When a salesperson bends the truth they’re ripping people off.
When a professional buyer tells a lie they’re just getting a better deal.
Fair? Moral? Of course not.
It’s such a common problem that sales training companies are now teaching sales people how to spot when their customers are telling fibs!
Here are X lies customers say to salespeople and a quick hint for each of how you can spot them –
A) “Sure we have the budget…”
The most common lie of them all.
I don’t know if it’s because buyers don’t want to look poor (when it’s no a reflection on them personally if the company doesn’t have the necessary funds to proceed) or if they just like getting attention from us professional salespeople but customers will often lie about their budgets.
Solution – Do more homework or if price is stopping you pushing a customer forward in the sales cycle then something has gone wrong somewhere else.
Your product and your personal value adding service as a salesman isn’t strong enough.
B) “No I’ve not spoken with your competitors”
We appreciate that customers will want to shop around.
Their jobs depend on them getting not the best deal but the most useful one.
Price isn’t everything but we’re not going to be offended if they’ve made a quick call to our competition.
so why do they lie about it?!
They’re not going to hurt our feelings (as long as the deal they do close is with us).
Solution – Don’t give the customer the opportunity to shop around. Share competitor pricing with them first hand and explain why your price is what it is.
c) “We’re 110% interested!”
Why customers string sales people on is a mystery.
Likely they –
- Fancy them
- Enjoy the attention
- See opportunity in the future but not quite now
- The salesperson is being too pushy
Saying no can be hard.
Everyone has had a relationship that went on for longer than it should have because one or both parties were scared of having a tough conversation.
But everyone feels better afterwards.
Solution – Qualify harder in the first instance and then push the customer to commit to some preliminary completion dates.
Telling a customer you’re just about to buy in a bunch of materials pre-empting their order puts them under enough pressure to either come clean that they’re not interested or close deal as to not upset anyone.
D) “I will call you back tomorrow”
This is the lie that annoys me more than anything else.
- Forget the etiquette of business.
- Forget lack of respect it shows.
Promising to call a salesperson back and then not following through with it is just rude.
Customers wouldn’t do it to their boss, business partners or friends so why does it become acceptable to do it to a business professional who is honestly and whole heartedly trying to make a positive impact on the company their working for.
Solution – Everyone forgets. Everyone gets stuck in meetings.
I appreciate that.
This comes down to picking your customers rather than having them pick you.
Once a customer says they’ll call me back and doesn’t twice, I fire them.
I let them know why (I’m unable to create value in a business relationship with someone who isn’t punctual) and then we’re done.
What lies do you hear regularly in your sales role? Leave a comment below and we’ll add them to the post.
