Lie, be dishonest and callous - The pathway to success

The art of marketing, sales, and human relationships is all about creating an illusion. If you want to increase your sales and be successful, you have to deceive your clients. It does not matter what they think or feel or what is best for them because, in the end, it is about how much they are willing to buy from you. Your responsibility as a CEO or business owner is to maximize your profits, no matter at what cost.

When trying to acquire a new client or close a deal with an existing one, your best strategy is to hide all that could make you weak and walk them into what you want from them. You do not need to tell the truth. The best approach is to disguise reality with misleading info that portraits you as the best option.

In sales and marketing, you should be brave enough to lie, cheat, and be callous to get your way. It is not just about convincing people of an idea that they may or may not believe; it is also about getting them to buy something they might not need at a high price with dire consequences for themselves and their wallets.

You need to do whatever it takes to get the deal because if you don't, someone else will! The goal should always be success and not honesty.

I guess that, most probably, you are now wondering whether I have gone mad. Of course, all the above is radically opposite to what I think a good sales and marketing behavior should look like. However, the harsh reality is that being dishonest is a strategy that is and has been used by many companies and individuals to become successful. This doesn't mean that they are being dishonest all the time, but only when they deem it is necessary.

Companies and individuals should have a moral obligation to do what's best for their clients, and lying is not the best option. However, some companies and individuals will lie as long as it means more money in their pockets.

I want to use this example on sales & marketing to explain how your best approach to professional networking should be.

There are three main ways that people use deception in order to get what they want from others. First, they make promises about them, their product or their services that they can't keep. Second, they exaggerate their qualities and features to get a better deal. Third, they act like if they care about you and your needs when the only thing they care about is their money.

Your approach to networking should be the opposite: Make honesty and trust your flags. Start any networking connection by caring about the person you have in front of you. Who are they? What is their background? What do they need? How can you be of any help? And once you have listened and understood them, then be ready to offer without asking for anything in return. It takes time and effort, you need to invest time! But it definitely pays off.

When networking, don't be short-sighted. Focus on the long-term. In the end, it is not about being selfless (we all have bills to pay!) but intelligent. If you have two ways of getting a benefit for yourself, and one of them means that the other part will be equally benefited, wouldn't you rather follow that path instead of the one in which the only satisfied part is you? The latter is a sustainable strategy, while the former... will simply not work in the long run.

Come clean. Honesty is the best policy. Understand that you may not always be the best option for the other person's needs, and if your best advice is that they go somewhere else and not you, do that. They will be thankful and, when they need you, they will come to you, as you have built trust and authority in the process. In a nutshell: If that is the best option for someone who is ready to buy from you, tell them: "Don't buy from me, buy from them instead."

So, remember this in your next networking interaction: The best strategy for you is to be everything you would like others to be with you - honest, open, compassionate, and trustworthy. Show your connections how much you care about them, and you shall receive the same in return. And if you find out that someone is not worth your time and efforts, simply move on and save those time and efforts for the ones who deserve them.

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Photo credits:

Brett Jordan, Sammy Williams, Fabian Gieske and Brock Wegner on Unsplash