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Buyers are Liars and other Sales Myths
Written by: John BrennanArticle Overview: Sales people love success stories and we’ve heard plenty of good ones. But there are some bad ones out there, too. Sales Stories may be interesting and not be useful or in fact they may serve to reinforce myths about selling. One of the top five is “Buyers are Liars”.
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Buyers are Liars and other Sales Myths
I hear this one often from B2B and B2C sales reps. It’s a conclusion that you come to after being burned by a customer. A customer makes a promise to you to call you back and then fails to follow through. Isn’t that evidence that buyers are liars? A customer says she is the decision maker but when you ask for the order she says she has to “run it by my boss”. Want more evidence? A customer assures you he has the budget, or tells you that he can get the money if you make a strong case, but your proposal dies a long slow painful death. Buyers are liars, right?
Actually I’m less interested in proving or disproving the statement and more interested in what it tells us about selling. Customers on the defensive may well lie. If you are an overly pushy sales rep or offensive, insensitive or if you fail to understand what the customer is trying to say or don’t bother to build rapport or you show no interest in the customer’s problem or go too fast or too slow or fail to qualify the buyer or if you over promise and under deliver or if you simply “don’t get it” you will put them on the defensive. That’s when they may tell a “white lie” to get rid of you.
If you are authentic with your customers most won’t lie to you. Authentic is another way of saying that “you are being yourself”. Yes, you are playing a role of the sales person but you are not the role, you are a real person playing the role. You are a real person with a personality, with values that you live by, feelings that you are attuned to, opinions that you hold, and that you don’t try to hide from your customer, they won’t lie to you. If you don’t get defensive or evasive when confronted and if you take responsibility for what you say and do, and you are well informed, dependable and caring, they won’t lie to you. If you show genuine interest in them without being intrusive, they won’t lie to you. And if you play your sales person role well, i.e. skillfully, knowledgeably and enthusiastically, while being authentic, they will not lie to you.
So, are buyers liars? A few are, no matter how you are with them. Most are not if you are truly professional and authentic.
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Article Tags: closing, credibility, myths, objections, success stories
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Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz]
I second the request...
Re: Are You Complying with the FTC?
- A lot online marketers will run to Cyprus and other Islands to do their businesses. FTC rule or no rule the Internet is a global thing and still a wild wild west. Buyers should be careful and do due diligent before buying anything online
Re: Are You Complying with the FTC?
- [quote="ideasuniversity":2shwf6gr]A lot online marketers will run to Cyprus and other Islands to do their businesses. FTC rule or no rule the Internet is a global thing and still a wild wild west. Buyers should be careful and do due diligent before buying anything online[/quote:2shwf6gr]
Exactly. The consumers should have enough common sense to check out a program or product before buying it if they're worried it might be a scam. There's plenty of resources available to aide them in the process.
But, unfortunately, everyone must suffer regardless.
Hello From Marietta GA!
- Hello All!
My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
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