Almost everyone would agree that a relationship should be built on honesty. However sometimes it feels as though telling a couple lies to make connections with potential clients could help ease the sales process. Now I am not talking about lying when it comes to your product or service, that would be fraud. It would also be fraud if you lied about your personal qualifications and things of that nature. But the harmless lies about yourself to better connect with someone does not seem to be bad.
For example if I know a client is a huge golf fan and I try connecting with him by saying I love to watch golf (which is definitely not true). Even though lying is wrong, I am unsure if doing this would be a such bad thing. I guess it is more of a personal judgement than anything else but as a Christian Sales class I am curious to know what others think.
Even if you are unsure I believe it is a good thing to at least think about, is a little dishonesty acceptable in sales, if it helps make the important personal connection?
BoweryJE22
I think a better way to connect with the client if you have diverging taste in subject matter is to get the client to open up about why they love _____. Showing a genuine interest in learning more about the subject seems a lot better than straight up lying about a passion, and avoids putting you in a potentially sticky situation if the client asks questions that a true fan would know how to answer but you don’t. “I don’t know too much about ______, could you tell me more / what do you love about it?” is a way to establish trust because you’re admitting you don’t know much about it, but you’re invested in their thoughts on the matter.
I agree that you should definitely not lie about your interests just so you can connect with a customer. I do think though expressing some interests in what they are interested in by asking questions about it shows you want to learn more about them, hopefully making a connection and ending in a sale.