Can You Sell Without Lying-17Sept09

Can You Sell Without Lying Can You Sell Without Lying? 12:30 PM Monday August 10, 2009 by Clif Reichard Tags:Ethics, Sales A lot of managers believe that in sales, you can't be completely honest and still be successful. Are they right? I'll try to give you a completely honest answer. But first, consider how this pervasive belief has colored corporate activity for decades and decades. As Theodore Levitt put it in one of Harvard Business Review's best known and most quoted articles: "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about." Sales, he said in the 1960 article "Marketing Myopia," "does not...view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs. The customer is somebody 'out there' who, with proper cunning, can be separated from his or her loose change." If managers, like Levitt, view trickery and cunning as part of the sales landscape, it's not too far down the slippery slope for them to assume that a little BS is OK in the company's overall sales strategy. Recognizing that there is something ugly about this approach, managers sometimes choose not to peer too deeply into their firms' top-line activities lest they themselves be tied to questionable activities. They therefore allow oversight of sales activities to be a bit lax. And salespeople take that laxity, along with managers' relentless focus on making the numbers, as tacit permission to fudge the truth. We've all had experience with the results of that vicious cycle — salespeople in the auto showroom or at the mattress discounter who clearly couldn't care less about customer satisfaction. But the basic premise behind all this is false. Complete honesty in sales and success aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, if you've gained your success with even a little bit of dishonesty, it's not really success. Be straight with the customer. Let him or her see both the upside and the downside to using your products. If you're a manager, remember that your words and behaviors — as well as what you don't say and don't do — send a clear message to us in sales about how we should sell and how truthful we should be. If you take your top-line responsibilities seriously and encourage ethical selling, we'll be honest with customers and trust them to make the best choices for themselves — and to trust that those choices will benefit the company. Ethics needs to be the highest priority in selling, to protect the company's reputation; attracting and keeping customers comes second; and profit comes third. But if you delegate your top-line responsibilities or avoid delving too deeply into them, we'll get the message, and we'll start honing our crafty manipulations and wily deceits. Clif Reichard (creichar@ball.com) is a sales consultant for Ball Corporation, which he has served for 36 years in capacities including vice president of sales. He is in his 55th year selling rigid packaging substrates. This post is one in an occasional series. * * * * * People who read this also read: People Who Like This Also Like ​ A Crash Course in Leadership 18832483 Gill Corkindale ​ 6 Networking Mistakes And How to Avoid Them 24076052 Gill Corkindale ​ Every Leader Needs a Laugh 20474505 John Baldoni ​ Don't Keep Up With Social Technology 26930472 Alexandra Samuel ​ How Should You Handle Your Underperformers? 18832297 Paul Michelman ​ Forging Better Ties With IT 23951904 Susan Cramm   Never miss a new post from your favorite blogger again with the HarvardBusiness.org Daily Alert email. The Alert delivers the latest blog posts from HarvardBusiness.org and HBR.org directly to your inbox every morning at 8:00 AM ET. ​ Comments (34) ​ | ​ Join the Discussion ​ | ​ More by This Author ​ | ​  Email/Share * * * If you need sharp analysis of business and management, you need HBR Now. This blog brings timely, relevant insight from HBR contributors on the topics and trends that matter to you right now. Join the conversation with HBR Now! * * * Trackbacks TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4782 Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Can You Sell Without Lying?: Telling Lies vs. Managing Expectations from The Sales Blog: Clif Reichard, who sells for Ball Corporation and writes for the HBR NOW website, has a post with the purposefully inciting title “Can You Sell Without Lying?” As you might expect, Mr. Reichard comes down on the side of ethical norms, belie... More Tracked on August 12, 2009 21:42 When Walking from Deals is a Good Thing from Pivot Point Solutions: Read a good article today on the HBR blog by Clif Reichard.  Can You Sell Without Lying? He approached customer service from another angle – the beginning of the relationship with a customer – sales.  Given some of the comments, he must have hit a nerv... More Tracked on September 5, 2009 16:42 Comments There is a difference between "being honest" and "Full disclosure"; this difference is the key to understanding sales. - Posted by Niraj  August 10, 2009 3:17 PM Interesting breakdown. I would say the sales dynamic is quite complicated in today's information economy. "Satisfying customer needs" often goes beyond just the salesman being honest or not. Today, deals are becoming increasingly complex and even if salesman has all the intention to serve the customer rights, his product team, solution team or service team may not back him (or her). Another factor is that information flows quicker than ever in the history of mankind. Customers can gain deep intelligence in the domain and competitive substitutes. If the salesman is not careful, customer or prospect can easily know more than him. And unintentionally the salesman will seem like he is lying even though he is just giving his best knowledge of the subject. Access to information has become both blessing and curse for sales professional in this generation. Be very careful when you BS. - Posted by Jason Lin   August 10, 2009 3:57 PM You do not have to lie to sale your product or service, you just have to know how to show the benefits of using it. Put all its features in a favorable light. - Posted by Anca  August 11, 2009 2:16 AM Great enthusiasm, belief and willingness to help are not normally connected to lying, but these are the attitubutes required to sell. - Posted by Pat  August 11, 2009 2:23 AM Dishonest selling is a very short-term approach. If you're selling something based upon a promise that your product can't keep then your customer will be unhappy and therefore very unlikely to give you repeat business, due not only to the product not being up to their expected standard but your dishonest approach in selling it to them. With the cost of acquiring customers it's common for profitability to not be reached until the customer is several years 'old' so it really is hard to find any justification for the dishonest approach at all. - Posted by Adi @ CMI  August 11, 2009 4:23 AM I've always found shopping in Japanese stores refreshing, simply because they follow the mantra you've written about. I know they will try to sell the product to me, but I also know they will be honest and polite about it, despite the slightly higher price tag. In the country I currently live in, the glasses industry has a bad rap for tricking people into buying glasses they don't need at high prices. I now get my glasses at a Japanese optical-store, as they provide good service and I know I'm getting good quality stuff. They provide me with full information whether I ask or not, and will take the time to explain concepts and differences between each product. Is it more expensive? Yes. But I felt good about buying it and I knew that I would get something that I really needed, not what they wanted to sell me. Perhaps western sales should take a book from the Japanese sales method. It certainly doesn't hurt to be honest, especially in a world of ubiquitous and instant information in the internet age. Karn G. Bulsuk http://karnbulsuk.blogspot.com - Posted by Karn G. Bulsuk  August 11, 2009 6:38 AM Look to the senior management at the difference between the intensity of focus on next month's numbers and next years numbers and you'll find the source of BS is selling. Face facts, if your product or service isn't the best or second best in the world, you have to BS to get sales. Many companies have discovered that training sales people at the fringes of ethics is cheaper than improving products. - Posted by Eric Fetterolf  August 11, 2009 8:49 AM Eric,if a company is not as good as its competition,then the management should make their company as good or better than their competition. There is no justification for unethical, BS selling in companies who want to survive long pull. It's the profits first, last and always crowd that gives business its bad rap. All businesses need profits to survive but the sequence of ethics, customers then profits needs to be adhered to, thereby eliminating any need for BS selling. - Posted by Clif Reichard  August 12, 2009 9:37 AM Lying does not sell the product! You might make a sale if you lie, but what do you do when the customer calls back to complain? The only true way to make the sale is to transfer your genuine enthusiasm for the produxt to the vendor. If you can't be enthusiastic about your product - find another product! - Posted by Dan McAran  August 12, 2009 12:07 PM no matter how complex the business environment would be, truth is simply truth. it was like that and will always be like that. i think managers need to clear their mind to catch the 'sound' of the products they're selling. without listening to these traits. the mind will always see the complex macro environment and dilute their own 'value'. so, best of luck to find your 'value' to all managers out there - Posted by arya  August 12, 2009 12:27 PM When I first heard Mr Levitt's comments back in the 60s it was obvious that he had never sold anything for a living; but had the classic 'marketing expert' view that sales people were the reason for all of marketing's perfect plans falling apart. If you are selling a one-off product, especially to an individual customer, of course you can lie in order to get the sale; as you won't be going back there again. However, in a business to business environment, where you are dependent on repeat purchases, you lie at your peril because you will always be found out. The quotation I remember from the 60s, although unfortunately not its source, is "If all else fails, try honesty". It has served me well in over 40 years of selling. - Posted by Robin Humphreys  August 12, 2009 1:01 PM I was fortunate that my first sales manager was nothing less than a excellent manager, who understood that my engagement translated directly to the customer. He never once uttered the phrase "closing the sale." He assured me that if I had done your homework, why wouldn't someone buy something that so suited their needs? My next sales job was a straight commission sales job, where I quickly learned to heed my own counsel. After a few years of following corporate lead, I learned to shrug off a variety of pressures from corporate headquarters, although doing so was not without price. Following my own counsel allowed me to provide the company with sales increases in my territory that were 100% more than the entire company's sales increases during the same period. The ultimate price for me was burnout. I knew that I had to quit when the entire company went to a salaried compensation system because then my pay would suddenly be partly based on doing as I was told. So yes - in my experience, one must indeed sell without lying, but sometimes lying to management was necessary in order to save them from themselves and get the job done. - Posted by Christy Stadelmaier  August 12, 2009 1:36 PM "managers' relentless focus on making the numbers, as tacit permission to fudge the truth": it's REAL but a very common practice! But this is the other coin side: "If you're a manager, remember that your words and behaviors — as well as what you don't say and don't do — send a clear message to us in sales about how we should sell and how truthful we should be". Reality is complex? Of course but basically we decide a position, where to stay and where to go; most of all we decide at what price. Sometimes we're compressed within mechanism and rules and just some of us can freely decide how to really discipline their way to do. I'm frustrated without getting success? Of course, like many others, but anyway I m proud to be a honest vendor and consultant, deeply convinced that I can decide freely about my rules; my crm is founded on a deeply knowledge of my customer needs, if I ve doubts I ask them, if I'm not sure about the quick answers, I ask them more time to get more infos. I'm not superman, I'm just a common sales man with a general good reputation. I think companies should be more coherent with their missions, not just slogan. MAYBE IS BETTER LESS SUPER MANAGER AND MORE COMMON GOOD SENSE PERSONS... the new global village is a net without secrets, with powerless advertisers, TRUE AND SANE RELATIONS ARE THE ONLY GOOD INVESTMENT. - Posted by Franco Iavicoli  August 12, 2009 2:22 PM A lot of managers believe that in sales, you can't be completely honest and still be successful. Are they right? Clif Reichard Once I heard, “If you cannot sell in New York, you have nothing to sell”. A friend of mine has a shop repairing radios. He had a customer who came to get his radio checked. My techi friend took this, looked at it and told him, “The IC is gone, not available here; I will have to get from overseas. The radio was expensive. The charge $100. The customer looked at his pocket, looked at his wallet and went off with a promise to collect this the next week. My friend opened this in front of me and connected two wires and the radio was on in 5minutes. I said, to him, “This is a bad salesmanship. Such a huge lie”. he asked me, “If I repair this in front of him and give to him then, tell me how much can I change? 50c? Who will pay for the rent; power my food, my medicines, tax etc” I simply kept on listening the radio and ate the nuts he offered. The car mechanic went under the car and said boohoo lo. The customer bent down soiling his trouser in the grease and asked him “Is it that bad”. He said, “Boy, the main shaft is cracked. Thank Allah, God, you did not speed and do not go far. “Is it very expensive? No. Now, that I know you. I will get the second hand from the next doors and get your car running in 3 days. The mechanic removed the tappets tuned the car, cleaned it and took his girlfriend for three days on the house. A doctor has a very good smile when I walk in and he always says, “So what brings you here today?… Through the corner of my eyes his hands going into the. White Aspirin. His smile is so good and his greeting cures a patient in the first round. However, if that fails, he has the pink Aspirin then blue and red. Then he is very frank. In the end he will tell you. I think you had better see the specialist of the kidneys. (You have already taken 1000 tablets and he knows this) see Mr. David next street. He is specialist in these types of cases. I thank you Firozali A Mulla - Posted by Firozali A. Mulla  August 12, 2009 2:36 PM Sales & Marketing is all about creating lasting relationships. A relationship can only last if there is a long term win-win perspective. I often compare it with a marriage. You need to be correct and honest, but sometimes perception becomes reality. I was struck to read the following statement in the article: "salespeople in the auto showroom or at the mattress discounter who clearly couldn't care less about customer satisfaction": you see that specifically salespeople in the auto showroom generate this kind of perception. How many car sales people are indeed focused on selling the car instead of creating a long term relationship with the customer? How many car sellers where you bought your car, have contacted you after one month to check your satisfaction...? Who asked you how long you normally drive the same car and kept this 'repurchase moment' in his mind so that he could contact you and sell again a car to you...? Also in sales & marketing relationships you clearly have one-night stands versus a longterm relationship. - Posted by Werner Bullen  August 12, 2009 2:55 PM Interesting article. I hope clients would be able to appreciate an honest salesperson, sometimes the process of procurement with heavy negotiation makes the seller and buyer hide a lot from each other. Rregards Sameer http://www.stratbeans.com/ - Posted by Sameer  August 12, 2009 3:11 PM Successful organizations are those that provide superior value for their customers. The sales process is more of a reminder of the benefits the customer will derive from establishing a long term relationshp with that organization; it's more of a partnership than anything else. Unsuccessful organizations are only concerned with the immediate sale; they aren't concerned with repeat business, and usually don't get any repeat business. They usually don't last very long in a free market environment. - Posted by larry underwood  August 12, 2009 6:27 PM It's indeed very interesting discussion going on here! Truth matters and eventually it is prevail! Just wondering, do you think there is something very wrong by just .. selling the "advantages" of your product and not telling too much about the disadvantages" As we also understand that consumers buy because of it's advantages that the product can do to them, rather than the disadvantages!! Just like Botox, it' help you to look goods, BUT for how long ..? Regards, Kat - Posted by Katherine Chan  August 12, 2009 10:53 PM Beware: differentiation, alternatives and cut-throat competition are already inherent watchdogs in business. "lying" is like the sword of Damocles or living in (a constant state of) anxiety. Many businesses achieved only a "one-time-sales' with deceitful tactics! Note: Trustworthy companies have a 40% (only because of innovation, massive investments and new players) success rate on repeat business. Remember: Call an apple: "an apple", don't upset the apple cart. Thanks a heap! - Posted by ISAAC  August 13, 2009 1:51 AM Excellent Post. If money is lost nothing is lost, If health is lost something is lost, If Character is lost every thing is lost" A salesperson in a good corporate will never lie, now it's no more one time selling it's a new concept " Once a customer always a customer". There is a complete paradigm shift the ways firms are marketing now. The WOM plays a very important role, DELL, Apple all are going in the WOM concept. The cycle of PERCEPTION, to EXPECTATION to EXPERIANCE is still alive. The experienced customer in turn becomes your virtual salesman. The famous words of Abraham Lincoln" You cannot fool the people every time." Once a salesman starts lying to his customers his doors are getting closed to that customers, and everybody knows how difficult it's to get new customers. Let be end by saying Prof Levit’s words The product or service can only sell when the customer says " I like you, I like your price, and I like your product". First you have been likeable. With Warm Regards - Posted by Debashish Brahma  August 13, 2009 4:09 AM Most of the best salespeople are scrupulously honest. I went out on sales calls with hundreds of the best salespeople (the top 1% by sales volume) in 23 industries, on three continents. The purpose was to observe what they did that the other 99% do not do. I discovered that over 80% (of the top 1%) are highly ethical; they practice "Total Disclosure." They go much further than that by declaring that they only do business on the basis of Mutual Trust and Respect. Therefore, mo