Newsletter #1 Selling with Authenticity

Dear Reader,

Welcome, and thanks for signing up for the first edition of B2B with E.P. (E.P. being me, Elna Pretorius, if you didn’t get that part). Whether you’ve taken the plunge to start your own thing (high-five!), are a seasoned B2B salesperson, or B2B sales and client relations form part of your job, I know you will find value in my weekly read.

My aim? To help, coach, guide, educate and share ways B2B sales can be demystified for start-ups and B2B sales beginners. For those of you who have been in the game for longer, I hope some of my content will jolt creativity in your current B2B sales efforts. Going back to basics is a great thing to do when you feel stuck. 

Intros aside. Let’s get to this week’s B2B sales topic: Authenticity

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I have a friend who runs a large-scale charity fundraiser for her birthday and she’s raised a good amount of cash for her charities. If you think about it, this is a harder sell than a typical B2B service; you don’t get anything in return except for feeling good about yourself. She jokingly mentioned that she becomes utterly shameless in asking people to donate closer to the deadline leading me to quip that she would kill it in sales. She felt that wasn’t true and that she could only sell something if it truly inspired her. While many of us could sell anything if we had to, being inspired does help.

In the past, my excitement and passion for what I was selling translated into my clients feeling the same, making a sale much more plausible because they became resellers internally. If you believe in what you’re selling, so will they.  Your authenticity is a sales superpower.

This goes without saying for startups. You’ve decided to put a lot on the line for this business to work, so sell it with enthusiasm and confidence. You wouldn’t have started it if you didn’t believe in it in the first place.

Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx (and now billionaire), had a similar story. She sold fax machines door-to-door in the Florida heat. She was good at sales, but selling fax machines wasn’t as exciting. In a recent post, she said she loved sales because she enjoyed giving people something they didn’t know they would love. That led to the invention of Spanx.

There’s a dual lesson here: 1) any sales job can teach you how to sell a cape to a superhero, but 2) genuinely knowing that the cape can make people fly will help you sell it better. You’ll be more successful and sleep easy at night. 

Being real about what your service can (and cannot do) will be valued far above having all the smooth sales skills that “natural” salespeople have. I say “natural” because if it were only up to genetics, many businesses would never sell a thing. 

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What's the takeaway?
1. Authenticity Amplifies Success: Selling with authenticity amplifies your B2B sales chances.
2. Infuse Personality: Authenticity means injecting personality. You don’t need to be a corporate drone to sell, be real.
3. Authenticity Over Ability: You don't need an innate sales gift. Your passion and authenticity will trump any artificial charm.

Practical Tip: 

When telling a client about your service or product, don't hesitate to add the words "what I personally love about..." and why. It shows you have a personal connection to what you are offering. Try it out, it always works for me. 

I hope I’ve inspired you to look at what you are selling and reflect on the aspects of your service that you believe in. I realize some don't have the luxury of selling what you're passionate about, and that's ok, so look for the elements that can be exciting. Ensure you are selling it the way you sold it to yourself.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with others and follow me on LinkedIn. I hope to hear from you, if anything resonates, hit reply to tell me more and if you have specific topics you'd like me to cover, do the same thing. More resources and content coming soon! Until next week.

Yours in being real,

Elna