Authenticity

? Character plus advanced skill building.

Who wants to follow or buy from someone who is cruel, manipulative, lying or is pushy? I believe that most people strive to be authentic in what they do and practice the skills they have learned over a long period of time. What has changed? Trading used to be possible only if you were authentic, you had to be physically present and actively involved. Today you can hide behind the computer, and nobody knows who you really are. Can you imagine how Marco Polo survived selling to Genghis Khan with that kind of attitude? In those days, you would have paid a high price for corruption or dishonesty, most likely ending up in prison or even being killed.

From the beginning, the Austrian School of Economics (now even more exposed through the new president of Argentina) emphasized the importance of the peace-building component of commerce. Successful selling requires skills built over time and, like any good athlete, constant training for a higher purpose. This was the reason I coined the phrase "Salespeople are Wealth Creators and Peace Producers”. Selling is

just to find an excuse: "You have to be born to be a good salesman". I do not agree with this statement. I needed a university master's degree to stop feeling unworthy of my profession as a salesman, to feel proud and accepted. Even emphasizing how complicated a real consultative sales job is shows that the sales profession has to be learned, therefore it is a skill and not an art, a craft that can be learned.

John Golden and I created therefore a selling approach we called it Network Selling because today’s digital world is totally interconnected. You cannot make a move as a salesperson that doesn’t have some kind of impact, good or bad, throughout this network. You’re either recommended or warned about the product or service that you’re selling. But a person can only fulfill the duties of Network Selling—such as win-win, empathy and building trust—if they have fully evolved their character. So how do you do that?

• I believe an old proverb comes from an ancient tradition can shine light on this: ? Watch your thoughts, for they become words. - Watch your words, for they become actions. ? Watch your actions, for they become habits. - Watch your habits, for they become your character. ? Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

So, thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character, and character becomes destiny. The destiny of a salesperson is, of course, to be a great salesperson. You can see that destiny in the salesperson’s character and results.

I would like to tell the short family story about my grandfather, whom I deeply loved and respected. He was a good businessman and a strong character with great acting skills who saved his mother's life during World War II. She was an American Jew from Chicago who immigrated to Europe before World War I and married my great-grandfather. As Americans during WWII, we had the Red Cross flag outside off the door at the department in Vienna. My grandfather had a store next to the Vienna Opera in the Hotel Bristol called "Vienna Fair" where he sold, silver, furniture, and many other things. With this money he helped many families to escape the Holocaust. One day, as usual, the SS wanted to buy some things and put an envelope on his desk and a letter accidentally fell out.

He immediately saw two names on the letter, one of his mother's and the other of her sister. He knew he could only save one person, so he ran like crazy back to his apartment. In his youth, my grandfather was a student at one of the famous drama schools in Austria, so when he opened the door, it was the same people from the hotel. Grandpa performed the best act of his life to save his mother's life. I will never forget when he told us this story, he could not remember the exact words or how he did it, but he knew that this act of his life could only be performed out of character and skill.