Karl’s appearance on the Sales POP! Podcast

Karl preaches authenticity as a key tenant of building deep relationships with customers. And yet, just a few years ago, he learned a major lesson in authenticity himself.

At the time, he was working with a professional services organization to develop an effective, successful sales team. As he worked to understand each member of the team and their worlds, he realized that they needed to approach their weekly sales team meetings differently.

As a salesperson himself, Karl knew that everybody has rough days, or even weeks, and on those days, the last thing they want to do is go to a meeting and dissect everyone’s wins and losses.

Karl decided that a more effective use of everyone’s time would be to create an atmosphere where people could feel comfortable venting about the challenges they had, share what made their day difficult, and create a safe space where people could process how they were feeling.

The culture shift was quick. People weren’t dreading the meetings when they had a rough day. Instead, they were looking forward to it. They welcomed the chance to vent about their frustrations, talk through their problems, and work with the team to get into a better mindset.

Karl felt great about the progress that the team had made. Until he had one of those horrible, rough days himself.

He got on the call, determined to muscle through it, but he was noticeably off. His body language was different, his tone was clipped, his usually warm demeanor was colder. And while he had created this safe space for the team to come and talk about their problems in a judgement free zone, Karl didn’t feel that the same courtesy should extend to him. He was the consultant leading the team, and he felt it was his responsibility to keep his cool.

“What’s going on?” somebody asked after a while, and finally Karl admitted that he was having a really bad day, that he was sorry for being off, and he would try to push past it.

The team immediately stopped him. “Hold on,” somebody said. “You’ve created this space for us. You’re always here for us to talk to, and we know you’ll listen. You can use that space, too.”

Karl took a moment, realized the generosity of the offer, and decided to share. If you asked him if taking that leap was worth it, he’d say “absolutely.”

Karl walked away from the meeting feeling much lighter and having learned an important lesson: vulnerability and trust is a two way street.

When you’re with a customer, it’s okay to bring your true self. It’s okay to show that you’re a real human being with real human experiences. It’s okay to be vulnerable and authentic. In fact, it can help deepen your relationship. If you’re asking the customer to trust you, it’s important for you to show that you trust them, too.

During his appearance on the Sales POP! Podcast, Karl shares how he helped an executive shift to an ownership mindset, why finding your momentum helps to unlock your potential, why you should consider calling account managers “account leaders,” and more. Check it out now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!