Sales

Over the many years I have been working with Sales People I have always had the same mantra. “Sales people never lie to a customer”.

Of course this is tough sometimes but it is a fundamental principle of good salesmanship. We should never lie to the customer and there are some pretty compelling reason why this is so.

• The moment you lie to a customer you start to dig a hole for yourself that you can easily fall into. Sir Walter Scott said in one of his poems “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. So the first lie will inevitably lead to a second then a third and you get lost in the stories you are telling a customer.
• Most of us are poor liars. Your body language is permanently demonstrating what you are thinking rather than what you are saying and the customer will probably pick this up subconsciously. When we tell a lie the customer will know you are lying to him
• If the customer catches you in a lie he will never believe anything else you have to say, even when you are telling the truth.

So while there are good moral reasons not to lie to customers there are also very good practical reasons as well.

Of course, these rules do not apply to customers. The customer can do what he wants and say what he wants, and even though there are the same compelling reasons for customers to stick to the truth as well, there are no customer training courses to tell them.  So why do customers lie to sales people?

• Generally customers are afraid of sales people. They may have had a bad experience when they were encouraged to buy something they didn’t need, or they have listened to stories from their friends. The truth is that sales people have a bad reputation and customers are frightened of them.
• Sometimes customers feel that they have a better negotiating position with the sales person if they lie about their position. The buyer, for instance, may say that he needs 5,000 units but only wants 200 to start; the customer in a restaurant may say that his steak was tough hoping to get a discount; the customer may say he represents the whole family when, in fact, he is just buying for himself.
• The customer may be lying to you for the normal reasons that people lie. He may simply be trying to make himself seem more important, more experienced, or more intelligent.
• If you have ever undertaken a customer survey you will know that customers lie because they say what they think you want to hear.
• Customers lie because there seems to be no guilt involved. It seems to be fair game to lie to sales people where they would never do the same thing to a member of their family for instance. Ever heard customers say “The cheque’s in the post”? Both the customer and the sales person know this is a lie but the sales person doesn’t question the customer because he wants to do more business in the future.
• All major retail stores have a list of the lies that customers have told them about the products that have been brought back. “My cell phone has never been near any water” or “I have never worn these shoes, I just tried them on at home” or “the glass was broken when I took it out of the box”. The store knows the customer is lying but they also knows it is better to replace the article than argue with the customer.
• Finally customers lie when they want to get rid of you. “I already have one” or “I don’t have the time to talk to you”.

The solution:

The first thing we have to do is to accept that the customer may be lying and look for signals that will confirm that. They may shake their head when saying positive things for instance, try to change the subject after telling the lie, look away rather than looking you straight in the eye or speak softly when lying. You can also listen for evasive language or saying things that are contradictory. Trust your own judgment here. If you think the customer is lying, you are probably right.

So what do we do when the customer lies?

• Know when your customer is lying and rephrase the question to get a better answer.
• Ask about the customer’s problems, not the solutions the he is looking for.
• Make sure you get agreements in writing.
• In the case of retail stores it makes sense to just accept that this customer is lying and exchange the products anyway.

For most sales however, don’t just accept that the customer is lying. If you sell based on a lie the customer will probably not end up with the best solution for his problem and he will blame you for that and never come back. Keep digging with your questions until you are sure you have arrived at the truth and then provide your solution that is based on that truth.