"Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving."

James E Faust

Whether this be in your personal life or in business, meaningful relationships are cemented on trust.

As we start off our journey together around trust building, let's peel the layers back around the above-mentioned quote by James E Faust. 

I ask you to insert the following at the beginning of each bullet point below: Are you...

• Truth telling: Trust building requires communicating facts and information accurately, without distortion or deceit.

• Truth speaking: Trust building goes beyond just stating facts. It calls for expressing one's genuine thoughts, feelings, and opinions sincerely and openly.

• Truth living: Trust building requires aligning one's actions and behaviors with ethical and moral principles. Being authentic and genuine in how one lives their life is a lifestyle. 

• Truth loving: Trust building requires a deep appreciation for truth. This means valuing honesty as a fundamental virtue and striving to uphold it in every circumstance, regardless. 

Smash these all together, as these aspects of honesty contribute to fostering trust, integrity, and authenticity in relationships.

Real connections, real conversations, and real relationships are all built on trust.

Cambridge Dictionary defines trust as a verb: to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or something that is safe and reliable.

Simply stated, without honesty there can be no trust.

When people are honest with each other, trust is established, and relationships flourish.

Being honest means adhering to a set of moral principles and with radical consistently acting in accordance with them.

Honest and truthful communication forms the basis of healthy and lasting relationships. This is essential for understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.

Trust drives profitable business.

Trust creates...

• Repeatable and consistent long term business growth.

• Forgiveness and recovery when things do not always go as planned.

• Loyal partnerships, and isn't this what you want?

When it comes to trust, Dr. Henry Cloud goes on to say, 

"When we realize that trust is not optional, that all human life is designed and wired to only work when we trust, we begin to treat trust with the utmost of respect."

TRUST AND CONSISTENCY

“Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them."

Roy T. Bennett

Consistency is a hallmark, the centerpiece of trustworthiness.

A trustworthy professional is consistently congruent. The walk matches the talk. 

Inconsistent behavior or language that creates doubt, uncertainty and suspicion, is a buzzkill, whereas congruency fosters confidence and trust. 

Consistent professionals have radical amounts of self-control to maintain their character. They do not wear masks or pretend they're someone they're not just to impress. 

They are not self-serving but self-giving.

They consistently show compassion and out care all other salespeople.

They consistently show respect, gratitude and appreciation.

They consistently create and respect boundaries in their relationships. 

More importantly, they consistently live with the utmost of integrity.

Sales professionals who are trustworthy are reliable. They do what they say they will do over, and over, and over again. 

Hard to gain your clients trust when you're reliable once.

When it comes to consistency, check out what Pastor Craig Groeschel has to say, 

"Successful people do over and over what other people do every now and then. Consistent action creates consistent results. It's not what we do occasionally that makes the difference, it's what we do consistently. We are what we do consistently."

Trust begets trust... Are you consistently delivering on your commitments?

CONSISTENT PROFESSIONALS NEVER WAIVER FROM INTEGRITY

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not."

Oprah Winfrey

In a post-trust sales world, integrity is nonnegotiable. You must live it, breathe it and demonstrate it. 

Integrity is about being courageous and will keep you at the top especially in a world full of empty suits.

Integrity is the practice and discipline of being honest. It is operating with a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles.

I ask you to please reflect upon the following...

Professionals with integrity demonstrate honesty in their communication, reliability in their actions, accountability for their decisions, and respect for others. 

These professionals stand up for what’s right, even when it’s difficult, and they don’t compromise their principles for convenience or personal gain.

How do you think this plays out in building authentic and trusted client relationships?

Integrity...

• Earns you respect

• Builds upon your personal reputation

• Builds upon your professional reputation

Stop right now and think about these two questions...

• How many of your clients and future clients would use the word honest in describing how they view many in sales? 

• How many of your clients and future clients would use the words moral and ethical in describing their interactions with many in sales?

INTEGRITY AND TRUST, A MUST IN SALES

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

Luke 16:10 NIV

It concerns me that the words morals, ethics and integrity; we surely do not think of salespeople.

Integrity will shape your world both personally and professionally. 

Take a few minutes to answer the following:

• What's your end game in sales?

• What do you really want to be known for?

• Will you allow integrity to guide you? If so, what will you be willing to differently and not compromise?

I applaud what Andy Stanley says about integrity... 

"People with integrity do the right thing because it is the right thing even if it costs them."

Therefore, a failure of personal integrity adds stress to the people around you. 

Apply this to how you interact with your clients... Do you smell what I am cooking up here?

Integrity is a universal expectation – you expect from people around you.

Why do we expect integrity from others even in times that we are not?

Will integrity guide you or will your appetite for commissions guide you?

Will integrity guide you or will you succumb to the pressures of fitting into the sales wolf pack?

Andy Stanley goes onto to say...

"You can’t be yourself as long as you're lying to yourself."

You can’t give your full self to your clients as long as you're lying to yourself. This will all come back to haunt you throughout your sales career. Your reputation is a terrible thing to waste.

Simply put, your irresponsibility should not become someone else's responsibility. 

Questions for you to think about right now... 

• Do you want to be known as a trust builder or trust buster?

• What might be competing for your integrity?

• What might be competing for your future self?

I'm here to inform you that when you breech your personal integrity, this will impact someone else’s and often this just might be your clients' trust.

In a sales world where your clients and future clients are yearning for trust, think about this...

• One breech of integrity leads to another

• The first breech makes the second breech easier

• The second breech creates a pattern/direction

Sales professionals with integrity are guided by integrity. They refuse not to lower themselves nor waiver from it.

When you sacrifice your integrity to get ahead, I promise you this... You will soon close the door on that opportunity and things will start to come back to haunt you.

Never ever close the door on potential in the now moment.

What do you want to be known for in sales, out in the community and with your clients?

INTEGRITY KEEPS YOU PERCHED AT THE MOUNTAIN TOP

It's quite unfortunate as we live in this cancel culture. Where a little bit of bad, erases a whole lot of good.

Integrity determines your reputation.

"The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them."

Proverbs 11:3

Integrity guides you from becoming an empty suit.

A single bad choice to destroy a lifetime's worth of integrity.

It can be said that people with integrity have the same characteristics - they're humble, have a strong sense of self, they have high self-esteem, and ooze self-confidence.

These characteristics become mission critical, because, in sales, you'll be under intense pressure from others to make the wrong choice.

And this is why Proverbs 10:9 is to be taken to heart,

"Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out."

Sales professionals who carry themselves with integrity win, and those who do not, get exposed as being empty suits.

STEP INTO INTEGRITY TO BUILD TRUST 

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

W. Clement Stone

Please key in on this for a moment... If you're quick to abandon your integrity then you must ask yourself, "What's really driving me?"

Why is it in sales that many are more concerned with looking good than being good?

In Selling from the Heart fashion, if you commit to leading with integrity, it won’t be how well you behave that gets people’s attention it will be how well you love that gets people’s attention.

I will leave you all with a quote from Dr. Henry Cloud,

"Trust is the fuel for all of life."

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.