I recently read an article entitled, “Authentic Selling: Be An Advisor”, by Marc Corsini. This article really struck a chord with me, as it represents the notion that I have always felt was the overriding philosophy here at Induron Protective Coatings. That philosophy being, that we work as “advisors” for our clients, not just “salespeople.” The Authentic Selling acronym is as follows:
Advisor
Undisputed Results
Trustworthy
Helpful
Empathetic
Natural
Thought Leader
Integrity
Collaborative Effort
For the purposes of this blog though, I want to concentrate on the “Advisor” component.
To personalize this a little more I’d like to give my perspective on selling prior to working for Induron. Upon graduating from the University of Alabama, I always swore to myself that I would never work in a position with a “sales” component to it. Whether it was me just being an idealistic college kid or not, I felt that any job involving sales ultimately involved a inverse relationship between what would be best for me as an individual sales person and what was best for the person or entity buying from me. I now understand this is in no way an absolute, but I’m still of the opinion that the “greedy, parasitic salesman” is alive and well.
So back to the subject at hand; Corsini emphasizes that through acting as an advisor vs. a sales person, we separate ourselves from the mindset of “What’s in it for me?”, to “What should they do?” or “What is the right thing to do?” By being of the latter mindset, we are able to truly do what is in the best interest of our clients, whether it leads them, ideally, to what we have to offer, or in other cases to our competition. The thing that is important here, is establishing a long-term trust that is mutually beneficial to both the client and me as a sales person.
And if I’m being honest, here’s where we are selfish. This approach frees my/our conscience of any conflict of interest, since I truly do want to be an advisor/partner to my clients, not just the “sales guy”. This is how Induron has always done things, and continues to do things. I feel really fortunate to work for a company that gives me the ability to say, “No, what I’m selling is not really what you need.” This way, the Induron Way, is how I hope my clients can trust me when I say, “Yes, I have exactly what you need.”