People hate to be sold.

Shock and awe works well it national marketing, where you can get away with seeing your customers as faceless automata, drooling over the opportunity to snatch up whatever widget you’re pushing this cycle and your message can be diluted down to some obscure branding statement you worked up over coffee, but when you’re staring someone in the eye, all the marketese in the world won’t make up for a drop of honesty.

People don’t want to buy anything that you’re selling, especially around here. That’s why Adblock is so prevalent and click-thru rates for display ads are, well, bad. That’s why advertisers are trying so darn hard to sneak into editorial content and join the “conversation.” It’s because they know that as consumers we’re all just waiting to see what “tactic” they are going to pull out of their Introduction to Marketing book to try to woo us, they know that when your customer base consists of entrepreneurs, many of whom have done marketing in the past, the old standards just aren’t going to fly.

How do you win in this kind of world?

Get over your pitch and learn to be frank.

The vendors that I can guarantee have my business for life are the ones who have warned me against some aspect of their product line. Sure, they were trying to get into my wallet, but they didn’t need my custom so badly that they weren’t willing to keep me from making a mistake. They understood that by being clear and honest, if I did decide to stick around, I would be a better customer.

Your best bet, whether you are trying to launch a new product or evangelize for an existing one is to look your customers in the eye and tell them exactly what you want them to see and what you hope to get out of them (whether it is feedback, registration, purchase etc . . .) Instead of trying to trick your customers into trying out your product, tell them why they will be better off if they do. That doesn’t mean pretending like you’re selling the cure for Cancer out of your pickup, what it means is painting a honest picture of where your product should sit in their lives.

Maybe you think that your service is geared towards larger Enterprises and would fail in the hands of a startup. Say that. It’s really easy to hear when a salesman has something they are trying to hide, don’t fall into the trap. The less time you spend dancing around the shortcomings of your product — the more time your customer will give you to tell them its strengths.

I will say that short circuiting the choreography, skipping over the song and dance, and shining the light of reality on your product might lose you a few prospects. However, most of the people who end up leaving would have found their way out the door anyway, given time.

The customers you do pick up, however, will be your strongest evangelists. Not only will they be convinced that your product is right for them, but they will also know that the person behind that product has the courage to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

In an industry where all marketing is “face to face” you would be surprised how far a little honesty will take you.

Change your pitch, cut out anything that you know in your gut is crap and try to replace it something a little more honest. If you’re a technical type, try some A/B testing on both your “marketing” pitch and your newly refined one and see which one works better. Get used to talking about your product from the vantage point of your customer and restrain yourself from wasting their time shining your rose-colored glasses.

Do you want some honesty from me?

As you find better ways to work this way of thinking into the way you sell, you’ll start to see more quality conversions.

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