Sales People –don’t- Lie,
Author Roshan L. Joseph, Publisher Sage, Response
Business Books, Pp 179, Price Rs. 395/=,
Year of publication 2018, ISBN-978-93-528-0712-3(PB)
Customer is the King, should be the guiding spirit
in selling, which is a very important but difficult facet of the activities in
any organization. To convince & motivate prospective buyers to clinch the
deal, some salespersons present a distorted picture. However, the public perception
is that salespersons do lie, assuming that deception is a necessary practice by
salespersons, otherwise their careers would be short lived. But there are many
salespersons who perform well, without resorting to lying. The book mentions
about the heroes known for their professionalism and also about those who brought
this disgrace to the profession.
This book has been written by Mr. Roshan L.
Joseph, the Managing Partner of B-More Consulting. Contents page is followed by
Foreword (written by CEO and MD, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.), Preface, 49
Chapters, Epilogue and About the Author. Each of these Chapters is having only
2 or 3 (and in one case 4) pages. All the Chapters have illustrations having
humourous sales background and narrate about real life incidents/events/situations/instances
for aspects of selling and salespersons. About seventy percent of salespersons are
said to think only of their quota and not the customers and their wanting to
“sell like hell”. But some Chapters discuss various aspects of “lying” as a
tool by the salespersons. The author states that all the salespersons do not
use it, but some use it basically to complete the targets. Salespersons of
certain types of products e.g. old used cars are reputed to tell untruths. Actions
like misrepresentation of facts, bullying, aggression, & dumping cause
damages in the long run. People decide to lie, as it is easier to lie than to
work hard. However, winners have no need to lie. Some bosses as real leaders develop
their teams while others follow the path of fear. Salespersons should help
consumers in buying instead of selling.
According to the author, the basic premise for
this unfair image is the lack of professional sales training. Necessary skills and
qualities should be arranged through adequate training in the sales process to
do the ‘whole job’, taking special care to train a sales team to be
professional, powerful and ethical. Training should also include outlining the
proper way to meet the consumers, ascertaining their particular needs, handling
their objections and complaints and maintaining relationships in all cases. Relationships
thrive on trust. If trust is broken, business takes a beating. Salespersons
have problems like not fitting into their jobs, inability to stand tremendous
pressure, not having rapport with new boss, having health problems etc. But, honestly
telling true points will improve the sales results and also be more consistent.
In many professions, they go by system, training & goal, with less scope
for lying. The salesperson should suggest solutions after study of the problems
of customer and help them to take right decisions.
The Cover design is simple but colourful. The back
of front cover page gives opinion of five and Advance Praise in subsequent
pages, written by nine high ranking professionals, executives and authors. The
author has dedicated this book to his wife. The back cover page gives brief
ideas about the author, about the book & comments of another author about
this book. The book is printed on good quality paper & is pleasing to read.
However, Subject Index, References & Suggested Readings have not been
provided. It presents a real picture in an effective and interesting manner, since
it appears to have been written from the heart of a real salesperson. It
examines how it is possible to be more successful if one stays with the truth.
It makes a sincere effort to clear the unfair image salespeople have, that they
need to lie to make a sale. The conclusion is that sales persons may lie
but not all persons lie and that salespersons excellent in their work need not
lie. The book presents a broad overview of the profession of selling, its ins
and outs and ways to improve the things. For the salespersons, there is a lot
to learn from the book with a view to better understand their profession and to
get better performance, without resorting to lies and without stress. It is
useful for the trainees, newcomers, old timers of this profession, as well as
the general public.
------------Reviewer: vijaiksharma
