Bending the Truth

My first boss said that to be a good salesman, you had to lie like a rug. People never remembered what you told them, so you could say whatever you liked to get the sale. My second boss told me that sales was just about bending the truth. You never really tell lies, but you just don't tell the whole truth all the time.

I never really understood my third boss. He spoke all the time about low-hanging fruit, helicopter-vision with lots of bespoke, tailor-made, benchmarked synergy.

Then I joined International House London and was told by the then Director General that sales was a necessary evil in a cruel world. It was no small wonder that I became almost apologetic when trying to tell people exactly what I did as a career. I even put 'teacher' down on immigration forms when visiting far-off countries, I was so ashamed of my profession.

Then, one afternoon, I was at a business fair in Cheltenham and grudgingly sat in on a talk by someone called David Tovey. I warmed to the man, after winning a copy of his book, by knowing the name of the first James Bond film.

He spoke a lot about marketing and sales and I realised there just might be another way, after all. Stuff about giving value, being generous, interesting, even polite and human rubbed shoulders with being scrupulous about the truth in this digital, Trip Advisor age. I liked what I was hearing and dug a little deeper afterwards, discovering Seth Godin's book on marketing people telling stories, instead of just talking about products all the time. Make it simple. Make it human. People will remember a good tale long after the sales patter has ended.

Cynics will say that sales people will always kill to get the sale and this is just another way of getting it, but those are probably the same people who still use bespoke to describe their products and have meetings every Friday to talk about synergy and target-related goals.

I like to think otherwise and actually believe that the customer prefers to hear your faults, weaknesses and a little story, rather than just listen to a list of how fantastic you and your products are. Credibility nowadays depends much more on vulnerability and personality than on churned patter and product adulation.

David Tovey - Principled Selling

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Principled-Selling-More-Business-Without/dp/074946657X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531128782&sr=1-1&keywords=Principled+Selling

Seth Godin - All Marketers are Liars

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Marketers-Are-Liars-Works/dp/1591845335