Are You Suffering from "Truthiness?"

Ever hear of the word "truthiness?" If not, just wait! It was voted the 2005 Word of the Year by the  American Dialect Society. This new word, which first appeared on the Colbert Report on the Comedy Channel means:

"The quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true."

As I read the definition, I immediately thought of Ron. When I was a sales manager, a number of my reps suffered from truthiness, but without a doubt he had the worst case.

Each time we'd go through his prospect list, he'd say: "Bob says he'll order from us as soon as he gets through with that big project" or "Sally said that the timing will be right in three months. I know she'll get one then."

This went on for months and months. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't convince him it was all wishful thinking.

As you can imagine, those opportunities never turned into anything concrete. Ron's failure in that job could have been prevented if he'd just faced into the brutal truth and acted accordingly.

Right now, one of my clients has a whole slew of salespeople struggling with truthiness. The reps believe that sales today is all about "relationship, relationship, relationship." They're really, really good friends with their customers and proud of it.

Yet at the same time, their competitors (who aren't nearly as well liked) are steadily picking away at their marketshare. How can that be?

These reps aren't asking the tough questions to find out. Instead, they'd much rather believe that it's because their pricing is too high or their promotions aren't good enough.

After all, that's what their customers tell them. And they keep blindly believing that relationships are the only things that matter when so many other things are going on around them that are impacting their sales success.

Sometimes it's scary to look at what's really true. It can literally shake you to the core when you finally see how you've been deceiving yourself.

Don't let truthiness rule your life. Face into the tough stuff and deal with it. You'll be much more successful in the long run.

Comments

[Ardath Albee]

Great post.

I'd think this would also apply to marketing your products/services in context. I mean, isn't this where hype comes from? When companies drink too much of their own "truth" serum about their products and then believe it enough that their communications never connect with people outside the tunnel of their vision?

Hmm. Interesting.

[Catherine Caum]

How do you re-direct someone who's immersed in truthiness? What are those hard questions that Ron should have been asking?

[Sean Campbell]

I'm not sure if I agree with all of this 100%. Having a good relationship and good selling skills is about being able to two things at least.

Having the ability to develop a relationship as a trusted advisor and continue to grow that relationship and along the way have the technical knowledge, sales knowledge, and client knowledge, and professionalism to ask the right questions.

So it's not like relationship building is counterproductive to asking the right questions it's more that they simply forgot to do one of the two critical path issues.

[Mike Sansone]

Love the word, the definition, and the post.

There are always three versions of the truth. Yours, theirs, and the real deal.

Building relationships is of the utmost importance. But part of that should be understanding what the client's goals are and become and assistant buyer. When your product or service can help them reach that goal, help them buy it.

I've had vendors lose my business because, while they understood my goals, they didn't share all their services. They thought they would price themselves out by doing so.

By not helping me reach a goal with their offering, they ended up costing them (and me) in the long run.

We still have a friendly relationship, just not a productive business one.

[Linda Darby]

Truthiness hmm! interesting email.
The route of the word is Truth - what is truth in a sales environment? Do salespeople slip into using 'Truthiness' because they are not given the Truth? and therefore have to create their own (truthiness) which is a concept of the truth. There is a whole debate within each company around that one.
Krishnamurti the philosopher said "Truth is a Pathless Land". This statement mirrors my sales career - I learned as much as I could cram about my product then went insearch of a customer, not knowing at first, who, why or how I would make a sale. Gradually it fitted into place.
Jill's book Selling to Big Companies is saying something similar I think (but please tell me if you think not) The book explaines how we have to move with the times - how old sales techniques don't work now because of the workstyle of the decision maker. It doesn't say don't form relationships, it says go in with the truth of your proposition - what it can do for your prospect, then they will want to have a relationship with you.

[Joe]

The reference to and examples of "truthiness" was very interesting to me but wanted to see it taken a step further..How do you get past the constant continuations you encounter when you feel you've asked all the right questions, clearly shown the financial impact on the prospect's business, ROI etc., etc. and yet they still take months on end to make a decision?