robert Kennedy III. I’m going to call you and a communicator extraordinaire because you’ve just proven that that’s what you are, sir. Thank you for joining us today. Really appreciate it.

Robert Kennedy  20:35

Thanks so much, Bob. I appreciate your time. You’re a fantastic interviewer, my friend. 

Bob Woods  20:39

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And thank you for streaming this episode of making sales social. So remember, when you’re out and about this week, be sure to make your sales social. Thank you.

Outro  20:39

Don’t miss an episode, visit socialsaleslink.com/podcast. Leave a review down below. Tell us what you think, what you learned, and what you want to hear from us next, register for free resources at LinkedInlibrary.com You can also listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Visit our website socialsaleslink.com for more information.