Run When You Hear These Words

“I’ll be candid with you…”

“I’m a straight shooter...”

“Let me be honest with you…”

If a sales person begins a conversation with this sort of language, they’re hiding something and playing you to be the sucker.  I know this is a grim reflection on the worst stereotypes of the profession I champion, but the truth is that attempting to frame the nature of a conversation in this light is a clear indicator of hoping to build blind trust before establishing it through competency and dedication.   It’s essentially saying, “Take whatever I say for granted as the absolute truth, because I’m telling you that it is.”  What I hear in these circumstances is, “Instead of proving myself to be knowledgeable and ethical, I’ll tell you that I am in hopes that you believe so blindly.” A crutch for the lazy - and perhaps unscrupulous - sales person who does not care for the time-consuming consultative sales approach of true professionals. 

 

“But I say that all the time, and I’m a moral sales professional who always does right by my clients.”  Well, most of the time you probably do a good job, but when you resort to this sort of tactic, you abandon the best sales practices of listening to needs and speaking to those pain points in terms of what your product can deliver.  It’s not you at your best.  It’s you hoping to cut through the extended effort of listening to problems and crafting a solution in favor of a generic pitch and a quick sale.  The worst part is that it usually works, and this creates bad habits.

 

All of this is not to say that there’s never a time to cut through the riff-raff and get to the meat of the matter.  There certainly is.  But starting a conversation in this light betrays the consultative solution sale mantra that helps true sales professionals hold their head high with the rest of the economic upper crust.  It’s cheating, which works, but you can’t feel too good about it.

 

The thought process of the buyer this works with is, “You’re employed by a reputable organization.  They entrust you with the responsibility of helping customers adopt your product.  Why wouldn’t you be trustworthy?  I’m so glad I managed to get a representative so eager to share their honest and forthright opinion.  Lucky me.”  What this person fails to consider is that they are purposely being led to the finish line of a sprint when they should at least be tagging along for a jog through the woods.  If you work hard for your money, you should make sure the people benefiting from your spending work equally as to gain its benefit themselves.  Or else, you risk parting ways with your money over-assuming and under-educated.

 

I guess all I’m trying to say is this:

Buyer Beware; Having trust thrust upon you is grounds for rushing to a poor buying decision.

Seller Beware; Declaring your trustworthiness upfront is indication that you’re getting sloppy.