All prospects lie. this is the continual game of cat and mouse that the salesman plays with the customer where the sale becomes a battle of knowledge, or as they say in negotiation terms a black swan. The idea of the black swan is that in a negotiation each party has something that they are keeping close to their chest. The black swans will be reveled, inevitable, at some point in the conversation as they are in many cases the price range of the customer and the price that the vendor is actually shooting for. The key to most negotiations is to find someone black swans/motives before they find yours, this will always give you the upper hand in the negotiation. The will of course be, in a civilized negotiation, the need for you to give up some of your black swans at the peril of being overly rude. The giving of a black swan or in our case the price range that we are actually going for, is down to a simple timing game. This small sum of information to early or too late can be catastrophic in the sale that you are making, whether giving too low a number out of the gate or waiting too long that the customer looses interest, the giving of black swans can make or break your deal.
BoweryJE22 4 thoughts on “All prospects lie”
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In negotiation, this is also very similar to the dilemma of honesty. How much are you willing to give up. Like you said, both sides usually have something they are trying to keep disclosed. A lot of times people believe if you don’t ask, they don’t need to tell. This can become a problem in certain situations such as a car salesman not telling you about the accident report since you didn’t ask.
this is a very interesting topic here. I think that a lot of the old fashioned salesman beat around the bush and also use the tactic of fluffing and make their product or service better than it actually is or could be. Even in my own personal life I find it easier or more honest to just be upfront about everything and anything that could be related to the subject.
This has been interesting to understand, although it makes sense that the customer/prospect is always lying to protect themselves, it helps the seller to understand the importance of continuing to ask questions.
Fascinating topic here. It’s really interesting to go into a meeting EXPECTING to not be told the truth entirely. Totally crazy! That is why it is so important to craft your questions carefully. It is also important to layer them. Prospects are like an onion. What is displayed on the first layer may not be what is at the core– and it usually isn’t! Peel back the prospect to find the truth.