Why Sales Tricks Never Work in the Long Run
Sales often gets a bad rap—and sales tricks are why.
This outdated approach to closing business deals has caused generations of sales reps to deal with a poor public perception and a misunderstanding of how they can help buyers.
So, we’re here to tell you that sales tricks are officially dead. They’re over. They don’t work, and in fact they can hurt the long-term growth potential of your business.
And while it may be tempting to get some short-term results with less-than-authentic methods, it’s much smarter to steer clear of sales tricks altogether. In this article, we’ll tell you why.
Quick Takeaways:
- Sales tricks manipulate buyers into making quick purchases.
- They skip over important pillars of modern sales, like trust and customer centricity.
- Buyers value brand authenticity, and sales tricks employ the opposite.
- While sales tricks may convert a few short-term deals, they’ll ultimately result in a poor (and public) brand reputation that hurts your sales potential.
- Word-of-mouth marketing is used by 90% of B2B buyers. Sales tricks used on one buyer can turn others in their network away from your company.
What’s a Sales Trick, Anyway?
Sales tricks intentionally manipulate customers into making a purchase. They make buyers feel like they need to have a certain solution—and now—at any cost. Typically, sales tricks use urgency to help close the deal. They emphasize “limited-time offers” or exclusive bargains, often creating a false sense of connection to make the sale.
As we’ve mentioned already, sales tricks are a big part of the reason the sales industry still deals with unfortunate negative perceptions, and why many talented and decent salespeople run into skepticism from potential buyers.
The problem with sales tricks is that they skip over just about everything we know about good sales today. They do not:
- Care about true buyer needs or spending capabilities
- Allow time for purchase consideration
- Build relationships or establish trust with potential buyers
- Respectfully take “no” for an answer
And the thing is—this might not have mattered as much a few decades ago. At least not from a sales perspective. Sure, sales tricks were always considered dishonest (even sleazy) after they were figured out. But the internet didn’t exist. Buyers didn’t have access to information like they do now. Once they realized a sales trick was played on them, the deal was often done.
Today, this is no longer the case. Buyers are smart and informed. They know their options. They ask for referrals. They look up reviews. Every dishonest interaction with potential customers can become public knowledge—and have a long-term impact on your brand.
In other words: It’s time to ditch the sales tricks. If you’re still not convinced (and even if you are), we’ve broken down six reasons why sales tricks won’t work—and could be disastrous—for your brand if you don’t ditch them right away.
3 Reasons You Need to Ditch Sales Tricks Now
Lack of Authenticity
Sales tricks are built on dishonesty—at least at some level. That means they lack authenticity, which is a top priority for buyers in the B2B and B2C spaces. In fact, 88% of buyers specifically mention authenticity as a priority when deciding which brands to buy from and support.
When your sales reps use tricks, they’re not representing your brand in a genuine way. This means a buyer won’t just have a poor sales experience, they’ll look at your entire company in a negative light.
Short-Term Focus
Smart salespeople know that sales is a long game. Upselling, cross-selling, and subscription renewals are all essential for growth in today’s B2B landscape. This is especially true for the growing number of SaaS companies on the market.
A single sales trick is likely to turn a customer away for life. This isn’t just a guess, either. More than half of consumers say they’ll leave a brand after just one bad experience. Even worse, they’ll tell others about it and escalate the situation to a manager or supervisor.
All of this is to say: Sales tricks are extremely short-sighted. When you use them to convert new sales, you’re likely giving up additional revenue from that customer later on (and potential revenue from others in their network). You risk receiving poor public reviews or negative word of mouth discussion about your brand.
The Power of Referrals and Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Speaking of word-of-mouth discussion—it can make or break your business in today’s business environment.
More than 90% of B2B referrals impact buyers through word-of-mouth communication, and 88% of buyers say they actively seek out word-of-mouth referrals to help them make decisions.
The way you treat potential buyers during the sales process directly translates to how well you’ll be able to continue generating leads and growing your business.
If you build a reputation for being authentic and trustworthy, buyers will recommend you. Many will do so even if they don’t end up needing your solutions.
If you depend on sales tricks to get buyers to purchase your solutions? Well, it will undoubtedly come back to bite you in the form of poor word-of-mouth mentions—ones that could have a far reach on social media platforms and review sites.
The Big Takeaway
If there’s one way to sum up the takeaway on sales tricks, it’s this: They’re just not worth it.
Most of the time, they won’t work anyway. Buyers today are smarter than that. But even if you do manage to convert a few sales this way, your success won’t last long. You’ll quickly gain a poor reputation in your industry for being dishonest, and customers will turn away before they even give you a chance to try a different route.
Skip the sales tricks. Be honest. Depend on the quality of your solutions and the talent of your sales teams. In the long run, it pays off powerfully in the forms of better customer relationships, a positive brand reputation, higher recurring revenue, and faster growth.
Over to You
Many sales reps and organizations resort to sales tricks not because they want to be dishonest, but because they need to make more sales. For startups and growing small businesses, this is a common challenge.
If you’re looking to uplevel your outbound sales strategy but need support or want to see higher ROI on your efforts, RevBoss can help. Our outbound email and lead generation services are custom-built for startups, consultancies, marketing agencies, and other B2B organizations.
Schedule a quick call with us and find out how we can help you win more clients.