How to Be Authentic in Sales

by Ben Lai | Mar 7, 2019

Transcript: Hi guys it’s Ben Lai from Sales Ethos. Today’s video is a follow up from my previous one about authenticity. I’ve entitled this one “How to be authentic in sales.”

I think in the sales profession, we have this unique challenge that we want to be true to ourselves, but at the same time, we want to present our product and ourselves in the best possible light. So how do you go about balancing these two factors and not have them conflict with each other?

How to be authentic in sales tip #1: Tell the truth

My first thought on this is that we always need to tell the truth. When we tell the truth, we’re being consistent with our internal values and what we truly believe. So that means no white lies, okay? No matter how small those lies are. A lie is a lie. Lying is automatically being inauthentic. That also means that’s when you’re selling a product and it doesn’t meet a certain specification, it is on you to tell the client about that limitation. This way, they can make the best possible decision for themselves.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to reveal everything. All right? If your company is having some sort of office politics or uncertainty in the office, these sort of facts, are not relevant for your prospect. It’s not going to affect their decision making. So therefore, you don’t need to tell that. It’s not like you have to reveal all of the skeletons in your closets. So telling the truth is the first and most important part of being authentic in sales.

How to be authentic in sales tip #2: Be true to yourself, but constantly improve

The second thing I think, is that we need to be true to ourselves, but at the same time, constantly improve. I think the important differentiation here is that if we’re if we’re truly authentic all the time… You know, the way that I behave at home with my children is very, very different to how I behave in the professional setting. Likewise, I behave differently with my friends. Now all of these different personas that I have are not necessarily being inauthentic. They’re just different versions in different social situations. So it’s perfectly acceptable for you to have a professional image that you kind of “put on” provided that it’s still truly you in there. That’s where you’re presenting a professional image without being inauthentic.

I think where it becomes inauthentic is where you’re imitating someone else. Let’s just say you, you know of a sales star, and you want to sell as much as they do. So you start behaving and you start acting like them. I think that’s a recipe for trouble right there. You can certainly look for the traits that the person has and try to emulate those and make those a part of you, but just tacking it on, I think is the way to sound and to appear inauthentic in people’s eyes.

How to be authentic in sales tip #3: Increase human connections

Now, the third suggestion for you on how to be authentic in sales actually comes from a colleague I had a discussion with his name is Lee. I’ll put a link in the description below if you want to connect with him. And what he suggested was being authentic means having more of the human connection factor. In this day and age with technology advancing it’s very easy for salespeople to hide behind emails and LinkedIn messages. And as a result, they are avoiding rejection and avoiding the human contact of sales.

So if you want to increase your authenticity, one of the best and easiest ways you can do that is to just pick up the phone and speak to another human being; as a human to another human. Meet with them face to face. Do that as often as you can and let your true colours shine when you’re in those meetings with them.

How to be authentic in sales: Conclusion

So there you have it, those are the three suggestions on what I think on how to be authentic in sales. I’d really love to hear your thoughts, put it in the comments below. What are the things that you do to make sure that you are authentic in sales. Don’t forget to click like and subscribe, and remember that integrity plus skills equals success!

Why Ethical Sales Part 1: It’s hard to be unethical and happy

Part 2 of Why Ethical Sales: It just makes sense!

Why Ethical Sales Part 3: Unethical Sales Has Consequences