Sales, Trust, and the Ancient Greeks

In Koine Greek, the word ‘pisteuo’ often translates to “believe.” To complete the action of ‘pisteuo,’ one would decide to place faith in something or someone, or trust it. Another way of translating the word is “entrust.” If I were to ‘pisteuo’ you with my finances, I would commit and entrust them to you, expecting you to be a good steward and grow my wealth. What is interesting to me about these two definitions is that the Greeks made a connection between abstract thought and the physical act of stewardship. In other words, to believe in a concept, idea, or person is the same as giving something that you care about to another person, expecting that the steward would act responsibly and with the same level of care as you would. And in the context of sales, what is even more interesting is that we have to get both types of trust at one time. First, we need someone to believe in what we’re saying, and then we need to be entrusted with resources to take care of. For example, if we sell web services, we earn a person’s faith and trust as we build rapport and discover the pain he or she is experiencing regarding online business performance. But then, once we earn that faith and trust, people entrust to us their resources (often money) in the expectation that they will receive something that they value more than the money in return. They expect us to handle their money wisely and carefully- just like how they would- and return to them the web services they value. This to me is an awesome opportunity to demonstrate strong ethics in business. By earning people’s faith and then being entrusted with their resources, we experience what the Greeks may consider a duel-level, profound trust. As salespeople, we have the opportunity to build relationships rooted in deep trust, and, sorry for being sappy, but that’s just beautiful.