In today’s episode of the ‘Sales Samurai’ podcast, host Sam Capra, who helps marketing leaders in the retail space go beyond the sale/transaction, talks with guest, Larry Levine, best-selling author of ‘Selling from the Heart’. They discuss what ‘Sales Authenticity’ is and how to develop it! 

Episode Highlights

• 01:50 – Larry says, he sold copiers his whole life up and down the street, small businesses, medium businesses, and enterprise major accounts.
• 04:28 – It took Larry five to six months for him to make his first sale. 
• 06:13 – Larry believes that if they do the non-negotiables in the basics and sell well, it creates the foundational layers for how they can go about layering sophisticated stuff.
• 10:24 – If you're in those environments that don't align with how you sell to your point, you can either accept it or lean into it, says Larry.
• 13:45 - If you want to bring your authentic self to the forefront you have to be willing to do the inner work to uncover what's in your heart.
• 17:56 – Larry states that he transformed his career within a period of 10-years when he was around 40 to 50 based on doing the inner work.
• 19:20 – In his 40s Larry’s first business coach taught him the inner work and taught him how to replicate himself online.
• 24:48 - If you read 20 pages a day, Monday through Friday, and you took the weekend off, you have read two books a month and 24 books in a year. You are now probably in the half percentile worldwide of readers. Imagine the wealth of knowledge you would have as a sales professional to leverage.
• 27:16 – Larry states, there is a difference between sales reps and sales professionals.
• 30:44 - You want to understand what it means to sell from the heart and lead that kind of lifestyle in sales. Then you got to be willing to do the work. 
• 32:33 – Sam mentions, to this day, he blocked off his calendar for specific things because it was a best practice that he learned from a book, went to a mentor at the time, and spoke to them about and implemented. 
• 35:45 – Larry mentions, if you want to become a professional, you got to be willing to do the things that sales professionals do every day.
• 37:25 – Sam reveals that he is not looking for 50 different things to pick up from a podcast or a book. He thinks that's another area we miss from a professional standpoint.
• 40:03 – If you're looking for mentorship, you should be finding out people older than you somebody who aligns with your values.
• 42:50 – Larry Highlights, if you are a reader, take the last three great books you read, look the author up on LinkedIn, ask the person to connect, send them a heartfelt message on the impact the book, add in what you got out of that book, click connect, and watch what happens next.

Three Key Points

1. If you want to bring your authentic self to the forefront you have to be willing to do the inner work to uncover what's in your heart, and this is where a lot of people brush it off to the side they go not willing to go there. Larry is going to challenge everybody on this - if you want to become a successful sales professionals who lead with integrity, who's genuine and sincere, you got to connect and relate better to yourself and the more you do it, the better you're going to be able to connect and relate to your clients.
2. Larry highlights that in those 90 days, his coach did two things that transformed his career that he wishes he would have learned in his 20s and 30s. The first one was the road to find out what was in his heart, the inner work. The second thing was how to walk, talk and breathe in an online world.
3. Sales authenti