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Authenticity: Immediately become a sales expert.

Funding | | Nick Fellers

This nugget focuses on the power of one idea: authenticity.

At the For Impact Boot Camp we have everyone practice their presentations, remembering some important keys to success:

  1. Listening (including discovery)
  2. The simple process: Share the story then present the opportunity
  3. Authenticity

I want to highlight authenticity. If you get this one idea it makes you an immediate sales (major gifts) expert!

So many people have call reluctance because they fear “screwing up.” If you are authentic:

  • You can’t mess up – at least not in from which you can’t recover. If you are earnestly communicating an opportunity to save lives, change lives or impact lives how can that be messed up?

    If you’re authentic you can say, “Let me call a time-out and back up. I’m not sure I’m communicating [insert point] clearly.”

  • You have a REAL dialogue. I’ve watched so many people give robot-canned-spiels. That’s not authentic.
  • You tell your own story, not someone else’s. Authenticity allows you to make a wonderful visit your third day on the job. You can say, “This is only my third day with [org] but I’m loving what we’re doing and I’m thrilled (but also a little nervous) to be sitting with you today.”

    How can someone not respect that candor? It also means you don’t have to be the founder or at the organization for 15 years to make a visit.

You will also find authenticity to be incredibly disarming to the person you’re with. It changes the dynamic of the visit from ‘eyeball-to-eyeball’ to ‘shoulder-to-shoulder.’ Think about that dynamic!