Talk is Cheap, Lies are Expensive, and Good Advice is Priceless

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by Pete Cooper

An old saying, parodied by the punk group Greenday, goes "Talk is cheap but lies are expensive." You might dismiss it as one of those trite phrases your mother used to come out with but it can probably affect your business success more than you think.

Talking to other people about your product, rather than refusing to discuss what you have to offer, can be a rewarding activity if done correctly. You might find you can win the respect of your business peers and develop some useful relationships. This article sets out to explain how you can start to talk about your product with others.

The art of conversation

As human beings, one of our finest skills is our ability to communicate. We don't just communicate with grunts and smells either like our primitive counterparts, but we've devised an entire system of how to communicate in a more precise and refined way. This is the concept of language.

Language, and more notably conversation, played a major role in business in the 19th and 20th centuries as salesmen traveled around the world selling the wares of their time. But, sadly, as we've entered the 21st Century, the concept of language in business has changed radically.

The rise of mail order and the Internet have reduced the amount of conversation taking place before a sale to a bare minimum, if anything at all. The only place we have conversations about our goods is in Circuit City with a hard up student trying to sell us warranties to boost his paycheck. "That's fine," you say, you don't want to waste time having conversations nowadays, you're informed enough to know what it is you want to buy.

But are you? We might not be speaking with the sales people that much anymore, but we definitely continue to speak about products with others.

Talk really is cheap!

How often have you spoken with a friend or relative about products or services, such as new CDs, movies you've seen or a useful gadget you've bought? The truth is, we speak a lot about the things we buy or experience. It's human nature.

Now, consider how often you've followed a friend's advice and actually bought the CD, gone to watch the movie, or inquired about that useful gadget. It's quite often, isn't it? At least, it's more often than we check out everything we've seen in TV ad breaks, isn't it? Of course it is, personal recommendation and advice wins us over nearly every time.

This simple concept is one you should employ in your business immediately.

Whether you clean carpets, tune pianos, sell computers or insure people's cars, talking to people increases your exposure and your sales immensely. But, you need to know how to do it properly and not come off as a brash sales person.

Where to start?

Think of all the opportunities you have to talk about or mention your business. At the school gates when picking up your children, in the line at the grocery store, or when you meet family friends, the occasions are limitless. The thing to avoid, however, is launching into a massive 'sales pitch' whenever you see someone you've never spoken to before. Not only is this rude, and an invasion of space, but they're not going to listen to it. Not in a million years.

The key to charming people and advising them about your offering is to be direct but friendly and charming. If another parent at the school is talking about going on holiday next week, and you happen to sell suitcases, you could bring the topic up. The important thing is to recreate the 'friend telling another friend' atmosphere, and not the 'salesman trying to force a product on me' feeling.

As long as it doesn't seem like you're making a hard sale, people will be willing to listen to your advice as long as you make it relevant to them and care about their needs. We like sales people who really care about our needs, but hate those who try to cram us into a 'one size fits all' category.

The only way to be able to do this convincingly is to not even try. Don't try and sell, but try to just give truthful advice. Sure, you've probably got a vested interest, but if your advice is sincere and honest, you'll end up being seen as the 'good guy'. Remember, you're trying to create the 'friend telling another friend' atmosphere!

Form an unbiased view of what you offer

The best way to become an unbiased advisor is to be in tune with what the competition offers. Your competitors will often have slightly different products or services which can be used in different situations than your own product. If this is the case and someone asks about something your product can't quite do, don't be scared to recommend a competitor! You'll often find you can start profitable business alliances with your competitors in this way too.

In the end, you'll become a far more trusted and appreciated advisor and people will actually believe you when you think your own product or service is ideal for their requirements.

Conclusion

Most of my business comes from talking to people and making recommendations. If a cookery magazine approached me and asked me to write 20 recipes, I wouldn't be foolish enough to agree since my cooking skills are abysmal. However, I would try and recommend someone who could fit their requirements, and hopefully the magazine would contact me at some other time and have some work which I can carry out, such as general proof reading or editorial.

I also know several private taxi companies who will recommend competitors when a pickup is out of their preferred area. They all agree to recommend each other and it increases business within their alliance.

The simple fact is that talking to people can improve your business by a great amount. If you get the right type of exposure in front of the right type of people, success is bound to arrive soon! But don't get burned!

If you try and insult people's intelligence by barking out your sales pitch the whole time, you're not going to get anywhere. If you say you can do something which you really can't, you'll get found out and burned then too.

The best policy is to remain truthful, try and be unbiased about your product, and to give good, solid and honest advice. You'll see a return in no time, and maybe even make some new friends too!