Why Being Genuine is So Important in Business
October 4, 2019
When you lack confidence in business, the advice is often to fake it until you make it. For confidence, this is reasonable advice since the more you tell yourself that you are confident, the more likely you are to believe it. The problems come when people start to fake with no intention of ever making it real.
Being genuine in business is far more important than many people realise. To be genuine is to inspire well-founded trust and to show people – customers, business partners, everyone – that you are the real deal. You aren’t going to string anyone along on false promises and you are certainly going to be open about what you can and can’t do.
Being genuine is difficult in a world that is increasingly ambivalent about what ‘truth’ is. It’s even harder when some people are actually more interested in the fakes. Take counterfeit electronics as an example – the vast majority of people are confident that they can spot a fake electronic device and yet 20% of people purchase them by accident.
So if being genuine is so difficult to achieve and even harder to demonstrate, why bother?
Building Trust
Trust is an essential part of business. When you sell something – be it an idea, service or product – the person you sell to has to trust that what they are buying is worth the money. The more often you prove that person right, the more trustworthy you become.
Building trust requires you to be genuine. People can spot someone who is pretending to be something they aren’t from a mile off and it puts them on edge. Back-up your claims with facts, follow up on promises you make and, above all else, tell the truth.
Attracting the Right Customers
If you want your business to flourish, you need to attract the right customers. This is the same for any business or personal brand and means that you need to be honest about what you do and who your business is best suited to.
You could spend a lot of time trying to be different things to different people but, ultimately, you’re just going to exhaust yourself and dilute your brand too. If you believe in your business and its customers, you have to let it grow naturally. You won’t be able to satisfy everyone so focus on the few you can.
Maintaining Your Integrity
Integrity is another important concept in business and the more you can show it, the more people will approve of your business over your competitors. Integrity includes building trust but it is also about demonstrating that you stick to an ethical code when doing business and you meet your commitments.
Businesses that lack integrity, fail to build trust and aren’t interested in being genuine are bad for their industry as a whole. But this shouldn’t put you off trying. In fact, when it is more challenging to be genuine, that is exactly the time to put your best foot forward and do your best. Being genuine isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing that you care and you are willing to try to be better.