White lies are still lies.
BizEngine would never presume to give you moral advice, but when it comes to business, that simple sentence could not be more instructive. If you’re inclined to stretch the truth about your savings, hide charges in the tiniest of tiny prints on a napkin hidden in your desk or trumpet product benefits that may not technically exist, you’re not just doing wrong by your customers. You’re doing wrong and creating a legitimate business problem.
That’s because every customer relationship is built on trust, and nothing will end that relationship faster than betraying that trust. Customers can, with some effort, forgive mistakes. They can abide by delays. They cannot force themselves to stick with a company that lied to their face or weaseled around the truth.
So as painful as it is—and as discouraging at times, because you will have a few customers who will walk away from you regardless of how honest you are—you should prize the truth. That way, nothing you say is going to come back and bite you. To me, that’s the definition of marketing.
Question To Ask Yourself
- Am I hiding something in my fine print? Am I going above and beyond ensuring my documents are comprehensive because I don’t want the customer to know something about my pricing? Am I deliberately misleading my customer because I think my prices are too high?
- If my prices are too high, should I lower them? If I believe they’re high but fair, how do I explain that to my customer? Do I emphasize the quality of my product?
- Are my employees well-trained in my products? Do they feel comfortable telling customers about the features of our products, and even acknowledging that they might not be perfect while still pointing out its many advantages?
Honesty Really Is The Best Policy
Now, that’s not to say that you can’t wait until you’re further along the sales process to fill in some of the blanks. You’re not required to provide every detail of your business and your products and services in the first conversation. You just shouldn’t lie.
A culture of honesty does many things for your business, but chief among them is that it creates trust. Your employees will trust you, the boss, because you’re upfront with them and you prize honesty in their dealings with customers. Customers will come to respect you for your honesty and will pass that word along to their friends, because honesty is such a rare trait these days. Ultimately, you may even be able to measure the impact in dollars, and not just in goodwill.
How important is honesty to your small business?
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