Lies
The car business filled me with all sorts of witty sayings which I wrote off as clichés needed to survive the day at the time but the longer I’ve been in sales the more that I’ve seen the underlying value to them. One of the first I learned was “Buyers are liars” after I insisted to my sales manager that the customer couldn’t put any more money down. After he went in and bumped them for an extra $2000 down and closed the deal I tucked my tail between my legs and learned not to listen too much to the client.
However this post on Simplenomics reminded me that while Buyers are indeed Liars they often aren’t lying in the way that you think. They are lying because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. They are lying because it is the socially acceptable thing to say. They are lying because they don’t know how to give good criticism.
Listen to your clients. But make sure that if you’re only hearing what you want to hear or what you expect, you’re probably getting lied to and it is costing you money. Find someone you know will be brutally honest with you and have them be a customer for you. Get the real skinny from them if you can and then see how that compares to the feedback you’re getting (or not) from your current base.
Be sure you aren’t lying to yourself either. That deal isn’t closed until you have the signed contract and the check in hand. That client isn’t happy until you’ve heard for sure that everything is done right. That lead isn’t dead until you are sure that there is no way to go for you. That networking meeting isn’t useless unless you make it so.
Chris,
In my 30 years of sales, I’ve heard the phrase “Buyers are liars” repeated over and over. To most salespeople, it is just as you’ve characterized, a witty saying or cliché. For me, it’s a phrase that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I won’t tolerate it from the people that work for or with me. I react to it the same way I do when I hear my customers referred to disparagingly, such as when tech support gets off a call and remarks that the customer is an idiot.
Your words (and thoughts) are powerful. They create the context for your interactions, and impact the culture of your company. If your customers are idiots, what does that say about the product/service you sold them? Would they have been smarter to buy from your competitor? If you are selling inside the context that buyers are liars, how can there be trust?
Context is king. Be conscious of what you are creating when you are choosing your words. While there are lessons to be learned from those witty sayings, the context and culture they create may not serve you or your customers.
-Ted