“Inbound marketing is all you need.” Brian Halligan said this at his presentation at the 2010 MIT/Sloan Sales Conference. One of the people in the room said, “You can’t possibly believe that!” He tried to ignore her, but she was persistent. He finally answered, “Look, I was polarizing. If you don’t polarize, you don’t get anywhere in this world!” You should know that I think Brian is really smart, sharp, well-educated as well as being a hard worker and good leader, but did that person get him to admit an exaggeration? Is exaggeration or polarization really lying? Do salespeople do it to you? Do you do it to your prospects? Is it OK?

“Do as I say, not as I do.” My father used to have stock brokers calling him all the time ‘suggesting’ that he buy a particular stock. His response was always the same. “How much did you buy?” and when they said, “None.”, he sent them away. Consultants are sometimes the same way. Telling you what to do, but not doing it themselves. They might jokingly say that it’s case of “the cobbler’s shoes” trying to say that they’re too busy to do what they’re telling you to do. In reality, it could be that they’d rather experiment on you or that they don’t have the money or…… How would you feel about a Ford salesperson that drives a Toyota? an inbound marketer that’s a spammer? a salesperson that waits for his phone to ring? How would you feel about hiring a consultant that claims to be able to help you build your organization, but can’t build their own? Someone who claims that they can get you dozens of clients, but they work with one or two at a time? Do YOU walk the walk or just talk the talk?

“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

OK, enough picking on salespeople. How about prospects? Did your mother teach you that you could lie to a salesperson and still go to heaven? It wasn’t really a lie? That it was expected and might even be necessary as a consumer? So, prospects tell you that they have an open mind because they want to pick your brain. They tell you that they like what they see while they’re shopping your competition. They tell you that everything looks great (but they’re saying that to all of your competitors). I’m not telling you that prospects are always lying or that you should assume that they’re lying, but they’re not always telling the truth. So, you should test what they’re telling you. We’ve got a solution for that, but that’s not what this is about.

Speaking of lies…Do you have any others? Feel free to share in the comments. BTW, how about the seasonal lies? Let’s revisit this next year or how about after the holidays? If you’re having trouble with these, check out “Three Things You Can Do NOW to Get Sales by the End of the Year!!!” Get the e-book. See the webinar! Attend with a friend.