The Importance of Your Character in Sales w/ Bridget Gleason [Episode 623]

Bridget Gleason is VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner on Front Line Fridays.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Andy introduces the topic: character. How does character relate to knowing, liking, and trusting? Bridget says we are more likely to trust people who are of high character. How do you feel buying from someone of low character?
• Andy defines character as the emotional and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, such as empathy, integrity, honesty, and loyalty. Good character is a binary distinction. You have it or you don’t.
• Business coach Jim Rohn laid out six traits of good character: integrity, honesty, loyalty, self-sacrifice, accountability, and self-control. Do you need all six? Bridget thinks it is a spectrum, not a binary choice.
• Leaders hire people to represent the company. What responsibility do the leaders have to hire people of high character? Should we emphasize it more when we build our teams to fit into our culture? Andy thinks it is ignored.
• Andy quotes Vince Lombardi about the progression of thoughts, beliefs, words, actions, habits, and character. Thoughts eventually become your character.
• If reps don’t have high character, they won’t be customer-centric. Jim Rohn said integrity is an undivided life. You act the same in all environments. It’s a congruence of behavior, regardless of your audience.
• Recognize your choices. Treat your customer as you treat your boss and your family members. Habit changes are choices. We can acknowledge the impulse and replace a bad choice with a good one, making the habit serve us.
• Jim Rohn defines honesty as the only policy. This removes the decision from the situation. Even the small things make a difference.
• Jim Rohn defines loyalty as sticking with people when they need us most. Don’t always jump to the next job for a few more dollars. If it’s only about the dollar, it’s a red flag for Bridget. Andy agrees.
• Self-sacrifice is putting up with a tough circumstance to see something through to the other side. Having patience will tend to accrue to your benefit, in the end. Andy learned this early on, in what turned into an acquisition.