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A weekly micro-lesson for B2B sales teams. In each 5–10 minute episode, we share one practical idea, model or strategy for how you become brilliant at growing sales with integrity. All focused on building trust and delivering real value to your clients. Find more learning at https://www.showinguplearning.com/
Welcome everybody. It's really great to have you with us. I'm your host, Benjamin Westen. And you'll listen to Very Good Sales, the podcast brought to you by Showing Up. We design sales training that enables people to see that their potential reaches far beyond what they might imagine, building the traits, the behaviors, and the skills that customers trust and value most, so you can grow sales with great integrity.
Benjamin:Head over to showinguplearning.com to learn more, and there you'll also be able to access some free training. And now, let's get into this week's micro lesson. Coco Chanel was rejected. When she started out the fashion industry didn't want her. At the time it was dominated by men.
Benjamin:Men who dictated what women should wear, how they should behave and how Chanel should stay in line if she wanted any kind of career. The rules were strict, women wore corsets, heavy dresses, lads of fabric that was much about control as they were about style. And the men in charge made it clear, Koka better play by those rules if she wanted to be accepted. But here's the cool thing and the rarity, she just refused. Coco Chanel was never going to be anyone but herself.
Benjamin:Her first breakthrough was almost scandalous in its simplicity. She made hats, not the extravagant feathered oversized hats that were fashionable then, but clean, paired down wearable designs. She sold them out of a small shop in Paris and the word quickly spread. Women loved them because they weren't about showing off, they were about freedom, were about being yourself. And that was Chanel's core philosophy.
Benjamin:She's the one who said: Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself. And she built an empire on that belief. She didn't just change fashion, she changed how women saw themselves. And what's the lesson here for sales? Well it's the same.
Benjamin:The single biggest problem I see when I train sales teams is this. Too many people play the role of the salesperson. They quite literally act. They change their tone of voice. They polish up slick proposals.
Benjamin:They believe they need to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, talk a certain way. And here's the problem, people will see through it, like you would. If someone is selling to you that you feel like is playing a role, it's going to put you off massively. One of the primary reasons people will buy from you is because they like you and they trust you. And they are far more likely to do that, perhaps only likely to do that if they believe that you are being honest and being yourself.
Benjamin:Which brings us to the word authentic. Especially in the world of LinkedIn today, the word authentic gets overused, it gets thrown around so much that it's almost lost its meaning. But don't let that put you off. Being authentic doesn't mean some fluffy slogan, it simply means being the person who you truly are, not pretending, not wearing a mask. And if we wear a mask for too long it sticks.
Benjamin:Only you've lived your life. Only you have your personality, your stories, your quirks, your view of the world. That's what people will love you for. That's why customers will want to work with you. Not because you're perfect, but because you're a real honest person who they like to work with.
Benjamin:Now of course authenticity doesn't mean throwing all professional out the window. If you're usually late, that's not being authentic, that's just being unprofessional. If you swear all the time to your friends, it doesn't mean you should just drop f bombs in a client meeting. Being authentic doesn't mean being raw and unfiltered at all times, it means being appropriate but still authentic, honest and real. And that's today's lesson.
Benjamin:So here comes the exercise. Get a blank page and draw three columns. In the first column write down what you think makes you most authentic. What's the real you? And be specific as possible and write as many things down as you can.
Benjamin:In the second column write down what your friends and colleagues would say about you. What do they love most? What do they rely on you for? What do they value about you? In the third column write down the things you do at work that don't feel authentic.
Benjamin:That it lacks the phrases, behaviors that feel like you're putting on a role. And then finally, circle the things in the first two columns, the real you, that you don't think show up enough at work, that you hide. And then think what if you brought more of those into your conversations, your customer relationships, your meetings? How would it make you more authentic, and therefore more likely to be trusted and liked? And also, therefore more effective?
Benjamin:Because Coco Chanel had it right from the beginning. Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself. And in sales that's also where trust begins. And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening to Very Good Sales brought to you by SharingUp.
Benjamin:And I hope today's micro lesson gave you something of great value. If you'd like to go deeper, head over to showinguplearning.com. That's showinguplearning.com. You can get free access to experience our video learning platform built for anybody that wants to be brilliant at selling. Whether you're learning solo as a team, every module is practical, scenario based, and designed to help you build trust, bring value, and grow sales of integrity.
Benjamin:And what's cool is, for every person that becomes a member of our video platform, we fund a free scholarship to a young person facing social barriers to enter the workplace. So by investing in yourself, you're also giving someone else the first step into the workplace. Visit showinguplearning.com to get started. Thanks again for listening. Good luck out there, take care, and see you next time.