by Jacques Werth and Carl Ingalls
The belief that “all buyers are liars” is a trap. It sets up the salesperson for failure.
“All buyers are liars” is also a self-perpetuating belief that makes itself true, once you’ve fallen for it. The belief makes you do things that sabotage trust. Salespeople who exaggerate the benefits and ignore the negatives can’t be trusted by their prospects, who often respond by lying about their buying intentions.
However, you don’t hear “all buyers are liars” from the top producing salespeople. They know that they are more likely to get the truth from prospects when they themselves are completely truthful.
Mistrust breeds mistrust. If you think your buyers are liars, they will probably think the same about you.
Author
I just returned from a conferece and one presentation had to do with being honest and genuine and listening to the other person not the sales talk inside your head. I had to learn this over some time and while I wanted to be trust worthy my desire to make a sale sometimes twisted what I said and why. Sometimes I made the sale but it didn’t stick.
This is an important blog post because it’s also got to do with the mis trust we can cause.
Mike
Your blog was the first time I have heard the saying “All buyers are liars.” Though I never heard it, I have seen it in action on many occasions, usually started by the salesman stretching the truth a little to make himself, his product, or his company look better. That would usually be followed by the buyer lying about his wants and budget, and eventually their little dance would end as a waste of everyone’s time and no sale.
It is fascinating and powerful how sticking to the truth works so much better than straying, even a little.
Wow, and thank you for this article Jacques. This article reminds me of the grand importance of telling the truth in all categories of life, and the many unseen benefits of doing so. Trust is such a huge part of selling and staying honest through and through helps breed that trust. That phrase I heard probably my second or so sales job. This person was not a top producer and went on to further talk about how it’s a bad market right now and so on and so forth. I really enjoy these articles as a reinforcement tool in my thinking and a concrete definition of what it means to sell with Integrity.
All buyers are people. Those who repeat the phrase ” all buyers are liars” remind me of the old english saying ” A thief believes everybody steals.”