Having to be persuasive can easily tempt people to sway into gray areas when it comes to honesty and manipulation. Whether you’re dealing with sales, are in a debate, or promoting a product via a marketing channel, it can be tempting to throw in an outrageous claim or flat out lie in order to “win.”
But while you can garner short-term with mischievous tactics, in the long run, I firmly believe that honesty and integrity eventually win out. You can lie your way to the top or bag a big client by over-promising, but ultimately people catch on and your success ends.
Not sold? Here are some factors as to why honesty is so important in sales and marketing.
Trust
Trust is very much based on expectations. You trust people who consistently match your expectations based on their actions. If someone tells you they’ll do something, but continuously fails to do it, then you begin to distrust them.
The same thing happens when you’re selling a service or product. 
There’s a reason honesty is the best policy– beyond the moral high ground. When you’re honest with your prospect, you set up realistic expectations for what you’re offering and what they’re going to get. If there aren’t any surprises, there’s less reason to doubt the integrity of your service. On the flipside, if you overpromise and use false claims to make a sale, it won’t take long for the client to notice that reality doesn’t match the expectations they were given.
No matter how good your marketing is, the client will eventually leave with a negative impression of you and your company if you’re not living up to your initial promises. And once trust erodes, it’s borderline impossible to build it back up.
Reputation
Reputation is inherently tied with trust.
In some industries, especially SEO agencies, there are countless companies that are consistently mentioned as untrustworthy or ‘scammy,’ and these negative reputations don’t just happen overnight from a misunderstanding or two.
Shady sales tactics that involve painting a picture that’s ‘too good to be true’, capture non-savvy prospects into long term commitments that result in an unhappy and desperate customer. While those other marketing companies continue to sell at a rapid pace in order to increase their client base, unhappy clients cancel their services as soon as they can and become disillusioned with the industry.
It not only hurts the seller themselves, but the whole SEO and marketing industry in general.
Those companies with solid reputations are forced to work harder to encourage new prospects, but ultimately benefit from longer-term clients.
Loyalty
Setting realistic expectations is so important because it generates loyalty. Clients that trust your services or products usually end up staying loyal to your brand, through good times and bad. While being realistic in your sales pitch may make your job a little bit harder, it results in a client that remains with you longer.
If you sell a service that is based on a monthly retainer, this means a higher lifetime customer value, resulting in better long term profits. Why spend the time to quickly sell a client who will angrily leave in 3 months when you could actually work with a prospect that could become a loyal client for years?
At Motoza, our average client retention for SEO is about 26 months, which is way above the industry standard when compared to other SEO agencies. We credit that to simply being honest in our sales pitches, in our transparent communication with our client, and prioritizing trust over retention.
Team Morale
An often overlooked aspect of sales is how it affects your product team. Being dishonest, or using false claims in order to get a signed contract add extra pressure on the customer service and product teams within your organization.
No company likes angry clients. The extra time and effort put into trying to retain a customer, or delaying with complaints could be used in ways to improve your service, improve your team morale, and make advancements in your industry.
While huge corporations with million-dollar budgets can afford a robust sales and retention team, the small business owner should focus on what’s important: their service.
Growth
Businesses, whether they’re based on a service or product model, need to find time and resources in order to evolve and grow. Between sales, marketing, finance, product development and customer service, it’s usually very difficult for small businesses to grow.
Why add extra stress to your company when you could be finding ways to streamline your processes and improve your services? At the end of the day, becoming more efficient, and more effective, will result in a growing company that will see long term sales easily exceed those based on scammy sales practices.
Sales isn’t an easy thing to do. It’s especially hard in industries with high demand, and even higher competition.
However, try not to be tempted by short-term glory. At the end of the day, while you may win a few battles, you won’t grow past the reputation you’ve made for yourself.
Be honest – it’ll pay off in the long term.
