Note: About a month after posting this piece, Michelle Corey, president of The Better Business Bureau in St. Louis, called me and left a voicemail message explaining that she had seen my article, and commenting on what I wrote.
First, Michelle told me that I had misunderstood the opening line in their cold-call offer. I certainly would never claim to be incapable of a mistake, so that is perhaps the case. However, when you're placing a cold-call, it's not what you say that counts, it's what your prospect hears. So if I did misunderstand, it's still the BBB's job to fix it.
Second, Michelle also indicated that they wanted to avoid misunderstandings in the future, and that they have changed the offer to be more clearly understood. The BBB's new offer is posted at the bottom of is piece.
Manipulation in any form will damage your credibility, even if you're not telling an outright lie. Remember, just because it's true, that doesn't make it right.
Following is a rather coincidental example of the damage you can do by attempting to manipulate someone without telling a lie -- in this case I was the prospect.
It Doesn't Have To Be A Lie To Do Damage
When I was in the process of writing my first book, I made it a habit of always turning off my phone and e-mail before working on it, to avoid interruptions to my train of thought.
I had just started the chapter on cold-calling, and for the first time since I started writing the book, I neglected to turn off my phone while writing.
Literally five minutes into my day, I was interrupted with, of all things, a cold call:
Ring, ring.
Me (annoyed at myself): "Good morning, this is Gill."
Salesman: "May I speak to the owner of the company, please?"
Me: "I'm one of them. How can I help you?"
Salesman: "This is Joe Jones, with the Better Business Bureau. I'm calling today, because of some recent positive interest in your company."
Stop for a minute and imagine getting this call from the Better Business Bureau -- an organization that polices ethical behaviors in all aspects of business. What would you think when you hear, "I'm calling today, because of some recent positive interest in your company"?
Here's what flashed for me: "Cool. The marketing plan is working. Someone is checking out my firm to see whether he wants to do business with me. That's great!"
What odds would you give that this is the exact reaction the creators of that cold-calling script sought? (I'd give odds of 100-to-1.) But, as the salesman rambled on and on about the Better Business Bureau, my reaction turned negative, and it occurred to me that this might not be what I originally thought.
Me (interrupting the salesman when he took his first breath): "Hold on. Who's interested in my company, and when was the inquiry made?"
Salesman: "Actually, inquiries are kept confidential unless they're negative and we need to follow up. I'm calling to see if you want to-"
Me: "Wait a minute. You started this call by telling me someone was interested in my company. I need to know who that was, or, at least, when the inquiry was made."
Salesman: "I don't have a list of the inquiries that have been made, either positive or negative, so I can't tell you who might have made one or when it may have been made."
Me: "But you said there was recent positive interest. How do you know there was recent interest unless you have a record of someone contacting you about us?"
Salesman: "I never said someone contacted us about your company. I said, 'I'm calling because of some recent positive interest in your company.'"
Me (with the light bulb turning on): "Oh ... I get it. So the 'recent positive interest' is your being positively interested in my company writing you a check to become a member. Is that it?"
Salesman: "Well, yes, but if you'll listen to me for a minute, I'll ..."
I won't go into the subsequent barrage of exchanges that occurred between me and this salesperson, but suffice it to say that I called him on his manipulative tactics, and he defended them to the end by informing me he "did not lie." At one point he even arrogantly said, "But that's just your opinion," as though my opinion didn't count.
In reality, of course, the salesman from the Better Business Bureau did not tell a lie -- he was interested in getting my company to join. Nonetheless, his words were carefully chosen to create an image that was not true -- that a third-party company had made an inquiry about my firm -- and that type of manipulation almost always backfires. In this case, it created an outcome that was opposite of what the salesman wanted -- instead of having a prospect who said, "No," but who could be sold to again in the future, he now had an adversary requesting to bepermanently removed from his call list.
Of Course, Lies Hurt Too!
I first heard Alan Weiss ask "Who could make this up?" on a tape of one of his presentations -- he had just finished telling an outrageous story of poor customer service. Literally while I was laughing about the "who could make this up" comment, I received this cold call:
Ring, ring.
Me: "Good afternoon. How can I help you?"
Salesman: "Is this Gill Wagner?"
Me: "Yes it is."
Salesman: "Good afternoon, Gill. I have your business card in front of me. It was given to me by Jackie Bennett. Honestly, I'm not sure whether that means you and she know each other well, or whether you simply bumped into her at a rotary function, or something."
Me: "I don't recognize the name, so maybe we met somewhere and I don't remember it."
Salesman: "Well, I'm calling because Jackie thought you might want to hear about some new phone service in town, and I'm hoping to set up a five-minute meeting with you next week to explain some new voice-over-internet capabilities that just came to St. Louis."
Me (there goes that darn light bulb again): "Wait a minute. You're actually looking at my business card?"
Salesman: "Yes."
Me: "What's it say at the bottom right of the card?"
Salesman: "What do you mean?"
Me: "On the bottom right of my business card are three words separated by bullet points. Read them to me please."
Salesman: "Um ..." [pregnant pause]
Me: "You do know the name of my company, don't you?"
Salesman: "Yes, it's Honest Selling."
Me: "Yes it is. I teach people how to cold-call without lying, and you've just been caught big-time, haven't you?"
Salesman: "Uh ..."
Me (humorously): "Go on, you can admit it. You don't have my business card do you?"
Salesman: "No."
Me: "What's the name of your company again?"
Salesman: CLICK!
Like Alan Weiss says, "Who could make this up?"
Perception is truth, and if you lie, or do anything that can be perceived by the prospect as manipulative -- especially doing it thousands of times every month through cold-calling -- you will create negative outcomes and drastically reduce your long-term results.
This is just too funny, isn't it?
--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association
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