I was shocked with all the lies in my early years of conducting business. I had dealings with people promising to make me a millionaire in a two years; Clients telling me no one would ever agree to use my product when their neighbors did, people telling me the product was to costly when it wasn't, Startup friends bragging about how much business they were going to do when in fact I knew nothing was going on...Worse though...the worst of all those previous lies...were the people who lead me on.
"So what did you think about our product?" I'd say to a customer. "Sounds good he replied, let me talk to my accountant I can definitely see the value, I'll get back to you soon". A week later, after 6 attempts of contact he said on the phone: "Sorry I know this sounds like an excuse, but we're busy over here I'll call you back in a few days gotta go". Ok, you're busy I thought to myself no problem you'll get back to me or I'll get to you. About 15 attempts of getting in contact with him, passing notes, emails, voicemails, cellphone texts! I finally asked the secretary to talk to him for a response. "Sorry" she said: "your product is just too expensive"...Well there goes another opportunity down the drain I thought.
When clients don't pick up the phone or answer emails, when people make excuses for meetings you figure it out fast. The bottom line is you're just not valuable enough for them, and for whatever reason they don't want you to know. I've come to the conclusion though that its imminent, I myself am guilty of it as well on a smaller scale.
I'd tell people I was older when I wasn't, I'd say that me and my co-founder weren't related when we are, I would say I'm a programmer when I only know html and a bit of Javascript. I would pretend my company was larger on craigslist for development work early on and then quote graphic designers a fraction of the prices they asked for knowing they'd take it. (There's a close line to shrewd negotiation and lying I still don't know, which one that constitutes).
On the brighter side, in the recent years I've been more and more honest with people. We all know the "I ran into traffic" line just means you didn't think the meeting was important enough to come early. I still use some of those lines, but am cutting down on them. I think people love you for honesty as long as you're confident in yourself and can provide value.
The more people lied to me and my co-founder during business the more we were able to see through it. I guess being inexperienced salesmen back then we were way too optimistic about everything. We now know that "email me about your product, I'll do research and get back to you when I can, thanks" most likely means means fuck off, but in a polite way. If you do a cold call and someone says: "sorry I'm busy" well they're lying because they wouldn't have answered the phone for a random stranger in the first place, they'd just let it go to voicemail.
The more lies I hear the better business instincts I get. I've come to a point where if a client is acting shady during a free trial I cut them off and tell them to get back to me. At the end of the day I'll keep trucking on, hearing the lies and getting better at recognizing them. Each lie is more experience for me to learn from and another step closer to financial success or at least I tell myself for now.
As always thanks for the read.
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