I started my day going to a networking meeting that I have not been able to attend for the past 2 months because of my travel schedule. It was great seeing everyone and as always I absolutely love the meetings.
While at the meeting each person goes around the table and tells about themselves, what they have been doing for the last week, what they are going to be doing in the week to come and what if any help the others at the meeting can give to them.
After each person speaks, the rest of the group gives whatever assistance, recommendations, or suggestions they feel will help the person to achieve their goal.
Today, 3 times I was what I would consider brutally honest with people. As a matter of fact, after the meeting I had to call the facilitator and make sure that I didn’t actually make one of the people mad at me for what I said.
Now don’t misunderstand me, everything I said was only said to try and help the people help themselves. I didn’t say anything that was not exactly what I felt and what I thought needed to be heard by the person I was addressing. I’ll admit that what I said probably wasn’t what any of them wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear.
I was told by the facilitator that what I said was spot on and that he didn’t think that I upset anyone, as a matter of fact, the one person that I thought I upset the most told the facilitator that she appreciated what I had to say. This made me feel better, but the question still remained with me, how honest is too honest?
I have always been a person that tries to say what needs to be said not nesicerrly what should be said. This at times has gotten me into trouble (especially in high school when children are supposed to be seen and not heard…HA!) As a sales rep and sales trainer I have always tried to tell prospects what they needed to hear not always what they wanted to hear. This practice has cost me sales in the past, but I sleep very well for doing it.
Now I was questioning myself about my honesty. I guess I was questioning myself about not only what I said this morning, but what I have said in the past and what I will say in the future. I am very aware of the fact that in today’s tight market every sale counts and no sales rep can afford to let any opportunity slip past them. I also know that in this economy no company can afford to have a sales rep that let’s this happen. But how far should a rep go to make the sale?
I know sales reps that say whatever they think they need to say to make the sale. They don’t think about what they say as lies, they actually believe that the customer should know what they are getting when they say yes and that it doesn’t matter what the rep says, it is the customer’s responsibility to know the facts and make the right decision.
I AM NOT ONE OF THESE REPS! I believe that a sales rep needs to state the facts and give the customer the information they need to make a well informed decision. I don’t think a rep needs to point out every shortcoming of their product or service, as a matter of fact I think the opposite, as rep should point out the strengths and benefits of their product and should compare them to the weaknesses of the competitions product. But this should be done in a way that the truth stays intact. Don’t lie about the competitor and don’t tell the customer you product will do things it won’t either.
If a sales rep can make an objective comparison between their product and the competitions, and they can build enough value into the benefits of their product over the competitions. The customer will have the information they need to make an informed decision about the products being presented.
After tossing all this over in my head, I decided that I not only needed to be as honest as I was in the meeting this morning, I actually owed it to the people that I claim to like and want to help so much to be as honest as I can for their own good.
I am more convinced than ever that telling people what they need to hear, however distasteful it may be to the person being addressed, is always the best way to help people grow and achieve their goals. Imagine if an athletic coach told an athlete how good they were all the time. Would the athlete’s performance ever improve?
I know that the 3 people I am writing about will be reading this, if in fact I made you mad... get over it... you needed to hear what I had to say. Just because I said it doesn’t mean that you need to act in any way on what I said. It simply means that is how I felt. Do with it as you please, just know that it was meant to help you just as a good sales rep means to help their customers.
Lorin
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