Why Honesty Is Part of Every Great Sales Strategy
By Kevin Feig
While it can be tempting to overpromise, your mom was right: Honesty is the best policy.
As part of my financial planning business, I offer free introductory meetings. Recently, a potential client indicated in her pre-meeting questionnaire that she would like to have two times her current salary in retirement. To avoid boring you with math, let me just say that this is fairly impossible in most situations. For a basic example, if you earn $100,000 per year and want to have $200,000 in retirement you would need to have approximately $5 million invested, which is fairly difficult to accumulate using a $100,000 salary.
At the outset of our meeting, I said, "I'm all for dreaming, but your financial goal of trying to replace two times your salary with passive income is wildly unrealistic." She replied, "I was hoping you'd be a magical wizard." It was one of the funnier interactions I've had with a potential client. After we both stopped laughing, we moved on to discussing her current situation and why she wanted to work with a financial planner. On a side note, I'm still wondering if I should add "wizard" to my LinkedIn profile and resume, but I digress.
The reason I'm telling you this story is because honesty can be hard when you are trying to earn business or make a sale. But without it, your business likely won't exist.
3 Principles for Successful Selling
Honesty
Authenticity
Simplicity
Often business principles and mission statements are completely disconnected from the actual business. They are complicated and disingenuous, and in larger companies, they are often created by external consultants. As a small business owner, it wasn't hard to figure out what made my business unique and an honest approach, especially when it's not what the client wants to hear, is critical. I also try to bring a level of authenticity to everything I do and feel that simplifying wealth building is important for every client.
Fast forward to today, and this potential client is now a client. She is a terrific woman and we are working through creating financial goals that are both ambitious and realistic.
As a husband, father, and business owner, I can't afford to tell people what they want to hear and they usually appreciate honesty, which feels exceedingly rare. Growing up we all heard too many cliches, including "honesty is the best policy," but it turns out to be true! In my house, I've now revised the cliche to "Don't try to be a magical wizard."