Integrity – A Cornerstone of Trust

Posted by Tom LarsenJan 30, 2019 Organization, Planning, Sales 4 Comments

The definition of integrity is generally the quality of being honest. I stretch the definition to “Do you and your business walk your own talk”? Are you doing what you say you will do, meeting the commitments you make, adhering to the reputation that you choose to portray all the time? In the simplest form, do you have integrity as a core competency (in the real sense, is it part of your core and are you at least competent at it).

I see all too many people and businesses that lack integrity and rarely deliver when they promise or what they promise or consistently overpromise what they can achieve in a misguided belief that not meeting the expectation or promise they themselves set is OK.

From my experience this happens for one of four reasons:

 

  1. People change their priority of the previous promise and demote it in favor of the newer commitment or opportunity in front of them.
  2. People are unclear of what their promise means to others.
  3. People simply say what they need to in order to make someone else happy or go away.
  4. People say what makes THEM feel good and don’t even recognize they are making a promise.

 

The examples are everywhere. You should not say you value customers and then put them on hold for 10 minutes. You should not say quality matters to your vendors and put out products with problems to your Customers. You should not accept that you make top quality products and have low quality collateral materials or trade show presence. These are only a few examples of all the messages by which you and/or your business are measured. What else can an outsider use to evaluate you or your business? Your ACTIONS – Not your words.

This is the reality of life. Say who you are and what you stand for and then do that everywhere. Each time you don’t, each time you leave some ambiguity, some inconsistency, some unmet expectation or promise, you are saying to yourself, your colleagues and your customers “that’s not important and that’s OK”. To have integrity, it’s NOT OK.

When you miss, fess up fast and get on with it. Nobody is perfect. No company is perfect. Few expect that. The person that can accept responsibility with honest contrition and commitment to do better rises to a new level of trust. The respect, the trust, the continued relationships go to those that make commitments and then meet them. They are consistent with themselves, with their colleagues, with their revenue producing relationships and with the supplier/vendor partners. Success is in the deepest consistency that matters; you. Everything else you do is built on your ability to be consistent with your word. It is really simple and very hard.

  • Long time supporter, and thought I’d drop
    a comment.

    Your wordpress site is very sleek – hope you don’t mind me asking what theme you’re using?
    (and don’t mind if I steal it? :P)

    I just launched my site –also built in wordpress like yours– but the theme slows (!) the site down quite a bit.

    In case you have a minute, you can find it by searching for “royal cbd” on Google (would appreciate any feedback)
    – it’s still in the works.

    Keep up the good work– and hope you all take care of yourself during the coronavirus scare!

    • Hi Justin,
      We use a Development house to customize all the websites we create. This one may be built on Twenty Nineteen, but, I can’t be sure. You asked me to look at your site. It is very visually attractive. It is relatively standard for a product site. I have some specific comments for you to consider if you’re open to it. On your Home page because you chose to put products ahead of anything about the reason a Visitor should care (other than press), it takes 10 swipes on a mobile to get to the “Your Search Ends Here”. The site does not really tell me why your products are different. Differentiation is the topmost important reason a visitor will continue. This may be normal for CBD, but, as a visitor I have some ache or issue that brings me here. The visitor wants to know why they should trust your company with their pain or symptom management. That message is not at all clear. Gaining trust starts with empathy. That’s followed by understanding, followed by solutions (products). Products come last. Your site puts products ahead of building trust. Your about us section starts with “we are advocates”. If you were a political lobbying group, that makes sense. If you are the people who created these formulas for whatever relief you expect your customers to receive, the visitor might like to know that. Most people want scientists or some other expertise invested in the CBD products they are purchasing. Otherwise, the thinking goes, how do they know it isn’t two guys in their kitchen?

      If you want to talk about your site and you’re open to outside design and development, I’d be happy to chat with you about what that looks like. Use any of the Let’s Talk buttons to put an conversation on my calendar. Best of luck………Tom

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