Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 31

Don’t BS Customers

I nave know a lot of sales reps over my 30 years in sales and almost have the same thing in common. They are willing to do almost anything to make a sale. And I mean anything. One thing that I have learned over the years is that customers are much more informed today before you meet with them. There are many reasons why and that is for another discussion. In the old days customers were much willing to believe almost anything sales reps would say. The bad thing about that is that unfortunately the majority of sales people are not ethical and I have known many over the years that would flat out lie to customers to make the sale. And it was too late before the customer would realize it.

Fast forward to today and their are still unethical sales reps but customers are much smarter. They ask more questions are much more skeptical which is good for them and bad for unethical sales reps. I have always fought the urge to stretch the truth just to get the sale and I feel like that has helped me gain many more referrals that others do not get. People appreciate an honest sales person and will sometimes purchase from them even if they are more expensive for a similar product or service. I have had that happen numerous times over the years.

So here is the point. You may feel like you can talk your way into our out of anything but that is just not the case anymore. If a customer asks you a question and you don’t know the answer you will come across much better telling them that you are not sure but you will find out for them rather than just coming up with an answer that is completely BS. As a manager I have had to clean up many sales because the sales rep just made something up that was not true. That costs money and the customers trust. So just don’t do it.