Thursday, January 26, 2012

Truth, Honesty & Perceived Truth

A few weeks back I wrote a blog about things that customers said to me that I just found to be unbelievable. Most of the people that read the blog agreed with me on some level and enjoyed it. I had a few people that did not agree with me. I welcome people that present a contrary point of view because I truly enjoy a good debate. One person that read the blog really did NOT like it and was very critical. Despite our disagreement with one another he did shine a light on one item that I did a poor job of clarifying. I said that the truth matters very little and what the customer perceives to be true is key to winning the business. So their are people who read my blog and thought " Mike doesn't care about the truth." To the Contrary, I certainly do care about the truth, and that is where honesty from a sales rep really comes into play. As salespeople, we often are in the very unfortunate spot where we must tell the customer something they don't want to hear. Other times, we must tell the customer something that is in their best interest but could significantly reduce our chances of winning the business. In both scenarios we must advise the customer of a truth that they are not yet aware of. The challenge here is, despite our desire to be honest and tell the customer something difficult, they often don't believe us. Either they just disagree or they think we are being dishonest for the purpose of trying to confuse them or manipulate them.
 A few weeks ago I received a call from a customer looking for high speed Internet access. During our meeting it came out that they currently used one of the largest national providers for their Internet access and the connection would often go down for 2 or 3 days at a time. I advised the customer that we would experience the same issues but because of our service methods that the down time would be shorter duration, even though it would probably be just a frequent. During our discussion I suggested the customer contact the local cable company and one of the local Wireless companies for pricing. Both of those solutions would bypass the problem. The client advised me that the cable company would have a VERY expensive installation charge that they were not prepared to pay and the wireless carrier had not returned their calls. I presented the customer with pricing the next day and (like so many other customers) once they had the pricing, they stopped taking my calls. About a month later I was able to contact the customer and ask what direction they went in and they told me that they went with the "other" Really Big National provider. Now in this scenario the truth is this customer will continue to have the same problems because this new provider was not dealing with the root cause of the problem. But this customers "perceived truth" is that the Big National Provider would do a better job of servicing them. Even though their experience told them otherwise.

So to be clear, Telling your customer the truth and being honest are absolutely critical to winning a sale. But it is even more important to understand what the customer perceives to be true and to tailor your presentation to that understanding if you want to win the business.

Thanks for reading today

Mike S.

5 comments:

  1. Nice article Mike. I run into this all the time in my line of work (commercial real estate). One lesson I have learned over the years is that we as salespeople have to overcome all the "bad" salespeople who came in before us. So our prospects, like us, are trained to not believe salespeople and even if we are actually trying to look after their best interest as an expert in a particular field.
    Personally, I know I sleep well every night knowing I'm always giving my honest and best advice to my prospects and clients. Many times they eventually find that what I said is true and if I get the chance to work with them again its usually because they now trust me and look at me as a partner, not a salesperson.

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  2. I could not agree more with you Mike on this article! For me, as a salesperson of 25 years, the most critical component of ANY engagement I have ever had with a client or potential client, is "TRUTH"! So let me be equally clear, there is NO OTHER WAY, to achieve the level of "Trusted Advisor". Period.

    I have never, and will never, sacrifice any level of integrity for a sale. Perception is the biggest challenge sales people face. Being anything other than 100% truthful, even if it means in the short term, losing an opportunity, is the foundation for my success.

    Stick to your principles! It's the only way to gain complete trust.

    Great article!

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  3. Truth matters -- that why some people will eventually come back to you -- you were truthful when it mattered.

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  4. thanks for all the positive feedback gang! was pleasantly surprised to read so many posts so quickly.

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  5. Mike, right on. Some potential customers don't tell us the whole truth too.

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