Never Lie to A Client

Ryan Braun lied.
Lied to all fans of the Milwaukee Brewers and all fans of baseball.
His credibility as a spokesman for the team and the city is shot.
His accomplishments as a baseball player are now questioned.
He's losing his endorsement deals.
He's damaged or lost friends and business relationships for years to come.

My Dad gave me this advice after I got my first job selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.
"Never lie to a client son. Clients can smell a lie from a salesman a mile away. If you don't know the answer to a client's question say you don't know it but you will find out the answer. Then be sure you get back to them with the answer in a timely manner!"

A sales manager I had once told me that if I didn't know the answer to "make one up."  He clarified that the answer should at least sound plausible. His reasoning was the quicker you knocked away a client's objection, the quicker you can get through all the objections and move on to the sale. Waiting to find an answer and trying to get back to a client will kill the momentum of the appointment and you might not ever get a chance again to talk to this person. While it is true that you might get only one chance to sell someone, dishonesty or trickery shouldn't be two of the tools you use to make the sale. 

I'm glad I follow my dad's advice. People appreciate honesty. In the end all you are really trading on is yourself and your reputation. Having a good reputation will make you money. Having a bad reputation will cost you money. Ask Ryan Braun. 

Ev  A Heck of A Nice Guy 

Ev note: I wrote an article about the zaniness of the Brewers players in 2011 and how they lost that mojo and I believe it was one of the reasons they lost the NLCS. funniest-team-around-until-they-lost-it  If you look at the timeline of the Braun saga, he was tested for drugs during the division playoff series with Arizona. The next series is the league championship against St. Louis. Milwaukee wins an emotional game 2, then comes out with no pep and no humor (remember the "beast mode") for the remainder of the series. I've always asked what happened to their humor. In my opinion Braun and some of his teammates knew he was caught and that ruined their mindset and affected the rest of the team by ruining their chemistry and karma. I can't prove it. Just an idea.