Lie, Cheat & Steal To Close A Sale?

Every salesperson, without exception, has been in situations where stretching the truth or omitting a crucial fact about the product or service being offered, seems to be the solution to closing the sale.  Sales made under false pretenses, no matter how slight, will only result in a negative reflection on the salesperson and, more importantly, stain the reputation of the company.

It makes little difference how good are the products or services provided, if they differ even in the slightest from what was promised by the salesperson.  People expect to receive exactly what they bargained for, not a quasi facsimile, or something entirely different from what was agreed upon.

Your Brand’s First Impression is Sales

Successful companies work slavishly hard to establish brand identity.  Creating the reputation of dependable, quality, and valuable goods or services takes time and much effort.  It is attained by consistently providing a dependable identity (i.e., the way in which a business wants consumers to perceive its brands).  Every time that this is abused by the sales process, the brand image is tarnished.  As the negative difference between identity and image builds up due to abusive sales techniques, the more difficult sales becomes, and more unreliable the company becomes in the eyes of customers.

It becomes ironic that quick and easy, but unscrupulous, sales make it increasingly more difficult for future sales.  Customer expectations, especially unrealistic expectations, can lead to serious consequences, if they are not addressed before the close of a sale.  Never lose sight of the fact that sales brings two parties together for mutual, but different ends—the customer receives the desired goods or services, while the sales company obtains the revenues.

Setting High Expectations & Failing to Deliver

Tom Magliozzi, the popular co-host of NPR’s ‘Car Talk,’ once shared a joke about the risk of high expectations:

A couple had been debating the purchase of a new vehicle for weeks. He wanted a new truck.  She wanted a fast little sports car, so she could zip through traffic around town. 

“Look,” she said.  “I want something that goes from zero to 200 in four seconds – or less.  My birthday is coming up.  You could surprise me.”

For her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale.  Services will be at the Downing Funeral Home on Monday the 18th.

It’s a funny story, but the moral is anything but funny.  Unrealistic expectations, or promising something totally undeliverable, can only result in slow corporate suicide.  A continued practice of those tactics will earn you and your company a date at the corporate Funeral Home.

Being misleading, or making blatantly false claims to a client, may entice him or her to agree to your presentation, but when it comes time to deliver the services proposed, an entirely different scenario emerges, which will never result in a legitimate professional relationship with a client.

Every sale, every customer and every prospect counts.  How you deal with them, either enhances or diminishes your brand identity.  One sale is not responsible for the gross revenues of a company, but each bad sale makes it more and more difficult for future revenues.