Selling is tricky business. The more you strive to be authentic, the more you’ve missed the point of actually being authentic. I have an old Navy buddy who used to jokingly say, “The key to life is sincerity. Once you can fake that, everything else is easy.” He had a short career…he was even too cynical for the military.
Authenticity can’t really be taught. It comes from a combination of knowing who you are and feeling good about what you’re saying. That’s a tough mix because it requires looking inward and understanding and trusting your own story. And working in a business where you can believe in what you do. Perhaps the odds of having both working in harmony are low.
But you have to start somewhere. The best salespeople I know have nothing in common with the image of used car sales. They don’t carefully craft their style and words and some are profane and wear sandals in the office. Its one of the beauties of life in Silicon Valley that the very best people can bring their dogs to work. They earned that right.
You want to wear a wool cap and sport a soul patch? Take a step back, know your story and believe in what you say.
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Chris, it goes beyond that. Everyone is so bombarded by stories proffered by truly sincere folks that even internal harmony doesn’t work. In today’s over-hyped marketplace, you need credibility. The best way to get that is word-of-mouth. People expand their circle of trust from the inside. You can’t force your way in no matter how harmonized your message.
Tom, I agree that word-of-mouth is very, very important. What others say about you does more than what you can say for yourself in our highly networked business world. With that said, it take all of these things.