Seeking Authenticity

Another day, another flight, this time suffering S African Airways.  (It’s amazing isn’t it, when you complain in writing, all they do is send you a letter saying ‘sorry, hope you will use us in future’ – idiots, the answer is an emphatic “no”)  In my seat pocket was their lightweight mag, and flicking through found only one article with any juice.  It was all about Spin-Free Sales Pitching.  Apparently, the ‘yoof’ in particular see through spin and run away from it.

The standard bearer for the new age approach was hailed as those two YouTube guys who, having sold out for over a billion dollars, posted a home video to announce the news.  At one stage, they realised they’d slipped into biz-babble and started giggling, when someone off-camera apparently urges them to keep going so they move onto telling Burger King jokes.  This, it seems, is what the younger consumer relishes.

Another mover and shaker in this space was said to be Siamak Taghaddos of GotVmail who promotes the thinking “we are not a sales based organisation – not in the typical sense.  We educate people, let someone make their own decision.”

And blogs also aid this drive, with a beacon being tech blog Signal Without Noise, I think since renamed “How to Change the World”, who’s author (Guy Kawasaki) suggests these six steps to authenticity:

• jettison the stupid
• be anti-sales and slip under the radar
• start conversations, do not deliver canned speeches
• find people who need you
• focus on the information
• be true to yourself