Ang Honest na ahente....

In last week’s content, we’ve talked about the cost of dishonesty in sales. Any lies, no matter how small they are, affect how people trust us. If someone tells you a story in an exaggerated way, we perceive that person as having some bias thus their words cannot be trusted.

Lying, no matter how small the lie is, speaks something about character which is the basis of any trust.

On a personal level, when someone lies to us, we can understand and we can forgive. After all, people are just imperfect human being. At the same time, they could be our friends, family members, or someone we know and love.

But in business, it’s a different ballgame. There is something at stake. It could money or time or any resources. Thus if someone lies, no matter how small that is, it makes the person who lied less trustworthy. Again, it does not matter how small that is. And when someone is less trustworthy, its hard to do business with them. This applies more so in sales where so many prospects have been manipulated or made a fool by salespeople.

So yeah, dishonesty is a liability in selling.

But wait....how can we persuade clients if we cannot exaggerate things?

With that, let’s turn to honesty.

Because here is the thing… in sales, we were taught to manipulate prospects and clients just for them to sign the contract.

Kung baga parang tell them “white lies” just for them to buy and bahala na si Batman kung magkaalaman. “White lies” such as “last piece/unit na ito” or “tomorrow we will have price increase” are all too common in sales.

Sometimes we even exaggerate things with prospects like when we tell them our product’s ROI or how there will be big developments in this location and how that will make property value go so high.

Are those things bad? The honest answer is we don’t know. This is one of those gray areas wherein we do not want to have an answer to. And that is the hard part: we are often times living in that gray area.

As much as we want to promote integrity and honesty, we understand that in sales, being too good or too nice or too honest can be a bad thing. Let us be honest about it.

But hear this out first. What if honesty is actually better than manipulation or deceit?

What if saying the truth even if that truth could cost us a sale would result better than telling the prospect a white lie?

As we try to answer this question, let us get the big elephant in the room out: telling the truth elicits more trust.

If we are approached by a salesman and that salesman tells us the truth that their products cannot do this or do that, we instantly trust that person.

The next time he introduces a product, we are more likely to trust him.

The second thing here is that whatever our product is, insurance or real estate or even books, it is not for everyone.

Although most people could benefit from, lets say, a health insurance; its not necessarily for everyone.

Demographically speaking, everybody can benefit from having a health insurance: from the president of the country to the fireman (more so with them…) to the person sitting besides you.

But psycho-graphically speaking, not everyone is the market. Not everyone has the financial capability to buy.

Not everyone can see the need to buy one. A client of our friend of ours told her that the Chinese people do not even know the concept of insurance. These people see it as it is, what it is in the now.

No matter how much we persuade and manipulate them, they are not ready to buy. No matter how much we push them, they will resist.

And don’t get me started with real estate. As sales guru Jordan Belfort said: we are sifters, not alchemist.

We are not in the business of magically turning an un-ready prospect into a buyer. Our job here is more of sifting out those who are ready or might be ready to buy and benefit from the product.

And that is the thing about speaking the truth: it weeds out those real buyers from the market. Its like sifting gold. Natatanggal yung putik, ang matitira ay yung tunay na ginto.

Those unqualified buyers are sifted out. The ones that are left are those who really have the need and capacity to buy what we are selling.

Yes, these prospects might not get this and that feature or benefit because our products can’t; but at the end of the day if that product fits their needs, they have to buy it.

If because our product has some loopholes in it and the prospect does not want to buy, then no matter how much we make ikot-ikot, that product is not made for them. If they buy, its only a liability for both us and the prospect.

Not only that but because we spoke the truth, we told them what our products can or cannot do or what our product is or is not; prospects give us more trust. Our words are more powerful. If we say something, they are more likely to believe it.

Because there is trust, they want to do business with us. They can chill and rest knowing we are telling them the truth even if its not in our benefit.

To add icing on the cake, guess who will be getting the referrals?

Yes speaking the truth might cost us a short term sale. Yet in the long run, the benefits outweigh the costs. Not only that but we make selling easier for ourselves. We only have to convince those who are already convinced or somewhere in that line.

Again, honesty is demanded in us as human beings, most especially in sales and in business. And as we can see, honesty is the most important element in building trust and rapport. But there is one more element into it: integrity, which we will talk about next week.

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