I tell every single member of our sales org during training:
1) Act like you work for the client, not me. Do what is in their best interest always
2) You build trust by revealing yourself. You can't just stick to the social script. You need to, tactfully, deviate and reveal yourself (interests, passions, real views on the world)
3) By doing this you not only put clients at ease because they are dealing with an actual human being not a sales person, but you open up a space for the client to reveal themselves as well.
4) Authenticity and Trust form the core pillars of our relationship with our clients, and should be the case for any business or entrepreneur
5) I give the example of Nietzsche's saying 'All strength is an excess of strength'. This means that Nietzsche believed true strength could only be known via excess, by doing things you didn't need to do.
It's the same in sales, client relationships, and business. It is by taking a risk and doing something which gives you absolutely no competitive advantage, that you actually build trust. You need to do something which may run the risk of actually being bad for you (risking judgement, negative reaction i.e- why is this guy telling me his thoughts on Nietzsche)
It's human relationship all of the way down.
quotingThe single most important thing is integrity. Going back to the dawn of humanity, integrity is the most important ideal. Reputation among peers.
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I'll critique certain platforms and technologies dispassionately. When I brutally talk about the Fed, for example, I have no grudge against Jerome Powell as a human being. He's not doing a bad job for the situation he's in; it's the institution and the technology around it that's corrupt, not him as a person necessarily. To the minor extent that he is fair game to get meme'd as its figurehead, it's because he chose to participate as its leader. But I meme him in a way that is not negative towards him personally, and mostly just funny. I imagine Powell laughing if he sees any of my memes of him. I view him as neutral, so I neither attack nor defend.
When a high-integrity person succeeds, I'll quickly shout it out to support them. If they fail, I'll assess what happened and likely support their next thing, within reason. Business is hard, but people with high integrity get multiple shots.
When a low-integrity person succeeds, which is usually but not always through unscrupulous means, I'll acknowledge it but inspect it to see where the shortcomings were and broadcast them. To the extent that they become apparent, I'll point them out. When it comes to success, truth is important, and so those that try to succeed without truth are worthy of criticism.
In 20,000 tweets, I've been polite to everyone except maybe five people at most, and I stand by being impolite to those handful. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who I disagree with at times, but who I view as serious people with high integrity. I purposely stand down with public criticism against those types, and will be more strategic or private with any criticism that I have.
That's the benefit of integrity. You get networks, and you get support. You don't get to bend reality, but you get flexibility from your peers when things don't work out, and you get instant promotion when things work well.