Who lies the most, customers or salespeople?
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
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The stereotypical salesperson is portrayed as shallow, money hungry and untruthful. Most non-salespeople might be surprised to learn that those are unfair characterizations, especially the last one. Let me give you an example.
Customer: “Debbie, I need these parts and would love to buy them from you, but Bill at XYZ, Inc. down the street has them for, oh, um, let me see, 25% less than you do.”
Salesperson: “I’ll talk with my manager and see if I can meet that price.”
What is going on here? Well, that’s the issue. We don’t know for sure what is going on. Is the customer telling Debbie the truth about XYZ, Inc. or is he manipulating the facts to his advantage (i.e., lying)? After making literally thousands of sales calls, it is my anecdotal observation that some customers modify the facts more frequently than salespeople do.
There are a number of ways that customers like this stretch the truth a bit sometimes. Here’s a short list (all of which I’ve observed on more than one occasion): a fabrication about why your invoice is not paid; a story about how they didn’t receive those items you shipped - although they really did receive them; creativity applied to “needed by” date on a shipment to provide some padding for them - but killed you to make it happen; how they absolutely did tell you about a certain specification that you must not have written down, etc.
Do all customers get reckless with the truth sometimes in order to get themselves out of a pinch? Thankfully, most don’t. Unfortunately this type of customer behavior happens more than we probably are willing to accept or may be aware of. So what’s the lesson to be learned? Know that a knee jerk reaction is not always required when a customer throws up an objection or problem. Analyze the situation and the customer. Ask yourself if you think they are representing things accurately before you decide on your course of action.
The relationship you have with your customers needs to be a partnership, and partnerships can’t and won’t last without honesty from both sides. Invest your time with customers that trust you, and that you can trust.
