Authentic Selling: Building trust

This is the final post in a series looking at authentic selling (Post 1: general overview, Post 2: Being Genuine, Post 3: Authoritative, Post 4: Truth, Post 5: Create win-win, Post 6: Credibility)

If you remember, the dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

Trustworthy

I wonder whether this should be first on the list rather than last? There is a lot of buzz around the word “trust” at the moment. There is a lot of talk about whether or not people trust you, or your business because without trust – you really are going no where. Especially in the long term.

As you may know, I am reading Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why at the moment, and he writes:

Trust does not emerge simply because a seller makes a rational case why the customer should buy a product or service, or because an executive promises change. Trust is not a check-list. Fulfilling your responsibilities does not create trust. Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience. We trust some people and companies even when things go wrong, and we don’t trust others even though everything might have gone exactly as it should have.

How true this is. Early in my sales career, I made a point of telling customers about all the great things that we did and all the great projects that have been done. I showed them the best designs and most creative solutions. But there came a point when I realised, actually – it works just as well to tell the clients about the ones that didn’t go right and what we did when we landed in that mess.

I started to trust my clients and my clients started to trust me (trust is a two-way thing after all!).

It was hard to trust my clients with information that I thought might be damaging to my business – but by extending trust, I became trustworthy. My best clients are the ones that I trust the most, without a doubt.

Trust is an irrational feeling that can be jeopardised in a second. When clients do start to trust us, protect it at all costs. The simplest way that I have found to do this is to keep them informed, even when it is going wrong. Tell them what you are doing about it. Reassure them. Even if the calls are hard at times, it is worth doing.

Communication breads trust. It is that simple. And don’t just give your customers half-facts. Trust them.

Are you trustworthy? Do you have trustworthy clients?

Authentic Selling: Established Credibility

This is the 6th post in a series looking at authentic selling (Post 1: general overview, Post 2: Being Genuine, Post 3: Authoritative, Post 4: Truth, Post 5: Create win-win)

If you remember, the dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

Established Credibility

If you have been doing the other items: being genuine, authoritative, tell the truth attractively and creating a win-win – then you should be well on your way to establishing credibility with your customers (your customers believe you, and you are proving yourself to be reliable).

My 8 year old set’s up his first company

Today, I came across a new business venture. It was really unique and one which I think I will always remember. It was my son’s first business (he is 8). The photo at the start of this blog is a sign that he has put on his bedroom door. Josh has realised that his mum likes being “fussed” (hair stroked or brushed, back rubbed) and decided to turn it into a business.

I am really quite proud as he has done this all on his own initiative. He checked with his customers what prices they would be willing to pay. He set his opening hours and is advertising his services. Josh was talking to me today about this business and wondering if he needed to extend his opening hours. He was also telling about his half price offer on Thursdays.

He had thought about all of this himself…I was amazingly impressed (and proud!). He wanted me to buy his services – which I did after negotiating the price.

Of course, the one thing that Josh didn’t have is credibility. He was a new company. Fortunately, mum and dad didn’t mind that – but it was something that he did think about.

He asked us to rate his performance, and that rating has gone on the sign on his bedroom door. He wanted to know if it was a 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star or 5 star rating. When I said 3 – we had a talk about how he could improve.

What he did, though, was build a facility that enabled him to build credibility. He had his customers provide feedback about his service and now he has made that public so other people can read it. It builds credibility as other customers are talking about his service. It is not just him telling me about all the good things he has to offer, it is his customers. That is believable.

Everyone reads Amazon‘s reviews. We like to read what other customers have said about the product or service. The web makes it easy to do this. It is imperative that customers see what other customers say (the good things and the bad things). This makes our message credible because it is not just us saying it.

Building credibility is a key to my success

But it is not just about what our customers say, it is also about what we say. Is your message, and your product and your service credible? Is it believable or reliable?

When I took over the sauna business that I now have, the first thing that we went to work on was the credibility (it was in ruins). The product was great. The back and service was in a complete mess. We weren’t being credible by offering a sub standard service and great product. We worked hard on rebuilding the service and thereby the credibility of the business and the trust with customers.

It took a while – but we got there. We became credible, believable and reliable again (in all aspects of the business).

How is your product and service credible? How is your message credible? Do you give a chance to your customers to speak to your other potential customers?

Authentic selling: creating a win-win contract

This is the 5th post in a series looking at authentic selling (Post 1: general overview, Post 2: Being Genuine, Post 3: Authoritative, Post 4: Truth)

If you remember, the dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

Entitled to acceptance

This is a bit of an odd one at first glance. If we dig a little further the dictionary defines this as the right to agree to enter into a contract. It is about an agreement of terms. In other words – authentic selling is not just about you and what you can get out of the deal. The terms of your contract should not be biased towards you.

It’s not all about me

Recently I was having a conversation with a gentleman about saunas (inevitable I know, given that is what I sell). It was obvious to me quite quickly that we were not going to be the best fit for him. I could have sold him a cabin, but on this occasion I believed that there was a much better way of doing things.

I then spent 20 minutes explaining this as an alternative that would save him at least 50% of what he would spend with me.

You see, in this situation – the terms of the sale would have been heavily stacked in my favour, and it didn’t feel right. Selling is not all about what I get out of it.

It’s not all about the customer either

Conversely – it is not all about your customer either. Authentic selling is as much about turning away work that is not suitable as it is about getting work that is. I have turned away work because the work didn’t match my core values (I was asked to develop a porn site for example – and that wasn’t acceptable to me. The terms didn’t sit right).

I have also been in situations where the client presses and presses for a reduction in price. In this situation it quickly gets to the point where I tell the client that it is not worth me doing it for the price they want. It would cost me too much, and the terms of the contract are heavily stacked in favour of the client.

Yes, I should look out for my client, but I should also look out for the wellbeing of my company. I am no used to the client if I renege on the deal half way through or even worse, sell them the product and go into administration afterwards. I owe it to my staff and my customers to maintain a profitable company.

If I have been building trust by being genuine and authoritative before hand, then when I explain to the customer that this contract has to suit both parties and not just them – they believe me. I am not lying when I say it is at the point that I need to turn down the work (and they respect me for that).

So authentic selling is about having a balanced contract, one that genuinely benefits you and your customer. In the language of Steven Covey – it should be a win-win. This is what creates an acceptable between you and your client.

Authentic Selling: Telling the truth attractively

This is the fourth post in a series looking at authentic selling (Post 1: general overview, Post 2: Being Genuine, Post 3: Authoritative)

If you remember, the dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

TRUE

It is totally obvious that if we are committed to authentic selling, then we have to be committed to telling the truth: not half-truths, partial truths or outright lies.

People value truth and honesty. No one wants to be conned or have the wool pulled over their eyes. They want to feel that they have made a great decision to use your product and service. If you lie in the sale – customers quickly find out, and believe me – they will tell the whole world about it. If you tell the truth and your product or service meets (or even better, exceeds) their expectations – then great! They will tell the world about that too.

People fear telling the truth because their product isn’t “sexy” enough. Well, then change the product! If you feel you have to lie about deadlines to sell your service – you need to change how you deliver your service. It should be the truth that is always consistent.

Tell the truth, attractively

I have it in the back of my head that it was Zig Ziglar that said “sales is telling the truth attractively”. What a great definition of sales!

So telling, the truth doesn’t have to be boring, On the contrary – the truth is incredibly attractive. You just have to learn to present the truth with passion, rather than fear it and learn to lie.

If you are a small business – don’t pretend to be bigger than you are. Embrace the truth. What is the great thing about being a smaller company: lower overheads, quicker mobility and more personal service is available. Don’t hide the fact that you are a small business, tell the truth – attractively.

Go through your recent conversations with clients and think about whether you told the truth, lie or half truth (half lie). If you lied or half-lied, why? Think about why you feel the need the lie. What changes can you make so you can tell the truth?

Authentic Selling: Authoritative

This is the third post in a series looking at authentic selling (Post 1: general overview, Post 2: Being Genuine)

If you remember, the dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

So – let’s look at this word authoritative

Why on earth should I listen to you talk about your product and service? Are you an authority or expert in your field? Or are you just telling me something that you’ve heard or been told?

This is where new entrepreneurs can struggle I think. You can have a great idea and really believe that what you are selling is great (being genuine). But there is no authority because the only other person that has used it is your mum. That doesn’t count. This is why when you start a business you often take lower money just to get the projects under your belt – you want to be able to talk with some level of authority.

Lazy salespeople can also struggle here too. If you sell cars, for example, you might have a natural charisma and are quite genuine. There is no real incentive to spend the time becoming an expert in your field though, and if you are really honest – you are not quite sure what it actually means to become an expert. It is easy to be lazy here I think.

Authentic selling means that you are making at least reasonable steps to learn about your product and service and industry so that you can talk with some kind of authority. This is easier these days than it has ever been with the help of the internet. And if you haven’t got time to research, use a Virtual Assistant service to do the research for you and send you the information. Read industry news and journals, read books and even get professional qualifications.

Imagine going to the doctors and finding out he is not really an expert…you’d get out of there, fast! With the advent of social media – there has been a proliferation of so called Social Media Consultants, yet very few of them are really an expert. They have set up a Facebook account and a Twitter account so in their eyes, that is enough to try and market yourself as a consultant.

So my question today – are you an expert (or are you at least on the way to becoming an expert)?

Authentic Selling: Being Geniune.

There has been some interesting discussions around this idea of authentic selling that I posted about a few days ago…so I thought it would be great to carry that on a little and look at the area of authentic business.

The dictionary defines authentic as:

1. Genuine
2. Authoritative
3. True
4. Entitled to acceptance
5. Established credibility
6. Trustworthy

Being Genuine

This is all about being real, real with yourself and real with your customers. How do you know if someone is being genuine? Look at how people behave, not what they say.

That is why I ask people if they have or use the products or services on offer. They can talk a good talk, but their behaviour will prove how genuine they are. It is a simple test that I think works well. I appreciate it might not always be as black and white as that – but it is a good starting point.

I am always amazed at the amount of doctors who actually smoke or who are over weight. They cannot, genuinely, tell people to stop smoking or lose weight. They are not modelling it. How many of you parents know as I do that kids copy what you do, not what you say.

What you do is more genuine than what you say. We can easily say things that aren’t true, but your behaviour will always show how genuine you are. “Practice what you preach” was a statement to people who were being hypocritical, not genuine.

Simon Sinek in his book Start With Why writes:

What do companies do to make their…sales…authentic? The common solution is hilarious to me. They go out and do customer research and they ask the customers, what would we have to tell you for us to be authentic? This entirely misses the point.

Being authentic, being genuine means that everything you say and everything you do – you actually believe. So what you say and what you do have to marry together. To act and talk in a genuine way you have to really understand why you are doing what you are doing. Otherwise, how can you believe in what you do?

So:

1. Understand why your doing what you are doing
2. Make sure what you say and how you behave are consistent
3. Don’t ask other people how to be more authentic – it has to come from you
4. What you do is more genuine than what you say
5. Use your products and service
6. Buy into your company brand, engage with it’s values and live out it’s purpose (and if you can’t – find a company that you can do this with).
7. Be real!

Next Post: Being Authoritative

What does being genuine look like for you?

The best sales advice I can give you: authentic selling

This is a great question from Andy and the short answer is “Yes!”

The question then becomes “Why do you partake of your products?”

For those of you who don’t know – my company designs and installs thermal spas (saunas, steam baths, mud baths, snow cabins etc). So you can immediately see why I partake in the use of my products. Who wouldn’t? I don’t often hear people saying, “Arrr, spit. Gotta use that sauna again. What a nightmare!”

But I think there is a deeper issue involved in all of this – and it is that old fashioned word authenticity.

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Performance lessons from the iceberg: pt 2

I often find that things like the Iceberg sound simple in principle but are often somewhat more difficult to apply in practice. As I said in my previous post, my default is to tell people what to do (in other words, to think for them). I have to work hard at not doing this because by telling people what to do I am focusing on their behaviour and I by-pass the thinking and emotion stage.

The only time that I have found that it is good to tell people what to do is when there is a crisis, or your definitely need to be in command of a situation (I come across these sometimes when on first aid duty). These situations, though, are few and far between – so 9/10 – it should be the iceberg model, especially if I am looking to improve performance.

Iceberg in practice

One manager that I recently spoke with was snowed under with work, and felt the need to work crazy hours. They had picked up the martyr spirit too. The reason for the mess, of course, was everyone else.

Inevitably I get asked for my advice in this situation. What new management structures could we use? What new members of staff are required? But these are the wrong questions according to the iceberg. These are behaviour based questions, and they are questions about what I think. Who cares about what I think? I don’t work there. I have no idea about new management structures.

It easy, though, to offer your opinion. It’s nice to be asked if I am honest. But the best thing I can do in this situation is ask them “how can I best help you think this through?”. This leads us down a very different path. The manager came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn’t everyone else – but that there we some personal changes that could be made. They started to feel very very different about work and where it could go by looking at their thinking about the whole thing. They started to think differently, so they started to feel differently.

The following day I got a great email from them thanking me for my advice (not sure I offered any) and that they had changed somethings at work that made a massive difference. So behaviour had changed and the results changed.

Handy hints that I have learned

1. Learn the art of asking great questions
2. Be slow to offer advice. If you do need to inject a little guidance, advice or experience (if they really are stuck) – ask permission before offering it: “I have some information that may be helpful here, do you want me to tell you what I think?”
3. Focus on solutions and not problems
4. When people have their “ah-ha” moment – capitalise on it.
5. Stretch people to a commitment to do something

If you want to know more about all of this – then read a fantastic book called Quiet Leadership by David Rock.

Would love to know what tips you have for helping improve people’s performance!

Performance lessons from the iceberg: pt I

I love diagrams. Diagrams help me to process information so I am often looking for an easy way explain something with a simple sketch. This diagram is one of my favourites and is worthy of much more detailed study than just these notes here. It has really impacted my business and how I deal with people generally. I highly recommend learning it’s principles.

Understanding the diagram.

Simply put: thinking drives emotions. Emotions drive behaviour. Behaviour drives results. The key to the diagram, and to change is therefore to change thinking.

Behaviour

With people – we see their behaviour. That then translates into obvious results. For a long time we thought that by changing the way people behave – we would get different results. It became a carrot and stick approach. Incentives were used to drive change in how people acted. It worked for a while but people quickly fell back to default. Change was short lived.

Then a few decades ago we realised that there are forces unseen that drive behaviour.

Emotions

So to change behaviour (and thereby changing results) we looked at emotional well being. How do people feel about life and themselves became important. Wellness became a buzz word as did things like emotional intelligence. These were all good and we started to realise that emotions were very important. But how do you change emotion?

Thinking

More recently* we have discovered that there is something that drives emotions – and that is thinking. It is right at the bottom of the iceberg. It is unseen. But if we work on how people think, their emotions change which means changed behaviour and improved results.

The role of the leader

So the role of a leader is no longer to tell people what to do but focus on how they think. Help people to think (that is, after all what they are paid for) and you’ll ultimately change the results.

I have spent the last year putting this simple diagram into practice within my own business and life as well as in the lives and businesses of those that I have the privilege of being involved in. I have to tell you that the results speak for themselves. I no longer get involved in unnecessary detail but spend more time on focusing on how people think instead.

The performance of the staff is up. I am much better at getting buy-in from the kids and helping them think through life rather than just telling them what to do.

In my next post I’ll share with you some of the ways you take this simple idea and turn it into an everyday reality. Stay tuned.

*I say “more recently” lightly. As with most business principles, it is Biblical. See Romans 12:2 (transformation comes from changing your thinking).

Pointing out other’s bad customer service v’s me delivering astounding customer service

It’s easy to spot the mistakes of others. Real easy. I have spent a life-time learning the art.

I can go into a restaurant and spot what the waitress is doing wrong: not smiling, no eye contact, no interest in me or my family. Recently I have been using a firm of solicitors (lawyers) to do some work for me, and I don’t mind telling you they are absolute muppets: never return calls, hard-to-reach, never respond to email, actually lie to me – the list goes on.

Yep, I am great at spotting those awful mistakes that really hack-off customers and make the customer experience pants. I could easily do it as a full-time job.

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