Authenticity in Sales
As a marketing consultant and founder, a core promise I’m always offering is: I help you communicate. I help you tell your story. I help understand your audience and how to use a language your audience understands.
But how do I communicate?
It is an interesting thing to turn the camera on oneself and have a look at what’s there. So that’s what I aim to do here.
Gulp.
I like to say that the sweet spot of my marketing strategy business is to have three good clients. But really that means four good clients because the nature of things is one client is always about to level up or fade out, so to have three clients means you need four clients in order to not have just two clients and a case of the 3AM wakey-wakeys. So when you’ve got just the right amount of clients, you still need to be hustling and trying to find more clients.
It's like Jay-Z said: can’t knock the hustle.
How does the hustler also remain true to himself and his clients. How do we keep the hustle honest? (Because we must. Believe me. If you’re full of it, you get fired. Don’t sell what you don’t have.)
I’m thinking of Bea Arthur at the unemployment office in the great Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part 1. Guy comes up for his unemployment check. Profession? She asks. “Stand up philosopher,” he says. “Oh!” she exclaims, “a bullshit artist!” First question “Did you bullshit last week?” Follow up. “Did you try to bullshit last week?” And so on.
This is something I think about in my own new business efforts? Am I just a bullshit artist?
And I’m here to say: let the answer be “NO!”
And that’s the point of this here article: how (and why) to keep authenticity in sales. And I’ve got these four tips to share.
Define your purpose: What do you hope to accomplish? Know the answer. And how about the folks you are speaking with, what do they hope to accomplish? Understand the answers to both these questions before getting on that Zoom.
Curiosity (trust me, the cat is doing just fine). If sales is any part of your job, you must have a natural interest in the world and the people in it. Let people be a rush to you, and enjoy them. My old business partner and pal Carol Ruiz taught me a lot about this. “Listen first,” she said. So on the notes template for any new business conversation and any client meeting, the first thing written is, “Listen first.”
Embrace vulnerability. This one is hard, probably the hardest. What I do is form lasting, trusting relationships with clients that are based on shared interests and shared goals. This means nobody is happy if it turns out the client does not want to work with me. So be honest about what that “me” is. In my own story, this has meant being comfortable letting the world know I’m gay, even when that means the super conservative CEO of some bank or national homebuilder or whatever actually sees you as a person. Somewhere in here there is a balance. Don’t overshare. But openness begats openness. Be who you are. Don’t keep that light under a bushel.
“How can I help?” These are magic words. Say yes. Offer value without an agenda. This is some spiritual work but trust me, generosity pays dividends.
About me: I’m Robert O’Shaughnessy. I founded OE Communications (www.oecommunications.com) to help select clients grow and specialize in fostering that growth through strategic, full-funnel B2B and B2C marketing efforts. If you want to talk marketing, music, Bea Arthur, Mel Brooks, coming out stories, getting to yes, or anything else, how can I help?