Comments on: Are soft lies in sales okay?

By: John

John — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:50:58 +0000

I think even with soft lies or as some might call them “white lies” there is the risk of a person getting away with those small lies and not knowing when to stop, they might go from soft lies to lying to the point of risking everything.

By: rahul

rahul — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:58:37 +0000

The motto of America is – IN GOD WE TRUST and they are the most aethist nation almost 90% people dont belive in God .

The motto of India is – Truth must previal and Indians are liars to the core , as we believe even God says lies …If you look at how Indians in a short passage of 15 years are ruling all the great industries of world without knowing the basic ABC of technology ….you will be forced to think Indians must be lying all over .

By: Rafijan S

Rafijan S — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:38:48 +0000

Ya… it’s true. Most of people doing like this…

By: Buvanesh

Buvanesh — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:36:33 +0000

No i won’t agree with soft lies. Most probably they won’t gain profit, there are lot of drawbacks……

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By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:38:53 +0000

Customers are more likely to buy something after being well informed, if the sales are of very high volume or very popular product then promotion could be very easy, but its always a good thing to show the customers of the advantages of our product vs the competitions main stream offerings and if that involves few soft lies then its understandable

After all not all customers believe what a sales person says these days, most of them are already well informed.

But the most important aspect of a lie is that the product which we promote backed by our lies will some day hit us back, most of these happens when what we promise don’t actually happen and the customer is pissed.

By: Ajit

Ajit — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:13:37 +0000

In my opinion, never let the customer know he is getting screwed or is overpaying, as long we minimize the number of cases where someone is pissed off after reading the fine print we should a good business model.

By: Paras Chopra

Paras Chopra — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:52:31 +0000

Nash, I like your analogy but I sort of have a feeling that just because evolution is cool, it doesn’t make it applicable to all fields

You could of course argue that in the long run an unstable equilibrium would be reached for the level of lies but in this whole story we forget about individuals. Over a long period of time what you may be doing could be right but you won’t be knowing that NOW. So, you take your best guess and let evolution do its own job.

By: Nash

Nash — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:25:02 +0000

I have a more Darwinian view of the whole thing : there IS an optimal level of lies. For a good sales pitch, there need to be enough lies to make the product seem substantially better than competitors etc. but not so many that credibility is lost. For a customer, there is an identical Darwinian choice between believing the salesman and making appropriate inquiry.

Give the ethics and morality a rest, and let evolution solve the problem for you. Because in the words of the famous Dr.Orgel , “Evolution is cleverer than you are.”

By: Keshava Ram

Keshava Ram — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:17:46 +0000

To make a sale is to bring about a certain change in the customer which is good for him. No customer likes to change just for a small benefit. A salesmen knowing that the change is good for the customer, he can exaggerate the benefits to get customer’s buy-in.
There are few products (like twitter) in this world that are vastly superior to its next best alternative. Rest of them have to resort to those soft lies if they are to be in Business.
It is like making a mistake worth 1 Rupee to get a benefit worth 100 Rupees.
Please don’t mistake me, I am not an advocate of telling lies. But Business is no simple Black and White, it is always in gray area.