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Inspiration

Authenticity, your key to better business

he negative stereotype of salespeople being 1. Self-awareness: Knowledge of and trust in one's
pushy, calculating people who'll do anything to own motives, emotions, preferences, and abilities.
make a sale isn't mentioned as much in popular
T culture these days. This may be due partly to 2. Unbiased processing: Clarity in evaluating your
the fact that the sales profession has grown more sophis- strengths and your weaknesses without denial or
ticated in this century, with guidance on how to sell effec- blame.
tively and ethically readily at hand.
3. Behavior: Acting in ways congruent with your
It's also a manifestation of our digital age, when so own values and needs, even at the risk of criticism
much commerce has shifted from in-store to online. or rejection.
Take Carvana. You can go through the entire process of 4. Relational orientation: Close relationships, which
buying a used car online. The only aspect occurring in the inherently require openness and honesty.
physical world is picking up the car or having it delivered.
And that doesn't involve contact with anyone resembling It's easy to see that acting in accordance with these four
the smarmy used car salesperson of yore. factors would benefit any merchant level salesperson's
business. Bringing them into all business communications,
This doesn't mean the equivalent of the unethical used whether conducted in-person, via email or on social
car salesperson doesn't exist on the web. We're all familiar media, takes planning. But the potential gains of doing so
with the ever-present fraudsters carrying out nefarious outweigh the time it takes to reflect upon them and assure
schemes. But they are shadowy figures, not brash, in-your- that you are truly authentic in your interactions.
face con artists who are easy to ridicule.
Being authentic calls for different actions in different
So in this digital age, when merchants have more and situations. Sometimes it means letting a merchant know
more options available for accepting payments and your product suite can't quite meet their needs and
efficiently running their businesses, how can an intrepid pointing them to a service provider who is a better fit
rep compete with a growing number of well-funded savvy rather than selling them on services that will ultimately
competitors? What is it that small business owners are make them disgruntled.
looking for in a service provider?
Sometimes it means realizing a colleague is better suited
I believe it boils down to authenticity. to a particular assignment than you are and helping that
Do an authenticity inventory colleague succeed. There is no cookie cutter answer on
how to be authentic. And I've only scratched the surface
In an undated post on authenticity, https://bit.ly/3ywpcFq, here. But being truly authentic is one superb way to never
Psychology Today stated that authentic individuals strive leave behind a stereotypical bad salesperson impression
to align their actions with their core values and beliefs when you interact with merchants you want to sign for
with the hope of discovering, and then acting in sync your portfolio.
with, their true selves. The post mentions an authenticity
inventory devised by psychologists Michael Kernis and
Brian Goldman that contains four key factors:

Kate Gillespie, President and CEO
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